Black bucks and Bishnois

  THE Bishnoi Samaj of Rajasthan is in the news following the arrest of film star Salman Khan and others on charges of killing two black bucks and a chinkara in Guda Bishnoiyon in Jodhpur district of Rajasthan.

The Bishnois believe in the sanctity of God’s creatures. Their faith prohibits the killing of animals. Their beliefs are deeply rooted in the religious teachings of their Guru, Sai Sri Jambeshwar. Talk to an average Bishnoi about the black buck. He will promptly say “Kalo hiran to hamaro babo se” (black buck is our sacred animal).

Sri Jambeshwar distilled his ideas into 29 percepts for his followers from which the term “Bishnoi” comes. “Bis” means 20 and “noi” means nine. The Guru preached 29 points of morality, including the protection of nature and wildlife. When certain areas in Rajasthan experienced drought in 1476, and trees and wildlife were ruthlessly destroyed, the Guru asked his followers to cut no living tree and kill no animal. Special protection was given to the black buck which was hunted by princes and maharajas. In 1730 the Maharaja of Jodhpur ordered his officials to bring timber from a Bishnoi area. When the local Bishnois came to know of it, they hugged the (khejri tree) trees to save these from axemen, and over 360 of them mostly women and children, were hacked to death. A fair is held every year in memory of the martyrs.

The black buck is a threatened animal. It is facing extinction in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan. It is also included in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, as an endangered species.

Despite the ruthless killing and hunting by erstwhile princes and professional hunters, the black buck has survived to this day. It has been saved mainly because of the involvement of the Bishnoi community in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab where it is held sacred. Punjab and Haryana have declared the black buck as their state animal.

The black buck population in India is about 48,000. About 90 per cent of it is in the Bishnoi areas in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab. In Haryana, the number is 4,193 (1993) spread in 10 districts. Half of the black buck population can be found in Hisar district alone.

Punjab has only one protected pocket covering an area of 13 villages in Abohar tehsil (Ferozepore), adjoining Sriganganagar district of Rajasthan. There are about 4,000 (1993) black bucks, as compared to 3,500 recorded in 1988. All these villages are inhabited by Bishnois.

S. K. SHARMA
Environment Society,
Chandigarh

* * * *

Honesty & happiness

Dr Avtar Narain Chopra in his letter “Corruption menace” (Oct 10) has raised an important public issue: “How can the honest people remain happy...”

In my view, the answer is not far to seek. Life is so arranged that morality and happiness go hand in hand. In the words of Schopenhauer, “It is hard to make people believe in the value of morality until they get their fingers burnt”. The ultimate foundation of morality is that immorality doesn’t work, it doesn’t pay off. An honest man’s happiness depends upon his own righteousness and not on the misdeeds of corrupt persons. If it were so, he would not be a self-master but an obedient slave to them who could at their will order him — “Be sad”, “Get upset”, “Feel unhappy”. Luckily, it is not so.

A corrupt person not only loses respect among others but also in his own innerself. Having lost his inner sacredness, he feels himself inferior to men of character. His trying to show off is nothing but a mask worn to conceal his inferiority. It may be worthwhile to mention here that superiority and inferiority complexes are the two sides of the same false coin.

A corrupt person who tries to stifle his inner voice by justifying his unjustifiable action by wrong arguments not only deceives others but also himself. He can never prosper in life as purity, peace and prosperity come in the order of merit. Peace of mind, which is the foundation on which the mansion of true happiness and prosperity can be erected, at least for him, is out of question!

A. K. SURI
Chandigarh

* * * *

Harassed air-travellers

My niece and her husband travelled to Vancouver (Canada) on 19.9.98 by Singapore Airlines from IGI Airport, New Delhi. They had all the valid documents and the visa for Canada. However, immigration officials at IGI Airport harassed them and put them to mental torture. They were compelled to pay $20 and then only allowed to go.

On 20.8.98, myself and my wife travelled to Nairobi by Emirate Airlines. At IGIA, New Delhi, three young men who were leaving for Tanzania for the first time narrated their stories to us. They said that they had to pay Rs 400 each to get the passport stamped, otherwise they were threatened that they would not be allowed to embark.

There are numerous such complaints of harassment and mental torture by immigration officials at IGIA, New Delhi. I have visited many countries but have never come across such harassment at the hands of officials.

Only God knows when we will get rid of such harassment by officials in India.

H. B. SINGH
Jalandhar

* * * *

Why not Ministry of Humour?

One of the recently published middles, “Gandhian humour”, by Mr I.M. Soni was highly readable. Indeed, the philosophy of humour is best provided by Gandhiji. When asked what had sustained him in moments of crisis, he had simply replied, “My sense of humour”.

Lenin felt that humour was necessary even in a communist country. Once when asked how precious liberty was, he had answered, “Liberty is so very precious that it has to be rationed”!

Even Lincoln considered humour as an indispensable factor in a free society.

What we need today is a kind of humour that is direct and spontaneous to shake us out of our lethargic, inactive and dull lives. In ancient and medieval India, there were court jesters to break the monotony of the dull routine. Akbar had Birbal. Do we need a Ministry of Humour?

ROSHNI JOHAR
Shimla

* * * *

Medical institutions

It was very disheartening to read about the helplessness of certain premier medical institutions for not responding in time for the noble cause of “eye donation” (Refer Mr Sushil Kansal’s letter, Oct 15).

It is very unfortunate that the Eye Department of a reputed institute like the PGI of Chandigarh could not act in time in spite of being contacted by relatives of a donor.

On the one hand the government and various NGOs are propagating the eye donations movement through the media and other means, on the other this type of carelessness on the part of government hospitals defeats the very purpose of the efforts of the NGOs.

It is high time government hospitals took stock of the situation and arranged emergency teams to come forward for this noble cause.

SANJAY KHURANA
Chandigarh

* * * *

Three cheers, Prof Sen

It is heartening to know that one more Indian, Prof Amartya Sen, has been selected for the 1998 Nobel Prize for Economics. He is the sixth Indian to have won this honour of the highest order after Rabindranath Tagore, C.V. Raman, S. Chandrashekhar, Hargobind Khorana and Mother Teresa.

It is the first occasion that an Asian has got this prize for economics. Another feather to his cap is that he is the first economist belonging to a developing country to bag this coveted award for his contribution to welfare economics and for the application of his theoretical approach in enhancing the understanding of the economic mechanisms underlying famines.

Professor Sen’s work has established that it is the social factors that determine whether a famine will occur in spite of high food availability.

He has also worked on the malnourishment of Indian women of certain regions.

All Indians feel elated at his recognition.

Three cheers, Professor Sen.

RAJESH MINHAS
Chandigarh