I’ve often wondered at the temerarious nature of the politicians, especially in India, to go around renaming buildings, streets, towns or name this or that as a national this or that. Don’t get me wrong. There are some instances where it makes sense to declare a particular object as ‘national’. An object that is then believed as belonging to or symbolises the essence of a nation and which in turn evokes feelings in that particular group of people enabling them to work together to better themselves.
Thus a National Flag, a National Monument, a National Anthem and the likes are essential and good. Declaring an animal or plant species as the national animal or flower or fruit is one way of attempts at protecting an endangered species.
The Indira Gandhi inspired declaration of the Tiger as National Animal in 1973 is the only reason we still have between 3,000 to 5,000 wild tigers still left in India.
BTW if you wonder ‘When was Tiger declared as the National Animal of India’, you’d have a tough time finding it out - even in this internet age. If you thought that the GoI’s information website, ‘Know India’ would provide you with that information, you need to get your head examined - just have a look at the National Animal, National Bird or National Flower webpages at (http://india.gov.in/india-glance/national-symbols).
In case you visit those webpages, please do me, yourself and India a favour - put in a short, sensible critique in the feedback form, just as I did. Perhaps it would work, if someone high enough notices it.
Maybe not, as ‘the eyes have it, they eyes have it’ haven’t had the required effect of redesigning the MPLADS website.
To get the information 'when' the Tiger was declared as the National Animal of India,you have to go to Zoogoer - a Smithsonian Zoo publication/website (Seidensticker, J. 1998. Saving the tiger. ZooGoer 27(2):6-16) [Online link missing (July 2013) seems Smithsonian have stopped public access to archives older than 2002].
Perhaps the GoI thinks that information like ‘when, who or by what’ of declarations like national animal, bird, flower or such, needs to be obtained only under the Right To Information (RTI) Act.
Thus it was disconcerting when a totally absurd declaration was made by a totally unconnected, and unconcerned bureaucrat Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the so called Rasputin of India, that Tea would be made the National Drink of India. I don’t know whether he, Montek, had had a drink or a few, but he must have thought that he was flying.
If that was not offensive to the Coffee drinkers in the South or the traditional desi Milk and Lassi drinkers everywhere, it seems to have offended someone higher. A Glasgow University research team has discovered that Male Tea drinkers are at greater risk of prostate Cancer (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-18494725). Though the researchers have couched the findings with the usual ‘more research needed’ facade, 37 years of observation must count for something.
If there is even a minimal chance that drinking Tea gives people Cancer, should we follow the idiotic pronouncements of Montek Singh and rush in to declare the potentially Cancer giving Tea as India’s National drink?
It is a hilarious idea to take ‘one’ birth anniversary out of the blue and attempt to declare the Tea which gives people Cancer, as the national drink. The idiotic uttering by Montek Singh revealed that he plans to declare Tea as the national drink to coincide with the 212th birth anniversary of Maniram Dewan.
Now I have no quarrel with, the birth date of, or the participation and the leadership of Maniram Dewan in the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, but I certainly have a quarrel with the attempt to portray the Tea Plantations in India as 212 years old.
The first tea plantations in Assam, the home state of Maniram Dewan, are certainly less than 175 years old. If you doubt me, read the Heritage page of the Assam Company of India, the first Tea plantation in Assam, established by the Royal Charter [http://www.assamco.com/teaplantation.html or http://www.assamco.com/heritage.html]. (As usual you wouldn’t find such trivia in any GoI website - you’ve to grovel or Google for it).
update (July 2013) : For the record that Assamco page states the first company was formed in 1839, which puts Tea planting in India at around 173 years. Even if we allow 3 years for plant growth (for harvest in 1839), that takes the age of Tea in India to 176 years.
Let us get to the interesting part. Almost 100 years of that 175 year period was under colonial rule. Even if Indians wanted to or not to, grow or imbibe tea or anything else, they didn’t have the freedom to do so.
Which leaves us with about 75 years of free speech in India and a deepening interest in science, research, knowledge and understanding everywhere. The Glasgow University study has been on-going for 37 of those 75 years or roughly half the time.
The result of the study reveals that potentially Tea can cause Cancer in half of its consumers - the male half.
And we rush in to declare Tea as the national drink.
Heck of a job Monty Boy!
Thus a National Flag, a National Monument, a National Anthem and the likes are essential and good. Declaring an animal or plant species as the national animal or flower or fruit is one way of attempts at protecting an endangered species.
The Indira Gandhi inspired declaration of the Tiger as National Animal in 1973 is the only reason we still have between 3,000 to 5,000 wild tigers still left in India.
BTW if you wonder ‘When was Tiger declared as the National Animal of India’, you’d have a tough time finding it out - even in this internet age. If you thought that the GoI’s information website, ‘Know India’ would provide you with that information, you need to get your head examined - just have a look at the National Animal, National Bird or National Flower webpages at (http://india.gov.in/india-glance/national-symbols).
In case you visit those webpages, please do me, yourself and India a favour - put in a short, sensible critique in the feedback form, just as I did. Perhaps it would work, if someone high enough notices it.
Maybe not, as ‘the eyes have it, they eyes have it’ haven’t had the required effect of redesigning the MPLADS website.
To get the information 'when' the Tiger was declared as the National Animal of India,
Perhaps the GoI thinks that information like ‘when, who or by what’ of declarations like national animal, bird, flower or such, needs to be obtained only under the Right To Information (RTI) Act.
Thus it was disconcerting when a totally absurd declaration was made by a totally unconnected, and unconcerned bureaucrat Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the so called Rasputin of India, that Tea would be made the National Drink of India. I don’t know whether he, Montek, had had a drink or a few, but he must have thought that he was flying.
If that was not offensive to the Coffee drinkers in the South or the traditional desi Milk and Lassi drinkers everywhere, it seems to have offended someone higher. A Glasgow University research team has discovered that Male Tea drinkers are at greater risk of prostate Cancer (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-18494725). Though the researchers have couched the findings with the usual ‘more research needed’ facade, 37 years of observation must count for something.
If there is even a minimal chance that drinking Tea gives people Cancer, should we follow the idiotic pronouncements of Montek Singh and rush in to declare the potentially Cancer giving Tea as India’s National drink?
It is a hilarious idea to take ‘one’ birth anniversary out of the blue and attempt to declare the Tea which gives people Cancer, as the national drink. The idiotic uttering by Montek Singh revealed that he plans to declare Tea as the national drink to coincide with the 212th birth anniversary of Maniram Dewan.
Now I have no quarrel with, the birth date of, or the participation and the leadership of Maniram Dewan in the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, but I certainly have a quarrel with the attempt to portray the Tea Plantations in India as 212 years old.
The first tea plantations in Assam, the home state of Maniram Dewan, are certainly less than 175 years old. If you doubt me, read the Heritage page of the Assam Company of India, the first Tea plantation in Assam, established by the Royal Charter [http://www.assamco.com/teaplantation.html or http://www.assamco.com/heritage.html]. (As usual you wouldn’t find such trivia in any GoI website - you’ve to grovel or Google for it).
update (July 2013) : For the record that Assamco page states the first company was formed in 1839, which puts Tea planting in India at around 173 years. Even if we allow 3 years for plant growth (for harvest in 1839), that takes the age of Tea in India to 176 years.
Let us get to the interesting part. Almost 100 years of that 175 year period was under colonial rule. Even if Indians wanted to or not to, grow or imbibe tea or anything else, they didn’t have the freedom to do so.
Which leaves us with about 75 years of free speech in India and a deepening interest in science, research, knowledge and understanding everywhere. The Glasgow University study has been on-going for 37 of those 75 years or roughly half the time.
The result of the study reveals that potentially Tea can cause Cancer in half of its consumers - the male half.
And we rush in to declare Tea as the national drink.
Heck of a job Monty Boy!
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