Diversity in the era of Akbar

Today I will discuss about two people from the Mughal era to show how diverse the court of Emperor Akbar was. 

Abu’l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar 

Perhaps greatest of the Mughal emperors, Akbar respected all religions. He started the concept of Mughals marrying Rajput princesses. He had the Navaratna, The Nine jewels in his court. They were nine people who were very close to Akbar. They came from different religions. Only seven are known: Raja Birbal, Miyan Tansen, Abul Fazl, Abul Faizi, Abdur Rahim Khan -i-Khannan, Mulla Badauni, Raja Man Singh, Raja Todarmal. 

Akbar created a new religion called Din-i-Ilahi ‘The Religion of God’. This religion took some teachings from all religions. It did not have God. It concentrated on social and animal benefits. All the Navaratna converted into this religion except Raja Man Singh. All the Navaratna converted back to their original religion after Akbar’s death. 

There a was tax called jizya tax which all non-Muslim people of the country had to pay. Akbar at the age of 22 abolished this tax. 

Miyan Tansen- Master of Melody 

This amazingly gifted musician was born near Gwalior. 

History says his family had no children, so Tansen’s Hindu father went to meet Muhamad Ghaus who was famous for his powers. Muhamad Ghaus gave him a sacred thread to tie around his wife’s wrist. Soon Tansen was born. Tansen studied music under the legendary Swami Haridas. He married Muhamad Ghaus’ daughter Husseini and converted to Islam. 

They had many children, but only one was a girl. The boys were named Muslim names, but the girl was named Saraswathi after Hindu goddess Saraswathi. 

He prayed to Goddess Saraswathi as she was also goddess of music. 

These facts show that during Akbar’s Golden Age both Akbar and Miyan Tansen, one of the Navaratna believed in Diversity and followed it in their lives. 

Reference: 

THE HISTORY OF INDIA for children by Archana Garodia Gupta and Shruti Garodia, Tansen: Master of Melody by Sharad Kohli and Urmila Nag, A Bag Full of History by Subhadra Sen Gupta 

Isis – The Egyptian Goddess of Love and Magic

Isis is the Egyptian goddess of love and magic. Isis means throne. She is said to be throne of Osiris. 

She is the child of Nut, the goddess of sky and Geb, the god of Earth and sibling to Osiris, Set, Nephthys. 

Isis initially was a goddess with a small role and lacked her own dedicated temples. Her importance grew as the dynasty grew and she became one of the most important goddesses in Egyptian dynasty. 

She played a very important role in Osiris myth. 

The myth goes that Osiris was the king of Egypt and Isis was the queen. Osiris’s brother, Set was jealous of him so killed Osiris, cut him into 14 pieces, and threw those pieces across Egypt. Isis and her sister Nephthys found all the pieces. He was neither dead nor alive. He was a mummy. 9 months later Isis gave birth to Osiris’s son heir, Horus. Now, Osiris needed to return to the underworld. Isis grew Horus who in turn fought Set and became the king of Egypt. 

Mother and son were often portrayed in conflict, for example when Horus beheaded Isis forcing her to replace her head with a cow’s, which explained why she wore a crown with the cow’s horns.  

She also evolved into a goddess who was mixed with other goddesses of Greek and Roman culture. She is said to be the patron and protector of women. Her symbol, the tyet amulet was placed around the necks of mummies, she was told to be the guide to afterlife. Though she started small, at the end she played a very important role in myths of Egypt. 

Annie Besant

Annie Besant was born to an English father and Irish mother on 1^st October 1847. 

In the early stages of her life, she was atheistic and socialist and joined multiple liberal organizations. 

Then, to the surprise of her atheistic and socialist friends, she joined the Theosophical Society which was deeply related to spiritualism. She came to India to work for the Society and realized that educated Indians were apologetic towards their own culture! 

The society started schools where the curriculum was a mix of Indian and western subjects. In 1898, Annie founded the Central Hindu College at Benaras which is now known as the Benaras Hindu University. 

In 1914, at the age of 66, Besant entered political life by starting a journal called Commonweal and then a newspaper called New India. In both, she published a stream of articles criticizing the British government. 

When the World War I started in 1914, Britain needed its colonies and dominions’ support and promised them that after war there would be more freedom for them. However, India was deeply disappointed in finding the big difference between the self-government allowed in white English-speaking dominions like Canada and Australia and the treatment to Asian and African colonies. That was when a Home Rule League, started by Besant flared to life. Home Rule Leagues are parties which campaigned for India’s self-governance. 

Annie Besant was arrested on charge of sedition and defended herself by showing how Asian and African colonies were being discriminated against. The government soon regretted its actions as the court proceedings were carried in every newspaper of the country. In June 1917, she was put under house arrest due to the internment passed against Annie Besant by the Governor of Madras but was released after 3 months. She made a red and green flag for the Home Rule League and flew it defiantly from her garden. She was also elected as the first woman president of the Indian National Congress.  

In 1925 she tried to get a Commonwealth of India Bill, seeking a constitution for India as a full-fledged dominion, passed in the British Parliament but failed. 

At a time when there were very few women in public life in India, Annie Besant inspired and enriched our freedom movement with her passionate and energetic support for the cause. 

Chess – Facts and Legends

Note: This was a post my entry for the student newsletter at my school for November 2022

Most people are familiar with chess. However, most people might not know that it actually originated in India! Chess is the descendant of the Indian game of Chaturanga, but the origin of Chaturanga remains unknown. A set of terracotta pieces and a board was found in the Harappan site of Lothal, which was similar to chess! We now realize that chess is an ancient game which probably existed during the Harappan era!

An ancient legend says,

‘King Shirham of India wanted to reward his grand vizier Sissa Ben Dahir for inventing and presenting the game of Chaturanga to him (King Shirham). The clever vizier said, “Majesty, give me a grain of wheat to put on the first square of the board, two grains to put on the second, four grains to put on the third and eight to put on the fourth. And so, great Lord, doubling the number of grains for each succeeding square, give me enough grains to cover all sixty-four squares of this board.” The king was pleased with this humble request, enjoying the fact that the inventor of Chaturanga would not cost him much of his treasury. But when the counting began, the first bag of grains went empty before the twentieth square was reached! The number of grains rapidly increased and soon it became clear that not even with all the crops of India the vizier’s request would be fulfilled! The King found himself deep in debt to his vizier. He either had to fulfill the vizier’s constant flow of demands or cut his head off. It is suspected that he chose to cut his head off.’

Another myth goes,

‘A young king went on a battle with the neighboring kingdom. However, as the battle proceeded, the young king was killed. His elder brother thought, “How will I explain brother’s death to my mother?” To portray his brother’s death, he created a game which would stop his mother from going hysteric. It is believed that this is how Chaturanga was invented.’

Both these myths portray the invention of Chaturanga– however both are considered as stories.

Sources: One Two Three… Infinity by George Gamow and Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sissa_(mythical_brahmin))

Picture: https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/leisure/brain-games/chess.htm

Positive Discrimination

Note: This was a post my entry for the student newsletter at my school for August 2023

Equality means that everyone gets an equal opportunity. This is to help the poor and disadvantaged access the modern world. However, there is another term which is important for particular groups which were historically discriminated: Equity.

Imagine this, there are three people watching a football match. One of them is very tall and can view the match despite the fence, one is shorter and needs a box to stand on to view the match and the last one is the shortest and needs two boxes to stand on to view the match. In equality, all of them will be given a box to see the match. In equity, the tallest will not be given a box, the second shortest will be given a box and the shortest will be given two boxes so that all of them can view the match.

In the Indian society, the oppressed ‘lower’ castes, like the shortest person in the given example, were not given a chance to develop over several generations. Visionaries realized this as well as the fact that India will only fly if all her people were given wings to fly. Thus, policies were defined to enforce reservations in government jobs and colleges for specific groups. According to the Constitution of India, up to 50% of all the government-run higher education admissions and job vacancies can be reserved for the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes and 10% will be reserved for the people of economically weaker sections. Rest of the seats would not be reserved. This is how equity is being implemented through positive discrimination in India.

Though it is a nudge for many, people find a way to misuse it. A person who belongs to the oppressed class, but already has doors opened for them, should not use reservations. Due to this, as well as the fact that better qualified people might not get opportunities because of positive discrimination, many people in India feel that these reservations should be removed. However, there are many people in our gigantic country who still need these reservations for India to fly.

References:

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirmative_action

Image’s Artist:  Angus Maguire : http://madewithangus.com/portfolio/equality-vs-equity/

Goal Zero

Once upon a time, the weather was cooler, more pleasant. Why is it different now? Back then, we did not produce greenhouse gases. Now we do.

In the atmosphere, there is a required quantity of greenhouse gases (carbon-di-oxide, methane, water-vapour etc). Greenhouse gases trap the Sun’s heat in the atmosphere, making our planet warmer. This “warming” is required. However, due to industrial development, greenhouse gas emissions have increased. A lot. Due to the increase of greenhouse gas emissions, more heat is trapped in the atmosphere, making the Earth very hot. If these emissions continue, Earth will get hotter, making it difficult for humans to survive. This drastic increase in temperature is called “global warming” or “climate change”.

For humans to survive and thrive, we need to get to zero greenhouse gas emission. This is not easy. Everything we do – growing things, making things, going from a place to another – involves greenhouse gas emission. We need to get to ZERO greenhouse gas emission, not near zero.

Imagine a bathtub is getting filled with water. Even if we slowed the water down to a trickle, at SOME point of time, the tub will overflow. The climate is like this bathtub, we need to completely shut off the source of excess heat. We need to get to zero greenhouse gas emission.

After stopping the emissions, we need to remove most of the gases we have already emitted in the past. We need to “open the drain and let the water flow out.”(Reference to the above analogy.)

One of the effects of global warming is the sea level rises. This is because the polar ice caps melt and also because sea water expands when it gets warmer. If this continues, many cities around the world might become legends like Atlantis.

Ice caps keep the Earth cooler. These bright spots reflect the excess heat back into space. The melting of ice caps expose the darker surfaces of land or water, which do not reflect heat like the ice caps do, thus heating the planet.

As I mentioned earlier, getting to our goal is very, very hard. However, for the coming generations to thrive, not just survive, we need to do everything each and every one of us can do to reach Goal Zero. Maybe, you can exchange your ‘plastic use and throw’ spoon for a steel one or use jute and cotton bags instead of plastic or polyethene bags. By 2050, at least the rich countries should reach zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Reference:

HOW TO AVOID A CLIMATE DISATER BY BILL GATES

(The bathtub analogy is mentioned in the above book as well.)

The Night Diary

When India got independence, the vast country was split into two, based on religion: Pakistan and modern India. The celebration of independence was scarred by many deaths. When India was split into two, millions found them on the wrong side of the boundary. Millions had to leave their home and travel to an entire new location! Many families settled down even after encountering things we can’t even imagine! They were RESILIENT, don’t you agree?

I recently read a book, “The Night Diary” by Veera Hiranandani. This book is on a girl called Nisha and her family’s journey during the Partition.

Many of us do not know the horrors of the Partition. This book tells us about them as well as connecting us with a tale of Resilience. I hope you enjoy the book!

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Nisha is a young girl whose mother passed away while giving birth to Nisha and her twin, Amil. Her mother was a Muslim lady while her father is a Hindu. The twins grow up in a large house with their Dadi, their Papa and Kazi, the cook, who is also part of the family. They love their home and would be heartbroken if parted.

One day, when Papa is in hospital, few men break in to their house. They talk in hushed, agitated voices, breaking lamps and misplacing furniture. When they leave, the twins see that Kazi’s head is bleeding. When Papa returns, he stitches the wound and sends the children to bed. After that, Dadi and Papa start home-schooling them. After a second attack like this, Papa announces they will leave Pakistan and travel to Jodhpur, India. Papa decides to go to Rashid uncle, Nisha’s maternal uncle’s house, first since it was half-way through their journey to India. It is no longer safe for them here. When the day of leaving dawns, Papa decides to hide for a day and start of the next day because he heard there are riots going on.

They hide in Kazi’s house and sneak of in the morning to begin their perilous journey. The twins, Papa and Dadi walk about fifteen miles that day and rests in a cave-like rock. The next day, Amil spills a lot of water, so they are nearly out of water. They find a mango orchard and collect some mangoes instead. After that day, Amil starts feeling sick, so they decide to find more water. When they reach a village, they find everyone yelling. A man had stolen water from another man and cut his arm with a knife. Papa stops the bleeding, but the man says there is not enough water for all of them. The next day Papa goes to another village to get water, but when he is gone it starts raining. At this point Amil is really sick so Nisha collects some water and feeds it to him. When Papa comes back, they go to a little house to rest until the rain stops. They cook some rice and lentils. When they reach Rashid Uncle’s house, they are attacked by a Muslim man whose family was killed by Hindus. He wants to take revenge. Papa stops him by telling “An eye for an eye turns the whole world blind.”

 Nisha and Amil are not allowed to have contact with the outside world because Papa is afraid someone might discover them hiding at Rashid Uncle’s house, but they find a friend called Hafa. Hafa becomes their friend because Nisha wants to talk to someone. When Papa and Dadi discover Hafa, they decide to immediately resume their journey.  This upsets Nisha, who decides never to talk again.

They finally reach “new” India where they live in a 1-room flat. She meets another girl in their school who follows her around. Days later, Amil and Nisha see a man who is critically injured. He seems to know them, and they realize it is Kazi! To Kazi, Papa, Dadi, Nisha and Amil are family. They take him home and when Papa returns from the clinic he works in now, he takes care of Kazi and gives Kazi his bed spread to sleep in. Remember the girl in school? She finally asks Nisha her name and when Nisha shakes her head, the girls says it is okay, she did not have to talk. Nisha writes “thank you” and “my name is Nisha” in her notepad. The girl tells Nisha her name is Sumita. Nisha decides she will talk to Sumita, even if it takes a long time.

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I like Nisha the best. She is brave, however quiet she might be, and whoever can make a journey like hers has to be brave. She, Dadi, Amil, Kazi and Papa are RESILIENT which is why they could love their new home even after seeing things which I hope we will never see – riots and people trying to kill each other.

The World Unknown

I want her to go,

down the running stream,

chased by the wind,

past the trees.

Wherever she goes,

I don’t know,

Let her go,

Into the world unknown.

A place where water,

Is all around,

A place where the trees,

Touch the water.

A place where the sun glows,

Soft,

The trees smile,

I want her to go,

Into the world unknown

By Sharanyaa

An Elf Called Sandy

Elves are meant to be discipline and should be good at making toys. This is a story of an elf unlike any elf.

Sandy stood in front of Rudolph the Reindeer’s stable for the seventh time this week. Christmas was nearly there, yet Sandy was standing in front of the stable instead of being in the Elf Workshop. This was because whoever did not work properly (creating disasters instead of masterpieces) was sent to clean Rudolph’s stable.

“Hey Sandy! Back again? You are looking smart as always!” Rudolph greeted Sandy knowing that Sandy was the only elf who could sew up masterpieces: it was a well-known fact that elves could not sew. “Hey Rudolph. I created another disaster.” Sandy sighed. “Elf of Gifts giving you trouble again? Talk to Santa. You elves have direct contact with Santa!” Rudolph suggested. “No Rudolph. Only the Elf of Gifts and the Elf of the Children’s List have contact with Santa. Santa or the Grumpy Old Man decided that.” Sandy collapsed on a heap of ice. “Santa’s not grumpy! He’s like a … grandfather!” Rudolph defended Santa. “And you can sneak in here in Christmas Morning and talk to Santa. Sneak in when Santa’s stabling me!” “Good idea Rudolph. How am I to sneak in?” Sandy’s voice dripped with sarcasm. Rudolph did not notice the sarcasm in Sandy’s voice and said, “Get into trouble, Sandy.” “Holidays start on Christmas eve. I don’t get into trouble in holidays, Rudolph!” Sandy said. “Sandy, you know the Tradition of Christmas. We can give each other gifts! You can make me a Christmas blanket and stuff it in a big box. You won’t be missed on Christmas eve so you can wheel the box in here and hide yourself in it. On Christmas Morning when I return, I will squeak and you can talk to Santa. How’s that?” Rudolph took a deep breath after saying so. “Should work like a charm! I should get started on the blanket though…” Sandy said.

By the morning of Christmas eve, Sandy finished sewing a pretty Christmas blanket for Rudolph. Sandy stuffed it into the biggest gift box he could find. He glanced at the clock and saw there was an hour before Santa went to pick Rudolph.

As he approached the stable, he heard some noises. He knocked on the door and a man with a fluffy white beard, mustache and hair and dressed in red overalls opened the door. Santa Claus was early! “Hello Little One. What are you doing here?” Sandy nervously replied, “Greetings Sire. I want to talk to you about the Elf of Gifts, Frost. When we make mistakes, he punishes us. Long ago, as a punishment he made us polish lenses all night and now he makes us clean Rudolph’s stable as the poop is harmful for us. I believe you will do something about it.” Santa nodded and said, “I will do something about it. But, come with us to distribute some gifts around the globe! Ho-ho-ho!”

That night was the best night in Sandy’s life. For once, the holiday felt like a holiday.

On Christmas Morning, Santa called a Gathering of Elves. It was only called when new elves were appointed for the posts of the Elf of Gifts and the Elf of The Children’s List. Santa announced,

“Hello Friends! I am Santa Claus. Complaints about Frost, the Elf of Gifts have reached me. Thus, I am creating a new post: The Elf of Joy! The elf shall make sure Frost does not abuse elves. The elf will report to me. I hereby declare… Sandy as the Elf of Joy! Friends, enjoy your holiday!”

Sandy smiled. The best holiday in his life had finally arrived.

Picture: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/00/96/8e/00968e1a5ada58eddd934ded475605ef.png

External Math Circle Journal – 15/9/2022

Introduction

On 15^th November 2022, I taught my fifth math circle session. I usually teach Swapnopuran Welfare Society (SWS) students, but today I taught Filix School students. Most of them were smart fourth graders and I had five to seven students to teach. My sessions are usually in Bengali, but this time I taught in English. I hope to meet more students like the ones I met today!

Tools

I used MS PowerPoint to show the questions, took the class on Google Meet and made various diagrams on MS Paint.

Problems… (Easy as well as tricky ones! 😏)

The first problem was fairly simple:

Starting at 1:00 p.m., Jorge watched three movies. The first movie was 2 hours and 20 minutes long. He took a 20-minute break and then watched the second movie, which was 1 hour and 45 minutes long. He again took a 20-minute break and then watched the last movie, which was 2 hours and 10 minutes long. At what time did the final movie end?

• 6:45 p.m. (B) 7:15 p.m. (C) 7:35 p.m. (D) 7:55 p.m. (E) 8:15 p.m.

As you can see, we only need to add! I explained this problem 2 to 3 times. One boy gave the answer 7:55 pm which is correct. He pointed out the timings on the chart given below:

No one had any doubt with the answer – the problem was too easy. However, only the boy who pointed the time answered. This was the least interactive problem.

The second one was a little more tough:

Anna thinks of an integer. – It is not a multiple of three. – It is not a perfect square. – The sum of its digits is a prime number. The integer that Anna is thinking of could be-

• 12 (B) 14 (C) 16 (D) 21 (E) 26

Here is a chart which has all the meanings of square, prime number and integer, I prepared beforehand:

However, the students were so smart that I only explained the chart and the problem once! The boy who aced the last problem, gave me the first answer, however, another boy explained it using deduction and gave the correct answer, 14.

The third problem gives us an example of basic algebra – however our values are restricted!

A positive integer n is a multiple of 7. The square root of n is between 17 and 18 . How many values of n are there?

• 2 (B) 3 (C) 4 (D) 5 (E) 6

Most people did not know how to solve the problem – so we discussed how to start solving: find the limits of n: 17² to 18². Then one of the students suggested we divide 17² by 7 and subtract the remainder from 17². That way, we get the nearest multiple of 7(closest to 17²). After that we started adding 7 to it and got the answer, 5.

The fourth problem was probably the second – easiest. Even though related to area, the students cracked it in two minutes:

In the diagram, the large square has area 49 , the medium square has area 25 , and the small square has area 9. The region inside the small square is shaded. The region between the large and medium squares is shaded. What is the total area of the shaded regions?

• 33 (B) 58 (C) 45 (D) 25 (E) 13

When I finished explaining it for the second time, one student suggested that we could subtract 25 from 49 and add 9, giving the correct answer, (A) 33.

We have already been introduced to algebra. The fifth problem was ridiculously simple, even if in first glance it might, just might look tough:

After I finished explaining a student told, “10 – 1 is 9 and 10 + 1 is 11. So, 7+11+9 is, (D) 27.”

And now for the final question…

This question is simple, but I explained it thrice! Most people conclude that the possible combinations are,

~ Robert Markov, Mark Peterson and Peter Roberts

                                    OR

~Robert Peterson, Mark Roberts and Peter Markov

And the students were no exceptions. Finally, I discussed the problem with a simple diagram which I explained twice:

Experience

I was overwhelmed when I learnt that the fourth graders knew about squares and integers. Frankly, I was not clear about them till the 2021 September. They were a bunch of talented and intelligent children and I would like to teach them again in the future.