Supercomputers

Roadrunner is a BladeCenter QS22/LS21 Cluster, PowerXCell 8i 3.2 Ghz/Opteron DC 1.8 GHz, Voltaire Infiniband computer, using the linux os and the fastest today. Built by IBM, it does 1.026 pflops and serves the Alamos National Laboratory, USA. More info on it at http://www.top500.org/system/9707.

The top500 lists 8 supercomputers from India. The top three (eka, param and another) here are at Tata Sons, CDAC and IISc. Ranked 6th (436th worldwide) is a HP Cluster Platform 3000 DL160, Xeon 54xx 3.0 GHz, GigE running at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

I have been following the rapid progress on this front for the past five years now. I wish India could contribute more machines to the top500. It means a lot for molecular research, nuclear physics, artificial intelligence and advancement in general. My first introduction to supercomputers was by the young and energetic software engineer from Salem who built what was then the second fastest supercomputer on earth. My note on that event is reproduced here from http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/pipermail/ilugc/2004-July/011279.html

---

Talk : Taste the THUNDER

Speaker : Mr Anand Babu ,
VP CDC, USA & Member, FSF-I.

Date : Sat Jul 17 17:00 IST 2004
Venue : ADI-TeNeT Seminar Hall, CSD 320, ESB, IIT-Madras.

The super-computer code named THUNDER was built was for Lawrence
Livermore National Labs (http://www.llnl.gov) by California Digital
Corporation, USA. It has 4096 Itanium2 64 bit Processors, 8TB of RAM,
Quadrics Interconnect and runs GNU/Linux. Code named "Thunder", with a
performance of 20 trillion floating point operations per second, it
has been ranked second in the TOP500 list of the worlds most powerful
supercomputers maintained at http://www.top500.org/list/2004/06
Anand Babu, a full-time free software developer is a core developer
behind THUNDER, who ensured that all the software he wrote for Thunder
was released under GNU GPL.

At the ILUGC Linux Install Festival 2004, celebrated last weekend, I
proposed that we invite Anand Babu, who happened to be in India, and
Bharathi quickly had a word with Raman, and it was decided to invite
AB for a talk on THUNDER.

Bharathi then announced about the talk on THUNDER by AB in the ILUGC
mailing list, incidentally also asking for help to arrange
transportation, and as I had been in touch with AB for quite some time
now, over legal issues connected with the Hymn project, and AB and I
were anyway due to meet, I happily offered to take the role of playing
host.

AB travelled all the way from Salem by road, along with his friend CB,
so that we could hear his THUNDER from close quarters. AB was at my
residence around 13:00 Hours as promised and I was thrilled to meet
AB, who was full of vim and vigour, sporting a disarming grin, and
within the first few moments I knew that he drew considerable strength
and power from free software philosophy. Many think of free software
philosophy in abstract terms, rather than simply living it.
Philosophy is merely an attitude that guides one's behaviour and
performance. A lot could be achieved with this clarity and all of
AB's contributions to projects that include working on Thunder, Hymn
and Hurd stand testimony to the often requested proof of utility of
free software philosophy.

Bharathi soon joined our discussion and we had a lively discussion on
free software, and the active part we could play. On our way to the
venue, we discussed about taking this high technology to everyone in
meaningful ways. Bharathi gave interesting insights into the
translation work in progress under Zha Linux Project: the mouse is not
'eli' - but 'chutti'! Click is translated as 'sodukki'. Soon we were
at the usual meeting venue for the ILUGC.

AB was briefly introduced, and immediately, AB started the talk on
THUNDER with a torrent of information about the harware and firmware
that make up the THUNDER super-computer, which is in fact an assembly
of 1000 individual interconnected computers sans screen, keyboard or
mouse. Each mother board has four Itanium2 processors, advanced bmc,
sensors and each system is connected to the other with Quadrics
interconnect. Hardware errors are handled with a great deal of
sophistication. Each of the 1000 serial ports are connected to a hub
called calypso. With FreeIPMI, and a collection of other tools, it is
possible to configure even the bios of all the 1000 computers with a
single command or even address a specific machine using its IP address
from a single node. Essentially, the network is automated, and manual
tasks are minimal that could be taken care by a single sys admin, to
whom to the super-computer appears as a single file system.

Though several applications work together to make Thunder possible, it
could not possibly work without FreeIPMI - Intelligent Platform
Management System, which is a programmable/extensible system for
building intelligent platform management solutions. FreeIPMI provides
"Remote-Console" (out-of-band) and "System Management Software"
(in-band) based on Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI
v1.5) specification. This system includes its own portable userspace
IPMI device drivers and can be interfaced through C library, a shell
with readline capabilities. One could visit
http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/freeipmi/, follow the links, maybe
talk with AB, to get to building their own cluster cloud and let the
world hear a loud clap of THUNDER!

FreeIPMI Library (libfreeipmi) the Core of FreeIPMI system consists of
LAN, KCS, SMIC, PCI/SMBIOS system interface device drivers, all
packaged in a single portable C library. Management applications can
access the BMC at various levels using higher level IPMI command APIs
or raw read/write interface to the driver.

fish, the FreeIPMI SHell provides a Shell, Extension/Plug-in and
scripting interface which allows one to fish in troubled waters,
enabling access through a set of IPMI commands. AB explained how
System Administrators can quickly add features or customize the system
using the Extension interface in Scheme language. For example,
Pushing System Event Log data to a MySQL server, Triggering alarm upon
Platform Chassis Intrusion, Generating email for critical platform
events like processor temperature above threshold limit or fan failure
or memory errors. In fact, many of the functionalities of this shell
are themselves implemented as Fish extensions.

Fish also provides scripting interface (#!/usr/sbin/fish) to write
useful command-line utilities. "sensors", "sel", "bmc-info",
"bmc-config" are actually Fish scripts.

THUNDER cost about US $25 Million, but is nowhere near the $350
Million that appears to have gone into producing the Super Computer
that is approximately twice as fast as THUNDER. AB revealed future
plans to vie for the top rank.

Shivshanker Chander, Bharathi and few others raised several
interesting questions on the design and technology behind the Super
Computer, and I hope they can give better narration or analysis of its
technical details. About ~30 of the active ILUGC members attended the
meet.

The talk then moved on to Gnu/Hurd. AB gave a demo session of GNU
Hurd, and soon we saw on the screen the Debian GNU/Hurd 0.3 booting
sequence and, to my surprise, the command prompt was waiting, ready to
run bash commands! Was not login necessary before we could run all
the commands? Not with Hurd. Global userspace was accessible to all
and the design objectives probably have their origins in the reasons
behind the GNU Project itself. Free software maximises free access to
computing resources, and naturally, we could expect free access to
files and commands which are freely available in the global userspace.
AB explained briefly about the Hurd kernel architecture, Mach, the
concept of translators and took us to the commands showtrans, settrans
etc. We were taken through the code for the /dev/null translator, and
AB explained how several translators could sit on one top of the other
and make writing of code easier. But all that could fully be possible
only after several Hurd components were in place, and requested the
programmers present to contribute time and effort to Hurd, which aims
at a kernel that is fully scalable and extensible with no syslimits.
AB steered clear from micro vs monolithic kernels and focused on what
remains to be done to make Hurd more mature and usable.

AB spoke on the Hymn issue that made international news. We can never
take any of our computing rights for granted, and defending the
freedom and rights of free software uses in the community, is an
unending task, and the sacrifice made by AB to support the world wide
community of free software users cannot be fanthomed easily. I wish
that the recent efforts of AB, for his active contribution to several
important projects released under the GPL, including THUNDER, Hymn and
Hurd are recognised, and particulary, I wish, many can see AB as
highly deserving the FSF Award for advocating use of free software.

AB also said that free software developers earn more than their
proprietary counterparts, mainly because users and developers have
been able to directly interact, which leaves the meddlesome middleman
out of the picture, who is forced to provide a real service to
survive. AB requested users to give credit to developers who make
contributions, and also take up responsibility for writing code in
suitable free software projects.

On our way back, we got a little personal and asked AB if he has tied
the knot, for which he replied that he was yet to fall in love! There
was a serious complaint from AB and CB that there were [no]t e[no]ugh
young women in the free software community!! Probably there should be
user groups led by women, which I think is a good idea, because,
generally mothers spend more useful time with children, and if many of
our young ladies could could get together to chat on free software,
this may help them to become productive users of computers, and may be
this is also a good way to pass on the culture to the next generation
more easily. AB appeared to be happy with his present status and
added with a wide grin:

"I am free, free as in Freedom" ;)

-Ramanraj :)

Legal Algorithms

I wrote the following article in 1989 or so, for the Madras Law College magazine. That was the first time I used "artificial intelligence". The porting of law to computers should happen at a faster pace within a decade.

---

Legal Algorithms
by K. Ramanraj

Many rules, especially legal rules are very complicated, involving exceptions, qualifications and provisos. To assist our understanding of the structure and meaning of complex rules, we can employ a method of diagrammatic presentation of rules - the algorithm. An algorithm is a precise set of instructions for solving a well defined problem. It takes the form of a structured series of questions with answers providing instructions for total or partial resolution of the problem.¹

An algorithm comprises a sequence of questions to which the answer is either yes(true) or o(false). Each answer automatically takes the reader to the next question relevant to his case. Either of these answers may take the reader outside the ambit of the rule or provide a solution to his specific case.

Illustration 1:

Section 41 of the Indian Transfer of Property Act, 1882, reads as follows:

"Where with the consent, express or implied, of the persons interested in immovable property, a person is the ostensible owner of such property and transfers the same for consideration, the transfer shall not be voidable on the ground that the transferor was not authorized to make it: provided that the transferee, after taking reasonable care to ascertain that the transferor had power to make the transfer, has acted in good faith."

The above section deals with the transfer by an ostensible owner. To test the applicability of this section to a particular case, the following algorithm could be used:

 +----------+
 | Start    |
 +----------+
     |
     V
 +-----------------------+               +-----------------+
 | Is the transferor the | no            | Section 41 is   |
 |   ostensible owner?   |--->---------->| not applicable  |
 +-----------------------+      |        +-----------------+
     | yes                      |
     V                          |
 +-----------------------+      |
 | Is he the ostensible  | no   |
 | owner by the express  |--->--+
 | or impled consent of  |      |
 | the true owner?       |      |
 +-----------------------+      |
            | yes                      |
     V                          |
 +-----------------------+      |
 | Was the transfer for  | no   |
 | consideration?        |--->--+
 |                       |      |
 +-----------------------+      |
     | yes                      |
     V                          |
 +-----------------------+      |
 | Did the transfree take| no   |
 | reasonable care to    |--->--+
 | ascertain that the    |      |
 | transferor had power  |      |
 |  to transfer?         |      |
 +-----------------------+      |
     | yes                      |
     V                          |
 +-----------------------+      |
 | Did the transfree act | no   |
 | in good faith?        |--->--+
 |                       |      
 +-----------------------+      
     | yes
     V
 +-----------------------+
 | Section 41 applies    | 
 |                       |      
 +-----------------------+    

The algorithm breaks up the rule into digestible parts. It begins with a "Start" box. The questions are arranged in the correct logical sequence. The questions, answers and instructions are boxed. Each question can have only one yes and one no. The lines connecting the boxes are arrowed.

The algorithm presents rules and sections in a visually more comprehensible form than conventional forms. It helps to identify a range of possible courses of action that might be taken in order to solve a given problem. A well devised algorithm can evaluate and predict the outcome of a case.

Illustration 2:

Under English law, all killing is murder, unless the contrary is
established by the accused². Malice is the grand criterion which distinguishes murder from other killing. The Indian Penal Code, 1860, defines culpable homicide in
Section 299 and murder in section 300. The causing of death is common to both the offenses. The distinction between the two sections is important as it determines the gravity of the offense and the severity of the punishment. Sections 299 and 300 of the Indian Penal Code are extracted below for reference.

299. Culpable homicide

Whoever causes death by doing an act with the intention of causing death, or with the intention of causing such bodily injury as is likely to cause death, or with the knowledge that he is likely by such act to cause death, commits the offence of culpable homicide.


Illustrations


(a) A lays sticks and turf over a pit, with the intention of thereby causing death, or with the knowledge that death is likely to be thereby caused. Z believing the ground to be firm, treads on it, falls in and is killed. A has committed the offence of culpable homicide.

(b) A knows Z to be behind a bush. B does not know it A, intending to cause, or knowing it to be likely to cause Z's death, induces B to fire at the bush. B fires and kills Z. Here B may be guilty of no offence; but A has committed the offence of culpable homicide.

(c) A, by shooting at a fowl with intent to kill and steal it, kills B who is behind a bush; A not knowing that he was there. Here, although A was doing an unlawful act, he was not guilty of culpable homicide, as he did not intend to kill B, or to cause death by doing an act that he knew was likely to cause death.

Explanation 1- A person who causes bodily injury to another who is labouring under a disorder, disease or bodily infirmity, and thereby accelerates the death of that other, shall be deemed to have caused his death.

Explanation 2- Where death is caused by bodily injury, the person who causes such bodily injury shall be deemed to have caused the death, although by resorting to proper remedies and skilful treatment the death might have been prevented.

Explanation 3- The causing. of the death of child in the mother's womb is not homicide. But it may amount to culpable homicide to cause the death of a living child, if any part of that child has been brought forth, though the child may not have breathed or been completely born.


300. Murder
Except in the cases hereinafter excepted, culpable homicide is murder, if the act by which the death is caused is done with the intention of causing death, or-

Secondly- If it is done with the intention of causing such bodily injury as the offender knows to be likely to cause the death of the person to whom the harm is caused, or-

Thirdly- If it is done with the intention of causing bodily injury to any person and the bodily injury intended to be inflicted is sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death, or-

Fourthly,- If the person committing the act knows that it is so imminently dangerous that it must, in all probability, cause death or such bodily injury as is likely to cause death, and commits such act without any excuse for incurring the risk of causing death or such injury as aforesaid.

Illustrations

(a) A shoots Z with the intention of killing him. Z dies in consequence. A commits murder.


(b) A, knowing that Z is labouring under such a disease that a blow is likely to cause his death, strikes him with the intention of
causing bodily injury. Z dies in consequence of the blow. A is guilty of murder, although the blow might not have been sufficient in the
ordinary course of nature to cause the death of a person in a sound state of health. But if A, not knowing that Z is labouring under any
disease, gives him such a blow as would not in the ordinary course of nature kill a person in a sound state of health, here A, although
he may intend to cause bodily injury, is not guilty of murder, if he did not intend to cause death, or such bodily injury as in the
ordinary course of nature would cause death.


(c) A intentionally gives Z a sword-cut or club-wound sufficient to cause the death of a man in the ordinary course of nature. Z
dies in consequence. Here, A is guilty of murder, although he may not have intended to cause Z's death.


(d) A without any excuse fires a loaded cannon into a crowd of persons and kills one of them. A is guilty of murder, although he may not have had a premeditated design to kill any particular individual.


Exception 1- When culpable homicide is not murder- Culpable homicide is not murder if the offender, whilst deprived of the power
of self-control by grave and sudden provocation, causes the death of the person who gave the provocation or causes the death of
any other person by mistake or accident.


The above exception is subject to the following provisos:-


First- That the provocation is not sought or voluntarily provoked by the offender as an excuse for killing. or doing harm to any
person.


Secondly- That the provocation is not given by anything done in obedience to the law, or by a public servant in the lawful
exercise of the powers of such public servant.


Thirdly- That the provocation is not given by anything done in the lawful exercise of the right of private defence.


Explanation- Whether the provocation was grave and sudden enough to prevent the offence from amounting to murder is a question
of fact.



Illustrations

(a) A, under the influence of passion excited by a provocation given by Z, intentionally kills. Y, Z's child. This is murder, in as
much as the provocation was not given by the child, and the death of the child was not caused by accident or misfortune in doing an
act caused by the provocation.


(b) Y gives grave and sudden provocation to A. A, on this provocation, fires a pistol at Y, neither intending nor knowing himself to
be likely to kill Z, who is near him, but out of sight. A kills Z. Here A has not committed murder, but merely culpable homicide.


(c) A is lawfully arrested by Z, a bailiff. A is excited to sudden and violent passion by the arrest, and kills Z. This is murder, in as
much as the provocation was given by a thing done by a public servant in the exercise of his powers.


(d) A appears as witness before Z, a Magistrate, Z says that he does not believe a word of A's deposition, and that A has perjured
himself. A is moved to sudden passion by these words, and kills Z. This is murder.


(e) A attempts to pull Z's nose, Z, in the exercise of the right of private defence, lays hold of A to prevent him from doing so. A is
moved to sudden and violent passion in consequence, and kills Z. This is murder, in as much as the provocation was given by a thing
done in the exercise of the right of private defence.


(f) Z strikes B. B is by this provocation excited to violent rage. A, a bystander, intending to take advantage of B's rage, and to
cause him to kill Z, puts a knife into B's hand for that purpose. B kills Z with the knife. Here B may have committed only culpable
homicide, but A is guilty of murder.


Exception 2- Culpable homicide is not murder if the offender, in the exercise in good faith of the right of private defence of person
or property, exceeds the power given to him by law and causes the death of the person against whom he is exercising such right of
defence without premeditation, and without any intention of doing more harm than is necessary for the purpose of such defence.


Illustration

Z attempts to horsewhip A, not in such a manner as to cause grievous hurt to A. A draws out a pistol. Z persists in the assault. A
believing in good faith that he can by no other means prevent himself from being horsewhipped, shoots Z dead. A has not committed
murder, but only culpable homicide.


Exception 3- Culpable homicide is not murder if the offender, being a public servant or aiding. a public servant acting for the
advancement of public justice, exceeds the powers given to him by law, and causes death by doing an act which he, in good faith,
believes to be lawful and necessary for the due discharge of his duty as such public servant and without ill-will towards the person
whose death is caused.


Exception 4. -Culpable homicide is not murder if it is committed without premeditation in a sudden fight in the heat of passion upon a
sudden quarrel and without the offender having taken undue advantage or acted in a cruel or unusual manner.


Explanation- It is immaterial in such cases which party offers the provocation or commits the first assault.


Exception 5- Culpable homicide is not murder when the person whose death is caused, being above the age of eighteen years,
suffers death or takes the risk of death with his own consent.


Illustration

A, by instigation, voluntarily causes, Z, a person under eighteen years of age to commit suicide. Here, on account of Z's youth, he
was incapable of giving consent to his own death; A has therefore abetted murder.

An algorithm could be
used to decide if the offense is murder under Section 300 or culpable homicide under Section 299.





+-------+
| Start |
+-------+
    |
    V
+-------------------------------+     +---------------+                   +---------+                
| Was there the killing of a    | no  |Not covered by |                   |Murder   |                
| human being by a human being? |---->|algorithm      |    +------------->|under    |
+-------------------------------+     +---------------+    |              |S. 300   |
    |yes                                                   |              +---------+
    |                                                      |
    V                                                      |no
+-------------------------------+     +-----------------------------+     +------------------+
|Was the act by which death     |     |Does it fall under           |     |Culpable Homicide |
|ensued done with the intention | yes |any of the exceptions        | yes |not amounting to  |
|of causing death?              |---->|to Section 300?              |---->|murder            |
+-------------------------------+     +-----------------------------+     +------------------+
    |no                                                                          ^
    |                                                                            |
    V                                                                            |no
+-------------------------------+     +-----------------------------+     +-----------------------------+
|Was the act by which death was |     |Was that act done with the   |     |Was that act done with the   |
|caused, done with the intention|     |intention of causing bodily  |     |intention of causing such    |
|of causing such bodily injury  | yes |injury to any person and the | no  |bodily injury as the offender|
|as is likely to cause death?   |---->|bodily injury intended to be |---->|knows to be likely to cause  |
+-------------------------------+     |inflicted is sufficient in   |     |the death of the person to   |
   |no                                |the ordinary course of       |     |whom the harm is caused?     |
   |                                  |nature to cause death?       |     +-----------------------------+   
   |                                  +-----------------------------+            |yes
   |                                      |yes                                   |
   |                                      +--->-----------------------------+    |
   |                                                                        |    |
   V                                                                        V    V
+-------------------------------+     +-----------------------------+     +-----------------------------+
|Was the act by which death was |     |Was the act done with the    |     |Does the act fall under any  |
|caused done with the knowledge |     |knowledge that the act is so | yes |any of the exceptions to     |
|that the act is likely to cause| yes |imminently dangerous that it |---->|Section 300?                 |
|death?                         |---->|must in all probability cause|     +-----------------------------+
+-------------------------------+     |death or such bodily injury  |        |yes                |no
   |no                                |and without any excuse for   |        |                   |
   |                                  |incurring the risk of causing|        V                   V
   V                                  |death or such injury?        |     +-----------------+ +---------+
+----------------+                    +-----------------------------+     |Culpable homicide| |Murder   |
|Lawful Homicide |                        |no                             |not amounting to | |under    |
+----------------+                        +--->-------------------------->|murder.          | |S. 300   | 
                                                                          +-----------------+ +---------+
   



Lord Macaulay, who drafted the Code, had the genius to formulate in
such clear language the intricate essentials of murder in Section 300. The algorithm
is based on the distinction made by Mevil, J., in Reg v. Govinda. This algorithm can
be expanded to include the exceptions under Section 300 and the punishment for the said
offenses under Section 302 and 304.

Algorithms and Programming

Algorithms form the basis of computer programs. A different
species of diagrammatic presentation, the flowchart, is used instead. An algorithm
or a flowchart, once drawn can be translated into a language which the computer
understands. The algorithm will determine the scope and utility of a computer
program.

"Jurimetrics" is a term coined by computer analysts to
denote the scientific investigation of legal problems. It includes the application
of electronic techniques in solving legal problems. The computer which is an
essential component of jurimetric research, can aid the lawyer in several areas including
information storage and retrieval³, behavior analysis of judicial decisions⁴ etc.


Computers can sort and search data (legal equivalent of data is
facts) very quickly. Once all decisions are entered into a computer, it can be
programmed to search for cases relevant and material to the case in hand. It can
scan through volumes of reports in minutes. Over ruled cases could be automatically
erased or marked to inform the user. Computerization can also standardize
documentation. Preparing pleadings, statements and deeds are simplified by the
computer. A lawyer can also find several other uses for it.


The Indian Law Commission, in its 125th Report, while considering
the problem of pending cases in the courts, suggested the use of computers to streamline
administration of justice in the courts. Extensive use of computers will shorten the time taken for disposal of cases, and improve our legal system.


Elsewhere, while the frontiers of artificial intelligence are being
explored, we are currently discovering the existence of the computer. Programs that
suit our legal system have to be evolved. It is important that some positive steps
are taken to strengthen faith in our democracy without which there cannot be peace and
harmony.

____________________

Notes:

[¹] For a detailed analysis refer to How to do things with Rules, William Twining and David Miers (1980).
[²] Hari Singh Gour, The Penal Law of India, Volume III, (1967), p. 1903.

[³] For further reading on this, refer to "Computers for Lawyers", Lex et Juris, September 1987, p.40.
[⁴] T.K. Viswanathan, "Slot Machine Justice", Madras Law College Magazine, Vol.LII, p.14.

---

Copyright (C) 2001 K. Ramanraj
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is
permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.

Manuscripts from Fort St. George, Madras

A Yale Bulletin had this to say:

After 250 years of trade and territorial expansion in South Asia, the East India Company still conjures up images of silks and cottons, tea and spices, rajahs and nabobs -- all emblems of the fabled wealth of India," says the exhibit's curator, Ayesha Ramachandran, a graduate student in Renaissance studies. "But behind that glitter of commodity trading and imperial design lurks a darker, perhaps more haunting, picture of colonial exploitation and racial struggle, economic oppression, political corruption and near bankruptcy.

That made me revisit an old entry made several years ago, that now sounds only like glitter. The darker parts continue to be scripted with lathis, guns and blood. I'll spare the visitor of pain and only share my pleasures here. My older blog entry goes:

The Fort and its Ammunition:

The Fort St. George, all by itself is a museum, worth admiring and
it provides an endless exercise to the mind. Its construction was
started in the 1600’s itself. From humble beginnings as a small
fort to store the goods purchased for exporting to England, it grew to
be the power centre of South India. The Fort is massive in its
construction, with plenty of places to see and enjoy.

The museum preserves the uniforms of the British servants, namely
the chief commander of the Viceroy, the Chief Under Secretary and the
others. The flags of the empire are also in display. There are several
cannons, mortars, muzzle loading guns, pistols, rifles, daggers,
knives, bayonets, spears and ammunition. There is also a petard on
display, which was used to demolish bridges and fort main gates. The
helmets used by the British which are plain steel ones, resembling the
modern helmet, and the Chinese ones made of brass, with special
symbols protruding above the top are queer and quite a sight. The
armours appear to be worn out by use.

The cutlery used by the British, Nabobs of Arcot, and the French
are also on display. The porcelain wares resemble the modern ones in
size and shape. The stained soup bowls and spoons are exquisite, and
all of them bear the royal seal. Even the lids and plates are endorsed
with the royal seal. One peculiar feature was that, a couple of plates
and bowls had some kind of arrangement to keep them warm. The dishes
had a bottom with two openings, probably, to be filled with hot water,
to keep the plate or bowl above it warm.

There are plenty of stamps brought out by the British. The coins
are also in display. The statues of Cornwallis and Monroe are
impressive. The ground floor also has a scaled model of the fort, with
charts describing the progress of the expansion of the fort.

Portraits and other works of art:

The portrait gallery is impressive, with paintings of the British
rulers by Ravi Varma and others. The canvass portrait of King George V
is life like, and you will be stunned by its depth. The King gazes at
us through his hazel blue eyes. His beard and moustache grow out with
life, and it is hard to believe that it is only a portrait. No modern
photograph I have seen reproduce such colour, depth or life. The royal
bearing is brilliantly brought out by the artist, whose name has not
been inscribed. The portraits of other royal ladies are also
impressive. There is a section which displays the Rulers of
Mysore.

There are several etchings too, which portray the life in Madras
between 1600 and 1900. The British appear to have taken very close
looks at our living. The etchings are made by an interesting
process. A well polished copper plate is coated with wax, and the
artist etches out a drawing, cutting the wax and exposing the copper
beneath. The plate is then immersed in dilute nitric acid, and the
exposed copper reacts to form a block. It is then used to print on
paper. Horses, elephants, palanquins, and carts appear to have been
used as the main modes of transport. Several paintings and etchings
show the commercial life of the city. Merchandise being loaded and
unloaded from ships, British women and children arriving at the
harbour adjoining the fort, are all beautiful.

The French Section

The French section displays the things, crockery, clocks, chairs
and furniture used by them in the past. The lanterns and lamp shades
are exquisite and tastefully designed. They look new and usable even
today. The British, appear to have toured Tamil Nadu, even by 1700,
and there are several paintings and etchings, which depict the Tanjore
Pagoda Temple, Rock Fort at Tiruchi, and many other palaces in
Madurai.

The British appear to have evinced keen interest in about
everything in India, and elaborately planned all their actions. I have
merely touched upon a few interesting things at the Fort Museum. The
Fort Museum in Chennai (formerly Madras), India, is a must for all
those who would like to peek into history when Europeans ruled
India.

References:
1. "Exhibit reveals corruption behind the 'glitter' of East India
Company" at http://www.yale.edu/opa/arc-ybc/v35.n23/story12.html
2. Papers of George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney (1737-1806) relating
to his governorship of Fort St. George, Madras (India), 1781-6 at
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/1500-1900/macartney-add/macartney-add.html
3. "Madras Researching Armenian Family History in India 1600 - 1950" at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~chaterfamilytree/madras1.htm
4. "Print, Folklore and Nationalism in Colonial South India‎"
by Stuart Blackburn at http://books.google.co.in/books?id=g3t37gKqUjgC&printsec=frontcover

A log script

The bash script below is an aid to maintain a record of daily events that could be used to study or measure progress. Copy the following code into a buffer and save the file as log.

#!/usr/bin/bash
log_file=log.txt
str_stamp=`date '+%Y-%m-%d %I:%M%p %a'`
str_date=`date +%Y-%m-%d`
#show log for the day
if test -a $log_file
then
grep "^$str_date" $log_file
else
touch $log_file
fi
read -p "$str_stamp: " log_comment
str_msg="$str_stamp: $log_comment"
echo $str_msg | cat >> $log_file

Make log an executable file:

$ chmod 755 log

To record an entry, execute log, and the log date and time prompts for your entry:

$ log
2003-10-24 10:26AM Fri:


Now type a test string, and press enter:

$ log
2003-10-24 10:26AM Fri: testing log script[enter]
$


Log saves your log entry to log.txt by default, and exits with your command prompt.
The next time you execute log, you are shown the events logged during the day:

2003-10-24 10:26AM Fri: testing log script
2003-10-24 10:29AM Fri:


Use less to view all entries, tail to view recent entries, or grep to search for entries in log.txt.

A hundred years of the Civil Procedure Code

Introduction:

The Code of Civil Procedure [CPC], enacted in 1908, came into force on the first day of January, 1909. The CPC has been used for the past one hundred years by civil suitors to find their rights in India.

Do suitors find speedy justice? Is the code to be blamed for lakhs of cases pending for too long in our courts today? This would be a good time to ponder on these questions.

History of the CPC:

The first attempt to codify civil procedure into a uniform code was in 1859. After a quick succession of amendments, the code of 1908 was enacted. The code has been amended countless times over the past century, but the basic civil procedure has substantially remained the same.

A suit may be filed in a civil court to enforce any right. The scope of the code has considerably narrowed down over the decades by a plethora of leglislation providing for tribunals and other mechanisms to settle civil disputes. The major subjects that have gone out of original jurisdiction of the civil courts include the following:

Rent Control Disputes
Consumer Disputes
Motor Accident Claims
Taxation and disputes relating to government revenue
Family disputes
Administrative matters
Debt recovery involving banks

Even before tribunals, parts of the code or its general principles often come into play. The default method of raising a civil dispute is by filing a suit under the code, and the courts are to try all suits unless barred by law. The code remains central to administration of justice on the civil side.

Scheme of the Code:

The CPC has two parts.

The first part contains 158 sections and creates the jurisdiction of the courts, mechanisms to transfer cases from one court to another, give finality to decisions, and provide for execution of decrees passed. These lay down general principles to be followed while resolving civil disputes.

The second part has 51 orders, which relate to procedure and give the steps to be followed in detail. These rules along with the substantive sections, create the machinery to process civil disputes.

Several generations of suitors have now become well acquainted with the provisions of the code, that the modern trial process is well known to the humblest villager today, and should be ranked as the greatest success of the code.

Bringing efficiency to the Code:

The code could be executed with better efficiency and speed if some thought is given to the following matters followed up with suitable amendments to law:

• The hierarchy of civil courts is far from satisfactory and this reflects on the code. We should do away with innumerable courts at multiple levels and simplify the hierarchy of courts in India. A single District court with unfettered and unlimited jurisdiction should be enough at the district level. Appeals could be preferred to the High Court at the state level. Cases involving questions of law may be taken to the Supreme Court at the national level. A case ought not to be kept pending at any level for more than three months. A division bench should be the norm at every level, and larger benches may be constituted if more wisdom is required to try a case.
  
  
• Court fees should be abolished.
  
  
• Brief pleadings that are short and crisp to the point are highly desirable. The appendices to the first schedule of the code give model forms, and each is no more than three to six paragraphs and would comfortably fit on two sides of a single sheet of paper, complete with cause titles and relief prayed. The Madras High Court museum displays plaints that are decades old, and those hand-written ones are hardly longer than two pages even in complicated suits. Short pleadings would reduce the time taken to prepare, read, try and dispose suits.
  
  
• After service of summons, the case should be taken for hearing on a day to day basis. Dates should be fixed like the way it is done for weddings and trial should proceed as per the plan agreed.
  
  
• Execution of a decree has become one of the most difficult bridges to cross. It should be welcome to modify the code to enforce decrees the way recoveries are made under the recent securitisation law.
  
  
• The code needs to be ported across to computers, so that it could be executed with machine assistance, but this needs a far more serious approach and involvement from the legal fraternity.
  

Future of the Code:

Every trial tests the code and time and again it has passed with brilliance. The code may appear to have many draw backs, but it has become more refined with age. The acid test to judge the code, is a parable from our past:

"ONCE upon a time, when Brahma-datta was reigning in Benares, the future Buddha returned to life as his son and heir. And when the day came for choosing a name, they called him Prince Brahma-datta. He grew up in due course; and when he was sixteen years old, went to Takkasila, and became accomplished in all arts. And after his father died he ascended the throne, and ruled the kingdom with righteousness and equity. He gave judgments without partiality, hatred, ignorance, or fear. Since he thus reigned with justice, with justice also his ministers administered the law. Law-suits being thus decided with justice, there were none who brought false cases. And as these ceased, the noise and tumult of litigation ceased in the king's court. Though the judges sat all day in the court, they had to leave without any one coming for justice. It came to this, that the Hall of Justice would have to be closed!" (source: http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/ift/ift18.htm)

The code would certainly achive the fame of Brahma-datta some day in the far future!

Hammurabi's code

The Code of Hammurabi was discovered in 1901 by a French archaeological expedition excavating the great mound known as the acropolis of Susa, in Persia. The black diorite pillar had been inscribed in cuneiform characters a code of law promulgated by Hammurabi. It was eight feet high and two feet in diameter, with forty four columns of inscription.

The code is addressed to suitors who seek justice. The epilogue of his code is as follows:

The oppressed who has a law suit shall come before my image as king of justice. He shall read the writing on my pillar, he shall perceive my precious words. The word of my pillar shall explain to him his cause, and he shall find his right.

The most interesting thing about the code is that the provisions are couched in the form of a series of conditional imperatives introduced by the word 'if'. Examples:

If a man shall steal the minor son of a freeman, he shall be put to death.

If a man find a fugitive slave, male or female, in the open country, and bring the same to the owner, the owner of the slave shall pay that man two shekels of silver.

If a man let his field to another for a fixed rent, and has received the rent for the field, but storms come and destroy the crops, the loss falls upon the renter.

Hammurabi is mostly remembered for his covenant code embodied later in the Bible (Exodus 21:2 to 22:19) too:

life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

The code recognized three classes: patricians, plebeians and slaves. Status depended on birth and slaves were usually foreign prisoners of war. As always, the written words were contemptuously disregarded by the mighty when they could get away with it. However, there is no doubt it regulated daily affairs of the working classes. Code relating to commercial transactions are given in meticulous detail. Interest rate was fixed at 20% for silver credit, and 33% for corn credit. It had extensive price-fixing: charges of tavern-keepers, physicians, veterinarians, builders, boatmen artisans were all given.

His greatest contribution is believed to be his legislative technique: the written word inscribed on his pillar displaced unwritten custom to a large extent.

Source: Men of Law - From Hammurabi to Holmes by William Seagle.

Tamil script at Unicode

Unicode.org is an attempt to provide a unique number for every character, no matter what the platform, program, or language. All Indic language scripts in the VIII Schedule of the Constitution of India are supported in the present version of the Unicode chart, except Manipuri.

Tamil script in Unicode was allotted the B80-BFF Range (128 characters, code points 2944 to 3071) in plane 0, the Basic Multi Lingual plane (BMP). The standard is widely implemented using UTF-8. A quick test - read this: "தமிழ்". Those who know Tamil, would have read "Tamil" in Tamil.

The Unicode chart for Tamil is very usable but has a painful drawback. Tamil has 12 vowels (உயிர்/uir) and 18 consonants (மெய்/mei), and for these unicode code points were obtained. Every vowel consonant combination produces உயிர்மெய்/uyirmei compounds, for which no unique code points were obtained. This means, for 216 Tamil characters, instead of using a single code point that would take 3 bytes each, 6 or more bytes would be required. While ascii chart has intelligent order, and faithfully adopted by Unicode for Latin script based languages like English, Tamil missed the bus and how?

http://www.tunerfc.tn.nic.in/ promotes "New Unicode TUNE" that is based on encodings for Tamil chars in the private user space of the Unicode charts! This is pursuant to the GO at http://www.tn.gov.in/gorders/IT/it_e_13_2006.htm Looks like the Govt of TN and the Tamil Virtual University sites at http://www.tn.gov.in/tamiltngov/sitemap.htm and http://www.tamilvu.org/ publishes pages are in TUNE.

We need to work on improving representation of Tamil in the Unicode chart, but giving the oldest living language a place in the private user space does not help Tamil. An article I wrote last year on some of the issues is available here.

The present Unicode standard for the Tamil script is usable, not withstanding the defects. Promoting TUNE is wasteful. Instead, the Government of Tamil Nadu should promote the Unicode standard for Tamil as it stands in the public SMP space, research the pros and cons thoroughly, and come with a better solution or at least leave the existing Unicode standard in peace.

A xaos script on an ancient paradox

;Position file generated by XaoS 3.0
;  - an realtime interactive fractal zoomer
;Use xaos -load  to display it
(initstate)
(filter 'palette #t)
(palette 1 150949959 23)
(formula 'barnsley)
(cycling #t)
(cyclingspeed 30)
(juliaseed 1.0221656976744186705 -0.037500000000000002407)
(plane 1)
(view 0.1341 0.03897 9.02 9.02)

The above script generates a fractal image of what may appear to be a pair of eyes connected to a mind viewing the cosmos. The mind beholds the cosmos through the eyes. The truth that the mind is within the cosmos, and that the cosmos is perceived within the mind can be visually seen in the fractal. This is yet another way to visually show the paradoxical connection between macrocosm and microcosm. The paradox is that it is both true to say that the microcosm is within the macrocosm and the macrocosm is within the microcosm.

The inspiration to seek the fractal came from a poem by Avvayar, titled "Periathu Ethu", that translates to "What is significant?"

Periathu ketkin erithazhal veloi, Perithu Perithu Bhuvanam Perithu, Bhuvanamo Nan mugan padaipu, Nan mugan kariamal undhi vandhon, kariamalo parkadal thuindron, parkadalo kurumuni angail adakkam, kurumunio kalasathil piranthon, kalasamo puvil siru man, Puvio aravinukku oru thalai baram, Aravo umaiaval siru viral modhiram, Umaio Iraivan bagathu odukkam, Iraio thondar ullathu odukkam, Thondar tham ullathai potruvathum      ullatho perithu?

If you ask what is big, thrower of the fiery spear, Big, big the world is big, But the world was created by Brahma, Four headed [Brahma] came from dark Thirumal's middle, Dark Thirumal rests on the milky ocean, Milky ocean fits the fist of the short sage, The short sage was born in kalasam, Kalasam is a tiny grain in the Universe, Universe is borne on a head of the serpent, Serpant is Uma's little finger ring, Uma is within Sivan's half, Sivan is within the beholder's mind, Could there be anything bigger than      praising the beholder's mind?

Commentary:
Murugan, son of Sivan, asks Avvayar, the tamil poetess, what is big? Avvayar starts with the world that is big. But bigger is Brahma who created the world. Even bigger is Vishnu from whose middle, Brahma emanated. But then, Vishnu himself rests on the milky ocean. The ocean fits the fist of the short sage Agathiar. Agathiar is believed to have swallowed the ocean once, and he was born in the "kalasam". The "porul" or meaning in tamil poems is usually very deep and varied. In Ramayanam, Sage Valmiki narrates the birth of Agathiar in a pot or kalasam. It could also be taken to mean the birth of Agathiar under the constellation of kumba, that is represented by the symbol of a pot or kalasam. The next line makes sense with either interpretation. The kalasam in which Agathiar was born is but a tiny grain in the universe. The constellation kumba, under which Agathiar was born is also a tiny grain in the scheme of the cosmos. The universe is lightly borne by the serpent. The serpent is a symbol for the sense organs, and also a symbol for the string of heavenly objects that appear like a snake. The serpant is merely a ring for Umai, who is exactly half of Sivan. Sivan is a symbol for life, love, mind, and the cosmos. Such Sivan is in the mind of the beholder. Sivan is believed to hold court in the plane of the mind, lying between the eyes. Tirumular's Tirumantiram says:

Straight within the fore-head
Between the eye-brows
Is the astral space vast;
Peer, peer within there
The luminous Mantra (Aum) will be;
The place where they in yearning sought Him
Is the place where He in yearning is;
That verily is the Holy Temple of Chittambara
And there did I firmly sit. [2770]¹

Avvayar concludes that the most significant of all things is praising and admiring the vast cosmos that is experienced within the mind, the macrocosm within the microcosm.
____________________
Reference:
[¹] Quoted from Tirumantiram by Tirumular, English Translation by Dr. B. Natarajan, published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Madras 600004.

'Rule of Law' text transcript

A lecture titled "The Rule of Law" was given by The Rt. Hon Lord Bingham of Cornhill KG, House of Lords. A recording and transcript of the talk is available here.

Lord Bingham speaks of seven sub-rules of Rule of Law:

First, the law must be accessible and so far as possible intelligible, clear and predictable.
Second, questions of legal right and liability should ordinarily be resolved by application of the law and not the exercise of discretion.
Third, laws of the land should apply equally to all, save to the extent that objective differences justify differentiation.
Fourth, law must afford adequate protection of fundamental human rights.
Fifth, means must be provided for resolving, without prohibitive cost or inordinate delay, bona fide civil disputes which the parties themselves are unable to resolve.
Sixth, ministers and public officers at all levels must exercise the powers conferred on them reasonably, in good faith, for the purpose for which the powers were conferred and without exceeding the limits of such powers.
Seventh, adjudicative procedures provided by the state should be fair.

JavaScript to calculate Fair Rent in Tamil Nadu

A JavaScript to aid FIXATION OF FAIR RENT UNDER SECTION 4 OF THE TAMIL NADU BUILDINGS (LEASE AND RENT CONTROL) ACT 1960 is published at http://pastebin.com/f73383557
One may download the script, save it as tnfrc-9.3.html and view it using firefox browser.
The script may also be downloaded from: https://github.com/ramanraj/tnfrc

Bash scripts

Bash is a scripting tool available on many free software platforms. Please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bash for more information on bash.

The following bash scripts could be used to download information available on the Internet for off line use.

Script to download judgments of the Supreme Court of India published by NIC

NIC has made available the full text of nearly 18,000+ judgments of the Supreme Court from 1950 till date, along with recent judgments of various High Courts at http://www.judis.nic.in/judisf.htm

The following block of code may be copied and saved as get_scj.sh

#!/usr/bin/bash
#AUTHOR: ramanraj.k@gmail.com 2004-06-05
#script to download Supreme Court case reports published at NIC for offline use
#needed: bash, wget, and of course, a connection to the internet
#usage:  get_scj.sh from_no to_no
#        get_scj.sh 1 500      # download cases 1 to 500
#        get_scj.sh 501 1000   # download cases 501 to 1000
#        cases starting with from_no to to_no are downloaded 
#          and saved as sc_no.html, for example sc_1.html ... sc_500.html

LIMIT=$2
for ((a=$1; a <= LIMIT ; a++))
do  
    file=sc_$a.html
    wget -t1 "http://www.judis.nic.in/sc/qrydisp.asp?tfnm=$a" -O $file
    if [ ! -s $file ]; then
      rm $file
    fi
done
#alert user with bell
echo -e "\a"
exit

Set permissions to get_scj.sh to make the script executable with the command:

# chmod 755 get_scj.sh

Instructions to use are included in the scripts itself. As on date more than 18,000 reportable judgements of the Supreme Court are available online, that is nearly 650 MB. The script does not keep track of the last case downloaded, and the range of reports to be downloaded should be given while invoking the script. To get information about the last case downloaded, one could issue the command:

# ls -alt sc*htm

Script to download Madras High Court cause list

#!/bin/bash
#AUTHOR: ramanraj.k@gmail.com  15-02-2003
#script to (1) download chennai high court cause list
#          (2) search for required information using grep
#          (3) save list to cause_list.tar
#usage:  get_list.sh day
#        where day can be mon, tue, wed, thu or fri
#        
#needed: bash, wget, and of course, a connection to the internet
# define variables; assign dir
DAYLIST="$1"
echo "$DAYLIST"
if  [ $DAYLIST = mon ]
then
    DAYDIR=omon
fi
if [ $DAYLIST = tue ]
then
    DAYDIR=otues
fi
if [ $DAYLIST = wed ]
then
    DAYDIR=owed
fi
if [ $DAYLIST = thu ]
then
    DAYDIR=othurs
fi
if [ $DAYLIST = fri ]
then
    DAYDIR=ofri
fi
if [ $DAYLIST = weekly ]
then
    DAYDIR=weekly
fi

#last week list to compare lengths
ls -al ~/chennai_new/$DAYDIR

#download list
wget http://causelists.nic.in/chennai_new/$DAYDIR/cl.html -O cl.html 
wget http://causelists.nic.in/chennai_new/$DAYDIR/misc.html -O misc.html 
wget http://causelists.nic.in/chennai_new/$DAYDIR/dnot.html -O dnot.html
wget http://causelists.nic.in/chennai_new/$DAYDIR/sitarr.html -O sitarr.html 

#concatanate lists
cat sitarr.html > cl_temp.html
cat dnot.html >> cl_temp.html
cat cl.html >> cl_temp.html
cat misc.html >> cl_temp.html

#check and create destination directories
if  ! test -d chennai_new
then
    mkdir chennai_new
fi
if  ! test -d chennai_new/$DAYDIR
then
    mkdir chennai_new/$DAYDIR
fi

#copy list to destination directory
cp ./cl.html ./chennai_new/$DAYDIR/cl.html
cp ./misc.html ./chennai_new/$DAYDIR/misc.html
cp ./dnot.html ./chennai_new/$DAYDIR/dnot.html
cp ./sitarr.html ./chennai_new/$DAYDIR/sitarr.html
cp ./cl_temp.html ./chennai_new/$DAYDIR/full_list.html

#checklist
# show file size
ls -alH cl_temp.html
# WARN IF TRANSFER INTERRUPTED
grep --ignore-case "transfer interrupted" cl_temp.html

# CHECK LIST cl_temp.html for names [edit to suit your need]

grep --ignore-case "\(k.*\|r.*m.*\)\(kr.*\|ram.*\)raj\|justice\|j.r.k" cl_temp.html 
#alert user with bell
echo -e "\a"
exit

A Beacon Shut Off on 19th February, 2009

Madras High Court

Before 19th February, 2009:

On 19th February, 2009:

---

The Morning Song of Rabindranath Tagore

The Morning Song

Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people,
Dispenser of India's destiny,
Thy name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sind, Gujarat & Maratha,
of the Dravida and Orissa and Bengal,
It echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and Himalayas,
mingles in the music of Jamuna and Ganges,
and is chanted by the waves of the Indian Sea,
They pray for thy blessings and sing thy praise,
the saving of all people waits in thy hands,
Thou dispenser of India's destiny,
Victory, Victory, Victory to thee.

Rabindranath Tagore, during his tour of South India in 1919, spent some days at the Theosophical College, Madanapalle, (then part of Madras) at the invitation of its Principal James H Cousins. Tagore sang the song "Jana gana mana .." at the function there and also wrote the above translation. The college authorities, greatly impressed by the lofty ideals of the song, selected it as their prayer song. It spread widely from there and was sung abroad in Europe and America too.¹

Controversy

Tagore composed the song in 1911 for the Calcutta Session of the Indian National Congress, during the occasion of the visit by King George V and Queen Mary to India. At times, controversies have errupted if the morning song was in praise of King George V which has been answered by Tagore himself, that is chronicled as follows:

"Answering a friend's query about the origins of the Jana Gana Mana in 1937, Tagore said that a loyalist friend had requested him to write a song in praise of the King. He had felt anger at his friends presumption about his loyalism. It was this anger that led him to compose Jana Gana Mana. He had written a song to a superior authority, the "Dispenser of India's destiny". Tagore concluded. "That great Charioteer of man's destiny in age after age could not by any means be George V or George VI or any George. Even my 'loyal' friend realized this; because, however powerful his loyalty to the King, he was not wanting in intelligence." I may add here that we normally sing the first verse alone: the third verse of the song refers explicitly to the eternal lord."²

The 3rd, 4th and 5th stanzas of the morning song are as follows³:

The procession of pilgrims passes over the endless road
rugged with the rise and fall of nations;
and it resounds with the thunder of thy wheel.
Eternal Charioteer! Through the dire days of door
thy trumpet sound and men are led by thee across death.
Thy finger point the path to all people.
Oh dispenser of India's destiny!
Victory, victory, victory to thee.

The darkness was dense and deep was the night.
My country lay in a deathlike silence of swoon.
But thy mother arms were round her
and thine eyes gazed upon her troubled face
in sleepless love through her hours of ghastly dreams.
Thou art the companion
and the saviour of the people in thier sorrows,
thou dispenser of India's destiny!
Victory, victory, victory to thee.

The night fades;
the light breaks over the peaks of the Eastern hills,
the birds begin to sing
and the morning breeze carries the breath of new life.
The rays of the mercy
have touched the waking land with their blessings.
Victory to the King of Kings,
victory to thee, dispenser of India's destiny.
Victory, victory, victory to thee.

Without any doubt, the controversy "was unfortunate though inconsequential".⁴

Universality of mankind

The message of the song has been seldom missed by people in other nations.

The song, then, is addressed to the divine, understood as a universal human spirit of morality and justice. This spirit rules "all people" everywhere in the world, and it is also "dispenser of India's destiny". Tagore makes it plain that this spirit animates the emotions of people in all of India's diverse ethnic and geographical regions: all are equally animated by the love of rightness and justice, and parts of the nation are equally under this spirit's care. ... the "dispenser of India's destiny" is the moral law, and it is the victory of justice for which Indians ask when they sing it.

It is rare that a nation has a national anthem that expresses the idea that humanity is above nationality, and righteousness above aggression. But the idea of a moral law that unswervingly guides our destiny is deeply rooted in Indian traditions, more deeply perhaps than it is in Euro-American traditions, where such ideas are associated with a critical and counter-traditional Enlightenment intelligentsia rather than with traditional religion. Indians connect these ideas to many sources, but prominently to the concept of dharma, or right, in ancient Hindu texts. Tagore's take on the traditional concept is humanist and critical, but it also resonates with much that already animates India's traditional sense of its unity; no doubt this is why has been able to win wide acceptance.⁵

Rabindranath Tagore strongly believed in the universality of mankind connecting all people. The broad vision of Tagore is reflected in the following passage:

"All humanity's greatest is mine. The infinite personality of man (as the Upanishads say) can only come from the magnificient harmony of all human races. My prayer is that India may represent the co-operation of all the peoples of the world. For India, unity is truth, and division evil. Unity is that which embraces and understands everthing; consequently, it cannot be attained through negation. The present attempt to separate our spirit from that of the Occident is a tentative of spiritual suicide... The present age has been dominated by the Occident, because the Occident had a mission to fulfil. We of the Orient should learn from the Occident. It is regrettable, of course, that we had lost the power of appreciating our own culture, and therefore did not know how to assign Western culture to its right place... No nation can find its own salvation by breaking away from others. We must all be saved or we must all perish together."⁶

National Anthem

On 24th January, 1950, the Constituent Assembly of India adopted the first stanza of the morning song of Tagore settled as India's National Anthem, along with "Vande Mataram":

Tuesday, the 24th January 1950

The Constituent Assembly  met in the Constitution Hall,  New Delhi, at
Eleven  of  the Clock,  Mr.  President  (The  Honourable Dr.  Rajendra
Prasad), in the Chair...

STATEMENT RE: NATIONAL ANTHEM

Mr.  President:  There  is  one  matter which  has  been  pending  for
discussion, namely the question of the National Anthem. At one time it
was thought that the matter might be brought up before the House and a
decision taken  by the House by way  of a resolution. But  it has been
felt  that,  instead  of  taking  a  formal decision  by  means  of  a
resolution, it  is better  if I  make a statement  with regard  to the
National Anthem. Accordingly I make this statement.

The composition consisting  of the words and music  known as Jana Gana
Mana is the  National Anthem of India, subject  to such alterations in
the words as the Government  may authorise as occasion arises; and the
song Vande Mataram,  which has played a historic  part in the struggle
for Indian freedom, shall be  honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana and
shall have equal status with  it. (Applause). I hope this will satisfy
the Members.7 

"Vande Mataram" was written by Backim-chandra Chatterji, and it was sung at the 1896 session of the Indian National Congress. Rabindranath Tagore composed the music for "Vande Mataram".

"Jana Gana Mana was chosen as anthem in 1950 over Bande Mataram as well as Iqbal's Sare Jahan Se Accha - although Bande Mataram was given "equal status". An important reason was that Bande Mataram could not be played by bands. Additionally Jana Gana Mana enjoyed an international reputation. It had been greatly appreciated in the United Nations at New York where it was first played as an orchestral arrangement in 1947. Many said that it was superior to most national anthems in the world. Within the country the overwhelming majority of the provinces supported its nomination." ⁸

History of the tune

Capt Ram Singh who hailed from Khaniara, a small village near Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh, was a band master in the Indian National Army created by Subash Chandra Bose. He composed a tune for the song "Sukh Chain Kee Barkha Barse, Bharat Bagiya Hai Jaga", based on the poem by Rabindranath Tagore and was translated into Hindi by Abid Ali. The present National Anthem tune was composed by Capt Ram Singh as Qaumi Tarana of the INA at Singapore in 1943.

"On February 15, 1942, Singapore was conquered by Japan as a result of which the INA got a fillip. Capt Ram Singh also joined the INA to free himself from the clutches of Japanese. Subhas Chandra Bose was instrumental in tapping the talent of Captain Ram Singh as a dedicated music director. Captain Ram Singh recalled, "Subhasji told me that the tune of Qaumi Tarana should be so powerful and inspiring that when INA soldiers render the same, it should stir the soul of not only the soldiers but millions of Indians also, as such we kept on practising the Qaumi Tarana at Deedadri camp in Singapore. I vividly recall the words uttered by Subhas Chandra Bose about the Qaumi Tarana. He had said, Capt Ram Singh, the day Indian National Army takes shape in the Cathay Building of Singapore the song Subh Sukh Chain Ki Barkha Barse would be played. The song should have such an indelible impact and force that the Cathay Building should break into two parts and the sky should become visible. The gods and goddesses will shower flowers straight on the Tricolor of India. On October 31, 1943, the INA came into power and my orchestra played the Qaumi Tarana. The Cathay Building reverberated thunderously."⁹

After India attained Independence, it was played at Red Fort:

India attained Independence on August 15, 1947, and the next morning Jawaharlal Nehru unfurled the Tricolour on the ramparts of the Red Fort and addressed the nation. It was on this occasion that Capt Ram Singh was especially invited to play the tune of Qaumi Tarana of the INA along with the members of his orchestra group. Later the duration of the tune was shortened with changes in the original script. However, the musical composition was adopted in its original form.¹⁰

The Prophecy

The song is also prophetic - India leads in software development and process outsourcing, with visible impact on all people. Goodwill springs and touches a wide diversity of men and matters. In Re Kerala Education Bill, 1959 SCR 995, S.R. Das, Chief Justice of India, observed as follows in pages 1070 & 1071:

Throughout the ages endless inundations of men of diverse creeds, cultures and races - Aryans and non-Aryans, Dravidians and Chinese, Seythians, Hunds, Pathans and Mughals - have come to this ancient land from distant regions and climes. India has welcomed them all. They have met and gathered, given and taken and got mingled, merged and lost in one body. India's tradition has been epitomised in the following noble lines:

"None shall be turned away
From the shore of this vast sea of humanity
That is India" (Poems by Rabindranath Tagore)

Indeed India has sent out to the world her message of good will enshrined and proclaimed in our National Anthem:

"Day and night, thy voice goes out from
land to land,
calling Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains
round thy throne
and Parsees, Mussalmans and Christians.
Offerings are brought to thy shrine by
the East and the West
to be woven in a garland of love.
Thou bringest the hearts of all peoples
into the harmony of one life,
Thou Dispenser of India's destiny,
Victory, Victory, Victory to thee."
(Rabindranath Tagore. 136)

It is thus that the genius of India has been able to find unity in diversity by assimilating the best of all creeds and cultures.¹¹

The Eternal Song

Singing "Jana gana mana .."¹² takes just 52 seconds, but it appears eternal in span as it reminds us about our own glorious past giving fortitude to meet our future destiny.

____________________

References:

[¹] AIR 2005 SC 2841

[²][India's National Anthem] "Are we still singing for the Empire?" by Pradip Kumar Datta at http://www.sacw.net/DC/CommunalismCollection/ArticlesArchive/pkDatta092004.html

[³] "Our National Songs", Publications Division, pp.14-15

[⁴] Ibid, p.3

[⁵] http://uchicagolaw.typepad.com/faculty/2005/11/india_a_democra_1.html

[⁶] "Mahatma Gandhi", Romain Rollan, pp.107-108

[⁷] Constituent Assembly Debates at http://164.100.24.208/ls/condeb/vol12p1.htm

[⁸] Op. cit. Pradip Kumar Datta

[⁹] "A tribute to the legendary composer of National Anthem" by Rajendra Rajan at http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020504/windows/main2.htm

[¹⁰] Ibid.

[¹¹] 1959 SCR 995

[¹²] A vocal audio of the National Anthem is available at http://www.tourindia.com/htm/jgmvo.wav from www.tourindia.com. A silent version of the National Anthem rendered by hearing challenged school children is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk02qPlnS2E

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