Professedly secular vs. conspicuously communal
A quasi-secular ideology remained dominant for much after
independence, but concessions were periodically made in favour of
particular religions
Until the beginning of the 20th Century, India’s war of
independence from foreign rule was fought on the plank of equality of
all faiths and of their followers. The scene changed thereafter and
certain sections of the majority community began projecting their
religion as an inseparable part of the country’s future political
ideology. As a reaction to this, some Muslim leaders began demanding
special arrangements for their community in the nation’s forthcoming
political structure. These competitive aspirations eventually led to the
partition of the country accompanying its independence from British
rule in 1947. During the protracted phase of Constitution-making,
demands were made for the protection of certain religious traditions in
the national charter under preparation, and some of these had to be
accommodated. This gave birth to a peculiar concept of state secularity,
different from how the rest of the world understands it.
No state religion
Adopted
in the third year of independence from foreign rule, the Constitution
of India did not declare any religion to be the state religion or an
otherwise privileged faith tradition. It declared liberty of belief,
faith and worship and equality of status and opportunity to be the basic
ideals of future polity, and non-discrimination on religious grounds to
be one of the people’s Fundamental Rights.
However, it neither erected a
U.S.-type ‘non-establishment’ clause — a ‘wall of separation’ between
state and religion — nor adopted the French doctrine of laïcité
requiring the state to estrange its people from all walks of life. To
put it in concrete terms, the state was not prevented from playing a
role in the affairs of religion, but religion was to have no role
whatsoever to play in state affairs. Twenty-six years later the Preamble
to the Constitution was amended to add the word ‘secular’ to the
prefatory description of the character of the country. It, however, made
no difference, and the concept of secularism remained basically
distinct from its western stereotypes, leaving ample room for the
politicians of tomorrow to play with it as they liked.
A
quasi-secular ideology remained dominant in state affairs for about
half a century after independence, but throughout these years
concessions were periodically made in favour of particular religions.
Towards the end of the 20th Century, the majority community’s
protagonists of a different ideology that they called ‘Hindutva’ — an
ideology which insists on the religio-cultural beliefs and practices of
the majority community being an essential attribute of patriotism,
national culture and social practice — began aspiring to capture
political power. Soon they took over the reins of the nation and their
ideology of ‘cultural nationalism’ remained dominant in the country’s
governance throughout their six-year rule. The professedly secular
political outfits returned to power in 2004 and have ruled the country
for a full decade. There have been severe blows to secularism under both
dispensations — destruction of the Ayodhya mosque in 1992 and the
Gujarat pogrom of 2002 bear testimony to this fact. The difference has
been of a passive tolerance and active support to a gradual decline of
the ideal of state’s secularity and neutrality to religion.
The judiciary and secularism
The
judiciary in India has been generally favouring the ideology of
secularism. A leading case on India’s secular character was decided by
the Supreme Court in 1994. The Court declared that secularism was an
inalienable part of the Constitution and clarified that “secularism is
more than a passive attitude of religious tolerance; it is a positive
concept of equal treatment of all religions… when the State allows
citizens to profess and practise their religions, it does not either
explicitly or impliedly allow them to introduce religion into
non-religious and secular activities of the State” (S.R. Bommai v. Union of India, 1994).
There have, however, been occasional aberrations too, a clear instance
of which was found in the late Justice J.S. Verma’s so-called Hindutva
judgments of 1995. Gravely disturbed by their tenor, his brother judge
K. Ramaswamy hastened to get them referred to a larger Bench for review.
The public outcry against the language used in those rulings, which
seemed to be lending weight to protagonists of political communalism,
forced the learned author to dispel such impressions in a clarifying
decision given in quick succession. He was soon appointed to the Chair
of the National Human Rights Commission, and his policies and
performance there turned into a direction exactly opposite to what his
earlier judgments were made out to be.
Democracy
envisages periodical change of guard, and a time for that has come once
again. The race for taking over the reins of the nation next is
currently on, and is unfortunately fast developing into a tug of war
between professedly secular and conspicuously communal ideologies. The
outcome is anybody’s guess. Neither unbridled political ambitions nor
media speculations will however be decisive. The people of this country
will be the real arbiters of its destiny.
Facebook lets users login to apps anonymously
In an attempt to quell privacy concerns, Facebook has announced that users can
now login to third party apps without sharing their data
In recent years, Facebook has successfully encouraged a growing number of
third-party app makers to allow users to log in with their Facebook identity
rather than by entering an email address or creating a dedicated account.
However, users have become increasingly concerned about these app developers
gaining access to their private information.
Speaking at Facebook's F8 developer conference in San Francisco, a new version of Facebook's log-in
tool, called Anonymous Login would let users control what information they
allow third-party apps to see.
The developers told that the tool would let users feel more comfortable about
logging into apps using Facebook.
"By giving people more power and control, they're going to trust all the apps , and over time use them more. And that's positive for everyone,"
With Anonymous Login, users can login to any app using their Facebook login, and the only information that will be shared is their name and gender.
The revamped login screen will let users select which personal information stored on the social network, such as an email address, birthday or items that they have 'liked' on Facebook, can be accessed by any particular app.
People can decide later if they want to share any additional information, once they understand more about the app.
"The changes Facebook announced today regarding Facebook Login mark a major milestone for trust and transparency between brands and consumers,"
"It's hugely important that brands understand that capturing user data needs to be part of a 'virtual handshake' where the users not only understand what data they are providing but also how their data will be used and what value they will receive in exchange for it."
Facebook also announced a new service that enables advertisers to extend their campaigns beyond Facebook and into other mobile apps.
The Audience Network uses the same targeting available for Facebook ads today, including custom audiences, core audiences and lookalike audiences. It also features the same measurement tools marketers use for their Facebook ads.
"This is really the first time that we're going to help you monetize in a serious way on mobile,"
Facebook generates the bulk of its revenue from ads that appear on its own Web pages and within its own mobile app. By distributing ads across a constellation of independent mobile apps, Facebook effectively expands its advertising space, opening the door to more revenue.
To get access to the extra ad space, ad networks typically share the revenue with their partners. Facebook will share most of the ad revenue with apps makers, as is standard in the industry, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
"By giving people more power and control, they're going to trust all the apps , and over time use them more. And that's positive for everyone,"
With Anonymous Login, users can login to any app using their Facebook login, and the only information that will be shared is their name and gender.
The revamped login screen will let users select which personal information stored on the social network, such as an email address, birthday or items that they have 'liked' on Facebook, can be accessed by any particular app.
People can decide later if they want to share any additional information, once they understand more about the app.
"The changes Facebook announced today regarding Facebook Login mark a major milestone for trust and transparency between brands and consumers,"
"It's hugely important that brands understand that capturing user data needs to be part of a 'virtual handshake' where the users not only understand what data they are providing but also how their data will be used and what value they will receive in exchange for it."
Facebook also announced a new service that enables advertisers to extend their campaigns beyond Facebook and into other mobile apps.
The Audience Network uses the same targeting available for Facebook ads today, including custom audiences, core audiences and lookalike audiences. It also features the same measurement tools marketers use for their Facebook ads.
"This is really the first time that we're going to help you monetize in a serious way on mobile,"
Facebook generates the bulk of its revenue from ads that appear on its own Web pages and within its own mobile app. By distributing ads across a constellation of independent mobile apps, Facebook effectively expands its advertising space, opening the door to more revenue.
To get access to the extra ad space, ad networks typically share the revenue with their partners. Facebook will share most of the ad revenue with apps makers, as is standard in the industry, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Supergiant galaxy hurls entire star cluster out at superspeed
The supergiant galaxy known as M87 has hurled an entire star cluster out at more than three million kilometers per hour. The outcast cluster, made up of thousands of stars, is now doomed to drift through the void between the galaxies for all time.
"Astronomers have found runaway stars before, but this is the first time, found a runaway star cluster,"
The speeding star cluster has been named HVGC-1, the initials standing for hypervelocity globular cluster. Relics of the early universe, such globular clusters usually contain thousands of stars crammed into a ball a few dozen light-years across. The Milky Way galaxy is home to about 150 globular clusters. The giant elliptical galaxy M87, in contrast, holds an estimated 15,000 star clusters.
M87 is a monstrous elliptical galaxy, home of several trillion stars, and at least one supermassive black hole. It weighs as much as 6 trillion Suns, making it one of the most massive galaxies in the nearby universe. It is located about 5.3 million light years away from Earth.
How did HVGC-1 get ejected at such a high speed? Astronomers aren't sure but say that one scenario depends on M87 having a pair of supermassive black holes at its core. The star cluster wandered too close to those black holes. Many of its outer stars were plucked off, but the dense core of the cluster remained intact. The two black holes then acted like a slingshot, flinging the cluster away at tremendous speed.
Having two supermassive black holes at its core must be the result of a long-ago collision between two galaxies, which merged to form a single giant galaxy. The same fate awaits our own Milky Way, which will collide with the Andromeda galaxy in a few billion years to create an ellilptical galaxy that astronomers have dubbed Milkomeda
Beta Pictoris B
Exoplanet Beta Pictoris b was discovered through the use of direct imaging by a team led by Ignas Snellen of Leiden University in the Netherlands. It is a 20-million-year-old planet in the Beta Pictoris star system just 65 light-years from Earth. Beta Pictoris b has some unique qualities including an orbit that is significantly distant from its star estimated to be approximately double the distance from the to Jupiter.
“Beta Pictoris b rotates at 25 kilometers per second at its equator.” This is actually faster than any of the planets in our solar system. It’s 50 times faster than Earth despite the fact that Beta Pictoris b is 3,000 times more massive than Earth as well as 16 times wider. A day there lasts for just eight hours.
“Beta Pictoris b rotates at 25 kilometers per second at its equator.” This is actually faster than any of the planets in our solar system. It’s 50 times faster than Earth despite the fact that Beta Pictoris b is 3,000 times more massive than Earth as well as 16 times wider. A day there lasts for just eight hours.
Beta Pictoris b’s rotation rate by studying how infrared light passes through carbon monoxide in the exoplanet’s atmosphere. As it rotates half of Beta Pictoris b spins towards Earth and the other away from Earth. The light from the far half shifts into longer, redder wavelengths while the light from the near half shifts into shorter, bluer wavelengths.
The shifts in light broaden the absorption line of carbon monoxide within Beta Pictoris b’s light detected here on Earth. The amount of widening allowed the exoplanet’s rotation rate which will reportedly increase as it gets older, cools then shrinks.
Beta Pictoris b’s rate of spin will rise to 40 kilometers per second over hundreds of millions of years. By that time a day on the exoplanet will be only 3 hours long. In our solar system—with the exception of Mercury and Venus—the larger planets spin faster.
It’s theorized that this is due to the fact that bigger planets took on more material as they formed which would make the forming planets move faster. The significance of knowing the rotation rates of comparatively young exoplanets like Beta Pictoris b, will permit researchers to create weather maps of their atmospheres.
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