It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, March 15, 2025
WAR IS ECOCIDE
Ukraine: Wartime Destruction Of Kakhovka Dam Has Long-Term Environmental Consequences
Destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine. Photo Credit: armyinform.com.ua
The deliberate destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine during the Russo-Ukrainian war unleashed a hidden environmental crisis, destroying ecosystems and releasing polluted sediments into downstream water systems, according to a new study.
The findings provide critical new insights into the prolonged ecological risks of strategic dam destruction during warfare and the effects that may persist for years beyond war.
“Our work highlights the far-reaching environmental consequences of the [Kakhovka Dam] destruction and raises concerns not only about the use of water as a weapon, but also about risks posed by aging dams around the world,” write the authors.
Dams are critical pieces of modern water infrastructure, supporting agriculture, energy production, and water supply. While the likelihood of structural failure is relatively low, aging infrastructure and the growing impacts of climate change have raised concerns about their stability.
However, an often-overlooked risk factor is human conflict, as the deliberate destruction of dams – despite being prohibited under the Geneva Conventions – has increasingly been used as a weapon of war through intentional destruction, amplifying both humanitarian and environmental crises.
A recent example of this was the military destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine in June 2023. The collapse not only caused catastrophic flooding but also released pollutants trapped in reservoir sediments. While the economic and societal impacts of the destruction have been discussed, the long-term environmental effects and their human hazards remain poorly understood.
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Combining field surveys, remote sensing data, and hydrodynamic modeling, Oleksandra Shumilova and colleagues assessed the human hazards resulting from the Kakhovka Dam collapse and predicted ecosystem recovery trends following the disaster.
According to the findings, the dam’s destruction resulted in substantial erosion, soil loss, and vegetation uprooting, driving extensive habitat destruction. Perhaps more concerning, the rapid draining of the reservoir triggered a “toxic time-bomb,” releasing as much as 1.7 cubic kilometers of sediments contaminated by a host of pollutants, including heavy metals, nitrogen, and phosphorous. Given their persistent nature, these pollutants will pose severe long-term ecological and human health risks across the affected area.
Shumilova et al. predict that within five years, 80% of the ecosystem functions lost due to the dam’s presence will be restored and that biodiversity in the floodplain is likely to recover significantly within two years. However, while heavy metal contamination can be mitigated through bioremediation (i.e. using plants to absorb pollutants), the persistent pollutants will remain a major concern.
Eurasia Review is an independent Journal that provides a venue for analysts and experts to disseminate content on a wide-range of subjects that are often overlooked or under-represented by Western dominated media.
Caspian Sea’s Declining Water Levels Threaten Both Russia’s North-South Project And China’s Belt-One Road Plan – OpEd
NASA image shows shrinking coastline of the Caspian Sea. Photo Credit: NASA
Declining water levels in the Caspian are reducing the amount of cargo ships on that body of water can carry and threatening Kazakhstan’s participation in both Russia’s North-South corridor and China’s One Belt-One Road project, both of which rely on shipping there, according to experts in the region.
Experts from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are reporting that declining water levels on the Caspian have reduced the amount of cargo ships using that body of water can carry by 20 percent or more and restricting the capacity or even forcing the closure of some of their ports (casp-geo.ru/snizhenie-urovnya-kaspiya-negativno-vliyaet-na-paromnye-perevozki/).
And the developments have led Natalya Butyrina, a Kaspiisky Vestnik commentator, to conclude that Kazakhstan, which has been hit the hardest by the decline in Caspian water levels — portions of its coastline have receded more than 50 km in recent times — may have to pull out of both Russia’s and China’s corridor projects.
In that event, both Moscow and Beijing would have to turn to the region’s railways and highway networks, neither of which currently carry the amount of cargo each hopes for and both of which would require years and perhaps decades to expand to the point where they could.
Consequently, if the water level of the Caspian does continue to fall — and that appears to be the most likely course of events (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/09/russian-experts-concede-caspian-water.html)) — these two major projects will be in trouble, restricted not by the actions of other countries but by the drying up of a sea few had ever thought possible until very recently.
Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. Most recently, he was director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. Earlier, he served as vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn and a senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia. He has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mr. Goble maintains the Window on Eurasia blog and can be contacted directly at paul.goble@gmail.com .
Of Sap And Soil: Gandhi, Guru, And The Meaning Of Equality – OpEd
AI-generated image of Mahatma Gandhi in conversation with Sree Narayana Guru. Photo Credit: Grok
The centenary of Mahatma Gandhi’s visit to the Sivagiri Mutt in Kerala on 12 March 1925 invites more than formal remembrance. It offers an occasion to pause and reflect on what that encounter represented—a moment where political activism and spiritual reform met in a common pursuit of justice. At stake was not merely a meeting of two figures, but a conversation that probed the deeper structures of inequality—caste above all—and their place in the unfinished project of freedom.
Sivagiri, located in the erstwhile Travancore region of Kerala, had grown into a vibrant centre of moral and social renewal under the guidance of Sree Narayana Guru. Gandhi’s visit was not incidental; it reflected a deeper engagement with the fundamental question of caste and its corrosive hold on Indian society. Though he had long spoken against untouchability, Gandhi’s approach to caste reform remained anchored within the framework of varnashrama dharma. The Guru, in contrast, had already charted a different course—rejecting caste not as a distorted practice, but as an unjust and unscientific institution that must be discarded altogether.
The meeting came at a time of ferment and rethinking. Just a few years earlier, the Malabar Rebellion of 1921 had erupted—an event Gandhi publicly disapproved of—while popular movements such as the Vaikom Satyagraha were beginning to reshape public discourse. What began as a campaign for the right of oppressed castes to walk on the roads surrounding a temple soon drew national attention. Gandhi’s involvement lent the movement moral weight, but the deeper questions it raised—of access, dignity, and equality—could not be addressed by symbolism alone. They required an ethical reordering of society.
It was during this second visit to Kerala, amid the rising tide of caste reform movements, that Gandhi travelled to Sivagiri to meet the Guru. The preparations for the meeting were modest yet deliberate. A building donated by the Guru’s disciple, M.K. Govindadas, was named the ‘Gandhi Ashram.’ White sand was laid along the path, and seats draped in Khadi awaited the visitors. Gandhi arrived at three in the afternoon, accompanied by C. Rajagopalachari, E.V. Ramaswami Naicker (later Periyar), Ramdas Gandhi, and Mahadev Desai. The Guru, known for his quiet dignity, received Gandhi in person—a gesture of mutual regard that set the tone for their conversation.
Language differences required advocate N. Kumaran to mediate, but the dialogue quickly found its depth. Gandhi asked pointedly: do Hindu scriptures justify untouchability? The Guru’s reply was unequivocal—“No.” With that clarity, the discussion moved to the aims and methods of caste reform. The Guru voiced his support for the Vaikom Satyagraha and saw no need for its course to be altered. In his view, real emancipation would come not through symbolic gestures like inter-caste dining or marriage, but through education and economic self-reliance—through building capacities rather than performing rituals of inclusion.
Their conversation also turned to the ethical limits of resistance. Gandhi raised the question of whether violence had any place in the struggle for justice. The Guru, drawing from scripture but anchored in reason, responded that while violence might be condoned for kings in the Puranas, it held no place for ordinary people seeking moral transformation. His principled commitment to non-violence reflected Gandhi’s own convictions.
On the sensitive issue of religious conversion, the Guru’s perspective was both practical and idealistic. He acknowledged that many sought dignity and freedom through conversion, but remained firm in his belief that a reformed Hinduism could offer spiritual liberation. Gandhi, who shared similar concerns about the implications of mass conversion, found in the Guru a companion in moral nicety.
But it was perhaps in their exchange on the caste order itself that the divergence between them became most apparent. When Gandhi compared caste distinctions to the natural variation in leaf sizes on the same tree, the Guru replied with a quiet yet piercing analogy: while leaves may differ in size, all are nourished by the same sap. It was a metaphor of striking simplicity and philosophical depth—a reminder that spiritual equality is the foundation upon which any just society must rest. It is said that this insight prompted Gandhi to reconsider some of his own assumptions about varnashrama.
What Gandhi witnessed during his stay at Sivagiri gave further substance to their dialogue. At the Vaidika Mutt, he saw children from oppressed communities studying, praying, and reciting Sanskrit texts alongside others. The recitation of the Daivadashakam, a universal prayer composed by the Guru, moved him deeply. The sight of Pulaya and Pariah students engaged in learning and spiritual practice stood as a quiet yet powerful rebuke to caste-based exclusion.
The following morning, the Guru visited Gandhi again. Later, Gandhi returned to the Sharadha Madhom, where he spoke admiringly of its spiritual discipline and inclusive spirit. In his public address, he reiterated his support for the Vaikom movement and urged people to adopt spinning and weaving as tools of economic self-reliance. He also referred to the silent encouragement he had received from the Regent Empress Sethulakshmibai. Yet he made it clear: lasting reform cannot be handed down from above—it must rise from the moral will of the people.
The differences between Gandhi and the Guru were not merely tactical; they reflected distinct visions of social transformation. While Gandhi worked within inherited frameworks, seeking gradual reform, the Guru questioned the very foundations of caste and hierarchy. He spoke of caste as an institution that dulled intelligence, stifled imagination, and turned work into mechanical repetition. His emphasis on dignity, freedom, and inner worth was not framed in slogans, but in a deeper philosophical critique of social order.
This divergence was echoed in his dialogues with disciples, where he challenged the logic of hereditary occupations and argued that one’s work should be shaped by aptitude, not ancestry. His belief in individual freedom and spiritual equality offered a sharp contrast to Gandhi’s more cautious path of reform. If Gandhi sought to humanise the system, the Guru sought to transcend it.
And yet, their meeting remains an living example of ethical dialogue—of how difference need not preclude solidarity. It was a conversation across traditions, but anchored in shared values: non-violence, justice, human dignity. A century later, the moral resonance of that moment has not faded. It continues to speak to us—not as a relic, but as a reminder of what it means to struggle for a society where equality is lived, not merely proclaimed.
To mark this centenary meaningfully is to reflect on the unfinished work of that dialogue. Has its spirit shaped our social conscience, or has it been confined to the rituals of remembrance? For all the constitutional provisions, legal reforms, and civil society efforts, caste still governs access, mobility, and power—even in Kerala, often held up as a model of reform. The legacy of that encounter compels us to look beyond commemorative gestures and ask deeper questions about the structures that remain intact.
Justice, as the Gandhi–Guru meeting reminds us, is not a milestone but a movement—an ongoing, often uncomfortable reckoning with the realities of inequality. True freedom cannot be measured merely by political independence; it must be rooted in the dismantling of the social and moral hierarchies that continue to divide us.
In an age still marked by caste exclusion and religious polarisation, the ethical charge of that meeting remains. It calls for renewed engagement, moral clarity, and the courage to imagine a world where dignity is not granted as privilege, but upheld as a shared condition of life. As Gandhi would later say, “I feel it the greatest privilege of my life to have had the darshan of the venerable Sree Narayana Guru.” The greater privilege now lies in carrying forward that spirit—in thought, in action, and in the pursuit of a justice that touches all lives.
K.M. Seethi is Director, Inter University Centre for Social Science Research and Extension (IUCSSRE), Mahatma Gandhi University (MGU), Kerala. He also served as ICSSR Senior Fellow, Senior Professor of International Relations and Dean of Social Sciences at MGU.
Swami Bharati Krishna Tirtha Ji: The Father Of Vedic Mathematics And His Enduring Legacy – OpEd
Jagadguru Shankaracharya Swami Bharati Krishna Tirtha Ji was a distinguished Indian scholar, spiritual leader, and mathematician who lived from 1884 to 1960. Renowned for his exceptional intellect and spiritual insight, Bharati Krishna Ji is most celebrated for reconstructing the ancient system of Vedic Mathematics. His pioneering work revolutionized arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, and geometry, significantly enhancing the teaching of mathematics worldwide. However, his greatest passion lay in serving humanity and promoting peace and spiritual renewal.
Early Life and Academic Excellence
Bharati Krishna Tirtha Ji was born on March 14, 1884, in Tamil Nadu as Venkataraman Shastri. He belonged to a well-educated Tamil Brahmin family. His father, P. Narasimha Shastri, was a tehsildar and later a Deputy Collector, while his uncle was a college principal, and his great-grandfather served as a High Court judge. This intellectual lineage played a pivotal role in shaping Bharati Krishna Ji’s academic brilliance.
From an early age, Bharati Krishna Ji excelled in academics, consistently securing the highest honors in all his subjects. By the age of 20, he had remarkably earned Master’s degrees in seven subjects: Mathematics, Science, History, Philosophy, English, Sanskrit, and Economics. This extraordinary achievement stands as a record of academic brilliance even today. In 1908, he became the first Principal of the newly established National College in Rajahmundry, a position he held for three years before dedicating himself fully to spiritual pursuits.
Spiritual Journey and Enlightenment
Driven by an intense desire for spiritual knowledge and self-realization, Bharati Krishna Ji embarked on a rigorous spiritual journey. He spent several years in deep meditation and scriptural study under the guidance of Jagadguru Shankaracharya Swami Satchidananda Shivabhinava Narasimha Bharati at Sringeri Math in Mysore. In 1919, after years of dedicated spiritual practice, he was initiated into sannyasa in Benares by Jagadguru Shankaracharya Swami Trivikrama Tirtha of Dwarka Peeth, assuming the name Swami Bharati Krishna Tirtha.
In 1925, he was appointed as the Shankaracharya of Govardhan Math in Puri, where he served for 35 years until his demise in 1960. Throughout this period, Bharati Krishna Ji dedicated himself to spreading Vedanta philosophy, Vedic wisdom, and mathematical insights, both within India and across the world. He tirelessly engaged in discourses, lectures, and spiritual guidance, earning immense respect for his wisdom and compassion.
Rediscovery of Vedic Mathematics
Bharati Krishna Ji’s most notable contribution was the reconstruction of Vedic Mathematics from ancient Sanskrit texts. While other scholars had dismissed these texts as nonsensical, Bharati Krishna Ji decoded their true significance, revealing a sophisticated system of mathematical techniques rooted in 16 Sutras (formulas) and 13 Sub-Sutras.
His groundbreaking work demonstrated that these Sutras simplify complex mathematical problems, offering quick and intuitive methods for arithmetic operations, algebraic identities, and geometric calculations. Bharati Krishna Ji’s Vedic Mathematics techniques offer a unified approach, unlike conventional methods that often rely on fragmented rules.
Unfortunately, Bharati Krishna Ji’s original 16-volume manuscript explaining each Sutra in detail was tragically lost. Despite his efforts to rewrite them from memory, ill-health and deteriorating eyesight prevented him from completing this task. However, with the help of an amanuensis, he managed to publish his introductory text Vedic Mathematics in 1965, which became his sole surviving work on mathematics.
Key Sutras in Vedic Mathematics
Some of the prominent Sutras from Bharati Krishna Ji’s system include:
Ekadhikena Purvena (By One More than the Previous One): A technique for squaring numbers ending in 5.
Nikhilam Navatashcaramam Dashatah (All from Nine and the Last from Ten): A method for simplified multiplication and subtraction.
Urdhva-Tiryagbhyam (Vertically and Crosswise): A universal multiplication method applicable to large numbers.
These methods enable faster mental calculations and are particularly useful for students preparing for competitive exams.
Global Impact and Achievements
In 1958, Bharati Krishna Ji toured America, delivering lectures in hundreds of universities, colleges, and churches under the invitation of the Self-Realization Fellowship. During this tour, he introduced Vedic Mathematics to Western audiences, demonstrating its practical applications and remarkable simplicity. He also appeared on television programs in the United States, further promoting his mathematical techniques. While returning to India in May 1958, he also gave lectures in the UK, inspiring mathematicians and educators alike.
Despite his intense spiritual and mathematical engagements, Bharati Krishna Ji’s primary mission was to uplift humanity. He established the Sri Vishwa Punarnirmana Sangha in Nagpur in 1953, a foundation dedicated to promoting spiritual and cultural harmony. Even during periods of ill health and physical exhaustion, Bharati Krishna Ji continued to guide seekers and provide selfless service to those in need.
Influence on Modern Education
The publication of Vedic Mathematics in 1965 revolutionized mathematical learning by simplifying conventional methods. Its popularity has since grown worldwide, with educational institutions integrating Vedic Mathematics into their curricula. The system’s intuitive approach enhances mental agility, making mathematics enjoyable and accessible to learners of all ages.
Schools in India and abroad continue to adopt Bharati Krishna Ji’s methods to improve students’ mathematical skills, particularly in fast-paced competitive exam environments. His techniques foster clarity, confidence, and creativity in problem-solving.
Conclusion
Swami Bharati Krishna Tirtha Ji’s life was a blend of academic brilliance, spiritual wisdom, and social service. His reconstruction of Vedic Mathematics not only revolutionized the field of mathematics but also revived India’s ancient intellectual legacy. As a revered spiritual leader and mathematician, Bharati Krishna Ji’s remarkable achievements continue to inspire educators, mathematicians, and seekers of truth worldwide. His commitment to promoting peace, knowledge, and cultural unity leaves behind a lasting legacy that continues to shape the world today.
