I have often written that what India needs is not more "godmen" (nor godwomen) but more sanitary engineers. Sanitary engineers, including those bound by caste to cleaning out public latrines by hand, are the true saints of India whereas the religionists are little more than parasites causing all sorts of problems whilst performing little to no actual purpose of practical benefit.
Why? Because the sanitary toilet has saved more human lives than any other human invention ... and nearly 47% of India's 247 million households have lavatories leaving 50% of Indians to defecate in the open. A figure which rises to over 75% in Jharkhand, Orissa and Bihar.
Why do the BKs not care about such stuff ... apart from believing Destruction will come along and kill everyone off?
Well, the reason might be their roots ... an interesting footnote in a story of one of Lekhraj Kirpalani's peers and the rescue of a wealthy Sindhi Hindu family’s heritage home in Hyderabad.
Quote unquote ... "the only house in Hyderabad with a toilet in 1945".
Just where the Om Mandli, established 1932, dropped their poop ... or who cleaned it up for them before we came along ... remains a mystery to this day.
Presumably it was the job of the little princesses' servants? Does anyone remember any Gandhi-esque stories of latrine cleaning? Answers please ...
On a more serious note, the second photograph is taken during the 1945 All India Women's Conference which was first established in 1927 "as an organization dedicated to upliftment and betterment of women and children" suggesting that efforts to uplift the women in India were not as backward or as unique to them as they like to portray.
Unlike the Brahma Kumaris, the AIWC is a genuine NGO dedicated to social upliftment of the poor and vulnerable rather than the social climbing of the previous wealthy as the BKs were. For example, in 1941 under the female Presidentship of Vijayalakshmi Pandit, it started the scheme of Training Camps where women organisers were given instruction in thirty subjects necessary in reconstruction and organizing work for the masses and in 1943 started a "Save the Children Committee" which went on to become the Indian Council for Child Welfare.
AIWC main objectives are:
Why? Because the sanitary toilet has saved more human lives than any other human invention ... and nearly 47% of India's 247 million households have lavatories leaving 50% of Indians to defecate in the open. A figure which rises to over 75% in Jharkhand, Orissa and Bihar.
Why do the BKs not care about such stuff ... apart from believing Destruction will come along and kill everyone off?
Well, the reason might be their roots ... an interesting footnote in a story of one of Lekhraj Kirpalani's peers and the rescue of a wealthy Sindhi Hindu family’s heritage home in Hyderabad.
Foreign guests used to stay at Mukhi House because there were no other houses with toilets at that time.
Quote unquote ... "the only house in Hyderabad with a toilet in 1945".
Just where the Om Mandli, established 1932, dropped their poop ... or who cleaned it up for them before we came along ... remains a mystery to this day.
Presumably it was the job of the little princesses' servants? Does anyone remember any Gandhi-esque stories of latrine cleaning? Answers please ...
On a more serious note, the second photograph is taken during the 1945 All India Women's Conference which was first established in 1927 "as an organization dedicated to upliftment and betterment of women and children" suggesting that efforts to uplift the women in India were not as backward or as unique to them as they like to portray.
Unlike the Brahma Kumaris, the AIWC is a genuine NGO dedicated to social upliftment of the poor and vulnerable rather than the social climbing of the previous wealthy as the BKs were. For example, in 1941 under the female Presidentship of Vijayalakshmi Pandit, it started the scheme of Training Camps where women organisers were given instruction in thirty subjects necessary in reconstruction and organizing work for the masses and in 1943 started a "Save the Children Committee" which went on to become the Indian Council for Child Welfare.
AIWC main objectives are:
- To work for a society based on the principle of social justice, personal integrity and equal rights and opportunities for all.
To secure recognition of the inherent right of every human being to work and to achieve the essentials of life, which should not be determined by accident of birth or sex but by planned social distribution.
To support the claim of every citizen to the right to enjoy basic civil liberties.
To stand against all separatist tendencies and to promote greater national integration and unity.
To work actively for the general progress and welfare of women and children and to help women utilize to the fullest,one of the fundamental rights conferred on them by the Constitution of India.
To work for permanent international amity and world peace.