History of Pain and Palliative Clinic

History

Palliative Care had its origins in the 1960s in the UK with the emergence of the hospice movement led by Dame Cicely Saunders. It started with research at St Joseph's Hospice, where Dame Cicely was allowed to experiment by giving regular dosages of drugs to four patients. This apparently simple practice was a novel approach at the time, observed with some scepticism. However, scepticism soon turned to interest as the results showed a marked improvement in the quality of these patients' lives. By the time Dame Cicely left St Joseph's, she had observed and documented over 1,000 cases of patients dying of cancer. Her scrupulous records provide the basis of this fundamental area of research(1).

Dame Cicely's pioneering work was soon followed by others and, in 1963, Professor John Hinton recognized the physical and mental distress of dying in the ward of a London teaching hospital (2). He later developed groundbreaking work on the progression of the awareness and acceptance of dying over time - one of the few longitudinal studies conducted with terminally ill patients and their families (3). His research revealed different patterns of progression, influential factors such as depression and anxiety, and the relationship between patients and their relatives' awareness and acceptance.

In the early 1970s, palliative care in the UK saw its first large-scale epidemiological survey, led by Professor Ann Cartwright and her team (4). Drawing from a random sample of deaths in 1969, she reported the experiences of 785 patients and their families in the last year of life, which would later be compared with those of 639 patients in 1987 (5). In this comparative study, several changes were recognized: increasingly people were dying alone, older and with prolonged and unpleasant symptoms, in institutional and hospital settings, with improved home help though with fewer home visits, and with a greater awareness of the disease and dying.

Current state of knowledge and the challenges ahead

Research on the dying, their families and end-of-life care has continued despite the numerous challenges, mainly in terms of study design and ethical issues (6).

Researchers are faced with a number of complications such as patients experiencing a constellation of symptoms, the difficulty of conducting randomised controlled trials and the thin line between benefit and risk for patients and families.

The volume of research in palliative care has grown dramatically in the last 15 years. Linda George systematically reviewed the literature in 2002 and found 1,000 articles on end-of-life issues, of which approximately 400 were empirical studies (7). Many of these are of excellent quality but improvements in methodology can still be made - grounding studies in conceptual frameworks, for example, carrying out more longitudinal studies and developing high-quality sampling strategies.

There remain important areas in the field of palliative care that have yet to be adequately addressed (8). Under-researched subjects include barriers to accessing palliative care, supportive services, psychosocial and spiritual issues, and the care of special groups such as older people and those from different cultures (9). The challenge for palliative care research is not only to pose important research questions but also to design studies, develop instruments and employ realistic but scientifically sound research designs that will answer those questions (10).

Notwithstanding the development of research into palliative care over the last four decades, the evidence base for much of what is done in clinical practice remains relatively sparse compared with more established medical specialities. This is highlighted by the paucity of data, which slows down the integration of research results into the practice of end-of-life care (8).

Despite being an expanding field, funding is limited and has been largely contingent on the pharmaceutical industry in pursuit of approval for analgesics and other agents to address symptom concerns (10). Worryingly, there is a lack of funding by foundations and government agencies. Only a small share of cancer research funding is devoted to palliative care in the UK - 0.18%, compared to 0.9% in the US (9) - though each death potentially affects the well-being of an average of five other people (11).

 Reference List

Du Boulay S. Cicely Saunders. London : Hodder & Stoughton, 1993.
Hinton J. The physical and mental distress of the dying. Quarterly Journal of Medicine 1963; 32:1-21.
Hinton J. The progress of awareness and acceptance of dying assessed in cancer patients and their caring relatives. Palliative Medicine 13(1):19-35, 1999.
Cartwright A, Hockey L, Anderson JL. Life before death. London ; Boston : Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973.
Cartwright A. Changes in life and care in the year before death 1969-1987. Journal of Public Health Medicine 13(2):81-7, 1991.
Grande GE, Todd CJ. Why are trials in palliative care so difficult?. [Review] [39 refs]. Palliative Medicine 14(1):69-74, 2000.
George LK. Research design in end-of-life research: state of science.[see comment]. [Review] [98 refs]. Gerontologist 42 Spec No 3:86-98, 2002.
Penrod JD, Morrison RS. Challenges for palliative care research. Journal of Palliative Medicine 7(3):398-402, 2004.
World Health Organization. Palliative care: the solid facts. http://www.euro.who.int . 2004. 24-11-2004.
Ferrell B. Palliative care research: the need to construct paradigms. Journal of Palliative Medicine 7(3):408-10, 2004.
Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs SaT. Quality End-of-Life Care: The Right of Every Canadian: final report of the subcommittee to update Of Life and Death. 2000. Ottawa, Senate of Canada
 

History of pain and palliative care

Palliative care began in the hospice movement and is now widely used outside of traditional hospice care. Hospices were originally places of rest for travelers in the 4th century. In the 19th century a religious order established hospices for the dying in Ireland and London.

The modern hospice is a relatively recent concept that originated and gained momentum in the United Kingdom after the founding of St. Christopher's Hospice in 1967. It was founded by Dame Cicely Saunders, widely regarded as the founder of the modern hospice movement.

The hospice movement has grown dramatically in recent years. In the UK in 2005 there were just under 1700 hospice services consisting of 220 inpatient units for adults with 3156 beds, 33 inpatient units for children with 255 beds, 358 home care services, 104 hospice at home services, 263 day care services, and 293 hospital teams. These services together helped over 250,000 patients in 2003 & 2004. Funding varies from 100% funding by the National Health Service to almost 100% funding by charities, but the service is always free to patients.

Hospice in the United States has grown from a volunteer-led movement to improve care for people dying alone, isolated, or in hospitals, to a significant part of the health care system. In 2005 more than 1.2 million individuals and their families received hospice care. Hospice is the only Medicare benefit that includes pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, twenty-four hour/seven day a week access to care and support for loved ones following a death. Most hospice care is delivered at home. Hospice care is also available to people in home-like hospice residences, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, veterans' facilities, hospitals, and prisons.

History of palliative care

Palliative care began in the hospice movement and is now widely used outside of traditional hospice care. Hospices were originally places of rest for travellers in the 4th century. In the 19th century a religious order established hospices for the dying in Ireland and London. The modern hospice is a relatively recent concept that originated and gained momentum in the United Kingdom after the founding of St. Christopher's Hospice in 1967. It was founded by Dame Cicely Saunders, widely regarded as the founder of the modern hospice movement.

The hospice movement has grown dramatically in recent years. In the UK in 2005 there were just under 1,700 hospice services consisting of 220 inpatient units for adults with 3,156 beds, 33 inpatient units for children with 255 beds, 358 home care services, 104 hospice at home services, 263 day care services and 293 hospital teams. These services together helped over 250,000 patients in 2003 & 2004. Funding varies from 100% funding by the National Health Service to almost 100% funding by charities, but the service is always free to patients.

Hospice in the United States has grown from a volunteer-led movement to improve care for people dying alone, isolated or in hospitals, to a significant part of the health care system. In 2005 more than 1.2 million persons and their families received hospice care. Hospice is the only Medicare benefit that includes pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, twenty-four hour/seven day a week access to care and support for loved ones following a death. Most hospice care is delivered at home. Hospice care is also available to people in home-like hospice residences, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, veterans' facilities, hospitals and prisons.

The first United States hospital-based palliative care programs began in the late 1980s at a handful of institutions such as the Cleveland Clinic and Medical College of Wisconsin. Since then there has been a dramatic increase in hospital-based palliative care programs, now numbering more than 1,400. 80% of US hospitals with more than 300 beds have a program.[2]

A 2009 study regarding the availability of palliative care in 120 US cancer center hospitals reported the following: Only 23% of the centers have beds that are dedicated to palliative care; 37% offer inpatient hospice; 75% have a median time of referral to palliative care to the time of death of 30 to 120 days; research programs, palliative care fellowships, and mandatory rotations for oncology fellows were uncommon.[8]

The results of a 2010 study in The New England Journal of Medicine showed that lung cancer patients receiving early palliative care experienced less depression, increased quality of life and survived 2.7 months longer than those receiving standard oncologic care.[9]

Hospital palliative care programs today care for non-terminal patients as well as hospice patients. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act currently being debated by house and senate would seek to expand palliative care in the U.S.

The first pan-European centre devoted to improving patient palliative care and end-of-life care was established in Trondheim, Norway in 2009. The centre is based at NTNU's Faculty of Medicine and at St. Olav's Hospital/Trondheim University Hospital and coordinates efforts between groups and individual researchers across Europe, specifically Scotland, England, Italy, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, along with the USA, Canada and Australia.

Palliative care

Palliative care (from Latin palliare, to cloak) is an area of healthcare that focuses on relieving and preventing the suffering of patients. Unlike hospice care, palliative medicine is appropriate for patients in all disease stages, including those undergoing treatment for curable illnesses and those living with chronic diseases, as well as patients who are nearing the end of life. Palliative medicine utilizes a multidisciplinary approach to patient care, relying on input from physicians, pharmacists, nurses, chaplains, social workers, psychologists and other allied health professionals in formulating a plan of care to relieve suffering in all areas of a patient's life. This multidisciplinary approach allows the palliative care team to address physical, emotional, spiritual and social concerns that arise with advanced illness.

Medications and treatments are said to have a palliative effect if they relieve symptoms without having a curative effect on the underlying disease or cause. This can include treating nausea related to chemotherapy or something as simple as morphine to treat the pain of broken leg or ibuprofen to treat aching related to an influenza (flu) infection.

Although the concept of palliative care is not new, most physicians have traditionally concentrated on trying to cure patients. Treatments for the alleviation of symptoms were viewed as hazardous and seen as inviting addiction and other unwanted side effects.[1]

The focus on a patient's quality of life has increased greatly during the past twenty years. In the United States today, 55% of hospitals with more than 100 beds offer a palliative-care program,[2] and nearly one-fifth of community hospitals have palliative-care programs.[3] A relatively recent development is the palliative-care team, a dedicated health care team that is entirely geared toward palliative treatment.

HARTAL

Hartal
Not to be confused with Paul Hartal.
Hartal (Bengali: হরতাল hôrtal, Hindi: हड़ताल haṛtāl, Urdu: ہڑتال‎ haṛtāl, Malayalam: ഹര്‍ത്താല്‍, Tamil: ஹர்த்தால்) is a term in many South Asian languages for strike action, first used during the Indian Independence Movement. It is mass protest often involving a total shutdown of workplaces, offices, shops, courts of law as a form of civil disobedience. In addition to being a general strike, it involves the voluntary closing of schools and places of business. It is a mode of appealing to the sympathies of a government to change an unpopular or unacceptable decision.[1] The term comes from Gujarati (હડતાળ haḍtāḷ or હડતાલ haḍtāl), signifying the closing down of shops and warehouses with the object of realizing a demand. Mahatma Gandhi, who hailed from Gujarat, used the term to refer to his anti-British general strikes, effectively institutionalizing the term. The contemporary origins of such a form of public protest dates back to the British colonial rule in India. Repressive actions infringing on human rights by the colonial British Government and princely states against countrywide peaceful movement for ending British rule in India often triggered such localized public protest.

Hartals are still common in Bangladesh,[2] Pakistan, India, and in northern and eastern Sri Lanka, where it is often used to refer specifically to the 1953 Hartal of Ceylon. In Malaysia, the word was used to refer to various general strikes in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, such as the All-Malaya Hartal of 1947 and the Penang Hartal of 1967.

Another variant which is common in Hindi-speaking regions is the bhukh hartal which translates as hunger strike.

The word is also used in humorous sense to mean abstaining from work.

Hartal is mostly common in Bangladesh these days, as for two opposition parties. Hartal has brought the general people as many awful consequences. As to see from reality, two opposition parties fighting for their own powers, resulting a dreadful consequence to ordinary people. On the contrary, Hartal is fun for school-going students, since they tend to get a free holiday for a little rest from the load of study.

MUHARRAM

Muharram
For use as a given name, see Muharrem.
Islamic Calendar

Muharram
Safar
Rabi' al-awwal
Rabi' al-thani
Jumada al-awwal
Jumada al-thani
Rajab
Sha'aban
Ramadan
Shawwal
Dhu al-Qi'dah
Dhu al-Hijjah

A procession of Shia Muslims in Bhopal.
Muharram (Arabic: المحرّم) is the first month of the Islamic calendar. It is one of the four sacred months of the year.[1] Since the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar, Muharram moves from year to year when compared with the Gregorian calendar.

The word "Muharram" means "Forbidden" and is derived from the word harām, meaning "sinful". It is held to be the most sacred of all the months, excluding Ramadan. Some Muslims fast during these days. The tenth day of Muharram is the Day of Ashura, which to Shia Muslims is part of the Mourning of Muharram.

Azadari procession carried out by Shia Muslims in Indian city of Hardoi on the Day of Ashura.
Some Muslims fast during this day, because it is recorded in the hadith[2] that Musa (Moses) and his people obtained a victory over the Egyptian Pharaoh on the 10th day of Muharram; accordingly Muhammad asked Muslims to fast on this day that is Ashura and on a day before that is 9th (called Tasu`a).

Fasting differs among the Muslim groupings; mainstream Shia Muslims stop eating and drinking during sunlight hours and do not eat until late afternoon. Sunni Muslims also fast during Muharram for the first ten days of Muharram, or just the tenth day, or on both the ninth and tenth days; the exact term depends on the individual. Shia Muslims do so to replicate the sufferings of Hussein ibn Ali on the Day of Ashura.

Muharram and Ashura
Main article: Mourning of Muharram

Shia Muslims in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in a Hussainia as part of the commemoration of Muharram

Shia Muslim children in Amroha, India on camels in front of Azakhana as part of the procession commemorating events on & after Day of Ashura
Muharram is a month of remembrance & Modern Shia Meditation that is often considered synonymous with the event of Ashura. Ashura, which literally means the "Tenth" in Arabic, refers to the tenth day of Muharram. It is well-known because of historical significance and mourning for the martyrdom of Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of Muhammad.[3]

Shias begin mourning from the first night of Muharram and continue for ten nights, climaxing on the 10th of Muharram, known as the Day of Ashura. The last few days up until and including the Day of Ashura are the most important because these were the days in which Hussein and his family and followers (consisting of 72 people, including women, children and elderly people) were killed by the army of Yazid I at the Battle of Karbala on his orders. Surviving members of Hussein's family and those of his followers were taken captive, marched to Damascus, and imprisoned there.

Muharram is also observed by Dawoodi Bohras in the same way as Shias.They practice prayers on the sayings of the present dawah of Bohras, Mohammed Burhanuddin. On the tenth day of Muharrum, they pray for Hussein till the magrib . When the pray ends, Hussein is considered martyr by Yazid. It is also close to the day of resurrection because it said in a book that this world will one day come to an end on Friday 10th of Muharram.[citation needed]]]

With the sighting of the new moon the Islamic New Year is ushered in. The first month, Muharram is one of the four sacred months that [Allah] has mentioned in the Quran.

Timing
The Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar, and months begin when the first crescent of a new moon is sighted. Since the Islamic lunar calendar year is 11 to 12 days shorter than the solar year, Muharram migrates throughout the solar years. The estimated start and end dates for Muharram are as follows (based on the Umm al-Qura calendar of Saudi Arabia:[4])

CHILDREN'S DAY

Children's day, in hindi known as "Bal Diwas", in India falls on November 14th every year and for good reason. Children's day in India is celebrated on Pandit Nehru's birthday as a day of fun and frolic, a celebration of childhood, children and Nehruji's love for them.

About Jawahar Lal Nehru

On November14, 1889, a son was born to an eminent lawyer, Motilal Nehru and his wife Swaroop Rani at Allahabad. They named him Jawaharlal. He was a brilliant, kindhearted child who was greatly loved by all. His father wanted to give him the best education and hence sent him to England for his M.A. from Cambridge. The British ruled India at that time.When he returned to India, young Jawaharlal realized that he wanted to help the poor and the downtrodden. He took part in the Freedom Struggle of India and

 became a follower of Mahatma Gandhi who had just returned from South Africa at that time. When India gained its independence, he became the first Prime Minister of free India.

He was a perfect blend of eastern philosophical values and western scientific thinking and encouraged technological progress. But he was also a man of letters and a great poet and wrote some famous works like, ‘Glimpses of World History’ and ‘Discovery of India’. His letters to his daughter, Indira, were also compiled into a book and reflects his philosophical outlook, his compassion and above all, his tender heart.  

The Birth of Chacha Nehru

Chacha Nehru as the children fondly referred to him, was fond of both children and roses. In fact he often compared the two, saying that children were like the buds in a garden. They should be carefully and lovingly nurtured, as they were the future of the nation and the citizens of tomorrow. He felt that children are the real strength of a country and the very foundation of society. He was the ‘beloved’ of all the children who gave him the endearing name of ‘Chacha Nehru’.

Celebrations

As a tribute to this great man and his love for the children, his birthday is celebrated all over India as ‘CHILDREN’S DAY’. Most schools have cultural programmes for the day, with the students managing it all. All over the country, various cultural, social, and even corporate, institutions conduct competitions for children. Children's Day is a day for children to engage in fun and frolic. Schools celebrate this day by organizing cultural programmes. Teachers of the school perform songs and dances for their students.
Therefore, Children's Day is special. It is a day set aside to remember Pandit Nehru and his love for children.

HISTORY OF ENGLISH

History of the English Language

What is English?

A short history of the origins and development of English

The history of the English language really started with the arrival of three Germanic tribes who invaded Britain during the 5th century AD. These tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, crossed the North Sea from what today is Denmark and northern Germany. At that time the inhabitants of Britain spoke a Celtic language. But most of the Celtic speakers were pushed west and north by the invaders - mainly into what is now Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Angles came from "Englaland" [sic] and their language was called "Englisc" - from which the words "England" and "English" are derived.

Germanic invaders entered Britain on the east and south coasts in the 5th century.

Old English (450-1100 AD)

Part of Beowulf, a poem written in Old English.
The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages, which in Britain developed into what we now call Old English. Old English did not sound or look like English today. Native English speakers now would have great difficulty understanding Old English. Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots. The words be, strong and water, for example, derive from Old English. Old English was spoken until around 1100.
Middle English (1100-1500)

An example of Middle English by Chaucer.
In 1066 William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of modern France), invaded and conquered England. The new conquerors (called the Normans) brought with them a kind of French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and the ruling and business classes. For a period there was a kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke French. In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but with many French words added. This language is called Middle English. It was the language of the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400), but it would still be difficult for native English speakers to understand today.
Modern English

Early Modern English (1500-1800)

Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and distinct change in pronunciation (the Great Vowel Shift) started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16th century the British had contact with many peoples from around the world.

Hamlet's famous "To be, or not to be" lines, written in Early Modern English by Shakespeare.
This, and the Renaissance of Classical learning, meant that many new words and phrases entered the language. The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common language in print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Printing also brought standardization to English. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the dialect of London, where most publishing houses were, became the standard. In 1604 the first English dictionary was published.

Late Modern English (1800-Present)

The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from two principal factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire at its height covered one quarter of the earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries.

Varieties of English

From around 1600, the English colonization of North America resulted in the creation of a distinct American variety of English. Some English pronunciations and words "froze" when they reached America. In some ways, American English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern British English is. Some expressions that the British call "Americanisms" are in fact original British expressions that were preserved in the colonies while lost for a time in Britain (for example trash for rubbish, loan as a verb instead of lend, and fall for autumn; another example, frame-up, was re-imported into Britain through Hollywood gangster movies). Spanish also had an influence on American English (and subsequently British English), with words like canyon, ranch, stampede and vigilante being examples of Spanish words that entered English through the settlement of the American West. French words (through Louisiana) and West African words (through the slave trade) also influenced American English (and so, to an extent, British English).

Today, American English is particularly influential, due to the USA's dominance of cinema, television, popular music, trade and technology (including the Internet). But there are many other varieties of English around the world, including for example Australian English, New Zealand English, Canadian English, South African English, Indian English and Caribbean English.

The Germanic Family of Languages

English is a member of the Germanic family of languages.
Germanic is a branch of the Indo-European language family.

A brief chronology of English
55 BC Roman invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar. Local inhabitants speak Celtish
AD 43 Roman invasion and occupation. Beginning of Roman rule of Britain.
436 Roman withdrawal from Britain complete.
449 Settlement of Britain by Germanic invaders begins
450-480 Earliest known Old English inscriptions. Old English
1066 William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, invades and conquers England.
c1150 Earliest surviving manuscripts in Middle English. Middle English
1348 English replaces Latin as the language of instruction in most schools.
1362 English replaces French as the language of law. English is used in Parliament for the first time.
c1388 Chaucer starts writing The Canterbury Tales.
c1400 The Great Vowel Shift begins.
1476 William Caxton establishes the first English printing press. Early Modern English
1564 Shakespeare is born.
1604 Table Alphabeticall, the first English dictionary, is published.
1607 The first permanent English settlement in the New World (Jamestown) is established.
1616 Shakespeare dies.
1623 Shakespeare's First Folio is published
1702 The first daily English-language newspaper, The Daily Courant, is published in London.
1755 Samuel Johnson publishes his English dictionary.
1776 Thomas Jefferson writes the American Declaration of Independence.
1782 Britain abandons its colonies in what is later to become the USA.
1828 Webster publishes his American English dictionary. Late Modern English
1922 The British Broadcasting Corporation is founded.
1928 The Oxford English Dictionary is published.
† 

In Remembrance of Wagon Tragedy

In rememberance of Wagon Tragedy.
WAGON TRAGEDY - 1921
The Wagon tragedy was the death of a large number of prisoners on 10 November 1921 in the Malabar region of Kerala state of India. The prisoners had been taken into custody following unrest known as Mopilah rebellion in Malabar, and their deaths through apparent negligence discredited the British Raj and generated sympathy for the Indian independence movement.

Initially inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and the national leaders of India, there was a wide-spread and violent uprising against the British colonial rule of India in which hundreds of Hindus got killed and thousands forcefully converted to Islam. After a series of events that culminated in violent clashes between police and protesters, Martial law was introduced and the rebellion mostly crushed. The British packed 70 prisoners into a railway goods wagon at Tirur railway station to be sent to the Coimbatore jails. By the time they reached their destination 61 of the prisoners had died from suffocation. A monument to this notorious tragedy can be now seen in Tirur.

Hermann Rorschach's 129th birthday 

Hermann Rorschach was a Swiss Freudian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, best known for developing the Rorschach Inkblot Test. There are ten official inkblots: 5 are black ink on white -- 2 are black and red ink on white -- 3 are multicolored. The Rorschach test is a psychological test in which subjects' perceptions of inkblots are recorded then analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex scientifically derived algorithms, or both. Some psychologists use this test to examine a person's personality characteristics and emotional functioning. It has been employed to detect an underlying thought disorder, especially in cases where patients are reluctant to describe their thinking processes openly. 

Distribution of ID cards

Please collect your club ID cards from Faris on 8/11/13

Iron Age India

Iron Age India
In the aftermath of the Indus Civilization's collapse, regional cultures emerged, to varying degrees showing the influence of the Indus Civilization. In the formerly great city of Harappa, burials have been found that correspond to a regional culture called the Cemetery H culture. At the same time, the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture expanded from Rajasthan into the Gangetic Plain. The Cemetery H culture has the earliest evidence for cremation; a practice dominant in Hinduism today.

Late Harappan

Late Harappan
Around 1800 BCE, signs of a gradual decline began to emerge, and by around 1700 BCE, most of the cities were abandoned. In 1953, Sir Mortimer Wheeler proposed that the decline of the Indus Civilization was caused by the invasion of an Indo-European tribe from Central Asia called the "Aryans". As evidence, he cited a group of 37 skeletons found in various parts of Mohenjo-Daro, and passages in the Vedas referring to battles and forts. However, scholars soon started to reject Wheeler's theory, since the skeletons belonged to a period after the city's abandonment and none were found near the citadel. Subsequent examinations of the skeletons by Kenneth Kennedy in 1994 showed that the marks on the skulls were caused by erosion, and not violent aggression.[72] Today, many scholars believe that the collapse of the Indus Civilization was caused by drought and a decline in trade with Egypt and Mesopotamia.[73] It has also been suggested that immigration by new peoples, deforestation, floods, or changes in the course of the river may have contributed to the collapse of the IVC.[74]

Previously, it was also believed that the decline of the Harappan civilization led to an interruption of urban life in the Indian subcontinent. However, the Indus Valley Civilization did not disappear suddenly, and many elements of the Indus Civilization can be found in later cultures. Current archaeological data suggest that material culture classified as Late Harappan may have persisted until at least c. 1000-900 BCE and was partially contemporaneous with the Painted Grey Ware culture.[75] Harvard archaeologist Richard Meadow points to the late Harappan settlement of Pirak, which thrived continuously from 1800 BCE to the time of the invasion of Alexander the Great in 325 BCE.[73]

Recent archaeological excavations indicate that the decline of Harappa drove people eastward. After 1900 BCE, the number of sites in India increased from 218 to 853. Excavations in the Gangetic plain show that urban settlement began around 1200 BCE, only a few centuries after the decline of Harappa and much earlier than previously expected.[73] Archaeologists have emphasized that, just as in most areas of the world, there was a continuous series of cultural developments. These link "the so-called two major phases of urbanization in South Asia".[75]

A possible natural reason for the IVC's decline is connected with climate change that is also signalled for the neighbouring areas of the Middle East: The Indus valley climate grew significantly cooler and drier from about 1800 BCE, linked to a general weakening of the monsoon at that time. Alternatively, a crucial factor may have been the disappearance of substantial portions of the Ghaggar Hakra river system. A tectonic event may have diverted the system's sources toward the Ganges Plain, though there is complete uncertainty about the date of this event, as most settlements inside Ghaggar-Hakra river beds have not yet been dated. The actual reason for decline might be any combination of these factors. New geological research is now being conducted by a group led by Peter Clift, from the University of Aberdeen, to investigate how the courses of rivers have changed in this region since 8000 years ago, to test whether climate or river reorganizations are responsible for the decline of the Harappan. A 2004 paper indicated that the isotopes of the Ghaggar-Hakra system do not come from the Himalayan glaciers, and were rain-fed instead, contradicting a Harappan time mighty "Sarasvati" river.[76]

A research team led by the geologist Liviu Giosan of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution also concluded that climate change in form of the easterward migration of the monsoons led to the decline of the IVC.[77] The team's findings were published in PNAS in May 2012.[78][79] According to their theory, the slow eastward migration of the monsoons across Asia initially allowed the civilization to develop. The monsoon-supported farming led to large agricultural surpluses, which in turn supported the development of cities. The IVC residents did not develop irrigation capabilities, relying mainly on the seasonal monsoons. As the monsoons kept shifting eastward, the water supply for the agricultural activities dried up. The residents then migrated towards the Ganges basin in the east, where they established smaller villages and isolated farms. The small surplus produced in these small communities did not allow development of trade, and the cities died out.[80]

Early Harappan

By 2600 BCE, the Early Harappan communities had been turned into large urban centres. Such urban centres include Harappa, Ganeriwala, Mohenjo-Daro in modern day Pakistan, and Dholavira, Kalibangan, Rakhigarhi, Rupar, and Lothal in modern day India. In total, more than 1,052 cities and settlements have been found, mainly in the general region of the Indus Rivers and their tributaries.

Cities

Computer-aided reconstruction of coastal Harappan settlement at Sokhta Koh near Pasni, Pakistan
A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture is evident in the Indus Valley Civilization making them the first urban centres in the region. The quality of municipal town planning suggests the knowledge of urban planning and efficient municipal governments which placed a high priority on hygiene, or, alternatively, accessibility to the means of religious ritual.

As seen in Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro and the recently partially excavated Rakhigarhi, this urban plan included the world's first known urban sanitation systems: see hydraulic engineering of the Indus Valley Civilization. Within the city, individual homes or groups of homes obtained water from wells. From a room that appears to have been set aside for bathing, waste water was directed to covered drains, which lined the major streets. Houses opened only to inner courtyards and smaller lanes. The house-building in some villages in the region still resembles in some respects the house-building of the Harappans.[39]

The ancient Indus systems of sewerage and drainage that were developed and used in cities throughout the Indus region were far more advanced than any found in contemporary urban sites in the Middle East and even more efficient than those in many areas of Pakistan and India today. The advanced architecture of the Harappans is shown by their impressive dockyards, granaries, warehouses, brick platforms, and protective walls. The massive walls of Indus cities most likely protected the Harappans from floods and may have dissuaded military conflicts.[citation needed]

So-called "Priest King" statue, Mohenjo-Daro, late Mature Harappan period, National Museum, Karachi, Pakistan
The purpose of the citadel remains debated. In sharp contrast to this civilization's contemporaries, Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt, no large monumental structures were built. There is no conclusive evidence of palaces or temples—or of kings, armies, or priests. Some structures are thought to have been granaries. Found at one city is an enormous well-built bath (the "Great Bath"), which may have been a public bath. Although the citadels were walled, it is far from clear that these structures were defensive. They may have been built to divert flood waters.

Most city dwellers appear to have been traders or artisans, who lived with others pursuing the same occupation in well-defined neighbourhoods. Materials from distant regions were used in the cities for constructing seals, beads and other objects. Among the artifacts discovered were beautiful glazed faïence beads. Steatite seals have images of animals, people (perhaps gods), and other types of inscriptions, including the yet un-deciphered writing system of the Indus Valley Civilization. Some of the seals were used to stamp clay on trade goods and most probably had other uses as well.

Although some houses were larger than others, Indus Civilization cities were remarkable for their apparent, if relative, egalitarianism. All the houses had access to water and drainage facilities. This gives the impression of a society with relatively low wealth concentration, though clear social levelling is seen in personal adornments.

Authority and governance
Archaeological records provide no immediate answers for a center of power or for depictions of people in power in Harappan society. But, there are indications of complex decisions being taken and implemented. For instance, the extraordinary uniformity of Harappan artifacts as evident in pottery, seals, weights and bricks. These are the major theories:

There was a single state, given the similarity in artifacts, the evidence for planned settlements, the standardised ratio of brick size, and the establishment of settlements near sources of raw material.
There was no single ruler but several: Mohenjo-daro had a separate ruler, Harappa another, and so forth.
Harappan society had no rulers, and everybody enjoyed equal status.
Technology
Further information: Indian mathematics - Prehistory

Indus Valley seals, British Museum
The people of the Indus Civilization achieved great accuracy in measuring length, mass, and time. They were among the first to develop a system of uniform weights and measures. A comparison of available objects indicates large scale variation across the Indus territories. Their smallest division, which is marked on an ivory scale found in Lothal, was approximately 1.704 mm, the smallest division ever recorded on a scale of the Bronze Age. Harappan engineers followed the decimal division of measurement for all practical purposes, including the measurement of mass as revealed by their hexahedron weights.[40]

These chert weights were in a ratio of 5:2:1 with weights of 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500 units, with each unit weighing approximately 28 grams, similar to the English Imperial ounce or Greek uncia, and smaller objects were weighed in similar ratios with the units of 0.871. However, as in other cultures, actual weights were not uniform throughout the area. The weights and measures later used in Kautilya's Arthashastra (4th century BCE) are the same as those used in Lothal.[41]

Harappans evolved some new techniques in metallurgy and produced copper, bronze, lead, and tin. The engineering skill of the Harappans was remarkable, especially in building docks.

In 2001, archaeologists studying the remains of two men from Mehrgarh, Pakistan, made the discovery that the people of the Indus Valley Civilization, from the early Harappan periods, had knowledge of proto-dentistry. Later, in April 2006, it was announced in the scientific journal Nature that the oldest (and first early Neolithic) evidence for the drilling of human teeth in vivo (i.e., in a living person) was found in Mehrgarh. Eleven drilled molar crowns from nine adults were discovered in a Neolithic graveyard in Mehrgarh that dates from 7,500-9,000 years ago. According to the authors, their discoveries point to a tradition of proto-dentistry in the early farming cultures of that region.[42]

A touchstone bearing gold streaks was found in Banawali, which was probably used for testing the purity of gold (such a technique is still used in some parts of India).[43]

The "dancing girl of Mohenjo Daro"

Chanhudaro. Fragment of Large Deep Vessel, circa 2500 B.C.E. Red pottery with red and black slip-painted decoration, 415/16×6⅛ in. (12.5×15.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum
Various sculptures, seals, pottery, gold jewelry, and anatomically detailed figurines in terracotta, bronze, and steatite have been found at excavation sites.

A number of gold, terra-cotta and stone figurines of girls in dancing poses reveal the presence of some dance form. Also, these terra-cotta figurines included cows, bears, monkeys, and dogs. The animal depicted on a majority of seals at sites of the mature period has not been clearly identified. Part bull, part zebra, with a majestic horn, it has been a source of speculation. As yet, there is insufficient evidence to substantiate claims that the image had religious or cultic significance, but the prevalence of the image raises the question of whether or not the animals in images of the IVC are religious symbols.[44]

Sir John Marshall is known to have reacted with surprise when he saw the famous Indus bronze statuette of a slender-limbed dancing girl in Mohenjo-Daro:

When I first saw them I found it difficult to believe that they were prehistoric; they seemed to completely upset all established ideas about early art, and culture. Modeling such as this was unknown in the ancient world up to the Hellenistic age of Greece, and I thought, therefore, that some mistake must surely have been made; that these figures had found their way into levels some 3000 years older than those to which they properly belonged .... Now, in these statuettes, it is just this anatomical truth which is so startling; that makes us wonder whether, in this all-important matter, Greek artistry could possibly have been anticipated by the sculptors of a far-off age on the banks of the Indus.

[citation needed]

Many crafts "such as shell working, ceramics, and agate and glazed steatite bead making" were used in the making of necklaces, bangles, and other ornaments from all phases of Harappan sites and some of these crafts are still practised in the subcontinent today.[45] Some make-up and toiletry items (a special kind of combs (kakai), the use of collyrium and a special three-in-one toiletry gadget) that were found in Harappan contexts still have similar counterparts in modern India.[46] Terracotta female figurines were found (ca. 2800-2600 BCE) which had red colour applied to the "manga" (line of partition of the hair).[46]

Seals have been found at Mohenjo-Daro depicting a figure standing on its head, and another sitting cross-legged in what some call a yoga-like pose (see image, the so-called Pashupati, below).

This figure, sometimes known as a Pashupati, has been variously identified. Sir John Marshall identified a resemblance to the Hindu god, Shiva.[47] If this can be validated, it would be evidence that some aspects of Hinduism predate the earliest texts, the Veda.

A harp-like instrument depicted on an Indus seal and two shell objects found at Lothal indicate the use of stringed musical instruments. The Harappans also made various toys and games, among them cubical dice (with one to six holes on the faces), which were found in sites like Mohenjo-Daro.[48]

The Early Harappan culture

The Early Harappan Ravi Phase, named after the nearby Ravi River, lasted from circa 3300 BCE until 2800 BCE. It is related to the Hakra Phase, identified in the Ghaggar-Hakra River Valley to the west, and predates the Kot Diji Phase (2800-2600 BCE, Harappan 2), named after a site in northern Sindh, Pakistan, near Mohenjo Daro. The earliest examples of the Indus script date from around 3000 BCE.[36]

The mature phase of earlier village cultures is represented by Rehman Dheri and Amri in Pakistan.[37] Kot Diji (Harappan 2) represents the phase leading up to Mature Harappan, with the citadel representing centralised authority and an increasingly urban quality of life. Another town of this stage was found at Kalibangan in India on the Hakra River.[38]

Trade networks linked this culture with related regional cultures and distant sources of raw materials, including lapis lazuli and other materials for bead-making. Villagers had, by this time, domesticated numerous crops, including peas, sesame seeds, dates, and cotton, as well as animals, including the water buffalo. Early Harappan communities turned to large urban centres by 2600 BCE, from where the mature Harappan phase started.

The History Excavated

The ruins of Harrappa were first described in 1842 by Charles Masson in his Narrative of Various Journeys in Balochistan, Afghanistan, and the Punjab, where locals talked of an ancient city extending "thirteen cosses" (about 25 miles), but no archaeological interest would attach to this for nearly a century.

In 1856, General Alexander Cunningham, later director general of the archeological survey of northern India, visited Harappa where the British engineers John and William Brunton were laying the East Indian Railway Company line connecting the cities of Karachi and Lahore. John wrote: "I was much exercised in my mind how we were to get ballast for the line of the railway". They were told of an ancient ruined city near the lines, called Brahminabad. Visiting the city, he found it full of hard well-burnt bricks, and, "convinced that there was a grand quarry for the ballast I wanted", the city of Brahminabad was reduced to ballast.[13] A few months later, further north, John's brother William Brunton's "section of the line ran near another ruined city, bricks from which had already been used by villagers in the nearby village of Harappa at the same site. These bricks now provided ballast along 93 miles (150 km) of the railroad track running from Karachi to Lahore".[13]

Excavated ruins of Mohenjo-daro, with the Great Bath in the front
In 1872–75 Alexander Cunningham published the first Harappan seal (with an erroneous identification as Brahmi letters).[14] It was half a century later, in 1912, that more Harappan seals were discovered by J. Fleet, prompting an excavation campaign under Sir John Hubert Marshall in 1921–22 and resulting in the discovery of the civilization at Harappa by Sir John Marshall, Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni and Madho Sarup Vats, and at Mohenjo-daro by Rakhal Das Banerjee, E. J. H. MacKay, and Sir John Marshall. By 1931, much of Mohenjo-Daro had been excavated, but excavations continued, such as that led by Sir Mortimer Wheeler, director of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1944. Among other archaeologists who worked on IVC sites before the partition of the subcontinent in 1947 were Ahmad Hasan Dani, Brij Basi Lal, Nani Gopal Majumdar, and Sir Marc Aurel Stein.

Following the Partition of India, the bulk of the archaeological finds were inherited by Pakistan where most of the IVC was based, and excavations from this time include those led by Sir Mortimer Wheeler in 1949, archaeological adviser to the Government of Pakistan. Outposts of the Indus Valley civilization were excavated as far west as Sutkagan Dor in Baluchistan, as far north as at Shortugai on the Amu Darya (the river's ancient name was Oxus) in current Afghanistan, as far east as at Alamgirpur, Uttar Pradesh, India and as far south as at Malwan, Surat Dist., India.

On 11 July, heavy floods hit Haryana in India and damaged the archaeological site of Jognakhera, where ancient copper smelting were found dating back almost 5,000 years. The Indus Valley Civilization site was hit by almost 10 feet of water as the Sutlej Yamuna link canal overflowed.

Indus Valley civilization

The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was a Bronze Age civilization (3300–1300 BCE; mature period 2600–1900 BCE) extending from what today is northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India (see map).[1] Along with Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia it was one of three early civilizations of the Old World, and of the three the most widespread.[2] It flourished in the basins of the Indus River, one of the major rivers of Asia, and the Ghaggar-Hakra River, which once coursed through northwest India and eastern Pakistan.[3]

At its peak, the Indus Civilization may have had a population of over five million. Inhabitants of the ancient Indus river valley developed new techniques in handicraft (carnelian products, seal carving) and metallurgy (copper, bronze, lead, and tin). The Indus cities are noted for their urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems, and clusters of large non-residential buildings.[4]

The Indus Valley Civilization is also known as the Harappan Civilization, after Harappa, the first of its sites to be excavated in the 1920s, in what was then the Punjab province of British India, and now is Pakistan.[5] The discovery of Harappa, and soon afterwards, Mohenjo-Daro, was the culmination of work beginning in 1861 with the founding of the Archaeological Survey of India in the British Raj.[6] Excavation of Harappan sites has been ongoing since 1920, with important breakthroughs occurring as recently as 1999.[7] There were earlier and later cultures, often called Early Harappan and Late Harappan, in the same area of the Harappan Civilization. The Harappan civilization is sometimes called the Mature Harappan culture to distinguish it from these cultures. Until 1999, over 1,056 cities and settlements had been found, of which 96 have been excavated,[8] mainly in the general region of the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra Rivers and their tributaries. Among the settlements were the major urban centres of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro (UNESCO World Heritage Site), Dholavira, Ganeriwala in Cholistan and Rakhigarhi.[9]

The Harappan language is not directly attested and its affiliation is uncertain since the Indus script is still undeciphered. A relationship with the Dravidian or Elamo-Dravidian language family is favored by a section of scholars.[10][page needed][11]

Birthday of Human Computer Sakuntala Devi

Born November 4, 1929
Bangalore, India
Died April 21, 2013 (aged 83)
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Cause of death Respiratory and cardiac problems
Nationality Indian
Other names Human computer

Shakuntala Devi (November 4, 1929 – April 21, 2013), popularly known as the "Human Computer", was a child prodigy and mental calculator.Her talents earned her a place in the 1982 edition of The Guinness Book of World Records.

Biography

Shakuntala Devi was born in Bangalore, India,[2][3] to an orthodox Kannada Brahmin family. Her father rebelled against becoming a temple priest[3] and instead joined a circus where he worked as a trapeze artist, lion tamer, tightrope walker and magician.Devi's father discovered her ability to memorize numbers while teaching her a card trick when she was about three years old.Her father left the circus and took her on road shows that displayed her ability at number crunching.She was able to do this without any formal education.By age six she demonstrated her calculation and memorization abilities at the University of Mysore.

In 1944 Devi moved to London with her father.[9] She returned to India in the mid-1960s and married Paritosh Bannerji, an officer of the Indian Administrative Service from Kolkata.[9] She and her husband were divorced in 1979.[9] Devi returned to Bangalore in the early 1980s.[9]

Devi travelled the world demonstrating her arithmetic talents, including a tour of Europe in 1950 and a performance in New York in 1976.[2] In 1988 she returned to the US to have her abilities studied by Arthur Jensen, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. Jensen tested her performance at several tasks, including the calculations of large numbers; Examples of the problems presented to Devi were calculating the cube root of 61,629,875, and the seventh root of 170,859,375.[3][4] Jensen reported that Devi was able to provide the solution to the aforementioned problems (the answers being 395 and 15 respectively) before Jensen was able to copy them down in his notebook.Jensen published his findings in the academic journal Intelligence in 1990.

In addition to her work as a mental calculator, Devi was an astrologer and an author of several books, including cookbooks and fictional novels.

In 1977, she published the first. study of homosexuality in India. According to Subhash Chandra's review of Ana Garcia-Arroyo's book The Construction of Queer Culture in India: Pioneers and Landmarks,

For Garcia-Arroyo the beginning of the debate on homosexuality in the twentieth century is made with Shakuntala Devi's book The World of Homosexuals published in 1977. [...] Shakuntala Devi's (the famous mathematician) book appeared. This book went almost unnoticed, and did not contribute to queer discourse or movement. [...] The reason for this book not making its mark was because Shakuntala Devi was famous for her mathematical wizardry and nothing of substantial import in the field of homosexuality was expected from her. Another factor for the indifference meted out to the book could perhaps be a calculated silence because the cultural situation in India was inhospitable for an open and elaborate discussion on this issue.

India launch Mangalyaan

INDIA TO LAUNCH 'MANGALYAAN' TO MARS TO STRENGTHEN SPACE RACE WITH CHINA

London: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is reportedly going to launch a spacecraft to Mars in a move to strengthen its space race with China.

ISRO is said to have planning to set out "Mangalyaan" to test the capability of India's space technology to carry out interplanetary missions, the BBC reports.

Since a Chinese attempt to send a spacecraft to Mars was aborted because of a technical problem in 2011, the Indian space agency fast-tracked its Mars mission.

The spacecraft will also collect scientific information about the planet's atmosphere and surface, the report added.

The Mangalyaan probe was set to launch on 28 October, but rough weather condition in the Pacific delayed the process by a week.

If the mission succeeds, ISRO will become the fourth space agency, after those in the U.S., Europe and Russia to have successfully sent a spacecraft to Mars.