The National Service Scheme was launched on September 24, 1969. It brings students of colleges and senior secondary schools into voluntary community service. Its motto is “Not Me But You.”
A government summary from Assam gives its aim: “Development of personality through community service.”
“The Tata Trusts hold approximately 66% of the equity in Tata Sons,” the trusts state. Tata Sons is the holding company of the Tata group. The group’s heritage page describes the view of its founder, Jamsetji Tata, that “the community is not just another stakeholder in business, but is in fact the very purpose of its existence.”
In 2017 Ratan Tata recalled: “Mr. JRD Tata often used to refer to Tata as being the trustees of the people.”
In the Kishkindha Kanda of the Valmiki Ramayana, Rama kills Vali and makes Sugriva king. Sugriva has promised to help search for Sita. The rains come and go, and Sugriva does nothing. Rama sends his brother Lakshmana to Kishkindha to remind him.
Lakshmana reminds Sugriva of Brahma’s words: “for the ungrateful, there is no atonement.” He adds, in Arjun Bharadwaj’s translation: “If you wish to repay Rāma’s help, you must immediately look for Sītā.” Sugriva’s wife Tara answers for him: “He is neither ungrateful nor dishonest.” Sugriva then sends out the search parties.
In August 2021 dissident ministers of the Punjab government went to Delhi “to air their grievances against Capt Amarinder Singh,” the Tribune reported. Dozens of Congress MLAs then wrote to the party leadership. Reports give 40 or more than 50.
The party leadership called a meeting of the Congress MLAs for September 18, 2021. That day Amarinder Singh resigned as chief minister. Outside the governor’s residence he said: “I feel humiliated.”
In Baahubali: The Conclusion (2017), the warrior Kattappa kills Amarendra Baahubali. Kattappa has sworn loyalty to the rulers of Mahishmati. “Bound by oath to serve the kingdom, Kattappa helplessly lures Amarendra” to his death. The order comes from the rulers, Sivagami and Bhallaladeva.
Before the second film, the question “Why did Kattappa kill Baahubali?” had been “on everyone’s mind since 2015,” The News Minute wrote.
In 1979 the first flight of India’s satellite launch vehicle, SLV-3, failed. Satish Dhawan, chairman of ISRO, “took all the blame,” in Kalam’s words. The next year, SLV-3 succeeded. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the project director, later told students: “again there was a press conference and Prof. Dhawan put me in the front to share the success story with the press.”
Izzat. The Rekhta dictionary gives “honour, respect, esteem, dignity, reputation, good name.”
Be-izzat. Without izzat. Rekhta gives “without honour or dignity, disgraced, contemptible, dishonoured.”
Izzat utaarna. To take off someone’s izzat. Rekhta gives in Hindi apmanit karna, to insult, and tiraskrit karna, to treat with contempt.
In Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy, Manish Sisodia, “felicitated 91 teachers of government and private schools,” Udayavani reported. “Each awarded teacher received a cheque of Rs 25,000, besides a citation, medal and shawl.”
The Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries mark the verb felicitate “(especially Indian English).” Their example sentence: “The winners were felicitated by the Chief Minister himself.”
From 2016 to 2019, Paani Foundation held the Satyamev Jayate Water Cup in Maharashtra, “an annual, 45-day competition.” Villages competed in watershed management and water conservation work. “At the heart of this competition was ‘shramadaan’ (voluntary labour).” In all, “more than 4,700 villages in 76 talukas had joined the movement for change.”
Kar seva is “the voluntary contribution of physical labor towards cleaning and construction operations at sacred tanks and temples,” in the words of the Sikh Encyclopedia.
In March 2004, the sacred tank of the Golden Temple in Amritsar was cleaned by kar seva. “Devotees from far-flung areas including abroad visited the Golden Temple to participate in the kar seva,” The Tribune reported. According to Gulf News, “Within three days, volunteers cleaned every inch of the tank, carrying mud in anything they could put their hands on.”