Land Imaging Systems Division: Fill & Download for Free

Any army has to play several roles on the different arenas of land, water and on air. Unlike mainly the infantry units takes days for deployment, and can be used for combat situations (Strike Corps). RAPID infantry units are all war readiness and deployment along with extensive strike power at short notice.RAPID is an acronym for Re-organised Army Plains Infantry Divisions. RAPID is the brainchild of Gen. Krishnaswami Sundarji, one of the India's most brilliant, ambitious and controversial chief of army staff. In 1976 Sundarji became the first infantry officer to command an armoured division. During his tenure he realised his ambition of raising the desperately needed mechanised infantry regiment. Sundarji took this forward in the '80s to shape the army's perspective, the Army Plan 2000, which outlined a new mobile strategy based on tanks, firepower and enhanced communications.Reorganised Army Plains Infantry Division (RAPID) formations have three brigades - two mechanised infantry and one armoured. Four infantry divisions were converted into the Reorganised Army Plains Infantry Division. They have Night fighting capabilities, which have been enhanced through third generation passive devices and thermal imaging systems. Including others they also have Sophisticated VHF and HF equipment which have developed to produce jam resistant frequency hopping sets while different kinds of indigenous radar will boost the air defence and artillery capabilities. These RAPID divisions were essentially infantry divisions with one mechanized brigade which would give the division greater mobility. The division has various force multipliers and surveillance systems.Thus, this division is all time ready with extensive strike power with latest technologies besides Mechanised and armoured divisions. They are one of the first units to call in war situations, with high mobility and fighting capabilities.Needless to say, the Army is waiting in vain, for the financial resources for more advanced technological makeover to being in par.

Sambandham derives its meaning from two words- Samadham (Consensus/agreement) and Bandham (Relationship). So it simply means Consensual relationship, as practiced in accordance to Matrillineal Laws of Kerala which prevailed among upper caste Hindus of Kerala untill 1930s.In short, Sambandham is much similar to modern day Live-In relationship, but has a larger social and cultural approvals to it.In Kerala, almost all upper castes such as Nairs, certain classes of Ambalavasis, Kerala Kshyatriyas and Nampoothiris Males (barring the eldest one in the family) had this form of relationship as primary means of sexual relationship.Why so?Its might be bit shocking for many Indians and even Malayalees of today. But it was the hardcore truth that MARRIAGE as we see today was a prohibited concept among upper caste Hindus of Kerala.There was no system of marriage as a permanent social custom in Kerala among upper castes untill 1920s. So as the concept of family also differs so rapidlySambandham tradition was required as the concept of Family in a matrilineal system is quite different from the usual context of family.The concept of family and Sambandam connections between a male and female. A male of Family A may have relationship with a lady of Family B, but the family of B doesn’t constitute the former. Same way a male of Family C may have a relationship with lady of Family A, but essentially not part of Family A,For majority of Indians who follow patriarchy, family means- Husband, Wife and their kidsIn Kerala untill 1930s, family means Brother, Sister and sister’s kids. There was no concept of Husband/Wife relationship as so. This is called Matrilineal traditions or Marumakathayam (Lineage of Nephews).In Matrilineal tradition, every relationship is traced to female of the house/family, not the men of the house. This makes females of the house sole inheritors of family legacies and the lineageBy this, a house means its ladies as primary custodians and their brothers who can live and manage the family properties for their sister.Typical family structure under a Matrilineal system. The head of the family will the senior most of lady of the house- the Matriarch. Featured is Ponathil House, a prominent Nair family. One can see the matriarch and her daughters and sons all seated. The family consists of the senior’s lady’s two sons and 3 daughters. The children of daughters of the house also featured, but no children or wife of the matriarch’s sons being featured as they were outsiders.As marriage was prohibited, there was no concept of husband and wife. A lady of the house enters into a consensual relationship with an outside man. The primary intention for such relationship is to reproduce. The man who has entered into a consensual relationship, has no rights with the lady nor the children born to the lady. He was just a short term co-inhibitor of the lady at her house which can be terminated at will of the lady or the man. Normally such men were identified by the family though in many cases, they may be self identified by the ladies themself. However the concept of Sambandham was a family approved affair and hence people of lower castes weren’t allowed into the system.The children (both male and female) were identified as children of a mother. Father was almost irrelevant as the lady may have multiple relationships with many men. For the kids, only mother and their uncle (mom’s brother) matters. The Mom’s brother too may had many relationships with ladies of other families and may have kids in that, but none of them identify as his children. Rather for him, his sister’s kids were his children.Typical family structure as of Travancore royal family pictured in 1930s. The King and Queen wasn’t typical Husband and Wife, rather Brother and Sister due to Matrilineal customs. And in every protocol, the Queen and Queen Mother always gets higher rank than the King.This is common for all upper castes. For example in any Kingdom of Kerala, the Queen will be King’s sister, not the latter’s wife. Infact the latter’s wife was almost like a commoner with no rights even to enter into the palace. Same way, the Queen’s husband was not even a Prince (unlike UK), rather a mere consort. And this also makes the King’s wife and Queen’s husband almost irrelevant and they were seen as outsiders. They had no rights in the palace/royal family nor any position of importance.Irrelevance of Marriage and family system, also made every sexual relationship as relations of pleasure rather a social institution. For kids, there was no concept of father as such. In Malayalam, the original conceptual phrase to denote father was- Ninte Ammaude Nair (Your Mom’s Nair, meaning one among many nair men with whom your mom had a relationship). Today this phrase has reconstituted as a lewd term as similar to calling someone bastard, but in past it was so normal as the term bastard itself had no meaning in such society where fatherhood was an unrecognized concept. The only natural relationship for children of upper castes were Mother, Aunts (mother’s sisters ), their children (cousins brothers/sisters) and Uncles which happens to be case of any joint family in those days.The only exception to this will be Nampoothiris (Kerala Brahmins). Technically they follow the concept of Patriarchy as in any Vedic society. But inorder to avoid any partition or division of land within the family, only eldest male within the family was allowed to marry in typical way. Only he can marry and bring wife to the house. Rest all Nampoothiri males in the house cannot marry, rather should have Sambandham with other communities. However for females within Nampoothiri community, they cannot be polyandrous as in Nair or other similar community. Rather they were expected to marry a Nampoothiri man and with all typical rules of chastity.Why this tradition?Military conditionsKerala had only one empire in its entire course of history- the Chera Empire which fully collapsed by 12th century (1100s AD). However by 9th AD itself, Chera Empire were facing issues of disintegration and multiple fiefdoms started arising, mostly supported by Brahminical powers (Nampoothiri orders)With final collapse of Chera Empire, the whole land got disintegrated to more than 586 principalities/fiefdoms/small kingdoms etc.In such a situation, wars became inevitable. Every slight provocation ends up in a war and every war ends up in another war for revenge (Kudipaka- revenge politics).When I say war, one need not assume the typical war of large scale battalions of army with multiple divisions of cavalry forces and infantry units attacking each other in open fields as we see in historical movies. Kerala’s geographical terrain cannot afford to have such kind of wars. Rather it was mostly guerilla warfare limited to small groups of men, say less than 100 or 200 at max. In guerilla warfare, causalities will be higher. Its very unlikely, even a victorious side to have all its majority of combatants back in safety. This makes life of a warrior man, most uncertain. He may die any moment, any day as his life was sworn for the protection of the King and the state.In this circumstances, it was hard for men to lead a proper family life. It would make them conscious of their family safety and future. Under matrilineal traditions, they have absolutely a carefree life. There is no family life attached to them. They had no responsibility of the children. This eased them a lot in event of being martyred.Another factor is that, when an enemy successfully invades a country, its possible for them to eliminate the male members of ruling family as well as key nobles etc. However under Hindu Dharmic codes, its illegal to attack or kill a female. In most such cases, females were mostly left alone respecting their status quo as such. Once females had the entire property and access of social rights in their names, even if males were eliminated, the family continues as due to inheritance rights and lineages being passed through female line, not male line elsewhere.Conservation of land.One key factor which lead to this social order was land conservancy. Kerala has extremely shortage of habitable land. 2/3rd of Kerala is covered by forests, inhabitable mountain ranges, rivers, waterbodies etc, leaving just the small coastal strip and few valleys near to the banks of rivers closer to coastal strip worth for habitation. As the land is extremely fertile, this has pushed a very high population density, making land, the most prized resource. In this situation, there was a massive need of conservation of land holdings.Once the Empire collapsed and rise of small principalities, land was too fragmented. So the intention of all upper castes who were the only landed community, had to preserve the land from any sort of partition. This lead to this unique arrangements, where males (who were most likely to assert independence from a family and lead a separate family life) deny any right of property holding. Under Matrillineal laws, a male member of the family has only dwelling rights within the family and essentially no rights of ownership. This is fully vested with the ladies of the house. This system allows male members to be dormant within the family as beyond the house/family, they have no ownership rights. They were forced to manage properties on behalf the ladies of the house, who could be more compromising nature, especially when every other ladies in the house were their own blood sisters. Even for Kings, they have right to rule only because of their sister who were the sovereign authority. The system thus proved very effective in consolidating land resources for more than 10 centuries.Better social statusIn a caste society, where ultimate caste was that of Brahmins (Nampoothiri), the whole system allows massive intermixing each other without worrying any loss of caste status. In many parts of India, a Brahmin to have a sex with a lower caste was a capital offence and it used to be a grave offence in those times. In Kerala, it was common. For the castes lower than Brahmin, it gives more authority and status value in the society. For Nampoothiri men, it gives a right to enjoy a sexual pleasure as they have no institution of marriage in their community other than for elder brother.Better cohesionFor a family, siblings appears to be more cohesive than a husband/wife. A brother and sister have a natural bond than a husband and wife in an arranged marriage as in latter its two distinctive individuals raised in two distinctive cultures coming together. There could be less issues between a brother and sister who were raised in same environment and have better more respect to each other.In this system, the lady of the house never moves out of her family unlike patriarchal traditions where lady becomes part of Husband’s family after marriage. So in Kerala traditions of upper caste, the concept of mother-in-law/daughter-in-law conflicts were unheard untill mid of 20th century. In patriarchal family, a newly wedded bride definitely has an outsider tag as she later joined into the family while being pretexted as a family member.So in Matrillineal law, every husband/wife is an outsider of the family, formally declared so without any pretensions of becoming a family member. A Sambandhakaran (male co-inhibitor of the lady) can reside in the lady’s family, enjoy the facilities in Lady’s home as an outsider, not as a family member with full rights.In royal families, the male consort of the queen had to sit away from her and discriminated openly even in a common banquet. For example, if Queen and her children were served 4 choices of desserts, the consort will be given only 2 choices of dessert. While lady consort of the King had no right to be inside the palace at first place unless being summoned. In case of being summoned, she has to remain only at forecourt, never in the private chambers of the King (the law has been amended by Cochin Royal family in 19th century to allow King’s consort to stay with him with no special rights)The intention of such concepts were to ensure- family concept restricted to Brother and sister with the people with whom they had relationships as outsiders.The system worked well untill start of 19th century, primarily because it served the above reasons.The biggest advantage of this system was the society gave lot of priority and independence to woman.First and formost, every lineage passes through a female, which means a family without a girl inheritor were all set to doom. This gave the practice of prioritizing a girl child in every family, a tradition still continued by most of upper caste hindus of Kerala as well as Muslims untill 1950s (Muslims of Kerala had same Nair status and their customs in Kerala were very much similar to Nairs in every way).Sambandam is the mirror image of Polygamy followed by men in patriarchy societies. The polyandrous system allowed lot of sexual independence for woman. Though they didn’t have absolute choice of man with whom they wanted to have a sexual relationship, the system gave a strong option to enter multiple relationship, thus have a varied choice rather being stuck with one relationship for a lifetime as of today. They were free to terminate the relationship as and when they wish to do so.Its was mostly like how Triple Talaq works against Muslim Women today. Nair ladies used to have instant divorce system against their male co-inhibitors (Sambandhakaran). To start a Sambandham, the male has to gift a Mundu (Dhoti) to the lady which marks the start of relationship. When a lady wishes to terminate the relationship, she just gives the mundu back to man and shows the door of her house. This simple ritual works much in favour of lady just like how Triple Talaq works for men today.Another major factor was, the concept of paid prostitution was much less, as both men and women had equal chances of N number of relationships without any social stigmas. This has pushed less sexual frustrations and less sexual assaults (ofcourse it did exist against lower caste women) despite of the fact, most of the ladies were barechested and semi naked in public sphere.The system declined most by start of 20th century, as part of Kerala Renaissance movement of 1900s. This was primarily because by 1830s, most of the armies of Kingdoms of Kerala were merged into British Indian forces, thus making a good percentage of Nairs, jobless. They returned back to their homes and became agriculturalists mostly. However the system was designed to have less men back at home and more men means more ego clashes. When younger men started travelling outside Kerala, they being constantly mocked by others upon hearing the concept. For outsiders, Sambandham violated every concept of so-called Chastity of Sanskari Women and equated to the concept of Prostitution. This lead to frustration by youngsters against the system.Hindi movie- Rang Rasiya based on life of famous painter- Raja Ravi Varma. In the opening scenes, Ravi Varma faces a legal case in Bombay where he being mocked by Marathis when he replies that he lived at his wife’s house, a social tradition unacceptable for rest of India, which was so normal for him. He was later thrown out by his wife, as it wasn’t a marriage, rather a Sambandham.By 1930s, government also approved the concept of single nuclear families and legalized the concept of partition which was a taboo previously. The whole Matrillineal system worked effectively as part of a joint family and with its abolishment, the concept started breaking. And social groups slowly pushed much of patriarchal values as followed elsewhere in India and the concept of marriage/family life as of husband-wife relationship etc were established and legally approved. Then slowly the concept of inheritance rights of own children were also accepted thus paving the way for ending of Sambandham.The system met its end mostly out of assertiveness of male rights by social organization. This whole context was well portrayed in the award winning movie- Ozhumuri.As a result, the system which was initially heavily skewed in favour of women slowly went to male hegemony as we see today.

That depends entirely on the situation.If you're arguing with someone who thinks all people are equal, and their votes should count equally, this is a very good argument. Only that will never happen because such a person wouldn't be in favor of the Electoral College anyway.If you're arguing against someone who believes land is more important than people, it is a bad argument.An image like this might be a better argument. This map shows how many campaign events there were in each state during the 2016 presidential election.Look at that map, and with a straight face tell me the Electoral College protects the interests of smaller states. Looks to me it protects the interests of Florida, North-Carolina, Pennsylvania and Ohio, not those of Idaho, Wyoming and Kansas. Their votes and citizens are ignored, taken for granted.By the way, California was Trump's second biggest state in voter count, marginally behind Texas: those densely populated urban areas don't vote as a block by any stretch of the imagination. There is no reality in the idea that urban areas would decide every election under a popular vote system. There is however the necessity that a candidate must have some appeal in urban areas, as well as at least some appeal in rural areas. Democratic candidates would be forced to increase their appeal in rural areas, and Republicans to increase their appeal in urban areas. This is healthy for a political system, and would go a long way to mend the urban/rural division in the States.