Monks came forward and saved Buddhism in Sri Lanka in the past while it was driven out from India !!

Nalanda is believed to be the world’s first University and the largest Buddhist one at that. Situated in east of Patna in India it accommodated over 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey in its heyday. Subjects covered included science, astronomy, medicine and chiefly metaphysics and philosophy. Nagarjuna, a Mahayana philosopher and Dharmapala, the Brahmin scholar taught there. Hieun-Tsang, famous Chinese traveller and scholar stayed there. The university library had been the most renowned repository of Buddhist knowledge anywhere and its collection was said to comprise hundreds of thousands of volumes. Do you know what had happened to all that treasure and Buddhism in India after that?

First about what happened to Nalanda University. A Man named Bakhtiar Khilji, a military General of Qutb-ud-din Aybak, Turkic king who ruled a part of India from Delhi ransacked Nalanda and set fire to it in 1193. The university is said have burned for months.

Why do a military General want to desecrate and burn a peaceful and a serene monastery? To answer that question you’ll have understand the religion of the General and his gang who burned it; Islam. You’ll have to understand the mentality of Islamists. And for that you have to download copy of the Koran and read it. To assist you, let me say, over 60% of the Koran is not about Muslims but non-Muslims who their prophet named as unbelievers. Therefore non-Muslims like us have the rights know what Koran tells Muslims about us, unbelievers.

We ought to know that Koran tells Muslims about inferiority of non-Muslims. They must know that Koran compares non-Muslims to vile animals and Allah’s dark plans for their eternal torture. They must know Koran dehumanizes non-Muslims, describing them as “animals” and beasts; like in 98:6, 8:55, 7:166, 7:179 and etc. They must know that Koran tells Muslims not to take Non-Muslims as Friends; like in 58:22, 4:144, 5:51, 3:118 and etc. They must know Koran orders Muslims to fight unbelievers; 9:123 etc. They must know Koran tells Muslims that Allah curse other religions; like 48:28 etc. They must know that Non-Muslims are to be fought until religion is only for Allah; like in 8:39, 2:193 and etc. They must know that Koran says that people of other religions are to be violently punished in this world; like in 9:30, 4:76 and etc. non-Muslims must know that 19% of the Koran is devoted to violent conquest and subjugation of non-Muslim.

Monks at Nalanda never knew any of those Koran teachings. Indeed they may have been concern only about, as this writer says ‘compassion and love’ to others. And monks fled and Buddhism disappeared from India in the face of a crazy attacker.

It is absurd to expect this writer know about historical Muslim fanaticism or what had happened at Nalanda, when he considers all Muslims are peace loving egalitarians like smooth talking Imtiaz Bakir Markar. I am sure writer is clueless what Muslims had done to their own kind in this country. Would he otherwise preach us that all Sri Lankan Muslims are peace lovers?

Let me tell him first that Muslims in Sri Lanka are increasingly being coached under Wahhabis who themselves were indoctrinated in Medina and King Abdul Aziz Universities of Saudi on true Islam meaning Interpreting the Koran correctly. Bin Laden is a true Islamist. I bet the one who set the Boston bomb must be a true Islamist as well.

Whether we like it or not, Wahhabi Islam has become the trend in Sri Lanka for sometime now. We can feel of it more now from the Arab like cultural invasion. Wahhabis despise Sufis and for they think Sufis are not true Islamists.

A Sufi named Abdullah opened a Meditation Centre at Kattankudy in 1996. Wahhabis made an arson attack on the building on May 29 the same year. Abdullah died on Dec 6th 2006. Just nine days later, a Wahhabi mob invaded the Meditation Centre, knocked down the minaret and removed the body of Abdullah’s body and burned it. The houses of 117 Sufis were destroyed by the fire. Many Sufis fled the district, two were injured, and one lost an arm. Peace loving people. It won’t be long before Wahhabis take on Sinhala Buddhists on some pretext.

Now tell us; how do you compare that bit of Muslim act unleashed on a group of the same sect to action against all Muslims by all Buddhist organisations put together, eh? You are making a mountain out a molehole.

We have come to know true characters of candle light vigils. We don’t mind they stand with Wahhabis, only if they know what Wahhabis’s inside is like. Are you telling us that Monks have to be quiet when Mullahs of Wahhabi infested ACJU were roping every Sinhala manufacture to pay them millions and hang Halaal badge on their own produce? What do you mean by “hijacking the ideals of Buddhism”?

You may not know, but whenever there was a threat to the nation, Monks had come forward to tell us the truth and remind of the past and save the nation. That is exactly what BBS is doing now. Find an old book or a pamphlet and learn how Monks in this country saved Buddhism in the past while it was driven out from India.
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Gopa Sabharwal lauds FM's announcement on Nalanda university !!

The vice-chancellor of Nalanda University, Gopa Sabharwal, has welcomed the announcement of Union finance minister P Chidambaram that "the reconstruction of the Nalanda University has gathered momentum and the government is committed to the creation of Nalanda university as a centre of educational excellence." She said the Union finance minister had not announced an outlay for the university in the general budget but his assurance in Parliament has cleared the doubts of critics who had expressed doubts in this regard.

She said that keeping with the spirit of this commitment, it will be "our endeavor to translate this project into reality as soon as possible and develop Nalanda University as a centre of knowledge having a global reach."

 During the recent mentors group meeting at Rajgir, chancellor of the university and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen had stated that the Central government was taking steps to ensure speedy construction of the university, and external affairs minister Salman Khurshid had, during a recent visit to Rajgir, said provision of allocation of fund for the upcoming Nalanda University was underway.

It may be recalled here that the chancellor of the university and the vice chancellor had already announced commencement of teaching in two of the several subjects from the 2014 academic session. "The process for the finalization of the design of the university building is underway and construction would begin soon," the VC said.

Teaching in the two subjects will begin in the temporary building provided to the university by the state government. Chief minister Nitish Kumar has also assured of all possible help in the construction of the university building. He also said the newly-built international convention centre could also be used by the university. Two hundred villages lying in the vicinity of the university will also be developed for imparting knowledge of Indian culture and civilization to foreign students and visitors.
Read more: http://goo.gl/w1fQL

Education scenario changes for better India !!

With a number of reputed educational institutions opening their branches in the city in the last few years, the higher education scenario in the state has got a much needed facelift.

IIT, BIT, NIT, NIFT, NLU and AIIMS, you name it and Bihar has it. The state also boasts of state-level institutions like Chandragupta Institute of Management Patna (CIMP), Aryabhatta Knowledge University (AKU), Central University of Bihar (CUB), Patna, St Xavier's College, Patna, Patna Women's College (PWC), Amity Patna, to name a few that have changed the higher education landscape in Bihar.

 The opening of these institutions has not only checked the migration of students to some extent, but also attracted many students from other states for higher education. "When I was in class XII, I thought of going to Delhi University (DU) for pursuing my Bachelor course. But my parents wanted me to do my graduation here," said Ritika, a IInd year student of PWC, adding, "Though, initially, I was reluctant but now I feel that it's hardly different from DU."

While NIT Patna, the erstwhile Bihar College of Engineering, came into existence in 2004, BIT Patna and Chanakya National Law University (CNLU), Patna, followed the league in 2006 and IIT Patna, CIMP, NIFT Patna in 2008, CUB Patna in 2009, AKU in 2010 and AIIMS Patna in 2012. MBBS studies also started at IGIMS Patna in 2011. And it doesn't stop here. Kishanganj centre of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and CUB at Gaya and Motihari are also underway. The state government has also left no stone unturned to revive the Nalanda University. It will be an international university with Nobel laureate Amartya Sen as its first chancellor.

Registrar of CUB, Patna, M Nehal feels that the stage is set for Bihar to make its mark on the national horizon of education. "Presently, students are still moving out for quality higher education and more institutions are required considering the state's population. But many national colleges and centrally funded institutions are slowly changing the face of Bihar," said Nehal.

CM Nitish Kumar recently announced that the whole Mithapur area would be developed as an education hub and the campus of NIFT, CIMP, AKU and IGNOU regional centre would be shifted to that area.

In fact, these institutions not only provide quality education but also arrange campus recruitments for their students. Many colleges such as IIT Patna, CIMP and NIFT boast of 100% placements with national and international companies making lucrative offers to students.
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Will Nalanda University Be A Success ?

In about early-to-mid 2000s, the Indian government realized that the country’s higher education sector was falling behind both in terms of the required number of higher education institutions for its growing population as well as the quality of education.

The government’s newly-constituted National Knowledge Commission (NKC) noted in its first report (2006) that there was a “quiet crisis in higher education in India which runs deep.” The Commission called for, among other things, setting up 50 National Universities to “provide education of the highest standard,” building more than 1,000 new universities, developing strong linkages between teaching and research, changes in the regulatory structure in higher education, and increases in public spending on higher education.

In a nutshell, two broad sets of challenges in India’s higher education sector have been widely recognized for at least a decade. The first is the urgent need to build thousands of new institutions. Such an expansion has become necessary because of the country’s demographic profile. Approximately half of India’s 1.2 billion people are under 25 years of age. More than five million Indians enter the 15-to-24 age group every year. There are simply not enough colleges and universities to accommodate them.

The second challenge is to upgrade the quality of higher education. As I discussed in a previous editorial, only a few of India’s higher education institutions count as centers of excellence or enjoy world-class status.

On its part, the government appears keen to improve the quality of higher education. Addressing a recent meeting of the vice-chancellors of central universities, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh noted that “in recognition of the fact that expansion without quality improvement serves little purpose, we will now give overriding emphasis on quality.”


Expansion of the higher education sector

As part of its ambitious plans for both expansion and improvement in the quality of higher education, the government has more than doubled the number of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIM), while new central universities are coming up in each state as well as several research centers and institutes.

There seems, however, a lack of clarity behind setting up new institutions. While it is evident that thousands of new institutions are required to increase access to higher education, since so few Indian institutions are world renowned, there is an urgent need to pay attention to developing select older and newer institutions in a manner that they can begin to count as centers of excellence at the international level or even break into world rankings. The government’s actions, however, suggest some kind of compromise between improving access to higher education and developing world-class institutions, which may come about at the expense of the latter.

Take the issue of the location of new higher education institutions. Several new IITs, IIMs, and central universities have come up in locations at some distance from large urban centers.

In theory, there is nothing wrong with building new institutions away from over-crowded cities where a large amount of land is hard to find and is prohibitively expensive. Higher education institutions in less developed areas can also become the drivers of local development. However, once India’s infrastructure deficit is taken into account, even a hundred miles away from large urban centers becomes significant. As Barry Naughton has pointed out, unlike China which has consistently built infrastructure ahead of demand, India builds infrastructure when bottlenecks develop and far too slowly.

Some higher education experts such as Philip Altbach have questioned the wisdom of locating potential “world-class” institutions at remote locations or even in second-tier ‘provincial’ cities. Altbach argues, based on extensive research on higher education institutions around the world (including a co-edited study with Jamil Salmi, The Road to Academic Excellence), that while a lot of ingredients go into the making of a successful university, including resources, autonomy, leadership and good governance, luck, and persistence, it is the quality of faculty which is crucial.

Altbach feels that it is “difficult to lure academics and students to out-of-the-way places” and for that reason, he has been critical of plans to build the highly-publicized Nalanda University at Rajgir in Bihar.


The rebirth of an ancient Buddhist institution

The ancient Nalanda University was a Buddhist institution of international repute which flourished from the fifth to the twelfth century CE. It attracted students from China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Thailand, Turkey and elsewhere to study in a wide range of disciplines such as religion, history, law, linguistics, mathematics, medicine, public health, architecture, sculpture, and astronomy.

The new Nalanda University was first proposed at the Second East Asia Summit in 2007 to bolster regional educational cooperation. In 2010, the Indian government approved it through an act of parliament. According to Nalanda’s Chancellor Amartya Sen, the university will begin admitting students in two schools from 2014.

Altbach has posed tough questions for Nalanda University:

    “Are top students and faculty going to be attracted to rural Bihar? Perhaps, unfortunately, this option is not likely. The best minds want to be in the center of intellectual, cultural, and political life. They want to be able to easily mingle with peers and value easy travel connections… They value amenities, not only good libraries and laboratories, but also art museums and even an array of attractive restaurants and coffeehouses.”

If Altbach is right, Nalanda University will lack what it needs most to become more than a middling Indian university – the best faculty. However, there are reasons to be mildly optimistic about Nalanda University’s future even though it is quite clear that it faces enormous challenges ahead.


Optimism about Nalanda University

First, the university has the full backing of Bihar’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who is widely considered an able administrator and is credited with Bihar’s economic turnaround over the past decade. The challenge for Mr. Kumar (and the Indian government) will be to make Rajgir – which is about 100 kilometers from Patna, the state capital – easily accessible by road, train, and air. However, that may not be enough to attract the best faculty. Despite double-digit rates of economic growth in recent years, Bihar is still one on India’s poorest states. It also does not enjoy a favourable reputation in the country. For at least three decades or more, young women and men have left Bihar for higher education to Delhi and elsewhere and most have not returned. Some of the most prominent Bihari academics and intellectuals do not live in the state. Reversing this brain-drain will not be easy. Indians from other states may be even less enthused about working in Bihar.

Bihar’s many economic and social problems and challenges, according to Mr. Sen, makes it even more necessary to build Nalanda University to offer educational opportunities in “useful arts” (information technology, environmental studies, and management). Just as the ancient Nalanda was a source of economic sustenance and livelihood to the contiguous region, the new Nalanda is expected to forge economic linkages with the immediate neighbourhood.

Second, the new Nalanda University represents a pan-Asian initiative so that a fairly large number of countries including China, Japan, and Singapore are invested in its success. In an email communication with Asian Scientist Magazine, Mr. N. K. Singh, a member of Nalanda National Monitoring Committee (NMC) and the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of the Indian parliament), noted that while “the commitment of the Government of India to fully financing the University provides a measure of financial assurance,” an International Committee headed by Singapore’s former foreign minister, Mr. George Yeo, and an Endowment Committee headed by him would further “harness all possible means of innovative financing and global partnerships to make the University a self sustaining institution.” Already, Mr. Yeo, whom the Indian government honoured with a Padma Bhushan in 2012, has announced that Singapore will design, build and donate a state-of-the-art library at the cost of US$5-7 million to Nalanda University.

There is clearly a regional and international dynamic to the enterprise which may provide the necessary push for Nalanda University to succeed. According to Mr. Singh, “if the present century is an Asian century, Nalanda can foster an intellectual leadership as a symbol of new Asian Renaissance.”

Third, a very high-profile Nalanda National Monitoring Committee (NMC) – which includes Chancellor Amartya Sen, the powerful Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and others – is fully committed to realizing the goal of building a “world-class” university. However, in a country where political and bureaucratic roadblocks routinely frustrate good intentions, uncertainties will remain. It will require extended commitment and cooperation between the government of Bihar, at least two ministries of the government of India – external affairs and human resource development (which is responsible for education) – and several Asian governments to make Nalanda University a success.
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Amartya Sen wants Nalanda University on Unesco heritage list !!

Nobel laureate Professor Amartya Sen today described as “outrageous” not including the Nalanda International University in the Unesco heritage list and urged the world body to mend its “mistake” at the earliest.

“It is really outrageous (not to include Nalanda university in the Unesco heritage list,” Sen, who is chancellor of the varsity, told reporters. He urged the world body to “mend its mistake” and include the historic university in its list of heritage sites.

The International Advisory panel headed by former Singapore External Affairs minister George Iyo of the university is also working on this, he said after a meeting of governing board of the university.

The noble laureate said the central government should also work to help the university get UNESCO heritage list. Member of the university’s international advisory panel and MP, N K Singh “this is injustice with the Nalanda university”.

The union government should take effective steps for this, he said pointing out that senior Congress leader Karan Singh is a representative of the Unesco.

The prestigious university, to be headquartered at Nalanda, will start academic activities from September/October 2014 in two subjects – Historical Studies and Environmental Studies, Sen had said earlier in the day.

Singapore to donate library to Nalanda university !!

Singapore has decided to donate a library to the upcoming Nalanda International University in Bihar.

Singapore will design, build and donate a state-of-the-art library, estimated to cost $5-7 million to the university, former foreign minister of Singapore George Yeo told reporters ahead of a Nalanda Monitoring Committee meeting in Rajgir in Nalanda district, about 100 km from here.

Yeo, who heads the international advisory panel for raising funds for the university, said the board led by Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen that met in Patna Monday approved Singapore's proposal.

"People of Singapore are upbeat and keen on making their contribution to the university project," he said.

Many countries, including Singapore, China, Thailand and Japan, have showed keen interest in helping the university.

The university is set to begin academic activities from the 2013-14 session from rented premises with two subjects -- historical studies and environment and ecological studies.

The university will come up on 446 acres in Rajgir, 10 km from the site of the ancient Nalanda University.

It will be fully residential, like the ancient one, and offer courses in science, philosophy and spiritualism along with social sciences.

The project took shape in 2006 at the initiative of then president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
The ancient university was home to over 10,000 students and nearly 2,000 teachers. It existed till 1197 and attracted students and scholars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia (now Iran) and Turkey.

Eight firms keen to design Nalanda University !!

Eight architectural companies, including six from abroad, have shown interest in designing the upcoming Nalanda University in Bihar, the vice chancellor said on Friday.

"We are happy that eight companies, including two Indian companies, have submitted their proposals for a global competition to finalize the design for the university," Gopa Sabharwal said here.

She said the short-listed firms would be called to make their presentation either this month or next month.The university is set  to come up on 446 acres in Rajgir, 10 km from the site of the ancient university in Nalanda district, southeast of Patna.

The university will be fully residential, like the ancient Nalanda university. It will offer courses in science, philosophy and spiritualism along with social sciences. The project took shape in 2006 at the initiative of then president A P J Abdul Kalam. The ancient university at Nalanda was home to over 10,000 students and nearly 2,000 teachers. It existed until 1197 and attracted students and scholars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia (now Iran) and Turkey.