A STATISTICAL GENIUS FROM INDIA-POFESSOR CALYAMPUDI RADHAKRISHNA RAO-.

 

Professor C Radhakrishna Rao was born into a Telugu family in Bellary District of Karnataka in 1920. He did his MSc in Mathematics from Andhra University and MA in Statistics from Calcutta University in 1943. His father was a Police Inspector and CR Rao was his 8^th child out of 10.  

He did his PhD from Kings College, Cambridge in 1948 and then a DSc from Cambridge in 1965. He completed his DSc at the age of 45.

CR Rao married Bhargavi Rao in 1948 who was a Professor of Psychology and studied at BHU and University of Illinois.

He first worked at the Indian Statistical Institute at Calcutta and then at the Anthropological Museum at Cambridge. He was the Director of the Indian Statistical Institute, Professor at JNU and National Professor in India. He was later University Professor at the University of Pittsburg and then Eberly Professor at Pennsylvania State University.

At the Indian Statistical Institute, he worked till his retirement and produced many leaders in Mathematics. He founded the CR Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics, Statistics & Computer Science at Hyderabad in the Hyderabad University campus.

The best known of his discoveries are Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA), Rao Distance, Rao’s Score Test, Rao’s Quadratic Entropy, Cramer-Rao bound and the Rao Blackwell Theorem. He was the author of 15 books and over 400 journal publications. Majority of his publications were made at the time of his long stint at the Indian Statistical Institute.

He received 38 honorary doctorates from universities in 19 countries and numerous awards & medals. He was awarded a Padma Bhushan way back in 1968, and the Padma Vibhushan in 2001. He was the President of the International Statistical Institute, Institute of Mathematical Statistics (USA) and the International Biometric Society.  The Journal of Quantitative Economics published a special issue in Rao’s honor in 1991.

CR Rao moved to the USA in 1980 after completing his long tenure at the Indian Statistical Institute aged 60`. He first joined the University of Pittsburg as a Professor and then joined Pennsylvania State University as a Professor in 1988. He then moved to the University at Buffalo as a Research Professor in 2010 at the age of 90. He died aged 102 in August 2023. His career spanned 8 decades which in itself is a record.

INDIAN WIRELESS WIZARD-PROFESSOR AROGYASWAMI PAULRAJ.

 

Have you ever heard of Professor Arogyaswamy Paulraj? 

I never heard of him till yesterday when a Whats App post was made on him  in my classmates group and what I read about the guy amazed me.

He is an Engineer from a place called Pollachi in Tamilnadu and joined the Indian Navy as a Cadet in 1961 at NDA Khadakvasla and was commissioned in 1965.

He was deputed to IIT Delhi between 1969-71 for doing his masters, instead he directly transitioned into his PhD and completed it in 1973.From 1972 to 74 he led a team at IIT Delhi to redesign the British developed Anti Submarine Sonar to be fitted on our Navy warships when no country was ready to pass on that technology to us.

From 1987 to 1989 he supervised the development of a large systems software suite for parallel computers at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Bangalore and concurrently supervised the development of Radar and communications systems at Bharat Electronic cs.

He was the founding Director of the center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Bangalore, and the Center for Development of Advanced Computing Bangalore .

And he was doing all that when the computer was relatively an unknown thing in India.

Currently he is  Professor Emeritus at Stanford.

He was Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford where he has pioneered the development of new wireless technology using multiple antennas. He invented the MIMO ( Multiple-Input & Multiple Output)   technology in 1992 enabling a way for the 5G technology we use today.

His research has also spanned emphasizing estimation theory, sensor signal processing, parallel computers architectures/algorithms, and space-time signal processing for wireless systems.

He seems to be a wizard in Wireless. Why we have to learn about such people from only Whats App posts pains me. His work is fit to be put into our school textbooks but unfortunately very few of us know about him.

 

Broadcom purchased Beceem Communications, a wireless semiconductor company founded by Paulraj in 2004 to help build its 4G and wireless business.

Intel acquired Iospan Wireless, a startup founded by Paulraj in 1998.

 

MIMO ( Multiple Input, Multiple Output) is a wireless technology that revolutionized broadband wireless internet for billions of people. MIMO improves both transmission data rates and expands network coverage. It is the essential foundation for all current and future broadband wireless communications.

ANCIENT DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS IN INDIA-SABHA & SAMITI.

 The basic roots of the Democracy in India can be traced to the Vedic times in the institutions called the “Sabha” & “Samiti”. Therefore, Democracy is nothing new or strange to India. However, in India with time, Kingship evolved from Democracy and strengthened. Our people had forgotten all about Democracy and we had to re learn it from Britain which in fact experimented with the Democratic systems far later than us.

Britain started off on the road of Democracy with the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215 AD which limited the powers of the King. The people of England then had to fight with the King in order to obtain their rights. But it took a long time for England to evolve into a full-fledged Democracy. 

When the East India Company was founded in England in 1600 AD, the English people were still struggling against the King to get their Democratic rights. By 1832 AD only a small number of middle class citizens had a right to vote. Only by the year 1928 AD could all the men and women vote in England. So, India had to reinvent Democracy some 2000 years later after it lost it to that very England some 200 years earlier.

But we have to remember that the Sabha and the Samiti despite having wide powers are by no means fully democratic because they did not consist of all the male population and also excluded most of  the entire female population.

The Sabha was as selective council of elders, nobles, wealthy men and priests who advised the King and managed Judicial matters, in administrative and policy decisions. So, they are the elite members of the society and by no means represented the common people. The early Vedic tests occasionally note the presence of women in the Sabhas.

As opposed to the Sabha, the Samiti represented a large number of freemen and ordinary members of the tribe. The Samiti is attended by the tribal king. The Samiti addressed major tribal business, discussed cattle and wealth and debated war and peace. The Samiti held the power to approve or elect the king.

Women (named Sabhavati) occasionally attended early Sabha meetings while they had no role in the Samiti at all.

The Sabha and samiti were mentioned in the Rigveda itself and hence date back to as late as 1500-1200 BC. During the later Vedic period between 1000-600 BC, their powers declined rapidly and the importance of the King increased. The Samiti disappeared altogether as it became impossible for all citizens to gather when the Kingdoms expanded greatly. The Sabha became more exclusive and it was dominated by the king, rich nobles and Brahmin priests. The women who attended the Sabha during the earlier Vedic period were totally banned to attend the Sabha.

While this had been the case with other kingdoms, the Vajji (Vrijji in Sanskrit) confederacy existed at the time of Buddha. The Vajji confederacy consisted of and led by Licchavis, Videha and Jnatrika clans. The Vajji confederacy had its capital at Vaishali and had a rivalry with Magadha and ultimately Ajatashatru of Magadha conquered them in 468 BC and it was merged into the Magadha kingdom.

The Shakya clan of Buddha was another separate tribal republic but King Virudhaka of of Kosala massacred and extinguished the clan during the time of Buddha himself in about 510 BC. This happened on account of the following events.

King Prasenajit ( Pasenadi in Prakrit) of Kosala sought the hand of a Shakya Princess in marriage. The proud Shakyas sent a slave girl disguised as a Princess to whom was born Virudhaka. 

When Virudhaka learned the secret of his birth he was furious and vowed to destroy the Shakya clan. After ascending the throne Virudhaka invaded Kapilavastu in 510 BC and massacred the population which was quoted in the Buddhist texts. 

With the perishing of both the Vajji (Vrijji in Sanskrit) confederacy and the Shakyas, Democracy completely ended in India. We got it back in the 1900’s under the English some 2400 years after it was extinguished in India. Because India got Democracy off the shelf unlike in countries where it evolved it could not act with efficiency and failed to embed the Democratic values and systems in the minds of the people.

Wherever Democracy evolved itself (which is mostly in the West), it had largely been successful.  Today’s Democracy is not one of the past and is based on the equality of men rather than certain types of men like the older Democracy. It is an evolute of the society we live in.

But we can certainly say that India was almost the first country in the world where Democracy happened even if it be in a rudimentary form but it ended far too soon and was completely extinguished far before the British came in. However, the Western historians claim that Democracy evolved first in Athens in Greece which is not factual.

Democracy was supposed to have been brought into Athens/Greece by Cleisthenes in about 500 BC, but our Vedic texts and later the Buddhist ones clearly indicate that the Sabha and Samiti existed in 1000 BC itself. 

However, the Phoenicians from whom the Greeks learnt a lot of things also had the type of Democracy India had it at almost the same time as they did 1100 BC. So, if at all, the concept of Democracy first arose in Phoenicia and then almost at the same time in India.

The Phoenicians are the neighbors of the Hebrews and are a seafaring trading civilization located at the Eastern point of the Mediterranean sea. Their language is closely allied to Hebrew. They built the strong and fortified cities of Tyre & Sidon on the easternmost coast of the Mediterranean sea and gained a monopoly of trading in the Western seas. Marseilles in France was one of their colonies.   

They developed a high level of civilization and Greeks had a cultural exchange with them and have certainly borrowed their Democracy from the Phoenicians despite the Western historians denying it and claiming that Greeks developed their own. The Phoenicians did not know what the words integrity or honesty meant and lived only for profit.  They lived in an area which is now the countries of Lebanon, with parts of Syria and Israel.

To claim that Democracy first arose in Greece is overlooking strong evidence on account of a bias of the Western Historians. In fact the Greeks actually took Democracy form the Phoenicians. They and India are the places in the world that first developed Democracy at the same time.

POLITICS & RELIGION-RIGIDITY IN THOUGHT.

 

While cataract slowly blinds the eye, both politics and religion are lethal as they bind the mind itself and not just the eyes.

Political views are purely based on perception than reality. How did NTR win in the 1983 assembly elections in AP? AP was a very strong pro Congress state always giving the Congress solid majority to govern till NTR came along there was no party worth the name to challenge the Congress even remotely.

Firstly it was the perception that he is always a do gooder who always wanted to help the people. His image built in his movies helped him greatly and all that was perception rather than reality because he had not been generous in helping anyone with his own money before entering politics. 

Of course the Anjaiah incident with Rajiv Gandhi created anger in the people of AP which the NTR could convert into an act against the Telugu pride. Of course, despite his eccentricities NTR did try his best to give out schemes for the poor people and he did think of the people and there is no denying that. It was he created the TDP which even today is a powerful force in Andhra Politics.

It was this perception that gave NTR a landslide victory to a party established just 9 months before that. This landslide victory against the Congress had a lot do with perception of the people. This is precisely the reason why the present day political parties, be it in the state or at the centre have a strong media presence both on TV as well as social media.

Because of this perception war people who favour parties idolize the head of the party and no criticism on him/her is tolerated. That totally blinds people to all logic.

In the case of religion it is different. A person who follows a religion thinks his religion is the ultimate and no religion is an exception to that. The fact happens to be that it is a perception just like in the case of politics. 

Hinduism formed about 3500 years ago, Christianity 2000 years ago and Islam 1400 years ago. When the religions formed the social circumstances were totally different and each religion had a society that shaped it. So these religions reflect the needs and thoughts of those times. 

No doubt the basic human nature has not changed from then and now, but the societal structure has changed completely. Today the world has drawn closer by the information revolution and the internet. We instantly know what is happening in Iran. At the time of formation of the religions very few people knew that Iran existed, and such events petered in to educated people (who were only a few) years later.

So the world at that time was more insular and ideas percolated very slowly among the society. In the meantime the priests of the religions, looking at the personal benefits accruing claimed that they are the intermediaries to God and increased their power. 

So for them bringing in ritual and theology became more important tools to claim their own special status with god. They became the ultimate arbiters who decided what is good and what is not in relation to God. At every stage of the human race the priestly class interpreted religion to its own benefit.

It was those gentlemen that made religion more rigid and said thinking anything outside that is blasphemy and irreligious and have therefore limited human thought on that. It is they who by their preachings and ritual made religion rigid and created a feeling that their religion is the best in the world. 

This strong perception that was created in the minds of the people on religion is the one that binds people in thought. So on religion people do not think and simply believe that whatever they believe is right and final and no one can question it.

That is how politics and religion became final and beyond all logic for its followers. Therefore for most people who are strong followers, those beliefs cannot be challenged at all, and neither can they be tested with logic. When one binds their minds in that fashion, how can there be any discussion or openness on those topics? They become the final frontier that nobody can dare to touch and get away.

So with anyone known to us, be it our friends or relations we should tread very carefully on these two topics and the make a light discussion rather than going into an argument. Because that serves nothing and would only alienate those people from us.  

INDIAS GREATEST BATTLE OF VALOUR-BATTLE OF SARAGARHI.

 

It is just by chance that one of my classmates in Engineering posted a small piece on the Battle of Saragarhi along with a song that goes “Mitti Me Mil Java” which I am posting below.

When I read that piece, my feeling is one of guilt and also of awe. How can I not know about this scintillating piece of unbelievable valour? I then read about the battle and what my reading revealed fascinated me and also made me sad.

Such battles should go into our history books and each child should know about it. Both the Indian and the British armies celebrate 12^th September as a day of valour in commemoration of the battle.

The battle of Saragarhi was fought with tremendous odds of one side. I don’t think there is any other battle in the history of the world which was so unequal. So what was the background for the battle and how did it come about?

The battle took place in Sep 12, 1897. The British were in complete control of India by then, but their hold on the North West Frontier Province peopled by Pashtuns was somewhat tenuous. The 36^th Sikh Regiment was created by the British in 1887 under the command of Colonel J.Cook. The regiment comprised fully of Jat Sikhs and it was deployed in the NWFP to fight the rebellious Pashtuns.

The Amir of NWFP conceded to the British but the people would have none of that and there were rebellions. The British to control the people of NWFP used the Forts built by Maharaja Ranjit Singh and stationed soldiers there. Two such were Fort Lockhart and Fort Gulistan in the Hindu Kush Mountains. These 2 forts were located at a distance of about 5 Km. from one another. As the terrain and the ridges blocked the line of sight between the 2 forts, another small intermediary fort was established at Saragarhi at a height as a communications out post. It lay roughly in between the 2 forts. This was used as a heliographic communications post and used to rays from the Sun to transmit messages between the 2 forts.

The number of soldiers defending that outpost was just 21 led by Havildar Ishar Singh of the 36^th Sikh Regiment. . A general uprising of the Afghans began in 1897 and many vigorous efforts by the Pashtuns to capture the forts were beaten back by the Sikh Regiment.

Then on as a part of the uprising, to take the 2 forts it was decided by the Pashtuns to take the fort of Saragarhi to cut the communications between the 2 forts. A Pashtun army of no less than 10,000 soldiers attacked Saragarhi on Sep 12, 1897 while it only had 21 soldiers to defend it.

So the odds of the battle were 500 to 1 there. Despite that and despite inducements offered to the Sikh soldiers by the Pashtun army to surrender, none did so, and in an extreme act of bravery each of the 21 soldiers fought to death, both with guns initially and also in hand to hand combat with ultimate bravery when the fort walls were breached. They held the fort for 7 hours under extreme odds.

When the fort walls were breached Havildar Ishar Singh himself delayed the British attack by confronting and fighting with them while his soldiers moved into the inner layer.

It was a miserable failure of the British army that they failed to send reinforcements to these troops in time. Sepoy Gurmukh Singh signalled the commencement of the battle to Colonel Haughton at Fort Lockhart. He was the last surviving member of the soldiers and is considered to have killed 40 enemy soldiers himself.  

The relief party came in only 2 days later and the Fort of Saragarhi was taken back by intense artillery fire. The Pashtuns themselves admitted that about 300 of their men were killed and hundreds wounded before the fort could be taken by them. When the relief party entered into the fort after the artillery barrage they found 600 Pashtun bodies lying around in the fort. Of course 200-300 of the must have perished in the intense artillery barrage.

All the 21 Sikh soldiers who died in the battle were awarded the “Indian Order of Merit” at that time the highest gallantry award an Indian soldier can receive.

The following is the link for the song Mitte me Mil Java from the film Kesari which commemorates the battle. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tionpZAVPd4