October 10, 2018 Wednesday
Bedtime Story
After the Kalinga War
Ashoka the Indian emperor of the Maurya
Empire had ruled almost the entire subcontinent (except for certain parts of
modern Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala) for 35 years.
After the conquest of the state of Kalinga
(in the present-day state of modern Orissa) and suffering extreme anguish and
distress at the loss of human lives Ashoka embraced Buddhism.
It is said that:
“No war in the history of India as
important either for its intensity or for its results as the Kalinga war of
Ashoka.
No war in the annals of the human history
has changed the heart of the victor from one of wanton cruelty to that of an
exemplary piety as this one.
The political history of mankind is really
a history of wars and no war has ended with so successful a mission of the
peace for the entire war-torn humanity as the war of Kalinga.”
But Ashoka went beyond Buddhism; through
his principles of Dharma or dhamma he embraced very broad principles of moral
ethics that did not have its origins from some divine inspiration but keeping
in with the practical and logical ethics of the prevailing circumstances.
There does not exist any single-word translation
for dharma either in English language or any of the European languages.
The root of this word is –“dhri” which
means “to support” or “hold” and this suggests its strong correlation with the
word “welfare” particularly with respect to his duties towards his subjects.
Some historians consider this advent of a
new kind of welfare system across his entire vast continent as an essential
political ideology - a kind of strategic maneuver forced upon the ambitious
young emperor - to keep the large sprawling diverse empire closely knit.
Whatever could have been the motive –
genuine guilt or a wise political tactic – the fact remains that the state
under Ashoka was a one that factually took great pains ad went on to great
lengths to see that the subjects were accorded welfare measures that even impressed
the nations of Mediterranean or the Hellenistic countries that were by
themselves at their heights both in sciences, arts and cultures.
Gesell too was in the favor of welfare state
but according to him a welfare state would not be tenable along with private
ownership of land.
For him land reform, meaning making land a
common property for businesses in the form of lease such that the some of the
income of the businesses instead of going to the landowner would go to the
state.
This money would in turn contribute to the
funds needed for the establishment of welfare.
To say the least, some of the tenets of
Gesell’s ‘Freiwirtschaft’ are not acceptable, at worse they are scandalous to a
capitalist.
Even though it is obvious that Gesellian
economics is no where practiced in the world today in its totality, some of its
aspects are truly praiseworthy and have deserved great praise from modern-day
economists.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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