A FEW WORDS ON ASTROLOGY AND ASTRONOMY

 

 

A FEW WORDS ON ASTROLOGY AND ASTRONOMY

Shrikant G Talageri

 

Before anything else, let me make it very clear that I do not believe in astrology. But sometimes some things happen which makes one wonder about things. This article can be dismissed as based more on my own personal experiences, subjective opinions and anecdotal arguments, but nevertheless I felt in the mood to write it.

Certainly I do not believe at all in predictive astrology: I find it extremely difficult to believe that millions of people born at more or less the same point of time can possibly have the same or even broadly similar things happening to them in an unpredictable world. Of course many people who believe fervently in predictive astrology will be ready with logic, anecdotes, and maybe even convincing evidence, but it is not my wish to debate or dispute the issue with anyone and am willing to treat the subject as something beyond my powers of analysis and understanding. But I have a strong feeling that there may be something in the idea of what I would call character astrology (there may be a better name for it than this): that people born in certain periods of time (meaning actually: sharing the same zodiac sign) tend to have certain broadly similar traits of nature, personality and character; and perhaps tend to get along with, or appreciate, other people born in those same, or other related, periods of time. Again, I may be wrong, but as I said above I feel like expressing my views on the same.

The title above, "astrology and astronomy", should not mislead: my article is not about astronomy, but in any discussion of astrology there must necessarily be recourse to astronomical features and characteristics. And before anything else, one must clarify what is meant (in respect of the particular angle of astrology that I will be discussing) by "time of birth": not in pure physical terms but in terms of the different systems of calendars used by different people.

First I will briefly discuss the three types of calendars most in use: the Gregorian calendar, the Hindu calendar, and the Muslim calendar, since two different people who share the same zodiac sign (in respect of their birth date) as per any one of these three calendars may not have not the same zodiac sign as per the other two calendars.

The article will be divided into three sections:

I. The Three Calendars.

II. A Personal Coincidence.

III. Which is the Correct Zodiac Sign?

 

I. The Three Calendars

The three natural divisions of time (in earthly human terms) are:

1. The day (divided for convenience into smaller equal divisions: 24 hours as per the now universally accepted system). A full day represents the period of light (day time) + the period of darkness (night time), based on the time taken for the earth to rotate exactly 360 degrees around its axis.

2. The lunar month (consisting of 30.4167 days). A month represents the period from one full moon to another (visible in the phases of the moon), based on the time taken for the moon to complete one orbit around the earth.

3. The solar year (consisting of 365.25 days). A year represents the sum total of the cycle of seasons, based on the time taken for the earth to complete one orbit around the sun.

 

There are three major calendars followed all over the world: The Gregorian calendar (basically adopted from the Romans by the Christians), The Muslim calendar and the Hindu calendar.

1. The Gregorian calendar (now in common or use) is based only on the solar year.

It has a fixed form: the normal year has 365 days, with 12 months of unequal length not connected with the actual phases of the moon. The number of days per month are usually taught in schools by means of the following ditty:

"30 days has September,

April, June and November.

February alone has 28;

All the rest have 31".

But it takes 365.25 days for the earth to complete one orbit around the sun. So, in four years, the Gregorian year falls back from the actual solar year by one day. So one extra day is added (by convention, in the month of February) to bring the Gregorian year into line with the actual solar year.

[Actually, it is not absolutely exactly one day in four years, but it is almost exactly one day in four years: there is actually a very tiny fractional difference too tiny to be taken into account every few years. This is adjusted over a longer period: thus while every year divisible by four has an extra day, the extra day is not added if the year ends in 00 but is not divisible by 400. Therefore the year 2000 had an extra day, and the year 2400 will have an extra day; but the years 1700, 1800 and 1900 did not have an extra day since they are not divisible by 400. This small adjustment every 100 years can be ignored in the short run].

2. The Muslim calendar is based only on the lunar month.

Every month therefore has 29 or 30 days, usually decided on the basis of the actual sighting of the new moon. So the year generally has a total of 354 days.

Just as the Gregorian calendar has no direct connection with the lunar month, the Muslim calendar has no direct connection with the solar year. So we find that the new year starts more or less 354 days after the start of the previous year, so every year the new year, and therefore every Muslim day and Muslim festival based on the Muslim calendar, shifts backwards by roughly 11-12 days and progressively keeps passing through all the different seasons of the year.

3. The Hindu calendar is based on both the lunar month and the solar year.

Basically, every month, like the Muslim month, is based on the lunar month, has 29 or 30 days (based on astronomical calculations rather than on the actual physical sighting of the new moon), and the year has a total of 354 days.

But (somewhat like the addition of an extra day once in four years in the Gregorian calendar), there is one extra month once in every three years to bring the Hindu year in line with the solar year. Again this is based on astronomical calculations. The extra month is known as adhik mās (extra month).

But this adhik mās which occurs once in every three years is not necessarily the same month every time: this year for example, in 2023, the adhik mās is the month of Śrāvaṇ. So, this year, the adhik Śrāvaṇ mās started on 18 July 2023 and will end on 16 August 2023, and the actual (or nija) Śrāvaṇ mās will start on 17 August 2023 and end on 15 September 2023. So we have almost 60 days of the month of Śrāvaṇ in 2023.

From all this, it will be obvious that the "year" as per the three calendars does not and cannot coincide from year to year. If the first of January of any particular year (say 2023) falls on a certain month and day of the Hindu calendar and a certain month and day of the Muslim calendar, the first of January of the subsequent years (2024, 2025, and so on) will fall each time on different days of the Hindu and Muslim calendars.

Further, while the Muslim calendar does not believe in any relationship with the signs of the zodiac, the Gregorian and Hindu calendars, which do, can give different signs of the zodiac for the same date. Thus, my zodiac sign as per the Gregorian calendar is Leo, but as per the Hindu calendar it is Karka=Cancer. So who are my zodiac-partners: "Leos" or "Cancers"? Which of the two should be treated as the correct zodiac sign for this purpose?

Before giving my views on the subject, I must point out a strange personal coincidence which came to my notice a few days ago.

 

II. A Personal Coincidence

I was born on 14 August 1958. While I do not have my horoscope (it seems to have got lost in the mists of time), and cannot trace the exact time, etc., I do remember that I was supposed to have been born in the month of adhik Śrāvaṇ, and I was intrigued to know that this year, 2023, also had a month of adhik Śrāvaṇ. So I decided to check out on what date my "birthday" will fall this year if I go strictly by the tithi: I remembered that it was supposed to be on kṛṣṇa pakṣa 14 of adhik Śrāvaṇ. I checked out 14 August 1958 as per the Hindu calendar, and yes, it was indeed kṛṣṇa pakṣa 14 of adhik Śrāvaṇ.

This year kṛṣṇa pakṣa 14 of adhik Śrāvaṇ falls on 15 August 2023. I remember in our school days, it was the joke that Morarji Desai, who was born on February 29, could celebrate his "birthday" only once in four years. I was childishly pleased that my "birthday" this year was almost exactly the same as per both the Gregorian and Hindu calendars as it was in 1958, with a difference of only one day.

But then I thought of checking 14 August 1958 as per the Muslim calendar. It fell on 28 Moharram in 1958. Checking out the situation in 2023, 28 Moharram 2023 this year also falls on 15 August 2023! So again that same difference of one day between the Gregorian calendar on the one hand and the Hindu and Muslim calendars on the other.

But is there really a difference of one day? As I thought about the matter, I realized that, due to the practice of adding one day every four years in the Gregorian calendar to bring it in line with the solar year which it actually represents, that difference could well be illusory, and it could be that according to the Gregorian solar year as well my birthday could well fall one day ahead on 15 August 2023:

The extra day added every fourth year represents the accumulated balance of four years. The last extra day was added in February 2020 and the next one will be added in February 2024. So, since three-and-a-half years of accumulated balance of the extra day (which will officially only be added in February 2024) has already taken place by 14 August 2023, the actual solar day on 14 August 2023 is 14 August 2023 + seven-eighths of one extra day. That is, the actual solar day on 14 August 2023 (even if  is officially called 14 August 2023) is practically 1 day ahead, i.e. 15 August 2023.

[Or, to put it in another way, if the practice of adding one extra day once in every four years had conventionally pertained to the years 2023, 2019, 2015, etc. instead of the years 2024, 2020, 2016, etc., then this year 2023 would have had an extra day in February and August 14 in both 1958 and 2023 would have coincided exactly with kṛṣṇa pakṣa 14 of adhik Śrāvaṇ as well as with 28 Moharram].

So all three calendars, the Gregorian calendar of 1958, the Hindu calendar of 1958, and the Muslim calendar of 1958, tally exactly with the calendars in 2023, i.e. they are in the same alignment with each other in 2023 as they were in 1958. This is an uncommon occurrence and, for me personally, a source of (I admit childish) pleasure.

There will of course be scientific explanations for this. Perhaps the three years, the actual Gregorian solar year, the Hindu year and the Muslim year, always come to the same alignment every 65 years? I have no idea about it and must leave the scientific explanations to the astronomers.

As I said, this article is not a "scientific" analysis as per anyone's ideas of what constitutes "scientific". It only puts forward my observations (perhaps subjective and anecdotal ones).

 

III. Which is the Correct Zodiac Sign?

I never believed in any kind of astrology at all: as I said earlier, I find it extremely difficult to believe that millions of people born at more or less the same point of time can possibly have the same or even broadly similar things happening to them in an unpredictable world.

The first inkling I got that maybe there was something in what I call "character astrology" was in 1994, when I used to go directly from my office (Central Bank, Girgaum) to the Bombay University Library in the Fort area everyday for further research. A friend and colleague from the branch, a passionate believer in all kinds of astrology, asked whether he could come to see books on astrology. As he was browsing through the section on astrology, he came across an old, yellowed (and almost crumbling) book, tied up with a lace, on the effects of the position of the planet Uranus on the birth chart, particularly in relation to the positions of the Sun and the Moon. My friend, unknown to me, went out and phoned my house and found out from my mother my exact time of birth, and went to the Asiatic Department Stores opposite Churchgate station to take a printout of my birth chart, and landed back in the Library with it. The book (about Uranus) contained the "character" predictions for every relative position of Uranus-Sun-Moon on the birth chart, and he found out my particular position (all three were in the same "house" on my horoscope chart). The book predicted four characteristics of the person who had this particular position in the chart. He/she:

1. would be careless and even dowdy in the matter of clothes and appearance.

2. would be passionate in matters of fighting for Justice and against Injustice.

3. would tend to not marry.

4. would undertake deep studies in some subject and discover new things.

All four were so sharply applicable to me, and (since many people would claim the second characteristic for themselves) the third and fourth especially (this was after my first book and while I was researching for my second one) so very specifically accurate, that I was startled.

The library authorities must have realized that the book was too old and fragile to be kept available for readers because when I went again and tried to locate it after a few days, it had been shifted to and kept locked up in some "highly restricted" section, so I was not able to investigate further or even note the exact name, author, publication, etc. of the book, and in recent times have not been able to locate it in Google searches either, so my paraphrase of the four "characteristics" is my own.

However, I did not become (and have not really become even now) a convert to faith in astrology as such. But in the last ten years I came across this strange phenomenon that people with whom I seem to get on very well seem to tend to be Leos. So much so that when I meet new people and find, after some time, that I am getting on well with some particular person, that person, over 40% of the times, tends to be a Leo! Obviously a list of persons who are closest to me or with whom I get on best or whom (in some particular field) I like best will naturally encompass people born in all 12 signs of the zodiac, and it is possible that there will be Leos with whom I will not be able to get along well or whom I will dislike; but the particular concentration or cluster of Leos in such a list in comparison to other groups is too remarkable to be dismissed as pure coincidence.

[And here is a crucial point: I am a Leo as per the western zodiac, but a Cancer as per the Indian zodiac, but at least on this particular matter, I find that the western zodiac seems to show the situation more correctly].

To begin with, of the two closest and most important people in the world for me, my mother was a Leo. [My father was an Aries]. I owe everything positive in myself and good in the world to my parents, Gangadhar Sitaram Talageri and Shaila Gangadhar Talageri (nee Sita Pandurang Taggarse) and must first pay my tribute to them.

In my immediate family every person irrespective of zodiac sign, is close. But among my close relatives outside my immediate family, the regularly closest one and with whom I have the most interaction is a maternal cousin, who is a Leo. Of the other six (maternal and paternal) cousins with whom I get along best, three are Leos [and one is a Sagittarius, one is a Gemini, and one is a Scorpius].

[A confession: I get along splendidly with all my maternal aunts in different ways, but not one of them is a Leo].

Of the seven people whom I get along with most easily (in different ways and to different degrees) within my community residing in our area, four are Leos [and one is a Sagittarius, one is a Gemini, and one is a Taurus].

To get into specifics, three of my very closest friends (not being colleagues from my office) who require special mention. All three, from totally different backgrounds have continuously been my closest friends for more than thirty years since the early nineties. And all three are Leos.

To name the oldest by age, Suresh Desai, a feisty retired journalist and writer with whom I became acquainted in the early nineties in an institution organized in Mumbai by Ashok Chowgule (and a few others), the Hindu Vivek Kendra. Hindu writers (and letters-to-newspapers writers) used to meet every month in the HVK office to discuss issues for the purpose of readers'-letter-writing to newspapers (then, in 1994, a popular activity). The group melted after a few years, but three or four of us remained in constant contact, and finally only Desai and myself continued to be in contact. For some reason it became a very close friendship, and I was a regular visitor to their house in Mahim, where animated discussions on a variety of topics (from religion and politics to English literature to old Hindi films and music) were supplemented by Mrs Desai's delectable dishes. However, after Mrs Desai expired in 2011 or so, Desai became extremely depressed, and it was regular visits from myself and another neighbor of his which saved him from a complete breakdown (his children are settled abroad). Ever since then, till his death in August 2022, I was a regular visitor at least once a week (except during the COVID lockdown) and there were regular phone calls from both sides all the time whenever any problem or ailment beset either of us. We used to have extremely interesting intellectual discussions whenever we met, on every issue, and (since both of us had strong views on every issue, and argumentative natures) even extremely spirited verbal battles. After my mother expired in 2012, he was the one to whom I would unburden all my tales of woe and triumph, and to whom I would expound the subjects of my various books and articles, and I was the one to introduce him to all kinds of food (treating people to food is one of my passions) and to serials like (Hindi) Tarak Mehta Ka Ulta Chashma and (Marathi) Ratrisa Khela Chale, which (along with Crime Patrol and classical and natyasangeet or other music programs on TV) were his only solace when he was alone.

After my father expired in 2002 and my mother in 2012, and I was utterly disconsolate, he had become like a father-figure. I was superstitiously expecting that it would be my turn in 2022. But it was Desai who expired in August 2022 at the age of 87 of a heart attack, after amputation of one foot (diabetes) and subsequent extreme depression. His expiry has left a vacuum in my social and intellectual life, and I take this opportunity to pay tribute to this fellow-Leo.

The second is my Muslim friend, Khalid (Md. Khalid Akhtar Siddiqui to give his full name). He was a customer in my SVP road branch of Central Bank of India, where I worked till 1991, but I was not aware of this. Later, when I was in Girgaum branch, in 1992, I had ventured into the outskirts of Chor Bazar to buy something when he saw and recognized me as a Central Bank employee and spoke to me. As is my habit I treated him to a falooda at the Shalimar Cold Drinks shop, and he told me that his "karkhana" (a large ground-floor godown owned by his father) was nearby and showed me the place. It was then practically a club for his neighboring friends (to play chess and carrom) and also the place where they did block-printing and screen-printing on clothes on long tables. I had since long wanted to have a Muslim friend in the area who could take me to see the Moharram processions that I had always seen in TV news programs. So I became a regular visitor to the area. He being a Sunni, these Shia processions were not part of his repertoire, but I did manage to achieve that aim and was (and still am whenever possible) a regular spectator of these processions.

At the time I was in the process of my first book "The Aryan Invasion Theory and Indian Nationalism", as well as an active member of the VHP's Ayodhya movement. He was, and is, a typical Muslim. So I was a bit apprehensive about being a regular visitor in the typically Muslim Bhendi Bazar area. Nevertheless I did become a regular visitor and know every corner of the entire Muslim area (and its hotels and shops), and our friendship somehow endured and even became very strong during those tumultous Ayodhya years. I made a very large number of friends and acquaintances through him in the area. In the last 31+ years, the Bhendi Bazar area has been one of my most regular haunts, and I am as familiar to all his family, neighbors, friends and relatives as he is to mine. Moving around with him in different areas during his rounds (as part of the clothes-printing work) I was able to see many parts of Mumbai that I had only heard of, or even those I had never heard of. In the last ten years or so, his business is not active, so the Mumbai-darshan days are over. But he is the most frequent visitor to our house, where we watch the programs stored on my computer (old songs, other videos, serials like "Crime Patrol" of which I have over two thousand parts, etc.), and my most regular companion in other activities (shopping, eating in hotels, etc.); but also, like Desai above, a (admittedly unlikely) sounding-board for my articles and personal matters.

And third, but not least, Koenraad Elst, my closest colleague and friend in the world of pro-Hindu writers. I met him for the first time in the Voice of India office in Delhi on 7/12/1992, the day after the demolition of the Babri structure. I had reached there on the 6th (to meet Sita Ram Goel and discuss the proof-reading of my first book), and he came from Belgium on the 7th. While we did have a little interaction during those few days, it was only after a year or two later (when Ashok Chowgule of the VHP organized his talks in Mumbai) that we became intellectually closer. Since then, in spite of the geographic distance, he has been my closest friend in the intellectual world; and while we have met many times (on his visits to Mumbai, in seminars and talks, etc. in various places), the connection through mail, and occasionally phone, has been a continuous process. We are both the most ardent flag-bearers of the Voice of India legacy of Sita Ram Goel; and, while no two individuals can have exactly the same views on every topic, he is nevertheless the person with whom I am "on the same wave-length" on almost all issues. I am among his strongest supporters, and among the most indignant about the shoddy way in which Hindu society has treated his sacrifices for the Hindu Cause. I feel honored to say our names are often clubbed together in the social media.

As I said, it is too much of a coincidence that all three of them are Leos, and if I were to add the names of two other closest persons with whom I always feel free to share my woes, triumphs and interests, one is the Leo cousin I spoke of earlier (Deepak Gulvadi) and the other is an office colleague Usha Gupta, who is not a Leo, but falls in another cluster (Aquarius) that I will mention later.

But this extends further: I have been a passionate reader of "story-books" and novels since childhood. And all my three favorite writers of "children's books" (which I still read again and again with the same pleasure) are Leos: Enid Blyton, JK Rowling, and Frank/Hilda Richards (actual name Charles Hamilton, writer of Billy bunter books, not to be confused with the Charles Hamilton of "Gone With the Wind"). [The fourth one, Richmal Crompton, is not: she is a Scorpius, but then so also is my favorite writer of a single book: Margaret Mitchell, "Gone With the Wind"].

[my three favorite writers of non-children's-books are not Leos: Jane Austen is a , Sagittarius, PG Wodehouse is a Libra, and Agatha Christie is a Virgo. But coincidentally, another great writer who was a favorite of my father and is a favorite of my sister, who seems to be a combination of the three, Georgette Heyer, is a Leo. Like Jane Austen, most of her books are about pre-20th century England; I remember a school master telling us: "If you want to improve your English, read PG Wodehouse and Georgette Heyer"; and having recently read five of her murder-mysteries (I am in search of the other five) I find her murder-mysteries as great as those of Agatha Christie. Of course, I have favorite authors of particular books in every other zodiac sign as well].

In my opinion, the most interesting of the many Indian writers who write novels based on fictional interpretations of Indian mythological themes and characters is also a Leo: Kavita Kane.

In the case of my bank job also, the two persons whom I would be grateful to for indirectly being my beneficiaries are both Leos (without which I would not have been earning my rozi roti, and probably not free to carry out my research as a writer. I had foolishly gone in for Commerce in my college and hated it so much that I used to completely neglect my studies and would not have been able to secure a job on my B.Com certificate if I had waited to complete my degree before getting a job. Fortunately I got the job on my SSC marks, which were excellent, before I completed my degree course):

One is my neighbor (one of the close Leos mentioned earlier), Ashok Ugrankar, who was the one to direct my attention to various bank advertisements for applications for recruitment in 1978. We were not in the habit of noticing such things.

The second is the founder of Central Bank of India, Sorabji Pochkhanawala, who founded this institution which (at least when it was still dominated by Parsis) was the most employee-friendly bank in India. He is revered by all the old employees of the bank, and his photo adorns every branch and office. Earlier applications and interviews in other, more unfriendly, banks had not produced any results for me.

 

The most important or well-known aspect of my work has been on the subject of the "Aryan"/Indo-European Homeland issue and the analysis of the Rigveda. It is significant that the three modern staunch Hindu schools of thought, representing the three possible diametrically opposite views on this subject, are all by Leos:

1. I myself was the founder of the OIT case proper, and the first to carry out a complete historical analysis of the Rigveda based on the actual data.

2. Lokmanya Tilak was the founder of a staunchly Hindu version of the AIT. According to him, the "Aryans" originated in the Arctic circle and India was practically the last land that they entered!  His version represented a Brahmin supremacist viewpoint, and his Rigvedic (and other) analysis was based on pseudo-astronomical arguments. His school is represented today by many closet Brahmin supremacists feigning to be scientific in their approach.

3. Sri Aurobindo was the founder of the third school of anti-historical analysis of the Rigveda (somewhat like the evasionist approach of the Arya Samaj). Although he rejected the AIT (and yet seemed to support Tilak in some places!), he advocated a purely spiritual and symbolical approach. His work led to the first book in modern times discussing the implications of the AIT, written by his very great disciple KD Sethna (who was however not a Leo) who supported the spiritual interpretations to the hilt, but also delved into the AIT arguments and suggested a "long belt of ancient Aryanism" spreading out from India to, and far beyond, Central Asia.

Significantly, many of the most prominent modern Hindu students of the subject are Leos. Nilesh Oak, the most popular of them and with the biggest following, supports my OIT version, except in the matter of Absolute Chronology, where he takes the dates extremely far back into the past. But in spite of these differences, I get along very well with him.

In the case of my books and research work also (while the primary person responsible for it, Sita Ram Goel, was not a Leo), the person responsible for my fourth book (on the genetics aspect), as he asked me to write it and financed its publication, and is also the founder of the only internet discussion group of which I am a member, and of the Indic Academy which carries out fundamental activities for the preservation and propagation of India culture, is a Leo: Hari Kiran Vadlamani.

 

This is not to say compatible people, affinities, favorites, etc. are necessarily people from the same zodiac sign: they can be from any zodiac sign. But the same zodiac sign does seem to be one of many factors ( I must emphasize the fact that other astrological, as well as non-astrological factors like heredity, upbringing, socio-religious environment, experiences,  and state of physical/mental health could well skew the force of the zodiac-sign affinity-tendency) which shape characters and which produce affinity between individuals. But it is definitely one of the factors:

1. The concentration or cluster of close or favorite people (or people I could personally get along with easily) in my list who are Leos is also supplemented by the fact that whenever I meet some new acquaintances or strangers  with whom I seem to get along very well, and if I ask that person's birth date (as per the Gregorian calendar), in more than one-third of the cases, the person turns out to be a Leo.

2. While I would be able to find my favorite people in different fields, or people with whom I feel great affinity ─ as other clusters show ─ in every sign of the zodiac; I also find that other people that I detest (or with whom I would find it very difficult to detect any kind of affinity) are usually present in every other zodiac sign other than Leo, and find it very difficult to find such persons among Leos. Of course, as I wrote earlier, other factors mentioned earlier (heredity, upbringing, socio-religious environment, experiences,  and state of physical/mental health of other individuals) could produce such people among Leos in spite of the zodiac sign, but they will probably be rare cases.

[for example, Mussolini is also a Leo. But he does not fall into clusters with other famous dictators, and ( I had always thought this even before I discovered now that he is a Leo) was perhaps the least worst of them. for example, the Wikipedia article on him writes:

"In June 1940, after the outbreak of World War II, the Fascist Italian government opened around 50 concentration camps.^[5] These were used predominantly to hold political prisoners but also around 2,200 Jews of foreign nationality (Italian Jews were not interned). The Jews in these camps were treated no differently than political prisoners. While living conditions and food were often basic, prisoners were not subject to violent treatment.^[6] The Fascist regime even allowed a Jewish-Italian organization (DELASEM) to operate legally in support of the Jewish internees.^{[7 […]}

Unlike Jews in other Axis-aligned countries, no Jews in Italy or Italian-occupied areas were murdered or deported to concentration camps in Germany before September 1943.^[10][11] In the territories occupied by the Italian Army in Greece, France and Yugoslavia, Jews even found protection from persecution.^[12] The Italian Army actively protected Jews in occupation zones, to the frustration of Nazi Germany, and to the point where the Italian sector in Croatia was referred to as the "Promised Land".^[13] Up to September 1943, Germany made no serious attempt to force Mussolini and Fascist Italy into handing over Italian Jews. It was nevertheless irritated with the Italian refusal to arrest and deport its Jewish population, feeling it encouraged other countries allied with the Axis powers to refuse as well".

Incidentally, Fidel Castro, the only leftist dictator for whom I, rightly or wrongly, have always had a soft corner, is also a Leo].  

 

Of course I have favorites and affinities among all signs of the zodiac (for example, to me, the greatest writer of political fiction of all time is George Orwell, a Cancer. One person who gave me my first claim to fame by his appreciation of my first book was Girilal Jain, a Virgo], but, as I showed above, it seems to me that the sign of the zodiac does appear to play a disproportionately large role in these things. To conclude this list, here are a few more of my Leo favorites in one-of-the-twos: Sudhir Phadke (one of my two most favorite Marathi music directors and one of my favorite Marathi singers, and the person who made it his life's mission to produce a film on Savarkar); Shakeel Badayuni (one of my two greatest Hindi film song-writers); Kishore Kumar (one of my two greatest male singers in Hindi films); VS Naipaul (one of the two great eminent people who openly supported the demolition of the Babri Masjid); and Arvind Kejriwal (one of my two favorite Chief Ministers of India). Also, countless greats like George Bernard Shaw, Munshi Premchand, Meena Kumari, Vijayantimala, Menachem Begin, Sharad Talwalkar, Gulzar, etc.

Now it is also possible that this whole thing about greater concentration of favorites and affinities in my own zodiac sign is my own personal case, and may not apply to all Leos, or to people of other zodiac signs. However, other clusters indicate that certain zodiac signs could actually have special affinities with certain other zodiac signs: there seems to be a special affinity between Leo and Aquarius which appears at the opposite end of the year (Leo and Aquarius are separated from each other on both sides by five zodiac signs): 

I referred earlier above: to "Three of my very closest friends (not being colleagues from my office)". My closest friends from among the colleagues from my office seem to fall in a cluster under another zodiac sign: of the eight best or closest or longest-standing friends among my former office colleagues, six are Aquarius [One is a Taurus and one is a Libra].

Interestingly there seems to be a cluster of the topmost Hindutva icons (the topmost ideologues and intellectuals, and believers in action ─ rather than in getting elected by using Hindutva as an expendable and disposable political card) in three zodiac signs: in Aquarius (on the opposite side of the year from Leo) and in Gemini and Libra (both separated from Leo on both sides by one other zodiac sign):

While the first Hinduhridaysamrat,  Savarkar, is not an Aquarius, there is quite a cluster of  the other topmost Hinduhridaysamrat icons (certainly as per my vote) who are Aquarius: Balasaheb Thackeray, Anand Dighe, Balraj Madhok, with Sadhvi Pragya and Om Prakash Tyagi (the only Lok Sabha MP to date to seriously try to bring an anti-conversion bill in the lok Sabha)  And, while the Aquarius sign is supposed to extend to 18 January, two top Hindutva icons seem to be on the borderline, both born on 19 January: Chhatrapati Shivaji and MS Golwalkar!

Savarkar is a Gemini (and so is his most eminent biographer, Vikram Sampath). In a cluster with him in Gemini are Mahant Avaidyanath (the only hardcore Hindu Mahasabha leader to be elected repeatedly to the Lok Sabha on his own strength) and his successor Yogi Adityanath (one of my two favorite Chief Ministers of India, and the future hope of most Hindutvavadi people ─ a hope I hope will not be disappointed or betrayed), and Raj Thackeray, one of my favorite, and the most outspoken, even if not very successful, leaders at the moment.

Sita Ram Goel and his close companion Ram Swaroop (the two Bhishma Pitamahas of Hindutva intellectual activity, and the revered source of inspiration for all Hindutva intellectuals) are both Libras. So are Deen Dayal Upadhyay (the intellectual ideologue of the old Jana Sangh) and Ashok Singhal (the most eminent face of the Ayodhya movement). Two Muslims, though not exactly Hindutva icons, are held in high esteem by all true Hindutvites: Hamid Dalwai (I have put up his book, on "Indian Muslims" on my blog) and APJ Abdul Kalam (my favorite President of India, and a true secularist in the real sense of the word). But note the following:

One single date (October 2) has produced three diametrically different Libras, at least two of whom are among the topmost Hindutva icons (the second definitely in my opinion at least): Lal Bahadur Shastri (my favorite Prime Minister of India who, in spite of perhaps being an avowed secularist, is likewise loved by all true Hindutvites: the maker of "The Kashmir Files" had also earlier made a film on "The Tashkent Files" involving him) and Dara Singh of Orissa fame (whom I at least consider a truly great Hindutva hero. I wonder if the unknown Sentinelese hero who shot the American missionary in 2018 is also a Leo by birth!).

 

The third of these is a person who did very great harm to Hindutva and India, and cannot in anyone's honest consideration be a Hindutva icon: Mahatma Gandhi. Strangely, he is considered by the maximum number of non-Hindus as the most ideal representative of Hinduism, which he definitely was not. But then, we do find really great Hindutva quotes of sorts from him in respect of both Christianity and Islam ("My own experience but confirms the opinion that the Musalman as a rule is a bully, and the Hindu as a rule is a coward….Bullies are always to be found where there are cowards". And, "If I had power and could legislate, the first thing I would ban is conversions"). He did sharply criticize Christian Evangelical activities in detail, and (as elaborated in my article "Hindutva or Hindu Nationalism") his socio-economic views did reflect the ethos of  Hinduism more than the views of most Hindutva supporters. But, as I wrote earlier, the zodiac sign alone is not everything: other factors contributed to make him so destructive; as well as to make him a self-centered tyrant (in the way he regularly imposed his views on the Congress, or in the way he enforced celibacy on his wife while himself indulging in "experiments with truth").

 

It looks as if having the same sign of the zodiac can produce affinity. Note the following cases: Among the famous, or rather notorious, dictators, Mao and Kim-Jong-Un are both Capricorn, and Hitler, Lenin and Pol Pot are all three Taurus, and Stalin and Franco are both Sagittarius.

My favorite foreign leaders, Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu, are both Libras.

 

But now perhaps I am going too far afield and should stop at this point. As I said, this article is not a scientific analysis, but an attempt to put in writing my personal, subjective and anecdotal observations regarding my own favorites and affinities, born out of the fact that so many of my closest people and favorites are Leos in  disproportionate proportions. In a way, this may seem to many to be rather a self-centered article. But after all, a blog article is meant to be an expression of personal views. So I will leave the subject to more detailed students of astrology and astronomy if anyone is interested.