INDIAN REMOVAL

Early in the 19th century, while the rapidly-growing United States expanded into the lower South, white settlers faced what they considered an obstacle. This area was home to the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chicasaw and Seminole nations. These Indian nations, in the view of the settlers and many other white Americans, were standing in the way of progress. Eager for land to raise cotton, the settlers pressured the federal government to acquire Indian territory. Andrew Jackson, from Tennessee, was a forceful proponent of Indian removal. In 1814 he commanded the U.S. military forces that defeated a faction of the Creek nation. In their defeat, the Creeks lost 22 million acres of land in southern Georgia and central Alabama. The U.S. acquired more land in 1818 when, spurred in part by the motivation to punish the Seminoles for their practice of harboring fugitive slaves, Jackson's troops invaded Spanish Florida. From 1814 to 1824, Jackson was instrumental in negotiating nine out of eleven treaties which divested the southern tribes of their eastern lands in exchange for lands in the west. The tribes agreed to the treaties for strategic reasons. They wanted to appease the government in the hopes of retaining some of their land, and they wanted to protect themselves from white harassment. As a result of the treaties, the United States gained control over three-quarters of Alabama and Florida, as well as parts of Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky and North Carolina. This was a period of voluntary Indian migration, however, and only a small number of Creeks, Cherokee and Choctaws actually moved to the new lands. In 1823 the Supreme Court handed down a decision which stated that Indians could occupy lands within the United States, but could not hold title to those lands. This was because their "right of occupancy" was subordinate to the United States' "right of discovery." In response to the great threat this posed, the Creeks, Cherokee, and Chicasaw instituted policies of restricting land sales to the government. They wanted to protect what remained of their land before it was too late. Although the five Indian nations had made earlier attempts at resistance, many of their strategies were non-violent. One method was to adopt Anglo-American practices such as large-scale farming, Western education, and slave-holding. This earned the nations the designation of the "Five Civilized Tribes." They adopted this policy of assimilation in an attempt to coexist with settlers and ward off hostility. But it only made whites jealous and resentful. Other attempts involved ceding portions of their land to the United States with a view to retaining control over at least part of their territory, or of the new territory they received in exchange. Some Indian nations simply refused to leave their land -- the Creeks and the Seminoles even waged war to protect their territory. The First Seminole War lasted from 1817 to 1818. The Seminoles were aided by fugitive slaves who had found protection among them and had been living with them for years. The presence of the fugitives enraged white planters and fueled their desire to defeat the Seminoles. The Cherokee used legal means in their attempt to safeguard their rights. They sought protection from land-hungry white settlers, who continually harassed them by stealing their livestock, burning their towns, and sqatting on their land. In 1827 the Cherokee adopted a written constitution declaring themselves to be a sovereign nation. They based this on United States policy; in former treaties, Indian nations had been declared sovereign so they would be legally capable of ceding their lands. Now the Cherokee hoped to use this status to their advantage. The state of Georgia, however, did not recognize their sovereign status, but saw them as tenants living on state land. The Cherokee took their case to the Supreme Court, which ruled against them. The Cherokee went to the Supreme Court again in 1831. This time they based their appeal on an 1830 Georgia law which prohibited whites from living on Indian territory after March 31, 1831, without a license from the state. The state legislature had written this law to justify removing white missionaries who were helping the Indians resist removal. The court this time decided in favor of the Cherokee. It stated that the Cherokee had the right to self-government, and declared Georgia's extension of state law over them to be unconstitutional. The state of Georgia refused to abide by the Court decision, however, and President Jackson refused to enforce the law. In 1830, just a year after taking office, Jackson pushed a new piece of legislation called the "Indian Removal Act" through both houses of Congress. It gave the president power to negotiate removal treaties with Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi. Under these treaties, the Indians were to give up their lands east of the Mississippi in exchange for lands to the west. Those wishing to remain in the east would become citizens of their home state. This act affected not only the southeastern nations, but many others further north. The removal was supposed to be voluntary and peaceful, and it was that way for the tribes that agreed to the conditions. But the southeastern nations resisted, and Jackson forced them to leave. Jackson's attitude toward Native Americans was paternalistic and patronizing -- he described them as children in need of guidance. and believed the removal policy was beneficial to the Indians. Most white Americans thought that the United States would never extend beyond the Mississippi. Removal would save Indian people from the depredations of whites, and would resettle them in an area where they could govern themselves in peace. But some Americans saw this as an excuse for a brutal and inhumane course of action, and protested loudly against removal. Their protests did not save the southeastern nations from removal, however. The Choctaws were the first to sign a removal treaty, which they did in September of 1830. Some chose to stay in Mississippi under the terms of the Removal Act.. But though the War Department made some attempts to protect those who stayed, it was no match for the land-hungry whites who squatted on Choctaw territory or cheated them out of their holdings. Soon most of the remaining Choctaws, weary of mistreatment, sold their land and moved west. For the next 28 years, the United States government struggled to force relocation of the southeastern nations. A small group of Seminoles was coerced into signing a removal treaty in 1833, but the majority of the tribe declared the treaty illegitimate and refused to leave. The resulting struggle was the Second Seminole War, which lasted from 1835 to 1842. As in the first war, fugitive slaves fought beside the Seminoles who had taken them in. Thousands of lives were lost in the war, which cost the Jackson administration approximately 40 to 60 million dollars -- ten times the amount it had allotted for Indian removal. In the end, most of the Seminoles moved to the new territory. The few who remained had to defend themselves in the Third Seminole War (1855-58), when the U.S. military attempted to drive them out. Finally, the United States paid the remaining Seminoles to move west. The Creeks also refused to emigrate. They signed a treaty in March, 1832, which opened a large portion of their Alabama land to white settlement, but guaranteed them protected ownership of the remaining portion, which was divided among the leading families. The government did not protect them from speculators, however, who quickly cheated them out of their lands. By 1835 the destitute Creeks began stealing livestock and crops from white settlers. Some eventually committed arson and murder in retaliation for their brutal treatment. In 1836 the Secretary of War ordered the removal of the Creeks as a military necessity. By 1837, approximately 15,000 Creeks had migrated west. They had never signed a removal treaty. The Chickasaws had seen removal as inevitable, and had not resisted. They signed a treaty in 1832 which stated that the federal government would provide them with suitable western land and would protect them until they moved. But once again, the onslaught of white settlers proved too much for the War Department, and it backed down on its promise. The Chickasaws were forced to pay the Choctaws for the right to live on part of their western allotment. They migrated there in the winter of 1837-38. The Cherokee, on the other hand, were tricked with an illegitimate treaty. In 1833, a small faction agreed to sign a removal agreement: the Treaty of New Echota. The leaders of this group were not the recognized leaders of the Cherokee nation, and over 15,000 Cherokees -- led by Chief John Ross -- signed a petition in protest. The Supreme Court ignored their demands and ratified the treaty in 1836. The Cherokee were given two years to migrate voluntarily, at the end of which time they would be forcibly removed. By 1838 only 2,000 had migrated; 16,000 remained on their land. The U.S. government sent in 7,000 troops, who forced the Cherokees into stockades at bayonet point. They were not allowed time to gather their belongings, and as they left, whites looted their homes. Then began the march known as the Trail of Tears, in which 4,000 Cherokee people died of cold, hunger, and disease on their way to the western lands. By 1837, the Jackson administration had removed 46,000 Native American people from their land east of the Mississippi, and had secured treaties which led to the removal of a slightly larger number. Most members of the five southeastern nations had been relocated west, opening 25 million acres of land to white settlement and to slavery.

INDIANS PAID LESS IN US

Bangalore: Indians are paid nearly 20 times less than their counterparts in the U.S. and Switzerland. According to 'Prices and Earnings' study conducted by Swiss banking major UBS, employees in New Delhi and Mumbai earn an average net salary of $1.6 and $1.2 per hour, respectively.

In contrast, Swiss cities Zurich and Geneva, have topped the charts with the highest average net incomes in the world of as much as $22.60 and $20.40 per hour. "Swiss workers earn the most. Zurich and Geneva top the rankings in our international comparison of wages. By contrast, the average employee in Delhi, Manila, Jakarta and Mumbai earns less than one-fifteenth of that amount," the report stated. Workers in the U.S. also earn at the higher end of bracket with people in New York earning an average salary of $19 per hour, while those in Los Angeles get $13.90 per hour. Workers in London receive an average net wage of $13.90 per hour, it added.

In terms of the gross hourly wages, workers in Western Europe and North America have the highest gross hourly wages averaging at $20.2 and $21.0 respectively, the survey said. While, in Asia and Eastern Europe, workers receive an average of $5.5 per hour before taxes and social security contributions are deducted from the salary.

UBS's report 'Prices and Earnings' is a global review of the prices of goods and services, wages, payroll taxes, working hours and purchasing power in 73 cities on every continent. The survey also pointed out that earnings do not just differ from country to country but also vary among employers within a single city. However, the earnings gap between public and private-sector jobs is particularly stark in emerging and developing countries, it added.

FACTS OF SUN

Our sun has an expected lifetime of about 11 billion years.

Our sun and the surrounding planets orbit around the center of the Milky Way galaxy once every 250 million years.

Only 55% of all Americans know that the sun is a star.

On its trip around the sun, the earth travels over a million and a half miles per day.

No solar eclipse can last longer than 7 minutes 58 seconds because of the speed at which the sun moves.

Lightning bolts can sometimes be hotter than the sun. (about 50 000º F)

It takes only 8 minutes for sunlight to travel from the sun to the earth, which also means, if you see the sun go out, it actually went out 8 minutes ago.

In Spit Bergen, Norway at one time of the year the sun shines continuously for three and a half months.

In Newport, Rhode Island it is illegal to smoke from a pipe after sunset.

In Devon, Connecticut, it is unlawful to walk backwards after sunset.

If the sun stopped shining suddenly, it would take eight minutes for people on earth to be aware of the fact.

For 186 days you can not see the sun in the North Pole.

Every eleven years the magnetic poles of the sun switch. This cycle is called"Solarmax".

Because of the speed at which the sun moves, it is impossible for a solar eclipse to last more than 7 minutes and 58 seconds.

Aztecs believed that the sun died every night and needed human blood to give it strength to rise the next day. So they sacrificed 15,000 men a year to appease their sun god, Huitzilopochtli. Most of the victims were prisoners taken in wars, which were sometimes started solely to round up sacrificial victims.

At the distance at which our sun is located from the center of the Milky Way galaxy, Earth and the rest of our solar system are moving at a speed of about 170 miles per second around the center.

At its center, the sun has a density of over a hundred times that of water, and a temperature of 10-20 million degrees Celsius.

All the coal, oil, gas, and wood on Earth would only keep the Sun burning for a few days.

An area of the Sun's surface the size of a postage stamp shines with the power of 1,500,000 candles.

Your fingernails can turn yellow from wearing nail polish and from the sun.

If the entire solar system were the size of a quarter, the sun would be visible only under a microscope, and the nearest star would be 300 feet away.

The Sun provides our planet with 126,000,000,000,000 horsepower of energy every day.

If the earth were the size of a quarter, the sun would be as large as a 9 foot ball and would be located a football field distance from the earth.

More than 1 million earths would fit inside the sun.

99% of our solar systems mass is concentrated in the sun.

The sun is 330,330 times larger than the earth!

HUMOR - THE BOSS

A man wanted to buy his son a parrot as a birthday present..
The next day he went to the pet shop and saw
three identical parrots in a cage.

He asked the clerk, "how much for the parrot on the right?

The owner said it was Rs. 2500.
"Rs. 2500.", the man said. "Well what does he do?
"He knows how to use all of the functions of Microsoft Office 2000,
responds the clerk.
"He can do all of your spreadsheets and type all of your letters."

The man then asked what the second parrot cost.
The clerk replied, Rs. 5000, but he not only knows Office 2000,
but is an expert computer programmer.

Finally, the man inquired about the cost of the last parrot.
The clerk replied, "Rs. 10,000."
Curious as to how a bird can cost Rs. 10,000, the man asked what this
bird's specialty was.
The clerk replies, "Well to be honest I haven't seen him do anything.

But the other two call him *"BOSS"!!

Guinness World Record in teaching online

Guiness Book Record for teaching 1934 students online from 16 centres worldwide
Dr. Subramonian, Principal of Dr.R.V.Arts and Science College, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu having two records to his credit one is for Continuous Teaching for 61hrs 35mts.(Limca Book of Records-2006) for which he has received the certificate from His Excellency the Governor of Tamilnadu. The second record is for teaching 1934 students online from 16 centres worldwide for this he received the certificate from the hands of His Excellency the former president of India Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam

INDIAN CHESS BOY

Mitrabha Guha was admitted to Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy on 14.11.2005 at the age of 4 years and 2 months.

Mitrabha Guha played his first tournament at the age of 4 years and 3 months in the All Bengal Rapid Tournament held at Monohorpukur, Kolkata as the youngest player.

He participated in the Boys under 7 Chess Championship at the age of 4 years and six months in April 2006 held at the Gujarati Bhawanipur Society, Kolkata also as the youngest player of the tournament.

He participated in the Chess for Youth (under 25) held at Netaji Indoor Stadium, Kolkata and won 5 matches out of 9. He was the youngest player there.

He represented the state of West Bengal in the National Under 7 Boys Chess Championship held at Goa on Nov�2006 when he was 5+ of age and won six out of the possible eleven matches.

He played numerous tournaments between his age of 4 to 6 years held within the state.

He played his second West Bengal under 7 state championships in 2007 at the age of 6+years held at the Bhowanipur Gujarat Society and won the championship to become the Boys Champion.

Mitrabha Guha played in the Chess for Youth�2007 held in the Netaji Indoor Stadium, Kolkata and was the runners-up in the under 8 category.

Next he participated in the National Under 7 Boys Championship held at Lucknow where out of the 10 matches he won 8 matches, drew 2 matches and lost only 1 match and was placed all India 4th at the age of 6+. (Master Anubhav Tuknayat was placed 89th in the all India Ranking in the same event).

In April 2008, he participated in the West Bengal under 7 Chess Championship held in Kolkata and scored 7 wins out of 7 matches and won the championship.

He participated in the Chess for Youth�2008 held in the Netaji Indoor stadium and was the champion there by winning all the 8 matches he played.

He will be playing his third consecutive National Under 7 championship this year as the top seeded player. (Master Anubhav Tuknayat will not be playing in this category since his date of birth his 21.12.2000 and age limit will be limited to those players who was born after 1.1.2001).

He has won numerous tournament in his age group namely All Bengal Tournament held by Lake Town Cultural Association, Kolkata, Modern Chess Academy, City chess forum, Halisahar, Hoogly District Chess Association, Behala Chess School and many others where he was the Boys under 7 champion.

Mitrabha studies in Class I of South Point School, Kolkata.

INDIANS IN AFRICA

South African Tourism's Indian expert Alexis Kriel looks at some interesting facts about India's relationship with South Africa.

• Between 1860 and 1911 some 140 000 Indians arrived in South Africa as indentured laborers. The majority of them were Hindus from Madras, Travancore, Orissa and Bengal. Today, there are almost a million Indians living in South Africa - the largest group outside of India and Pakistan
  
  
• The first ship to arrive in South Africa (with Indians) was the SS TRURO. There were 348 laborers onboard. They were categorised as 2 % Brahmins, 9 % Kshatriyas, 21 % Vaishyas and 31 % Sudras, 27% Scheduled Castes, 3 % Christians and 4 % Muslims.
  
  
• In 1860, of the indentured laborers who arrived in South Africa, 35% were women. The number was later raised to 50%.
  
  
• The first Indians who came to South Africa did not work only on the sugar cane plantations; they also worked on the railways, dockyards, municipal services, the coalmines of Northern Natal and in domestic service.
  
  
• The name of the first immigrant, recorded on the list of the ship Truro, was Davarum.
  
  
• The first major temple erected in South Africa was in 1899. It was a Ganesha Temple at Mount Edgecombe in Durban and was built by an indentured laborer from India known as Kistappa Reddy.
  
  
• Today, 140 years later, after playing an integral role in South Africa's transition to democracy, Indians occupy positions in parliament and are contributing to every facet of life in South Africa.
  
  
• The origin of the word sugar appears to have its root in India, where its earliest form was the word 'sarkara'. And the word 'candy' is derived from the older word for sugar, namely 'khanda'.
  
  
• Mahatma Gandhi arrived in South Africa in 1895, to appear in a court case on behalf of an Indian client, and made his home here. He stayed in South Africa for 21 years. He started his passive resistance movement in South Africa.
  
  
• Gandhi's ideas of Satyagraha (Sanskrit for "truth and firmness") evolved in South Africa.
  
  
• During the Boer War, Gandhi organised a corps of Indian stretcher-bearers; and again during an outbreak of plague on the Witwatersrand. After the South African war, Gandhi practised as an attorney in Johannesburg.
  
  
• Gandhi said that the single most creative time of his life (and the time that changed the course of his life) was when he was in South Africa, where he began to teach a policy of passive resistance to the South African authorities.
  
  
• Gandhi only returned to India in 1915, after the government of South Africa made concessions to his demand for recognition of Indian marriages and the abolition of the poll tax. Back in India, he fought for independence from Britain with the strength and ideas that he had developed in South Africa.
  
  
• South African law relating to the 'Admissibility of Confessions' is adapted from section 25 of the Indian Evidence Act of 1872.
  
  
• Algoa Bay, now known as Port Elizabeth, means 'towards Goa'; and Delagoa Bay, now known as Maputo, means 'from Goa'.
  
  
• There are places in South Africa that are named after Portuguese voyagers travelling between Portugal and Goa and stopping over in South Africa.
  
  
• A few places in South Africa are named after Alliwal (walla) - the place where the British defeated the Sikhs in India: Alliwal; Alliwal North - founded in 1849 by Sir Harry Smith (the governor of the Cape) to commemorate his victory in India over the Sikhs; Aliwal Shoal - a dangerous shoal on the Natal South Coast; and the former name of Mossel Bay was Aliwal South.
  
  
• Kippersol is an Indian origin name for a tree widely found in South Africa.
  
  
• The common word for a tangerine (which is called a naartjie in South Africa) is probably derived from the Tamil word nartei for a citron.
  
  
• Bunny Chow - a favourite South African dish - is made from a vegetarian curry of beans, sold as a take-away food in a ½ loaf of bread, and comes from the word bhannia (the vegetarian shopkeeper caste) and chow (from the Chinese language).
  
  
• Mynah birds, which were introduced to Durban from India, are one of the most common birds found in Natal and Gauteng. It appears in leading South African bird books.
  
  
• A bhajiya is known by many South Africans as a 'chili bite'.
  
  
• Did you know that the following Bollywood stars have visited South Africa: Sharukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Rani Mukherjee, Zayed Khan and Saif Ali Khan?
  
  
• Did you know that Bollywood movies are widely available in South Africa and large movie theatre chains like Ster-Kinekor increasingly show Bollywood films?
  
  
• Filmmaker Mira Nair used a South African screenwriter, Helena Kriel, for her script for the movie Karma Sutra and their collaboration on the script and the writing of the script took place in Durban in South Africa.
  
  
• The Bollywood movie "Dil ka Rishta" was filmed in Cape Town. And the movie "Shikari" is shot extensively in the jungles of South Africa.
  
  
• A Durban consortium is planning a multi-million dollar film studio to help visiting film crews from India.
  
  
• Shilpa Shetty is about to shoot a film in South Africa with Mahmud Sipra.
  
  
• All the spices of India are available in South Africa and there are many excellent Indian restaurants.
  
  
• Indians in South Africa celebrate the festivals of their homeland, like Ratha Yatra, Deepavali, Kavadi, Eid and Mohurram.

CRICKET

2,500-pound machine strapped around Flintoof's knee to save his cricket career

2009-08-30 14:20:00

England all rounder Andrew Flintoff is praying that the 2,500 pound machine strapped around his knee will save his cricket career. The Lancashire all-rounder has to strap himself to the contraption for eight hours every day as he starts his gruelling rehabilitation from his latest operation. The state-of-the-art Continuous Passive Motion equipment was prescribed by surgeon Andy Williams and is designed to bend the 31-year-old Ashes hero's knee up to 1,500 times a day, News of the World reported. "I had a choice of either using this machine or doing three sets of 500 knee bends a day, so I thought the machine might be the way forward. I strap my leg into it for eight hours a day. It bends my knee up and down all the time and makes sure the movement is controlled," Flintoff revealed. "I will have the machine on most of the time, even when I'm sleeping. The hard part is getting used to having your leg strapped into a machine for most of the day. It's designed to help with the healing but, inevitably, my right leg is going to waste away a bit and the muscles are going to disappear. There's not a lot I can do about it because I can't bear any weight on my right leg for six to eight weeks." Flintoff underwent keyhole surgery in London on Monday night - just a day after helping England beat Australia at the Oval to regain the Ashes. It was the second op on his troublesome knee and the ninth of his career, following four on his left ankle, two for hernias and another on his back. Flintoff announced his retirement from Test cricket during the Ashes after admitting his 16-stone body could no longer cope with five-day cricket. "I have set myself a target of returning for the tour to Bangladesh, which is from mid-Febuary to the middle of March, but whether that's realistic or not, I'm not sure," admitted Flintoff. "There is a possibility I may not play again. It's something I'm going to have to be prepared for in case the operation is not as successful as I hope. There will be a question mark in my mind about whether I have played my last game until I know how the operation has turned out. "I'd be lying if I said it hadn't crossed my mind, but the success rate for an operation like this is pretty good," the paper quoted him, as saying. (ANI)

TOP 10 IT IN INDIA

Rank	Names	Sales (in Rs mill)
1	TCS LIMITED	97,272
2	WIPRO LIMITED	82,330
3	INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED	71,297
4	SATYAM COMPUTER SERVICES LIMITED	35,209
5	I-FLEX SOLUTIONS LIMITED	11,386
6	TATA INFOTECH LIMITED	9,743
7	CMC LIMITED	8,074
8	MPHASIS BFL LIMITED	7,657
9	MASTEK LIMITED	5,670
10	NIIT LIMITED	3,984

TOP 10 COMPANIES IN INDIA

1. Reliance Industries: The main business of Reliance is in the energy sector (oil and gas). However, it has strong presence in garments and telecommunication sectors too. According to Forbes, annual sale of Reliance is $18.0 billion. This company is very popular in the share market among investors.
2. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) : It is one of leading oil and gas companies in Asia and one of most profit making corporations in India. It is trying to become a global player.
3. State Bank of India Group : It is the largest bank in India and of the largest in the world. It is also the oldest bank in South Asia. Its history goes back to 1806. According to Forbes, it has $156.4 billion of assets- very impressive!
4. Indian Oil: Again, an oil company. According to Forbes, its sales are $34.6 billion and thus it has the largest sale for an Indian company.
5. National Thermal Power : It is owned by Indian government and it made $1.3 of profit against sales of $6.1 billion.
6. Icici Bank: It is the largest bank in the private sector. It is also a popular company in the share market. In television channels, you can find their ads round the clock.
7. Steel Authority of India: It is a public sector company and it has several plants in India. It is one of the fastest growing companies in the public sector. Its profit figure of $1.6 billion is quite impressive too.
8. Tata Steel: It is a company with a great heritage. It is a company in the private sector. It was India's first and largest steel company in the private sector.
9. Tata Consultancy Svcs (TCS ): Among the top ten companies, TCS is the only company related to Information Technology. It has made its mark in outsourcing and its market value is $19.5 billion. It is quite impressive considering the fact that it has only $1.9 billion of assets.
10. Tata Motors : Tata Motors came into the headline this year for its effort to build the World's cheapest car . These days; Tata Motors is trying to expand its business both in home and abroad.
This list shows that Indian companies are often neglected by the western media. Outsourcing to India is causing a lot of jobs in the west and that is why the western media is interested about Indian tech companies. It is time that the international media takes more note of the top Indian companies.