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Brutalities on Hindus in Bangladesh

Savage attacks against Hindus in Bangladesh -- usually regarded as a moderate Muslim land -- have raised fears that the country could go the way of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The festival of the Goddess Durga in October is normally the high point of the Bengali Hindu cultural calendar. But this year for thousands of Hindu families in Bangladesh, there was no festival and no rejoicing. Instead, gangs of Islamic extremists torched their homes, raped women, poisoned ponds and attacked temples.

At first, many explained the savagery as a post-electoral revenge spree. Hindus in Muslim-majority Bangladesh typically support the Awami League party, which lost in October’s national elections. But the scale and ferocity of the recent violence — which has affected some 4 million people, according to the popular daily newspaper Janakantho — is raising the specter of Talibanization in a country usually regarded as a moderate Muslim land.

The new Bangladeshi government under Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has deployed police and paramilitary forces, mostly in cities, to quell the violence. But rural areas have seen the most horrific attacks. Many villages can be reached only by boat or on foot, and information is slow to come out. Bangladeshi newspapers are beginning to reveal the scope of the attacks:

• Nearly 200 women, ranging in age from 8 to 70, were raped in one night in Char Fashion in Bhola.
• The Faizal Vahini, an extremist Islamic group, ordered minorities in Rauzan and Rangunia to pay a monthly “tax” in order to be allowed to stay in their ancestral homes.
• Gopal Krishna Muhuri, a veteran freedom fighter and college principal, was shot to death at his home in Chittagong while reading a newspaper.
• Some 15,000 Hindus took refuge in the village of Ramshil after their homes were destroyed and the women were abducted and raped.

(source: AsianWeek.com ). Refer to My People, Uprooted: "A Saga of the Hindus of Eastern Bengal"  - By Tathagata Roy

"The true picture is not known to the outside world. It is a free for all so far it goes to torturing minority Hindus. Women and property are the prime targets - hundreds of Hindu women are hospitalised, many were killed after being raped," Bidhu Bhusan Das, one of the migrants from Barishal, who fled leaving behind his relatives said.

(source: Indian Express). 

“Everyone is concerned about the rights of innocent people in Afghanistan, but nobody wants to know about what these Taliban are doing to Hindus in Bangladesh,” the spokesman said. The campaign by the group has, however, won support from Amnesty International. In a report released on Dec. 5, Amnesty cited several instances of Hindus being harassed in Bangladesh. “More than one hundred women are believed to have been raped, often in front of their husbands or fathers. A number of Hindu girls have been abducted,” the report said. Amnesty asked Dhaka to take urgent action to protect Hindus “following weeks of grave human rights abuses.” Amnesty said: “Successive governments have let down the Hindu minority in Bangladesh and the last two months show exactly how vulnerable the Hindu community is. The government must live up to its responsibility to protect all of its citizens.” Though a government committee had been set up to investigate the attacks, Amnesty said it was “not aware of any progress it has made.” The Forum for Minority Rights in Bangladesh says attacks on Hindus have picked up in retaliation for the United States-led bombing of Afghanistan and the support for it from India. It also stated that rapes, torture, destruction of properties, temples and killing of Hindus have been renewed since October.

(source: London group protests atrocities against Hindus - Desi Talk).

Despite Bangladesh's assurances to India to prevent attacks on Hindus, reports of atrocities on the community continue to pour in from across the country. The women's rights groups, however, said several persecuted families have fled to India. Many others have taken shelter with relatives. ``The minority Hindus have suffered harrowing torture, including rape of teenage girls, by gangs of supporters of the new Government,'' Ms. Rokeya Kabir, head, Nari Pragati Sangha, told presspersons.

What obviously frustrates the Bengali people in Bangladesh, India and America is the near total lack of attention the world is paying to their problems. The Palestine situation involving only 1.6 million Palestinian continually occupies both the world's press and diplomatic corps. Unless the world community quickly turns its attention to the situation in Bangladesh, we may see another catastrophic "war of liberation" such as has laid waste to Ireland, Cyprus, Lebanon, Palestine, the Punjab and northern Sri Lanka.

Ignored by the police, outnumbered by the Muslims, Hindus in 1992 for the first time in Bangladesh and Hindu history, performed Durga Puja without the Deity present in physical form--only a ghot or khumba (a coconut on a pot). In 1996, 20,000 pandals with Deities were set up across the country, a few more than the previous year. That year the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told devotees at the Dhakeswari temple in Dhaka, "You will have the equal rights to practice your respective religions with full dignity and honor and none to interfere in it." But in 1997, the Organiser newspaper from Delhi reported, "Gangs descended on puja pandals and demanded jazia [the Islamic tax on non-Muslims] from the puja organizers for performing 'idol worship' in Islamic Bangladesh. Since the pattern of attack was the same throughout Bangladesh, it is suspected that it was a well-planned operation, especially because no police help was available."

Senator Edward Kennedy's report on 1971 Genocide of Hindus:

Senator Edward Kennedy in his report gives the following details about the refugees from Bangladesh in 1971. As of October 25, 1971, 9.54 million refugees from East Pakistan had crossed over to India. the average influx as of October 1971 was 10,645 refugees a day. Hence the total refugee population at the start of Indo-Pak war on December 3, 1971 was about 10
million. Sen. Kennedy further mentions that Government of India had set up separate refugee camps for Hindus and Muslims wherever possible, i.e., refugee camps of Hindus were located in Hindu majority areas and similarly Muslim camps were located in Muslim majority areas. The communal representation of refugees was 80 per cent Hindu, 15 per cent Muslim and 5 per cent Christian and others.  

This means that 8 million of the 10 million refugees were Hindus. The other fact that corroborates this is that when Sen. Kennedy asked several chief relief officers in charge of refugee camps what was needed most urgently their reply was "crematoriums".

(source: Hindus Flee Bangladesh - Hinduism Today and Hindu Human Rights  and Repression and atrocities against the Hindu minorities in Bangladesh and Senator Edward Kennedy's report on 1971 Genocide of Hindus. Watch History of Ayodhya - videogoogle.com. Refer to My People, Uprooted: "A Saga of the Hindus of Eastern Bengal"  - By Tathagata Roy.

The selective amnesia of the English media in India is simply breathtaking. There appears to be a cardinal rule: Never publish anything that would be in the least bit negative about Muslims in general and Pakistanis in particular; or about Christians; or about Marxists in general and the Chinese in particular. For instance, the Chinese genocide in occupied Tibet is glossed over, and an Indian English magazine's famous editor goes on a China-sponsored tour there and writes a glowing account of how life is beautiful.

Shabana Azmi and Kuldeep Nayyar and Human Rights Watch and the rest of the human rights cottage industry were very quiet. The US Council on International Religious Freedom was thunderously silent, too, which shows yet again that their definition of 'religious freedom' is rather unique: It means the freedom of American cults to propagate their bizarre ideas.

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The atrocities committed by Islamic terrorists, including ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Kashmir, and attacks all over India killing Hindus -- note the latest attacks just before Diwali and now on the Indian Institute of Science -- are trivialised by the chatterati with the usual cant about how the terrorists are misguided youths frustrated by lack of opportunities.

It appears axiomatic that to the media, the only good Hindu is a dead Hindu.

This is why the attack on a Hindu temple in Dera Bugti in Balochistan in March last year got absolutely no coverage in the Indian media and did not disturb Indian society in general.

Shabana Azmi and Kuldeep Nayyar and Human Rights Watch and the rest of the human rights cottage industry were very quiet. The US Council on International Religious Freedom was thunderously silent, too, which shows yet again that their definition of 'religious freedom' is rather unique: It means the freedom of American cults to propagate their bizarre ideas.

(source: Ignore this genocide, we're secular - By Rajeev Srinivasan - rediff.com).

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RNI – Resident Non Indians 

RNI - Resident Non Indian is a convert to British imperialism through Macaulayte education. Macaulay, a Member of the Council of India wrote a Minute in 1835 designing educational policy with the objectives: (a) to create a class of subservient Indians to “be interpreters between us [British rulers] and the millions whom we govern.” Subservience required that these Indians fully accept British [or Western] interests as legitimate and supreme to which Indian interests have to be subjugated. (b) These subservient Indians form “a class of persons, Indians in blood and color, but English [Western] in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect.” They are fully alienated from their own, especially Hindu, culture.

RNI have three distinguishing characteristics:

(a) 'Acceptance' of Western racist-colonial-cum-imperialist objectives. 'Acceptance' means that they believe in “the white man's burden” to civilize the “vile native Hindoos” by colonial-cum-imperialist policies; such as divide and rule; severe punishment even genocide. Gandhi was pained by the description of Hindus “as vile” and wrote in his characteristic forgiving style: “One of the greatest Christian divines, Bishop Heber, wrote two lines [about Hindus] which have always left a sting with me: [namely] 'where every prospect pleases and only Man is vile.' I wish he had not written them.

b) 'Servitude' to Western interests, ideology, persons and values. 'Servitude' ensures that they don't question the validity of the Western ideology and its superiority to all things 'small'; and

(c) 'Alienation' from their own heritage. 'Alienation' results in “ethnic shame and guarantees their commitment to condemn and destroy any thing that smells of Indian nationalism; specially Hindu.

RNI conduct confirms psychological scars from both colonial and conversion impacts. Converts rarely achieve anything in life. Because of the need to follow, they have little capacity to think originally. 

RNI imagine themselves to be “white” even though they have brown skins and their grandparents were abused by the imperialist cum racist colonial whites. They copy everything Western -- dress, food, language. In their delusional state, they behave as if they are “white colonialists,” frozen in early 20th century, carrying on the “white man's burden” of civilizing the “vile Hindus. ”Following white racist colonial policy, they employ 19th century imperialist policy of “divide and rule” by (a) dividing and denigrating Hindus through the British use of caste system, (b) demonizing majority community, culture and lifestyle that poses a threat to this rule, and (c) creating and promoting minorities as a counter to this threat.

(source: India Ascendant - by Romesh Diwan - sulekha.com). For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor. Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com

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Hindus, the last of the Pagans?

Koenraad Elst writes: The term Pagan, is generally used for people not belonging to the Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Like its Germanic equivalent Heathen, the Latin word Paganus literally means: rural. Christianity started as a strictly urban movement, and only after it had taken power in the Roman Empire in 313 A.D. did it start to conquer the countryside.

Paganism sees the sacred in manifestations of cosmic order, cosmic power, cosmic beauty. The distinction which Hinduism claims is that through yoga, it has refined human sensitivity and made man receptive to subtler cosmic laws, such as the ultimate oneness of all sentient beings, hence the need for daya or karuna, compassion."

What is called paganism, heathenism, and polytheism is in fact the Natural religion of humanity. In areas where it has survived the onslaught of anti-human ideologies with their ego gods, it has retained its self-respecting name. In Japan it is Shinto, in Taiwan. Confucianism And Taoism, and in India as Hinduism.

When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire under Constatantine, the natural humanistic beliefs were proscribed. With the spread of Christianity after the fall of Rome, the story was the same across Europe, the Maghreb and the former Roman Middle East. The high philosophy of the Greeks, the ancient beliefs of ancient nations like the Armenians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Celts, Teutones, Norse, Slavs, and last of all, right up to the thirteenth century, the Lithuanians, fell to the rapacious jaws of iconoclastic and dogmatic Christianity. Under both the dominant Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, manifestations of the natural religion was condemned as sorcery, Satanism, and witchcraft.

India is the spiritual mother of natural religion. Without India the natural beliefs of humanity can never be fully realised.

Can the pagans of Europe thus sit back and let happen in India what they have taken almost two thousand years to throw off themselves? These are not issues for the next few years, but ideas long overdue for now. It must be understood that a renewed fundamentalist church in India would threaten the physical existence of neo-pagans of Europe. The battle between rationalism and dogmatism is not yet over.  

(source: Hindus, the last of the Pagans? - Hindu Human Rights.org and Who is a Hindu? - Koenraad Elst p. 37 - 39 and  An European Pagan and Non Western Perspective – by Von Christopher Gérard

Conversions have an unedifying history. The Encyclopaedia Britannica says, “Christianity from its beginning, tended towards an intolerance that was rooted in self-consciousness. Christianity consistently practiced an intolerant attitude in its approach towards Judaism and paganism as well as heresy in its own ranks.” The advent of Christianity into entire continents, the Americas, vast parts of Africa, some parts of Asia razed local cultures to the ground.

(source: Conversions! - By Dasu Krishnamoorty - sulekha.com).

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Pagan Worship?

Catholics Protest Hindu Worship at Fatima Shrine in Europe

Fatima, Portugal. June 15, 2004: HPI received a couple of reports regarding the visit of a group of Hindus from Lisbon to the famed Catholic shrine to Mother Mary at Fatima. The first, dated May 22, reads in part: "Last October The Portugal News reported on the Interfaith Congress held at Fatima, one of Catholicism's most sacred sites, where representatives of the world's leading religions allegedly explored the possibility of opening the shrine to a whole variety of faiths. While the newspaper received many letters and emails congratulating it for reporting on the congress, it was also criticized by some groups who claimed that Fatima would remain exclusively Catholic.

The Portugal News' October report. Sixty Hindus led by a high priest had travelled from Lisbon to pay homage to the Goddess Devi, the divinity of nature. SIC's reporter described how before leaving Lisbon the Hindus had gathered at their temple in the city to pray to and worship various statues of Hindu gods. Arriving in Fatima the pilgrims made their way to the Chapel of the Apparitions, where from the altar a Hindu priest led prayer sessions. A commentary on the service was given by the TV reporter who explained: 'This is an unprecedented unique moment in the history of the shrine. The Hindu priest, or Sha Tri [probably Shastri], prays on the altar the Shaniti Pa [probably Shanti mantra--sahanavavatu...] , the prayer for peace.' The Hindus can be seen removing their shoes before approaching the altar rail of the chapel as the priest chants prayers from the altar's sanctuary."

A report at fatima.org is subtitled, "Another interfaith outrage blessed by shrine rector." It is very strongly opposed to the Hindu visit and reads, in part, "Saint Francis Xavier said, 'All the invocations of the pagans are hateful to God because all their gods are devils.' Saint Francis Xavier wrote these words to Saint Ignatius about the pagan religion of Hinduism. Francis Xavier, writing from India at the time, merely restates the truth from the infallible Sacred Scriptures: 'The gods of the gentiles are devils.' (Psalm 95:5) Yet on May 5, 2004 -- the Feast of Pope Saint Pius V -- the Little Chapel of the Apparitions at Fatima was allowed to be used for a pagan Hindu ceremony.

One of the Hindus is reported to have said that they go to Fatima because there are many gods, and the gods have wives and companions who will bring good luck. This is a blasphemy against the Queen of Heaven as it places Our Blessed Mother on the same level as some sort of 'wife' of a false god. Thus, the Hindus did not even come to Fatima to learn of, or take part in, Catholic prayer. Rather, they folded the holy event of Fatima into their own superstitions and pagan myths. It is reported that pilgrims who witnessed the event at Fatima were scandalized, but Shrine Rector Guerra defended the use of the Marian Shrine for pagan worship."

The recent Hindu ceremony at Fatima shows how fraudulent are Fr. Fox's assurances. It also means that Fr. Fox and EWTN are guilty of neutralizing the healthy resistance that Catholics should mount against these interfaith outrages.

(source: Catholics Protest Hindu Worship at Fatima Shrine in Europe - hinduismtoday.com and http://www.fatima.org/060304rit.htm). For more refer to chapter on European Imperialism).

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UK Hindus irked over panel report

London (June 10):A serious controversy has erupted following the release of a report by the House of Lords Select Committee on Religious Offences from Westminster.

Many prominent leaders of the UK Hindu community are now irked over a statement made by a member of the Committee, the Earl of Mar and Kellie, that has been published in the minutes of the oral evidence given by the Hindu community to the Select Committee in November 2002.

During an oral evidence before the members of the Select Committee, Ramesh Kallidai, speaking on behalf of the Hindu Community, pointed out an article by the Christian Medical Fellowship's Pastor Juge Ram that claimed that Hindus were lost and spiritually blind and that Hinduism was a false religion.

Responding to this statement, the Earl of Mar and Kellie said, "They (the Christian Medical Fellowship) were not actually telling any lies about the Hindu religion in the sense that they were not actually putting out any false remarks which were possibly going to distort people or mis-educate them."

A few leaders pointed out that historically, the Houses of Parliament have witnessed earlier attempts to vilify Hindus. Lord Macaulay had made a statement in the 19th Century at the House of Commons to say that all the ancient books of wisdom from India could not compare with the one shelf of books from England. "Dr J C Sharma, Director of the UK Council of Hindus said, " I'm surprised that thinking like Lord Macaulay's still exist in modern Britain."

(source: UK Hindus irked over panel report - hindustantimes.com). For more on Lord Macaulay refer to chapter FirstIndologists).

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Heal yourself first, your Holiness

Pope John II is peeved and perturbed but obsessively persistent -- about his declared mission of harvesting umpteen souls in India. According to an Associated Press report from Vatican City published in The Times of India, Mumbai, on June 4, 2003, he told a group of visiting Indian bishops to 'courageously' proclaim the gospel in India notwithstanding --

• 'Increased activity of a few Hindu fundamentalist groups which are creating suspicion of the church and other religions'
• 'Unfortunately, in some regions the state authorities have yielded to the pressures of these extremists and have passed unjust conversion laws, prohibiting free exercise of the natural right to religious freedom'
• 'State support has been withdrawn for those in the Scheduled Castes who have chosen Christianity'
• 'People experience animosity, discrimination and even violence because of their religious or tribal affiliations.'

Reliable reports say that attendance at churches in the West is dwindling, that churches are being sold away. According to that multi-disciplinary scholar, N S Rajaram, even in Rome, the home of Christianity, church attendances are down to six per cent or less. (The Organiser, May 4, 2003, page 4). So why then is the Vatican not concentrating on retaining its flock instead of trying to harvest more and more souls in India and the rest of Asia?

(source: Heal yourself first, your Holiness - By Arvind Lavakare - rediff.com).

Does the Pope want to convey the message that Indian citizens following Catholicism should indulge in conversion even through unfair means? Does he realise that by supporting conversion through fraud, coercion or allurement, he is inviting violence in Indian society?

Different religions are different paths to the goal of realising the Absolute Truth. The resolution was only a reiteration of the Hindu doctrine, “Ekam sadviprah bahudha vadanti”.

The ink on the resolution had hardly dried when the pontiff gave his assent to a 36-page report prepared by a committee of Vatican bishops. The report postulated that the non-Christian religions are gravely deficient as they did not accept Jesus Christ as the only son of god. Simultaneously, it stated that the other Christian churches too have defects because they do not accept the primacy of the Pope. The idea of equality of all religions is, therefore, totally unacceptable to the Church.

(source: Losing my religion - By Balram Mishra - hindustantimes.com June 24 2003).

Jaya raps Pope's remarks on conversion

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa condemned the statement of Pope John Paul II, critical of the Anti-Conversion law in Tamil Nadu. Jayalalithaa told reporters that the Pope could be a religious head, but he had no right to react to or criticise a legislation enacted by a democratically-elected government in any state in India. She also refuted the Pope's assertion that there was no religious freedom in India. Asserting that there was indeed religious freedom in the country, she said the law was only against forcible conversions.

(source: Jaya raps Pope's remarks on conversion).

Remark on Pope irks bishops

Chennai, June 14: The Tamil Nadu Bishops’ Council took exception to Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s remarks against Pope John Paul II that the pontiff had no business to comment on anti-conversion laws enacted by democratically elected governments in India.

“We, the Catholic Bishops of Tamil Nadu, express our hurt over the disrespectful criticism against the Pope by the Chief Minister,” the council said. “As the worldwide leader of Catholic Christians, he has the right to express his concerns over the difficulties Christians face in certain parts of India,” it said, adding the Pope had only raised his voice against an “obvious violation of human rights regarding religious freedom.”

(source: Remark on Pope irks bishops - deccan chronicle). Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com

He is upset. Understandably

The Pope has genuine problems. The Papacy was born to convert the world to the only true religion, Christianity. This Pope merely continues this 2000 year tradition to cleanse the world off ‘false faiths’. Turn it exclusively Christian. The plans are backed by meticulous research costing billions to stratify global societies, to trap them into the only true faith. Like business plans they look at the position now with a 25 year projection. The Pope knows how cheap our market is for his harvest. Perhaps, he will not mind if the high-cost US, not the low cost Indian states, pass such a law. In India he can count heads for God at 1/700 of the cost he has to pay in the US. When Jaya and Modi pass laws to stop low cost head hunting will the Pope not be upset? He will be and he is, understandably. 

(source: He is upset. Understandably - by S. Gurumurthy).  

The holy double-cross

The Niyogi Committee which went into the activities of the missionaries in the wake of tensions owing to conversions in Madhya Pradesh had not minced words on such extra territorial loyalties and what it portends for India. Here are some of the observations: 

...the idea of change of religion as bringing about change of nationality appears to have originated in the Missionary circles..the missionaries by converting them give them a separate nationality, so that they may demand a separate state for themselves.

The separatist tendency that has gripped the mind of the aboriginals under the influence of the Lutheran and Roman Catholic Missions is entirely due to the consistent policy pursued by the British government and the Missionaries. After a villager is converted to Christianity, it is easy to alienate his mind against his society as well as his country and State ...Christian convert changes his style of dress and assumes the air of a foreigner.

The supremacy of the Christian flag over the national flag of India was also depicted in the drama which was staged in a school in Jabalpur. The expression 'Jai Hind' was substituted with 'Jai yeshu'..

Evangelisation in India appears to be part of the uniform world policy to revive Christendom for re-establishing Western supremacy and is not prompted by spiritual motives. The objective apparently is to create Christian minority pockets with a view to disrupt the solidarity of the non-Christian societies, and the mass conversions of a considerable section of Adivasis with this ulterior motive is fraught with danger to the security of the State..

The allegations by missionaries that they are being harassed by Government officials is part of the old established policy of the Missions to overawe local authority and to carry on propaganda in foreign countries...And the joke is on India on another count too. These franchisees of faith are deemed minorities in this country while they have none less than the Pope with all his mammoth army of minions, muscle, money etc, etc at his disposal to back them. The law of the land is acceptable only so long as it is subservient to their oath of allegiance to the Vatican. Heads win, Tails win! What a double-cross!

(source: The holy double-cross - By T R Jawahar - newstodaynet.com June 20 2003). For more refer to Indians Against Christian Aggression).

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Secularism', Colonial Hegemony and Hindu 'Fanaticism'

Why, in a world where proselytizing is banned by virtually every Islamic country, where Hindus have been virtually 'cleansed' out of Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Kashmir valley, are Hindutvaadis singularly such a key target of the world press? Why, in a world where the Pope – the official head of the largest Christian denomination of the world – talks about “harvesting Indian souls” is it that there is such a concerted effort by the popular media worldwide to demonize aggressive Hindus – and only Hindus – as 'fundamentalists'?

That the effort by the media to taint the emerging 'vocal' and 'public' Hindu as a fanatic is a concerted one hits one smack in the face every time one reads anything on this issue. By the choice of words (Gujarat 'pogroms'). by the selective focus on victims (Dalits, Muslims, missionaries, but never a Kashmiri pandit or Hindu worshipper); by the number and prominence of articles focused on 'Hindu fanaticism' (front page news) versus 'other fanaticism' ('40 pilgrims gunned down” blurb half way down on page 26 of your local newpaper).

A good way to contextualize this battle is to look at the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was first adopted by the U.N in 1948 and is to this day a standard bearer of what should constitute genuine humanistic principles. The Christian worldview, with its predilection to proselytize and convert others into its fold has chosen to focus on only one element amongst all those present in the three articles listed above; namely the freedom to change one's religion or belief and made that the cornerstone of their 'religious freedom index'. In other words, those cultures and societies that allow active proselytizing and conversion are considered more 'religiously tolerant' and open societies.

With their fundamental belief in the absolute uniqueness of Christ as compared to the rest of us mortals and sinners, and thus the path to salvation, a believing Christian has no choice but to consider all other spiritual paths and religions as being confused at best and minions of the devil at worst.

(source: 'Secularism', Colonial Hegemony and Hindu 'Fanaticism- by Arjun Bhagat - sulekha.com). 

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Smelling British sahibs learnt to bathe in India

The first Englishmen who came to India as servants of the East India Company were bewildered by many of our customs. Many of them commented on, in their letters home, the habit, among certain classes of the Hindus, of taking a daily bath.

The early factory-hands of John Company in India may have been somewhat scandalized by the fact that Hindu men and women of good families should not mind taking their baths in full view of others, what they found even more strange was that they should be washing their bodies at all.

For the British, the process of washing the body entailed lying prone in a tub half full of hot water. And how many houses in pre-Industrial England could have had metal containers large enough to accommodate grown men and women, and, even more, the facilities to heat up enough water? The conclusion was inescapable. For most Englishmen of the 17th and 18th centuries, a bath must have been a rare experience indeed, affordable to the very rich, who perhaps took baths when they felt particularly obnoxious, what with their zest for vigorous exercise, such as workouts in the boxing ring or rowing or riding at the gallop over the countryside. What a sensual pleasure it must have been to lie soaking in a tub full of scalding hot water? But such indulgences were possible only during the few weeks of what the English call their summer. For the rest of the year, the water in the tub could not have remained hot for more than a couple of minutes, and from November through February must have gone icy cold as soon as it was poured in. Brrrrr!

Then again, even those who thus bathed their bodies a few times every summer seem to have been careful to, as it were, keep their heads above water. In other words, a bath did not also involve a hair-wash. Otherwise there doesn’t seem to be any reason why they should have found it necessary to coin—or adopt—a special word to describe the process of bathing hair: shampoo, which, ‘Hobson Jobson’ tells us is derived from the Hindi word, champi, for ‘massage’. Why a word which normally described the process of muscle-kneading should have been picked on to explain a head-wash, is not at all convincing. It seems that the Company’s servants used to send for their barbers every now and then to massage their heads with oil and then rinse off the hair with soap and water. So the head-champi, became ‘shampoo’.

Which may explain why G M Trevelyans’s English Social History does not so much as mention the word ‘bath’. In the pre-industrial age it was, at best, an eccentricity indulged in by exercise-freaks in the summer months, and a head-bath was even rarer.  English royal court felt compelled to post in 1589: "Let no one, whoever he may be, before, at or after meals, early or late, foul the staircase, corridors, or closets with urine or other filth."

But, out in the tropics they must have gone about smelling quite a bit. In fact, the Chinese, when they first encountered the White man described him as "the smelly one".

According to William Dalrymple, in his book White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India

"Indian women, for example, introduced British men in the delights of regular bathing." And again:

"Those who had returned home and continued to bathe and shampoo themselves on a regular basis found themselves scoffed at as ‘effeminate’."

(source: Smelling sahibs learnt to bathe in India - by Manohar Malgonkar - tribuneindia.com).

***

Early Christians took a dim view of bathing.  St. Benedict in the 6th century declared that "to those who are well, and especially the young, bathing shall seldom be permitted." In the early 1200s, St. Francis of Assisi declared personal uncleanliness a sign of piety. Europeans have an interesting history of bathing. Long before they turned Christian, Scandinavians and Germans bathed naked in lakes and rivers during the summer months, and in public baths during the winter. With the advent of Christianity nakedness came to be associated with vulgarity, lascivious thoughts and, therefore, sinful. St Agnes (d. 1077) never took a bath; St Margaret never washed herself; Pope Clement III issued an edict forbidding bathing or even wetting one’s face on Sundays. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the practice of bathing in rivers was frowned upon. In 1736 in Baden (Germany), the authorities issued a warning to students against "the vulgar, dangerous and shocking practice of bathing." 

(source: The importance of bathing - by Khuswant Singh - tribuneindia.com). For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

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Hinduism - A scientific religion

It is often said that Hinduism is a Scientific religion. The Sanskrit word for Science is 'Shashtra.'  Because Shastra means a Science, or exact knowledge. Because of this reason we find in Hinduism a number of Sciences or Shastras, as Sanskrit calls them. When we say that 'Hinduism is a Scientific Religion', it means more. It means that Hinduism teaches certain Universal Truths and Laws of Nature, just like a Science. A Universal truth does not change from Religion to Religion, or from man to man or nation to nation. 

Hinduism is Scientific, in another sense too! It is a Science of mental development. It prescribes certain mental disciplines like Yoga, besides, Physical, Moral and Spiritual disciplines which are necessary for every man for his improvement irrespective of his race, creed, nation or status of birth. It gives us a Technique. It gives us "The Science of Living.'

The Bhagavad Gita is thus a Universal Book, in the above sense. It gives a philosophy that any man can adopt, without forsaking his "religion." It gives certain exercises, like the Yoga exercises for controlling the mind, controlling the breath, achieving concentration and reaching a state of oneness with God (while still alive, in the body). This is a Science. All can follow this Science. It is thus even the people of the West, in America and Russia have taken to the study of Yoga. Even "Christian Yoga" has made its appearance too now a days! Similar is Sufism which is like Advaita among the Muslims.

(source: Hinduism in The Space Age - By E. Vedavyas p. 127-132). For more information on Yoga refer to chapter on Yoga and Hindu Philosophy). For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

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The Call of India

Many Westerners have traveled to India to be taught by Vivekananda, Gandhi, Ramana Maharshi, Aurobindo, and a great many others. It must be emphasized that this acceptance remains valid only within the restricted boundary of the ashram itself. The moment a foreigner emerges into the world again, he becomes once more the “barbarian” he has never ceased in the Hindu eyes, and reverts to being a pariah among pariahs. However, the fact that so many Westerners still make the journey is not without significance. It is a sign that Hinduism, particularly in the form of yoga, is answering a need. …Quite the contrary is true; “the call of the East” dates back for centuries. From the Greeks to Marco Polo, from Vasco da Gama to Dupleix and Warren Hastings, the West has never ceased to dream of the treasures of Golconda, of the land of spices….and of the wisdom of the Brahmins. 

One has to think, for instance, of the 18^th century craze for printed calicoes (the French called them indiennes) and of the fact that the fundamental Hindu scriptural texts actually became accessible in translation during the last years of the same century. Their impact was prodigious: the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, and later the Bhagavata-Purana produced a tremendous intellectual ferment particularly in Germany and France. 

Schopenhauer was fond of saying that the first intuition of the work he was to do came to him while reading these texts, of which he was later to say that they had been “his life’s consolation.” Herder, Schelling, and Hegel and the Romantics were passionately interested in finding out all they could about Indian literature and thought. If one wishes to form an idea of the fervor that things Indian created in Europe at that time, then one has only to read what Goethe, Hugo, Nerval, Lamartine, Blake, Shelley, and many others had to say on the subject. There was not an important work that did not refer in some way to the Indian tradition.

(source: Yoga and the Hindu Tradition - by Jean Varenne p. 186 - 187). For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

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Gujarat bans conversions through bribes, force 

Gujarat's state assembly passed a bill on Wednesday banning religious conversions through use of force or bribery.

Officials said anyone wanting to change religion in the state must now seek the permission of district collectors.

The Bharatiya Janata Party had promised in the election campaign that swept it back to power last December a law to ban conversions. The legislation carries penalties of up to three years imprisonment and a 50,000-rupee fine.

Christians in Gujarat condemned the law, saying it was targeted at their religion and would deny people freedom to practise the religion of their choice.

"We will oppose this draconian law as it's against the spirit of India's constitution which allows freedom to propagate and practise any religion," said Samson Christian, a spokesman for the All India Christian Council.

A BJP government official said the law was not directed against any religion. He said its aim was to ensure the right of people to practise their faith free of any pressure to convert.

(source: Hindustan Times - http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_221877,000900040003.htm).

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Ayodhya is a National Symbol – by N S Rajaram 

Ram Janmabhumi is a national symbol, while the Babri Masjid is a symbol of Babar's imperialism.

The basic problem is that the concerned parties have avoided such fundamental issues. Instead of trying to understand what Ram Janmabhumi and Ayodhya mean to the Hindus, the Babri Masjid advocates have been trying to present it as a dispute over a piece of real estate and a structure in brick and mortar. Every living nation has national symbols and Ayodhya is India's. A young American - a former student of mine - recently asked me why building the temple at Ram Janmabhumi was so important. I asked her if Americans would let stand a mosque built by someone like Osama bin Laden after demolishing Mount Vernon (George Washington's home) or the Statue of Liberty. Similarly, the Westminster Abbey in London is more than a Church, for it is inseparably bound with English history and tradition. This is how the people of India also look at Ram Janmabhumi: it is a sacred spot for Hindus for historical, cultural and nationalistic reasons - and not just because it is a place of worship. Many like me who never go to a temple still hold it sacred for cultural and historical reasons.

From Babar to bin Laden

To highlight this point: can the terrorist warlord Osama bin Laden claim the ideological right to demolish the Venkateshwara Temple in Tirupati or the Golden Temple in Amritsar and build something else in their place to mark the triumph of his 'faith'? These, like Ram Janmabhumi, the Westminster Abbey, and the Statue of Liberty, are not pieces of real estate that can be bartered - or forcibly occupied and demolished.

When put in this light, the Secularists will scream that Babar cannot be compared to a terrorist warlord like Osama bin Laden. Hasn't Nehru told us that Babar was both charming and tolerant - a true 'Secularist'? Like most things that Nehru wrote it is nowhere near the truth. Babar was as much a religious fanatic as bin Laden. He saw himself as a Ghazi - an Islamic warrior - on a jihad to uproot infidelity. Jihad was Babar's ideology, the same as bin Laden's. Here are his own words from the Babarnama:

"Chanderi had been in the daru'l-harb [Hindu rule] for some years and held by Sanga's highest-ranking officer Meidini Rao, with four or five thousand infidels, but in 934 [1527-28], through the grace of God, I took it by force within a ghari or two, massacred the infidels, and brought it into the bosom of Islam ..."

This was the real Babar - in his own words. When in a particularly jovial mood, he composed the following poem happy for having become a Ghazi (religious warrior):

For the sake of Islam I became a wanderer;
I battled infidels and Hindus.
I determined to become a martyr.
Thank God I became a holy warrior.

This was the man who gave India the Babri Masjid - at the spot held sacred by Indians. He and his successors did not build it to be a place of worship- they saw it as a mark of conquest. Ideologically, Osama bin Laden is a modern day Babar - a Ghazi. And yet Nehru praised Babar as:

… one of the most cultured and delightful persons one could meet. There was no sectarianism in him, no religious bigotry, and he did not destroy as his ancestors used to."

(source: Ayodhya is a National Symbol - by N S Rajaram). Watch History of Ayodhya - videogoogle.com.

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Pillar Found at Site of India Mosque

Lucknow, India - Archaeologists have uncovered a broken pillar with a carving of a lotus flower at the site of a destroyed 16th-century mosque claimed by both Hindus and Muslims, a government official said Tuesday.

The significance of the discovery was still unclear, but officials hope it will eventually help settle the impassioned debate about what was originally built on the site.

(source: Pillar Found at Site of India Mosque - By V J Bandopadhaya - Associated Press).  

Either by instinct or consensus, India's uniquely secular national press simply ignored the recent discovery of a broken pillar with a lotus carving at the site of the erstwhile Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. Such negation cannot, however, diminish the significance of the finding. As senior Government administrator R M Srivastava observed, "The finding of a pillar and a multi-layered flooring suggests there exists a permanent structure beneath the soil. At this point we can only say that remains of a permanent structure lay buried in the soil. It could be anything - a temple, a mosque or even a kitchen structure" (Associated Press, April 1, 2003).

A mosque is simply untenable. Even die-hard Islamists have not claimed that a mosque existed at the site prior to the arrival of Babar's general, Mir Baqi, who was appointed Governor of Ayodhya. What is more, no medieval mosque has ever incorporated sacred and popular Hindu motifs in its decorative patterns, unless it was built by appropriating the materials of ransacked temples. 

Eminent historian Irfan Habib has signalled the Muslim determination not to settle the dispute honourably, by claiming that the excavations are a "post facto rationalisation of what was done on December 6, 1992" (Indian Express, March 12, 2003). Habib claims that archaeological finds are open to several interpretations. But what is germane in the current dispute is only whether or not a temple existed at the site prior to the erection of the Babri mosque. As Ayodhya has from time immemorial been associated with the story of Sri Rama, this would be regarded as convincing evidence by all fair-minded persons.

(source: Footprints in earthly paradise - By Sandhya Jain - dailypioneer.com April 8, 2003).

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Uddalaka Aruni: The First Natural Scientist   

Mythological literature of India tells us a story of the ocean being once churned by the gods (devas) and demons (asuras). As a result there emerged both nectar and poison. 

In a sense, this also happens in the philosophico-scientific tradition in ancient India. Out of the ocean of the intellectual turmoil there emerged a remarkable person whose teachings were both nectar and poison. It was nectar for science and science-orientation and poison for its opposite – for myths, religion and the hangover of magical belief. 

His name comes down to us as Uddalaka Aruni. It has become an accepted convention that science began in ancient Greece by one of the reputed sages called Thales, who lived in the 7-6^th century B.C. But we come across in our early texts certain trends of thought that are scientifically significant  and to a person – Uddalaka Aruni of the Gautama clan – as having been the initiator of this new direction of systematically investigating nature. The science intoxicated Uddalaka must have been earlier than Thales whose actual teachings moreover give us the impression of having been far more profound from the viewpoint of science-potential than all that we know about Thales. 

But historians of science remain unaware of the very name of Uddalaka Aruni. Internally, in his own country, his views are subjected to almost endless distortions, energetic efforts being made for centuries to make him appear as a religion-oriented extreme idealist philosopher. Externally, most of the historians of science have so far worked under the spell of what is often described as Euro-centrism – that science is an essentially European phenomenon. 

J D Bernal goes to the extent of using the rather exasperated expression “arrogant ignorance” as forming the main prop of this Euro-centrism. 

With pronounced bias for Euro-centrism, the otherwise admirable French historian, Arnold Reymond claims that nature science owes its origin to the peculiar genius of the Greeks, or more simply to some kind of “Greek miracle”. Who then is the miracle maker and what were his achievements? Since Thales himself leaves for us nothing in writing and since we are confronted with all sorts of floating legends about him – one example, wanting us to believe that as an idle star gazer he fell into a well, another insisting on his practical wisdom enabling him to earn a lot in olive business. That on May 28 585 BC. He predicted an eclipse of the sun which put an end to a battle between the Lydians and the Medes. Not that he understood the real cause of eclipses. How, then could he predict it?

(source: History of Science and Technology in Ancient India - By Debiprasad Chattopadhya chapter 7 p. 89-148). For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

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Tribal Rage in Kerala

In much of the world, tribal societies have been decimated, their cultures devastated, and their members enslaved. Native Americans (Dee Alexander Brown's classic Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee), Maoris (the 1995 film Once Were Warriors), Australian aborigines (the 1978 film The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith) have all been subjected to extreme duress. The same thing has happened in India as well.  

Decimation of Tribal Culture in India 

Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com

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The recent incidents at the Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala's Wyanad district need to be seen in this context. Dispossessed tribals, who have seen their lands and their way of life being destroyed before their very eyes, are fighting back with the only weapons they have available to them: agitations and violence.

Kerala has pockets of tribals in its dense Western Ghats forests who have lived unmolested for centuries or even millennia. Recent genetic data has suggested that some of them might go back to the very first wave of out migrants from Africa: truly ancient genes. The sheer inaccessibility of the Western Ghats allowed tribals to live there without outside interference, using sustainable forest produce. Besides, I understand at least some of them were quite capable of defending themselves: for example, the anti-British campaigns of Pazhassi Raja were spearheaded by an army of Kurichya tribal archers. All this changed in the last hundred years. It is the oldest story in the book: land-grab and greed. Lowlanders, mostly from Central Kerala, started encroaching onto the mountains.

This invasion, which mirrors on a much smaller scale the white conquest of North America and Oceania, is documented in S K Pottekkat's novel Vishakanyaka ('Poison maiden') about how the virgin forest is a dangerous adversary; and in O V Vijayan's epic Thalamurakal ('Generations'), the old feudal landlord finds one fine day that enterprising settlers have taken over his lands by the simple expedient of bribing the land title recorder.

The white Christian authorities (ruling directly in Malabar, and with heavy influence on Travancore and Cochin) encouraged all this, partly because white planters too were coming in and setting up tea and coffee estates, and partly because the vast majority of small-time settlers were Christians. 

If you drive through highland districts such as Idukki or Pathanamthitta, you will find innumerable white-washed churches dotting the landscape; and hardly any non-Christian shrines. The settlers are almost entirely Christian. In their enthusiasm, some Christians actually set fire to the Sabarimala temple in the 1950s: it was a nuisance to them in their attempts to grab the surrounding forest. Interestingly, Hindus in Kerala have held forests in reverence, and seldom practiced clear felling or slash-and-burn agriculture. There were many sarpa kavu (sacred serpent groves) that were left untouched as tributes to chthonic deities. Christian converts feel no such compunctions. There are many tales of widespread sexual exploitation of tribal women by plantation managers and settlers. And there are also stories of forced conversion to Christianity if tribals want to retain their jobs. 

(source: The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith: Tribal Rage in Kerala - By Rajeev Srinivasan - rediff.com and Hinduunity.com).

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Witness in Staines murder case says she was sexually assaulted

A defence witness in the trial for the brutal 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two teenaged sons in eastern India testified that Staines had sexually assaulted her. Hemalata Karua caused a tremor to shoot through the district court when she charged that Staines had told her that a "sexual relationship with him will benefit her." Later, Staine's wife Glady had asked her not to describe the incident to anybody, Karua claimed. Karua alleged both Glady and Graham had invited her to visit a Manoharpur "jungle camp" with her husband. She said the camp was established to convert Hindus to Christianity. She, along with her husband Yogendra Karua, went to Manoharpur on January 21, 1999, to attend the camp. The defence witness said first her husband was converted to Christianity and then she followed. Both were asked to have dinner where beef was served and when she refused, Graham told her that it was part of the conversion process. "He entered and asked me to close my eyes and meditate. As I was meditating he laid his hands on my body, I protested but he continued to persuade me saying physical relationship with him would benefit me," she said.

(source:  Witness in Staines murder case says she was sexually assaulted - yahoo.com).

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The Horned God in Indian & Europe

'Six thousand years ago almost two thirds of the human population in Mexico, North America, in France, Egypt, the Middle East, Afghanistan, India, Ceylon, Thailand, Tibet, China, Japan and many other lands practised this science'. 'This science' being magickal and yogic teachings. Doreen then offers an explanation as to how so many cultures, separated by time and space, could know of the horned Lord, magick and yoga. Not only must the horned Lord be in the forest and the woods of an ancient past, but also 'in the collective unconscious of mankind' , and therefore still with each and everyone of us today.  

(source: http://www.geocities.com/indianpaganism/hornedgod.html).

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Adivasi - Indian Pagans

The word has been coined by Christian missionaries to designate Indian tribals and is not an indigenous term attested by Indian tradition and is a projection of the 19^th century racist, colonial perceptions, onto ancient Indian history. 

Christian missionaries and secularists have popularized the belief that this is a hoary self-designation of the tribals Contrary to widespread belief, this term is not indigenous.

It is not listed in the 19^th century Sanskrit dictionary of Sir M. Monier-Williams, a zealous Christian who would gladly have obliged the missionaries if only he had been aware of the term. The Sanskrit classics attest the awareness of a separate category of forest-dwellers, but used descriptive terms for them, eg. Atavika, from atavi, “forest.”  The assumption that the term “forest-dwellers” is condescending is simply not correct from the viewpoint of the forest-dwellers themselves, who hold their forests and the concomitant life-style in high esteem, just as the Vedic people did. Likewise, Mahatma Gandhi’s indigenous term for the tribals, Girijan or “hill people.”

Christian authors feign indignation when such descriptive terms are preferred. The imposition of the term adivasi during the colonial period was itself an instance of replacing facts of history with an imaginative theory. 

The message of the colonial terms, Adivasi was that the urban elites who were waging a struggle for independence, could not claim to be the rightful owners of the country anymore than the British could. Likewise, it served to present Hinduism, the religion named after India, as a foreign imposition. The delegitimation of Hinduism as India's native religion.

The only non-tribals considered aboriginal were the Untouchables, supposedly the native dark skinned proletariat in the Apartheid system imposed by the white Aryan invaders to preserve their race. This racial view of history was nothing but a projection of 19^th century racist colonial perceptions onto ancient Indian history, but it was well-entrenched and put to good colonial use. 

Thus, during the 1935 Parliament debate on the Government of India. Act, Sir Winston Churchill opposed any policy tending towards decolonization on the following ground: “We have as much right to be in India as anyone there, except perhaps for the Depressed Classes who are the native stock.”

(source: Who is a Hindu? - Koenraad Elst Voice of India p.179-181). For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor. Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com

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But for India!

Once a gypsy told me, “We come from India.” India! What an amazing appeal India has to the imagination of the world. How, in one way or another, it has invariably played a deciding part in the destiny of nations. Think what would have happened if Napoleon had gone on to India! He felt the appeal. He followed his star east, east…And then turned back to his doom. 

But for India there would be no British Empire. How the old Queen Victoria, loved that Empire of hers which she never saw! India, round which the politics of the world revolved for centuries, perhaps still revolve. Looking for India, Christopher Columbus found America. Still looking for India, Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope. To ensure a market for Indian tea, England embarked on that disastrous policy which lost her the American Colonies. She fought the French Emperor in Europe, but would she have fought so desperately had not India also been the prize? She held Gibraltar, she held Egypt, she intrigued passionately for the Suez Canal; all for India. 

India has changed and civilized the habits of Europe. 

Did not baths and fresh linen come from India, at an epoch when gentlemen went to Court holding pomander balls to their noses, because human beings frankly smelt. She had altered the thought of Europe. What a profound effect upon German philosophy had been caused by Max Muller ‘s rediscovery of Sanskrit, poor though his translations were!  

Even Voltaire had been touched by the thought of India. Through Persia something of her thought had reached France.

(source: The Power of India - By Michael Pym G. P. Putnam's Sons New York. 1930. p. 15-17).

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Eurocentric and Bible-centered view of History 

Textbooks throughout the world teach that civilization was first invented in the Near East, in Sumeria and Egypt, and was then developed further by the Greeks and Romans. From there it passes on to the Europeans who developed modern civilization and spread it throughout the world. By civilization is meant urban life, writing, the use of metal and other factors of technology and science particularly developed in the West. In this account of history the rest of the world, including India and China, is a sidelight. That Middle Eastern and European civilization was not the largest or most enduring, nor was always the most sophisticated, is forgotten. Nor did such cultures as Egypt and Sumeria ever claim to be the first and they also looked to older and to eastern cultures with reverence. Scholars would attribute the main aspects of civilization to Mesopotamia or Greece, even though the Mesopotamians and Greeks never claimed this.   

The reason for this fixation on the Near East, Egypt and Greece is simple. This is the history and roots of European and Western civilization that developed out of a Greco-Roman basis, which in turn was based on a Judeo-Christian basis whose earlier horizon was Egypt and Mesopotamia. It is a projection of a European model of civilization on the entire world. Scholars argue that the oldest archaeological remains are from the Middle East, though archaeological evidence from India is of the same antiquity, and many regions of the world have not been adequately examined. 

Desert regions, such as the Middle East, are favorable for ruins to be preserved. Jungle regions and damper river plains, such as are common in eastern India and in China, cannot easily preserve such ruins. In addition, areas that have been continuously inhabited will not preserve at one time and then abandoned for some reason.  Therefore, in the post-colonial era we need to do serious rethinking about our Eurocentric and Bible-centered view of history. Vedic references to kings, dynasties, rivers, oceans and countries must be taken seriously. We cannot simply assume them to be exaggerations because they don’t agree with our current views. We cannot imagine that the ancient Indians created such distortions in order to deceive future generations of foreign scholars.    

Ghat at Benares on the Ganges

(image source: Picturesque India: sketches of travels of Thomas and William Daniell – By J. Mahajan).

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Recent studies indicate that since time immemorial, India’s links were mainly with the East and Southeast Asia. This is supported by similarities in climate (tropical-monsoon), floral and fauna as well as the domestication history of the most important animal of the Indian civilization – the cow, and possibly the horse. India’s ties with the West and the Northwest were secondary.  

Vedic literature is the world’s oldest, largest and most continuous literature, which by even the most reduced accounts goes back at least 3500 years. It should have a great civilization behind it. It cannot simply be an oral record of a nomadic culture that left no other traces, as is the current view. Ancient India, with its vast urban sites on the old Saraswati River lauded in Vedic texts, provides such an archaeological counterpart for this great literature. Both are in the same geographical are and describe the same environment and tradition. To keep the literature and archaeology of the region apart is ridiculous.

(source: The Rig Veda and the History of India - By David Frawley p. 9 -11).Watch History of Ayodhya - videogoogle.com.

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Hell, Christianity and the Vedantic Way

As I have gotten older, I have had a desire to find God and in a way I still do not understand, I discovered Vedanta. . . the Vedas. I have no way of knowing for sure what is the correct truth but there are several philosophical problems that Vedanta solves which I believe are unanswerable by Christian theology. Vedanta provides what seems to me, answers that are more in keeping with the dictates of logic and the concept of a loving God.

The first problem is: “What happens to people that do evil in the name of good?” I once read about Christian soldiers and missionaries in South America in the 1500s. This was a diary in which one individual describes giving the native people the chance to convert to Christianity. The writer states, “Those that agreed, we baptized, and those that did not, we burned at the stake.” Now the question is, “What happens to such an individual?” Should he go to Hell for eternal punishment when we was doing what he thought was right? Or should he be taken to Heaven for a reward for service to the Lord. It's a problem for Christians who believe that once one dies, there is no further chance. Vedanta has a simple answer. I do not know if it is true but it is sensible and does not put one on the horns of a dilemma, as does the Christian answer. The Vedic answer is “Reincarnation.” You come back for another life. Thus the man who burned those who did not join them will come back and learn a hard lesson about such behavior in the next life.

In Christianity, life is a test and you either pass or fail. In Vedanta, life is a learning experience and if you don't learn the first time, you come back to learn some more.

If you believe the Christian doctrine of Hell, then ultimately you must conclude that no one can be happy in heaven for how could someone be happy knowing that their child or parent was suffering eternal torment? This entire problem is avoided by Vedanta, which teaches: not a loving god that turns vengefully when you draw your last breath, but rather a God who is a teacher and you are His pupil who ultimately learns the lessons of life. In this scenario, sin is not an “infinite offense against God” but rather like someone who after being warned, nevertheless puts his or her hand in a burning flame. The individual is burned but God is not angry. All the individual did was to hurt himself and hopefully will learn a lesson. Sin is not offending God but removing yourself from knowing God. You are the one hurt, not God. No Hell. No Problem.

(source: Hell, Christianity and the Vedantic Way - by Charlie Lawrence - sulekha.com).

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Harvest of bigotry?

Pope decries anti-conversion laws in India

Vatican City, June 3: Pope John Paul II today decried new anti-conversion laws in some Indian states and urged the Church in India to "courageously" proclaim the Gospel.

John Paul told the Indian churchmen that despite "the grave difficulties and suffering" caused by the crackdown, the Church in India must continue with evangelizing.

(source: Pope decries anti-conversion laws in India). For more refer to Address of John Paul II to the bishops of India on their ad limina visit Tuesday, 3 June 2003).

Pope criticizes conversion laws of India 

Mumbai, May 24: Pope John Paul II on Saturday told pastors from India visiting the Vatican that he was concerned about laws in India that require people to seek the permission of local authorities before converting to Christianity.

According to Vatican Information Services, the official Vatican agency, the Pope said, "It is most disconcerting that some who wish to become Christians are required to receive permission of local authorities, while others have lost their right to social assistance and family support. Many others have been ostracised or driven out of their villages. Unfortunately, certain fundamentalist movements are creating confusion among some Catholics and even directly challenging any attempt at evangelisation."

Asking the visiting pastors not to allow such obstacles to disturb their focus, the Pope said, "It is my hope that as leaders in the faith you will not be discouraged by these injustices but continue to engage society in such a way that these alarming trends can be reversed." He added, "Fundamental to sustained efforts of evangelisation is the development of a local church which is itself poised to become missionary. The commitment to follow Christ as a priest requires the best training possible."

"Obstacles to conversion are not always external but may occur within your own communities. This can happen when those of other religions see disagreement, scandal and disunity within our institutions. For this, it is important for priests, religious and lay people to work together and co-operate with their bishop, who is the sign and source of unity," the Pope told the Indian pastors, adding, "I am pleased to hear that in many of your dioceses the faithful frequently avail themselves of the grace of the sacrament of reconciliation..."

(Note: Religious Conversions are banned in Israel, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, Pakistan and other Islamic countries. Opposition to conversion is a bid by Indians to ‘preserve’ cultural pluralism in the face of the proselytization of an intolerant religion).

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Mahatma Gandhi called religious conversions a fraud on humanity. "If I had power and could legislate, I should certainly stop all proselytizing". "I resent the overtures made to Harijans." 

"Stop all conversion, it is the deadliest poison that ever sapped the fountain of truth."  Poverty doesn't justify conversion. 

(source: The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi Volume 46. p.110 and Volume 61, p. 46-47  volume 64, p. 37 and 400 New Delhi 1968). Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com

Mahatma Gandhi stated that: “proselytizing under the cloak of humanitarian work is unhealthy, to say the least. It is most resented by people here." 

The resentment that Gandhi alluded to has increased in India over the years, mostly due to the persistence of religious conversions engineered by Christian evangelists who derive their financial support from foreign sources. Fundamentalist Muslims too have entered the fray in recent years with substantive financial contributions from Muslim countries interested in furthering the spread of Islam in India. Some Hindu groups have resorted to reverse conversions. All these trends are destructive to India's time-tested culture of religious tolerance. 

The muteness of liberal Indian Christians, both in India and overseas, is indeed surprising. In my opinion, most Christians born and raised in India's diverse milieu are innately liberal and pluralistic in their outlook. Therefore, they should now raise their voices against the divisive activities of the evangelical Christians, especially those that are bankrolled by the Western churches. Failure to do so is likely to do harm both to the religious freedom of India's minorities and the territorial integrity of that nation. The peripatetic foreign missionaries certainly have no stake in preserving the territorial integrity of India. But, Indians of all religions do. Besides, separatist movements in Northeast India have been suspected of deriving support from foreign missionary groups. Given the sordid history of Western Christianity, eternal vigilance is indeed prudent....Otherwise, India will remain a weak and soft State much to the glee of the Western nations

(source: Indiacause.com - forum and Proselytization In India: An Indian Christian's Perspective - By C Alex Alexander -sulekha.com). For more, refer to chapter on Politics of Conversion and Vedas and the Original Sin - By George Thundiparambil.

Italy's Hindu Controversy - Swami Yoganandagiri seeks official status for Italian-born Hindus in the land of the VaticanSubhead - Hinduism Today September 1997.

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India's contribution to World Unity

Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975) the great British historian. His massive research was published in 12 volumes between 1934 and 1961 as `A Study of History'.  He was a major interpreter of human civilization in the 20th century. He has observed:

"Christianity presents a contrast to the religious and philosophies of Indian origin in being, on the whole, exclusive minded and intolerant hearted. Most Christians believe that their own religion has a monopoly of truth and salvation; some Christians feel hostility towards other religions; and some of these, again, have put this Christian belief and Christian feeling into action in times past by trying to wipe other religions off the map. In showing this militant aggressive temper, Christianity is not unique. The same temper is characteristic of all those living religions and ideologies that have arisen in the section of the Oikoumene that lies to the west of India. Intolerance is common to Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism, and also to the modern Western ideologies, that have sprung up in a post-Christian environment: I mean Fascism, Nazism, Communism. 

But, on the whole, aggressive militancy is, I am afraid, characteristic of all the religions of the trans-Indus family, in contrast to the catholicity of Indian religion and philosophy."

(source: One World and India - Arnold Toynbee Indian Council for Cultural Relations New Delhi. 1960 p. 56-57). 

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West 'plunders' Indian therapy for quick profit

Cher, Madonna, Prince Charles and Cherie Blair have eased the pressures of fame by turning to Ayurveda, an ancient Indian therapy which uses holistic healing techniques to reach the parts that Western treatments cannot.

But the booming popularity of Ayurveda, now offered in high street salons, spas and even GP clinics, is worrying genuine Indian practitioners, who believe the West is 'hijacking' it for commercial gain.

Several eminent professors from India will warn a conference in London next Friday that Britain and America are diluting the philosophy of Ayurveda. They claim counsellors, therapists and beauty consultants are making millions from the name without basic training, leaving patients out of pocket for no medical benefits.

Gopi Warrier, chairman of the Ayurvedic Company of Great Britain and the British Ayurvedic Medical Council, said: 'Ayurveda is being plundered. Its beliefs and practices are being hijacked and the public are being conned.

'In India, these remedies are used to cure poor people with genuine ailments. It's a serious practice; you have to train for five-and-a-half years to become fully qualified. But in Britain, we are seeing people with a few hours' training pretending to understand the full complexity of a system which has been built up over many centuries.'

Warrier added: 'Our remedies are being pilfered - there's no other word for it - in order for spas and clinics to jump on a New Age bandwagon and con people out of their money.'

Ayurveda, an intricate system of healing that originated at least 6,000 years ago, is based on the belief that people's constitutions fall into three different types, known as Vata, Pitta or Kapha doshas. Treatments will be tailor-made for their type, but diet and meditation as well as massage will also form part of the therapy. At its heart is the belief that there are energy forces which cause illness if ignored.

(source: West 'plunders' Indian therapy for quick profit  - Observer.co.uk).

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Archaeologist too believes Ram temple existed at Ayodhya

The VHPs assertion through scientific data that a Ram temple existed at the disputed site in Ayodhya now has the backing of archaeologists who dug up the place in the 1980s.

According to an agency story, one of the architects who conducted extensive digging on a half-acre area barely a metre off the site has said the excavations will establish without doubt the existence of an ancient temple. The observation of the archaeologist is significant as the Allahabad High Court has ordered excavations at the disputed site. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is already preparing its team to begin excavations within a week at the site to ascertain the antiquity of structures detected in radar tests in January. But even before that archaeologists are saying that a temple existed there. The structures we found dated back 3,000 years to 900 B.C.,  S.P. Gupta, who was among the dozen archaeologists who excavated the site from 1975 to 1980 has been quoted as saying by a news agency. Gupta described pillars, floors, brick walls and even statuettes uncovered by his team. We covered them up with earth after our studies were complete, he has said.

If these findings were barely a metre away from the actual spot of dispute, then it is obvious that the temple would have covered the disputed site too. Another expedition was conducted in 1992 just before the demolition of the Babri structure. 

According to Gupta, 68 idols had been uncovered in that bout of digging and there were certain indications of a sprawling temple complex that existed before the Babri mosque.

(source: Newstodaynet.com - March 7 2003). Watch History of Ayodhya - videogoogle.com.

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Charles Dickens and India

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens's works are charactericized by attacks on social evils, injustice, and hypocrisy. Author of several books, including The Pickwick Papers, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities and Oliver Twist. 

Writing about India after the Mutiny on 4 October 1857 he said:

"I wish I were commander-in-chief in India. I would do my utmost to exterminate the Race... "

Nothing less than extermination of the Hindus would have satisfied Dickens....

(source: Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India - by Lawrence James  p. 283). Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com

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Giving Savarkar his due, at last

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883-1966) - The crown prince of revolutionaries. He organized Abhinav (New) Bharat (India). The aim was to overthrow the British Raj by any means necessary. He motivated many rich Indian men who had come to U.K. for pleasure, as well as young students. The men became experts in making hand grenades and using handguns. They smuggled weapons into India for other revolutionaries. Their chief targets were the British officials who gave orders of torture of Indian patriots and people. In 1911 he was sentenced to life imprisonment on the Andaman Islands. This is the site where whippings used to take place, all under the supervision of the Anglo-Indian jailors, the room where Savarkar was locked up for so many years, the room where prisoners were hanged three at a time and the hole through which the bodies were removed outside of the prison wall to be cast into the sea, are all there. It was here that Savarkar was incarcerated along with thousands of freedom fighters, remains a symbol of indescribable colonial cruelty as also of freedom-loving humanity's undying spirit of resistance. 

Savarkar took a pledge in front of the idol of Durga to liberate India from British.

He was the first Indian political leader to call for Swadeshi, and the first Indian leader who publicly performed a bonfire of foreign clothes (1906). Savarkar was the first barrister who was refused the degree on account of his political line of thought by the British Government. Savarkar was the first Indian leader who cleared the myth British historians propagated and showed that 1857 war of independence was not a mutiny of sepoys in few regiments but a revolt of Indian population against the British sustained over for 2 years.

Savarkar also designed the first Indian flag to be unfurled overseas (by Madame Bhikaji Cama (1861-1936)  in Stuttgart Germany, on August 22, 1907 at the International Socialist Congress, where Britsh and French socilaists moved a resolution to call India an oppressed country

He was the first president of Marathi Sahitya Parishad (Council of all Marathi writers and poets). He was the only Hindu leader honored by SGPC (Sikh religious body)

C. Rajagopalachari - Savarkar to him was a national hero, a symbol of courage, bravery and patriotism, an 'abhitirth' in the long battle for freedom. 

Subhash Chandra Bose wanted Savarkar to join the Congress after Savarkar' s release in 1937. 

M. N. Roy wanted Savarkar to devote his life again to the emancipation of India on Savarkar's own line of thinking. 

Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Dr.Radhakrishanan, YB Chavan felicited Savarkar on Dec.1960.

General Cariappa India's first Commander in Chief (C-in-C) in Dec. 1962 after the defeat of Indian Army in the China war said " Had India listened to Savarkar and adopted his policy of militarization and and prepared herself she would not have been placed in this predicament. 

Congress MPs Violet and Joachim Alva (on Feb 5, 1966) wrote to Savarkar "We humbly salute your unforgettable daring achievement - Swimming the ocean and regaining freedom- will be long cherished in the pages of freedom struggle"

S. A. Dange (Chairman of the Communist party) said of Savarkar " He was one of the great anti-imperialist revolutionary".

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said " Savarkar was a great figure of contemporary India and his name is by-word for daring and patriotism. He was cast in a mould of a classic revolutionary and countless people drew inspiration from him." After Veer Savarkar's death, Mrs. Gandhi, the late Prime Minister of India, said "Savarkar's death removes a great figure of contemporary India. 

In 1970 she had released a postal stamp recognizing the sacrifice and valor of Veer Savarkar to the national struggle and she personally ordered a documentary to be made on his life. She also donated Rs 11,000 from her personal account to the Veer Savarkar Trust.

Defence minister YB Chavan " Savarkar displayed a unique combination of nationalism, bravery and social unity ".

M. C. Chagla (a Muslim, the then Education minister) said " Savarkar was a great patriot and an illustrious son of India" he added " anyone living in in this country who loved and drew inspiration from the great heritage of India and was loyal to India was a Hindu. Revolutionaries like Savarkar created an atmosphere which made it possible for Mahatma Gandhi to succeed. It would be unpatriotic if the people of India failed to give Savarkar a prominent place in the history of India".

On June 7, 1985, the British Parliament adjourned its proceedings for an extraordinary reason. MPs paid tributes to a person once the empire classified as its deadly enemy -Swatantryaveer Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883-1966). They converged at the auditorium in the Westminster's Annexe where a documentary on Savarkar by Prem Vaidya (adjudged the best Filmfare documentary for 1983) was screened. The book Five Stormy Years: Savarkar in London by Dr Harindra Srivastava, the greatest authority on Savarkar alive, was released. 

On June 8, the 70 to 80 MPs (and ambassador of Greece) converged at the India House in London that was the epicenter of Savarkar's revolutionary acts in London between 1906 and 1911. The chief guest was cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, who of course had little to contribute to the occasion. 97-year-old Labour MP Lord Fenner Brockway (1888-1988), in his impeccable style, said all charges levelled against Savarkar by British Empire were "completely baseless and fraudulent". He said that to have a patriot like Savarkar was a matter of great pride for any country.

What an irony that the Indian Parliament had to lag behind the Westminster by 17 years plus to venerate the volcano of patriotism, Veer Savarkar. To compound the irony the opposition boycotted the function on February 26 en masse

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Installing portrait of Savarkar in Center Hall of Parliament

No party can have a monopoly over the interpretation of history. No, not even the constantly evolving Indian Communists. However it is ironic in the extreme that those denigrating Savarkar have themselves emerged as the biggest revisionists of modern times. The Indian Communists had abused Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Mahatma Gandhi, Bhagat Singh et al in the strongest of words.

Savarkar was too great to be hurt by the slings of these petty men and women who resent him his rightful place in the Central Hall of Parliament. 

Nehru-Gandhi family in the initial decades of independent India had sought to create a halo to the exclusion of everyone else in the pantheon of our nationalist heroes. The contribution of those anonymous freedom fighters was not recorded by any historian while the officially patronised hagiography centering around the Nehru family made it out as if he was the lone warrior battling the cruel Brits. As against his years spent in gilded jails, Savarkar underwent unmentionable tribulations in the cellular jail `kala paani’ in Andaman. A hall which displays the portrait of Ambedkar, the creator of the Constitution, along with that of Indira Gandhi, who virtually killed it in 1975-77, (during the Emergency) cannot look very incongruous should it also feature the portrait of Savarkar who too represented a significant stream of the Indian nationalist thought in the 20th century. 

(source: Giving Savarkar his due, at last - M V Kamath - samachar.com Feb. 28 2003).

Bharatheeya Vichara Kendram director P. Parameswaran has said that the anti-Savarkar vituperation of the Leftists was an expression of their frustration. ‘‘While working for the freedom of India from England, Savarkar had come in contact with Lenin who was in exile there. Both of them discussed various aspects of building a revolutionary movement against imperialism. Savarkar and M.N.Roy were the two Indian revolutionaries who rubbed shoulders with Lenin. ‘‘New generation Communists may not know this fact but comrades like Somnath Chatterji must be knowing. That is probably why he silently approved the proposal for the Savarkar portrait in the Central Hall of Parliament. Pranab Mukherjee must have been aware of Jawahar Lal Nehru’s reference to Savarkar’s contribution to the freedom struggle in the ‘Discovery of India’ with special reference to ‘‘Volcano-The First War of Independence’’.

‘‘The greatest charge levelled against Savarkar is that he negotiated with the British while he was in the Andamans. If so it was tactical. Savarkar has put it on record that while engaged in a warfare one has to adopt different strategies at different times. Shivaji and Mazzani were his ideals. Even Shivaji, who was an inveterate foe of Aurangazeb, negotiated with him and went to the Imperial Court accepting to be his subordinate. But that was only a tactic. The war continued until Aurangazeb met his grave in the battlefields of Deccan. History does not blame Shivaji for his tactical retreat. Savarkar too changed tactics but never diluted his ideals. ‘‘Gandhiji was a saint among politicians. Savarkar was not and he did not want to be one. He was a revolutionary statesman. Ideological perceptions of Gandhiji and Savarkar were vastly different but both were ardent nationalists and uncompromising idealists. To extol one by condemning another is neither charitable nor beneficial in the long run. The Leftists who throw stones at Savarkar have been marginalised by history and stand accused for their betrayal of Indian nationalists and freedom movement.’’

(Please refer to Six glorious epochs of Indian history - Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and The Indian war of independence, 1857 - By Vinayak Damodar Savarkar 

and Swatantrya Veer Savarkar: The Eternal Hero - By Dhananjay Kheer Sangam Books Ltd, London, 2nd Ed, 1988, 569 pages ISBN 086132 182 0) and  P. Parameswaran criticises anti-Savarkar tirade by Leftists - Newindpress.com March 4 2003).

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Hindu Temple attacked in US

The police and FBI are at a loss why a fire bomb was thrown at the Hindu temple in St Louis, Missouri, on the night of February 22. "It seemed to be a crude bomb or Molotov cocktail, which set fire to the front door of the temple," Krishna Reddy, president of the temple trustee board, said.

The police have registered a hate crime case, officials said. The fire quickly burned itself out, charring a four-foot section of the door.

The attack happened after midnight, Reddy thinks. Temple officials discovered the attack when they arrived to open the shrine the next morning. "There are four priests living in the compound a little behind the temple. They did not hear anything that night," Reddy said. The temple has no dispute with anyone, Reddy noted. There was an attack on statues in front of the temple two years ago, he said. Vandals cut parts of the statues, which were replaced later.

Established 13 years ago, it is one of the largest temples in the US serving more than 8,000 families. Lord Venkatesa is the principal deity.

Maha Shivratri celebrations are scheduled for March 1. "The attack has not changed anything," Singla noted. All the activities will go on as scheduled, he said.

(source: Hindu Temple attacked in US - Hindu Vivek Kendra).

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Distorted picture of India and NRIs ?

"Gujarat - a Laboratory of Hindu Rashtra, Fascism" is a typical psuedo title film created to project a distorted picture of India and NRIs. There are several Universities, Organizations and Individuals (Professors) working to promote this anti-India propaganda in USA and Canada.

So far this film has been shown at Univ.of Maryland, North Carolina State Univ., Duke Univ. Surprisingly, a partnership center of UNC-CH, NCSU and Duke have sponsored this film. (What are their interests? They did not reveal). We contacted NCSU, DUKE and UNC-CH asking; if they are sponsoring the film, is it not their responsibility to verify all the facts before the sponsorship? Though they replied to our communication, they did not answer any of the 12 questions raised by us. This film will be screened at Georgia Tech University on Friday, April 11. 

(source: IndiaCause.com).

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Hindu mothers do not love their babies like Western Mothers - says American Anthropologist

Stanley N Kurtz, a social anthropologist of India, recently received his Ph.D. in anthropology from Harvard University and is currently a Fellow of the Committee on Human Development and the Center for Research on Culture and Mental Health at the University of Chicago. He is an NRO Contributing Editor, is a fellow at the Hoover Institution with a special interest in America's "culture war." In addition to his regular contributions to National Review Online, Kurtz's writings on the family, feminism, homosexuality, affirmative action, and campus "political correctness" have appeared in Policy Review, the Wall Street Journal, and Commentary. Kurtz was also Dewey Prize Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Chicago. Kurtz has published extensively on family life, child rearing, religion, and psychology in various parts of the world — particularly India, where he did his field research. 

He uses psychoanalysis to conclude that Hindu mothers do not have “a Western-style loving, emotional partnership” with their babies.

“The special relationship between the Hindu mother and her son appears here as a variation on a distinctive Hindu pattern rather than as a mere intensification of a style of intimacy found in the West… Nursing is not therefore, an occasion through which mother and child cement on an emotional union. The child is frequently fed, yet the mother seldom lingers to mirror the baby's satisfaction. Thus, while the child no doubt develops a strong emotional attachment to the mother as a result of the physical gratification she provides, the mother does not respond by setting up a Western-style loving, emotional partnership.” 

(note: Perhaps Mr. Kurtz should read about what Andrea Yates and Susan Smith did to their children, both who were devout Christians, before using psychoanalysis on Hindu mothers). For more refer to chapter Women in Hinduism).

This is utterly false, namely, that Hindu mothers do not see nursing the baby as opportunity to cement emotional union, the way white women supposedly do. This kind of racial, ethnic and cultural profiling and denigration has replaced what used to be blatant racism. Today, this racism is justified as “objective” research findings, and is especially dangerous because many Indian scholars have sold out to join this movement.

In yet another book, “All the Mothers Are One, ”Stanley Kurtz has constructed a new model for the psychology of Hinduism, based on his studies into Indian social and family structures, and interviews with devotees of Santoshi Ma. Claiming that Durga symbolizes the castrating Mother Goddess, he has propounded the Durga Complex to explain “the characteristically Hindu form of conflicts over unconscious incestuous strivings,” in which “castration symbolism at the most mature level represents transformative self-willed sacrifice signaling the abandonment of infantile attachments…”

To deny Hindus their sense of individuality, he writes: “Their notion of the divine knows neither boundaries of time, place, substance, nor identity.” And therefore claims: “Individualism is built into our psychic structure but not into that of the Hindu.”

Besides finding many technical flaws in his methodologies, Humes criticizes his work severely as “a method which in the end borders on racism: despite arguing for greater sensitivity to cultural difference in psychology, “those people” over “there” are actually all alike – but not like “us”…Kurtz psychology excludes Hindu women…they are, after all, “mommies” whose psychology can be dispensed with in a few words and a note.”

The new editor of the major 15-volume critical edition of Mahabharata being published by The University of Chicago Press, said at the Mahabharata Conference in Montreal, that MB is “God's Genocide,” the main theme being “Krishna commanding the destruction of mankind,” and that this should be the overarching theme of the entire translation. So what do we have here? Islamic scholars are busy trying to clean up the image of Islam. On the other hand, Hinduism scholars are trying the opposite -- appearing to demonize it, and thereby causing, intentionally or otherwise, Hindu shame amongst the youth. 

History shows that genocides have been preceded by the denigration of the victims -- showing them as irrational, immoral, lacking a legitimate religion, lacking in compassion towards others and love towards their babies, etc., i.e. not deserving of the same human rights extended to white people. Notice how these so-called practices of mothers are labeled as “a distinctive Hindu pattern” per se. This is also why “dowry murders” have been very aggressively put on the dominant culture's agenda, to be prosecuted specifically as “a Hindu problem,” even though the scholarship of Veena Oldenburg and others clearly establishes that it is not a “Hindu” problem.

(source: RISA Lila - Hindu mothers do not love their babies like Western Mothers - by Rajiv Malhotra -sulekha.com).

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Theory of Time (Kala-vada)

Erich Frauwallner (1898 -1974) author of The History of Indian Philosophy, observes, “In the mythological and the religious sphere there is the idea of Time as the world-ruling power which brings forth everything and again destroys it – immensely impressive and capable of lasting development. In India, where in the attempts to explain the world, philosophy assumed the lead, the things developed differently.” 

Time in Indian and Christian Traditions 

There are important conceptual differences about the notion of time between the Indian and the Christian tradition. The history of the cosmos unfolds in time, as do our own individual histories. Time is an essential ingredient of all experience and thought. One of the distinguishing features of human consciousness is its awareness of temporal order – past, present and future. We are in time – there was a time when we were not, and there will be a time when we shall not be any more. Kala (Time) is also Yama (Death). Awareness of this dissolution of self is the source of our metaphysical anxiety. 

What strikes us, first of all, is the immense gulf between the two time scales. 

Until a century ago, a majority of people in the Western world – including secular scientists – accepted Archbishop Ussher’s estimate of the age of the world – based on the Genesis story – as 4004 BCE.  

According to the ancient Indian cosmology, one day for Brahma, the period of existence of a universe, and one night, during which this universe arrives at dissolution, are each equal to 4,320,000,000 human years. These daily creations and dissolutions of universes will continue for a hundred years of Brahma. A state of re-absorption then prevails for a Brahma century. After that other gods will arise and other universes. There is a marvelous story in the Brahmavaivarta Purana (Krishna-janma Khanda, 47.50.161) that dramatically illustrates the stupendous scale of Indian cosmology, and the distinctiveness of the Indian attitude to time.  

In addition to the vastness of time scale, what is striking in the story is the cyclical nature of time. Universes arise and dissolve with their own Brahma, Indra, and other gods. Evil and good increase and decrease in never ending cycles. The serpent-cycle of time (the world-bounding serpent, sarpini, biting its own tail) will go on revolving through ascending (usarpini) and descending (avasarpini) periods forever. The world drama is repeated again and again. There is nothing unique to our present age (Kali Yuga), which is the last and the worst era because it has the least amount of Dharma in the present cycle of the Maha Yuga. The Maha Yuga spans a period of 4,320,000 human years, equivalent to one thousandth part of a single Brahma day. The present Kali Yuga is computed to have begun on Friday, February 18, 3102 BCE., and it will last for a period of 432,000 years. The moral and social degradation of the Kali Yuga is characterized in a passage of the Vishnu Purana: “When society reaches a stage where property confers rank, wealth becomes the only source of virtue, falsehood the source of success in life, sex the only means of enjoyment, and when outer trappings are confused with inner religion…” 

However, this too shall pass. And, after the dissolution, another golden age will begun – which will gradually deteriorate. The wheel of time will keep on revolving – without pause, without mercy, forever. The cosmic dance of Shiva goes on – different steps heralding the creation and destruction of the worlds. According to Indians, the world is not progressing towards perfection under the direction of God – in contrast to the typical Western view. The Judeo-Christian evaluation of time is teleological.  In one of the Puranic accounts of Vishnu’s deeds in his Incarnation as a Boar, we find the  Boar, carrying on his arm the goddess Earth whom he is in the act of rescuing from the depths of the sea, passingly remark to her: “Everytime I carry you this way…” Giordano Bruno, on the other hand, was burnt at the stake by the Christian Church in the 16^th century for believing in the infinity of worlds, which implied multiple betrayals and crucifixions of Jesus. Thus, Primitive Christianity knows nothing of a timeless God.  

In India, time is itself an aspect of Brahman. ‘There are, verily, two forms of Brahman, time (Kala) and the timeless (Akala) – Maitir Upanishad. Vi. 15. ‘from time all beings flow, from time they advance to growth; in time they obtain rest (they disappear). Time is formed and formless too’ – Maitri Upanishad vi. 14. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu, says to Arjuna: ‘I am Imperishable Time’ – BG10:33, and ‘I am the inflamed Time, the destroyer of the worlds BG 11:32.  Shiva – a major deity of the Hindu pantheon – is given many names by his devotees. Among them are Kala (time), Maha Kala (Great Time), Kala Rudra (All Devouring Time), Kala Samhar (Destroyer of Time). The timeless Brahman creates, sustains and destroys the multiplicity of world through Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva (Mahesh) who are lords over time, everlasting and endless.

(source: History of Science and Technology in Ancient India - by Debiprasad Chattopadhya volume II p. 47 and Yoga and The Teachings of Krishna - by Ravi Ravindra p. 219-230).  

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Lord Ganesha on Sandals at American Eagle Outfitters

American Eagle Outfitters, a North American clothing retail chain is marketing flip-flops (slippers) with an illustrated depiction of the revered Hindu Lord Ganesa (Ganesh).  It is clear to all of us that the fashion, music, and marketing industries are significantly influenced by the Hindu religion and the Indian culture.  However, American Eagle Outfitters has completely disregarded Hindu and Indian sentiment in their pursuit to market a successful product. It is important to point that while freedom of speech is a fundamental right, that freedom should not compel us to defame the Hindu religion and ignore Hindu sentiments.  Companies have repeatedly disrespected the Hindu faith, and we must all help to put an end to it. Taking action against this issue is not difficult, write to American Eagle Outfitters, express your anger about their carelessness, and boycott their merchandise until they see it fit to discontinue the sale of this product. 

(source: Hindu Unity.com). Let them know how you feel: AE.com Customer Service:
1-888-232-4535 (24 hours a day) Click on this link to email AE: http://www.ae.com/contact/feedback_merchandise.htm). Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com

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Without being hyper-sensitive, one may legitimately question why Hindu gods alone are singled out for such honour. I do not believe the incidents are innocent, harmless or accidental. India has been associated with the spiritual quest since the dawn of civilization; the dullest soul in the world knows the esteem in which gods are held in this land. For a god as universally renowned as Ganesh to land up beneath human feet is to my mind a very intentional insult. 

I believe these cultural shock and awe tactics are related to the consistent White Christian goal of eradicating all native faiths and traditions in the world. What better way than by eroding the sanctity of other gods? At some level, these activities connect with last year's well orchestrated campaign against a US-based charity, India Relief and Development Fund (IDRF), titled "The Foreign Exchange of Hate: IDRF and American Funding of Hindutva." Coming in the wake of the Gujarat riots, it got good mileage internationally.

(source: Hindu gods & gospel untruths - By Sandhya Jain - dailypioneer May 5 ' 2003).

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Gita a source of inspiration to diverse minds

With the memorable words, “Close thy Byron, open thy Goethe,” Thomas Carlyle, the sage of Chelsea, sent forth hits Sartor Resartus to the English people, as the manifesto of an all round Germanism. This German Kultur was the idealism of Kant, Lessing, Fichte, Schelling and Hegel, the nearest European ally of Hindu monism. It opened the Anglo-Saxon mind to the sense of the infinite, of the majesty of the spiritual self, and electrified the soul to the recognition of the “duties that lie nearest thee.” The gospel that taught to “make thy numerator zero in order that the quotient may be infinite” converted the Bostonians of the trans-Atlantic world from Lockites into metaphysicians. This “new thought” of the day was worshipped by Parker and Emerson around the Dial. The New England Transcendentalists thus became kinsmen of the Hindus (Infra, p. 115).

(source: Creative India - By Benoy Kumar Sarkar p. 111-112). 

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Salt – a symbol of British oppression 

Before East India Company rule, the production of salt was free, for trade or private use; it was also necessary: 

R J Forbes has noted how the nature of a vegetarian civilization is always reflected in its profuse use of this almost basic commodity. The Company first imposed a tax on the salt trade; later it made salt a monopoly and increased the price. The corresponding revenue was enormous – already in 1789, it totaled 7 million rupees. In that year, production of it in secret was blessed with penalties. 

In 1883, W S Blunt wrote in his diary: 

“The police are empowered to enter houses night or day and, on their accusation of there being a measure of earth salt in it, the owner of the house may be fined 15 rupees, or imprisoned for a month. If the villagers send their cattle to graze anywhere where there is a natural salt on the ground, the owner is fined or imprisoned and the salt is thrown in heaps and burned. The cattle are dying for want of it, and the people are suffering seriously….In the Deccan, its pressure is more galling, because natural salt lies on the ground and people are starved of it as it were in sight of plenty. In several villages which I passed the ryots told me that they had been reduced to driving their cattle by night to the places where salt is found, that they may lick it by stealth.” 

Blunt notes that a kind of leprosy had already begun to prevail along the coast, and that the police continued to collect and burn all salt found in its natural state above the ground. In 1883, the salt revenue netted 6 million sterling for the British. In 1930, the salt revenue netted the same authority 25 million pounds out of the 800 million pounds still taken out of the country.  

In 1930, too, when Mahatma Gandhi wished to begin a new campaign of national civil disobedience, he began with salt: all he had to do was to trek down 200 miles to the Arabian Sea, there stoop and pick up a few grains of salt from the pans, and the entire nation ignited.  

(source: Homo Faber: Technology and Culture in India, China and the West 1500-1972 - by Claude Alphonso Alvares p. 159). For more refer to chapter European Imperialism).

Little seems to have been written by modern historians about the physiological consequences of salt deprivation that might have resulted from the high Salt Tax in British India. Writers on famine in British India seem generally to have ignored salt intake as a nutritional factor.

(source: http://www.rmoxham.freeserve.co.uk/salt%20starvation.htm).

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Nostradamus and References to India

Century I, quatrain 50

De l'aquatique triplicite naitra,
D'uni qui fera le jeudi pour sa fete,
Son brut, los, regne, sa puissance croitra,
Par terre et mere aux Orient tempete,

In the land of three waters will there be born,
One who will Thursday his day of worship make;
His strength, praise and rule all powerful grown,
On land and sea he will in Orient be tempest like,

It should be clear to anyone familiar with the geography of Asia that 'born in the land of three waters' means born in a peninsula surrounded by three seas. There is only one such peninsula in the world - the Deccan peninsula or South India. The three seas are: the Indian Ocean to the south, the Arabian sea to the West and the Bay of Bengal to the east. In Nostradamus time Orient meant India and the Near East and not the Far East as is the case today, a part of the world largely unknown to him.

There is yet another clue: le jeudi pour sa fete. He will make (or follow) Thursday as the holy day. Only Hindus regard Thursday as holy. For Christians it is Sunday, for Jews Saturday, and for Muslims, it is Friday. Upon seeing this and other signs a well-known French scholar (Le Pelletier) observed more than a century ago that most prophecies of Nostradamus cannot apply to the Christian world alone. 

(source: Nostradamus and Beyond: Visions of Yuga-Sandhi - By N S Rajaram p. 21- 25). For more on Nostradamus, refer to Glimpses III).

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What's in a Name? It is a matter of Hindu pride..

Coromandel (Portuguese)  - Chola-mandlam
Allahabad – Prayag
Bombay – Mumbai
Poona  - Pune
Madras – Chennaipatnam
Calcutta - Kolkata - Kali Ghatta (Kali's banks)
Indian Ocean – Hindu Mahasagar
Mt. Everest – Sagarmatha
Ahmedabad - Karnavati
Aurangabad - ?
Ganges - Ganga
Indus - Sindhu

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Idols from Maratha period found in Belgaum

At least 18 sculptures and inscriptions, which are said to belong to the 17th or 18th Century A.D., are lying unprotected in Chorla village in Khanapur taluk of Belgaum District. They are obviously under threat from unscrupulous elements, and there are reports of "strangers" visiting the village and taking photographs of the sculptures, which are kept in a hut outside the village on Belgaum-Goa Road.

On being shown photographs by this correspondent, J. Varaprasada Rao, Deputy Superintending Archaeologist, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Dharwad, who has jurisdiction over Belgaum, identified the sculptures, inscriptions on black stones, and idols of deities such as Sri Gajalaxmi, Mahishsuramardini, Brahamani Mahamaya, Ravalnath (hero's statue), and Betal (believed to be a form of Shiva) with a Shiva Linga, as belonging to 17th or 18th Century (Maratha period).

The villagers are not aware of the archaeological value of the sculptures, idols, and inscriptions. However, these have been in the hut for several decades, according to them. They plan to construct a temple of Sri Gajalaxmi (also known as Kelabai and Sateri Devi), and install the deity's idol. Sri Gajalaxmi is a widely revered deity in the region (comprising Khanapur in Karnataka, north Goa, and Sawantwadi in south Maharashtra). Dr. Rao says the inscriptions imitate the "Kadamba style", and may be easily mistaken as belonging to the 13th Century A.D. A careful study shows that they are from the 17th or 18th Century, according to him.

There may have been a manufacturing centre in the region during the period of the Marathas, as similar inscriptions have been recovered in the neighbouring areas of northern Goa and Maharashtra, some of which are kept in the ASI Museum in Goa. Findings from archaeological excavations are universal treasures as they provide evidence of heritage and culture. It is, therefore, imperative to protect them for the benefit of future generations. Dr. Rao says he will visit the place immediately, and inform senior authorities of the ASI.

(source: Idols from Maratha period found in Belgaum - By Vijaykumar Patil).

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Roberto de Nobili's Brahmins

Roberto de Nobili (1577-1656 A.D.) was an Italian Jesuit missionary who had made it his life's ambition to proselytize the Hindus of Tamilnadu. He was well versed in Tamil and possibly in Sanskrit, though his understanding of many Sanskrit works was wrong, as can be seen from his inability to distinguish between "Brahman" and "BrahmA". 

He followed every custom of the Brahmins such as wearing of the tuft, sacred thread, sacred ash or "vibhUti" and vegetarianism. He initiated people into Christianity by giving them all these Brahminical symbols. Of course, none of this means that he had a great regard for Hinduism or its practices. Far from that. He held them in utter contempt. He argued that a missionary should follow these practices as that way he can easily proselytize the heathen Hindus.

It is another story that we Indians never see their real motives. We end up glorifying them; Tamilnadu government funds an institute named after him.

In the book Roberto de Nobili on Indian Customs, edited by the Jesuit priest S. Rajamanickam, we find many of the letters written by Roberto de Nobili, on this subject matter. 

Roberto de Nobili was interested in converting *only* Brahmins. He was even critical of the church that would try to proselytize other castes. 

Roberto de Nobili argued that if a Brahmin is converted, it automatically ensures the conversion of many more members of other castes, as the Brahmins are held by the society in the highest regard. He was also against spending the missionary efforts in converting "Nambis" and other non-Brahmin Saivite priests, for he considered them to be of no social standing. His methods were very effective for he single-handedly converted 30,000 Hindus, some of them Brahmins and others upper caste Hindus, from Madurai alone.

He argued that careful adaptation, even imitation, of Brahminical customs is an integral part of a missionary's life. He said that unless a missionary practises them, the Hindu society would look down upon him with contempt. He said that whenever the missionary preached to a person of lower caste, he immedietly turned to a Brahmin for approval and if the Brahmin rejected the Christian ideals, there was little chance that the lower caste would convert. Au contraire, he argued, if a Brahmin is won over and if he preached catechism, while still wearing his tuft, sacred thread and Brahminical robes, the lower castes automatically converted. And he concluded that once the heathen Hindus are won over and once they are hopefully brought under Christian rule (such as the Portugese), the local bishops can purge such Hindu methods which had been adopted to convert the very same people to Christianity.

If deception is an art, then Roberto de Nobili was its practitioner par excellence. Even though a follower of St.Xavier, he wouldn't implement the barbaric methods of his "saint", perhaps because he realized that such methods wouldn't work in those regions where the Portugese didn't rule.  

(source: yahoogroups.com)  Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com

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IIT - India's premier institution - unmatched educational excellence

Attending the fete, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates told the over 2,300 IIT alumni from all over the United States, Europe and India, "India is a superpower of human talent. Many brilliant IITians are working at Microsoft." Sun Microsystems co-founder Khosla, now a general partner in the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, announced a donation of $5 million for IIT Delhi. Another ex-IITian, advisory director of Goldman Sachs Avi Nash, donated $1 million to the chemical engineering department of IIT Mumbai. Covering the two-day celebrations, CBS' news program "60 Minutes" said, "The US imports cars from Japan, whiskey from Scotland and smart IITians from India. In science and technology, IIT undergraduates leave their American counterparts in the dust."

(source: Students for the world: India's dilemma - by Raju Bist).

It's about a university that may be the hardest school in the world to get into. It's called IIT- Indian Institute of Technology. A stunning percentage of CEOs and innovators in the American high tech industry were graduated from IIT. The government of India highly subsidizes the school and the students who go there - it costs a kid just $700 a year. But - and here's the rub - a full two-thirds of the students leave India for jobs (many of the best come here) and never return.

(source: CBS.com - 60 minutes - Lesley Stahl).

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Inferiority Complex of Indians under the British Empire 

The abject feeling of inferiority in India was the result of a different set of circumstances, brought about principally by total subjection to British rule. Unlike the Chinese, Indians adapted at first to the roles that Empire required. The psychological and moral effects of British conquests and Indian subjection gradually spread and deepened. The disappearance of the warrior element in Indian society (the Kshatriyas) marked the disappearance too of basic components such as courage and encouraged more superficial doubts among Indians about their technical ability to do anything about the overthrow of British rule. 

British rule succeeded in making clear to the Indians themselves that they lacked power, and it strengthened the imperial opinion that qualities of passivity, weakness, and cowardice were in fact norms of Indian culture and character. On the other hand, Britons were led to think that the superiority of English power and culture was an inherent rather than a historical phenomenon. What is even more surprising, the devaluation of Indian culture led to contempt for the Indian physique. 

“The physical organization of the Bengali is feeble even to effeminacy. He lives in a constant vapor bath. His pursuits are sedentary, his limbs delicate, his movements languid. During many ages he has been trampled upon by men of bolder and more hardy breeds….His mind bears a singular analogy to his body. It is weak even to helplessness for purposes of many resistance; but its suppleness and tact move the children of sterner climates to admiration not unmingled with contempt.” 

This is a passage from John Strachey’s India written at the turn of this century and a standard training assignment text at the time for Englishmen undergoing probation in the Indian Civil Service.  

“Within twenty years of the deliberate exclusion of United Province Brahmins from the Bengal Army because of their leading role in the rebellion of 1857, the idea that Brahmins lacked fighting qualities had become a prevailing opinion. “ 

Contrary to the Dutch in Indonesia, the Portuguese in Goa, and the Spanish in the Philippines, the English established themselves as a separate ruling caste: like other Indian castes, they did not inter marry or eat with the lower (native) castes. Their children were shipped off to public schools in England, while they themselves kept to their clubs and bungalows in special suburbs known as cantonments and civil lines. The close contact with the caste system strengthened British snobbery: the British civil service, with its tradition of generalists and Brahmannical status of the administrative class, is practically derived from the Indian model. 

The new Indian elite was the product of English-created opportunities, and these opportunities were more easily exploited if its members successfully embraced Western, or more particularly, English ideas and manners. Political power was sought to be added to traditional priestly, commercial and literary power. Every one of these new elites would be found in the port cities of Asia: by mid-19^th century, it was obvious that all of them had already become fundamentally Westernized, and that it would be these Westernized groups emerging in Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Karachi and Colombo who would inherit and shape South Asia’s development after independence. 

(source: Homo Faber: Technology and Culture in India, China and the West 1500-1972 - by Claude Alphonso Alvares p. 186-191).

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Indian Temples and 19th century British woman in India

One 19th century guide book advised women to tip local guides for not pointing out suggestive temple carvings.

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Indian temples were a popular destination for British tourist, but escorts usually steered female sightseers away from the erotic art featured on some temple facades.  One 19th century guide book advised women to tip local guides for not pointing out suggestive temple carvings.

(source: What Life Was Like in the Jewel of the Crown: British India AD 1600-1905 - By The Editors of Time-Life Books. p.156).

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Clean, Modern Subway, Efficiently Built. In India?

NEW DELHI, Jan. 23 — The trains arrive with a whisper, speak with a computerized voice and at times are driven by women. Passengers board quickly and quietly at stations that are clean and airy, with graceful 30-foot arched ceilings and computerized entryways.

In a city of 14 million people that otherwise tends toward controlled anarchy, it is a pride-inspiring marvel.

But already New Delhi's system is being hailed as a political, managerial and engineering triumph. The first five miles of the system opened on Dec. 24, on budget and on time — a rarity in Indian public works projects.Not least, over the last four and a half years, much of the sprawling system has been built in, above and beneath some of the most densely populated square miles on earth.

Much of the credit for the project's success goes to a 70-year-old longtime public servant who oversaw it, Elattuvalapil Sreedharan, an engineer who has been hailed for maintaining zero tolerance for corruption and coming up with innovative solutions to problems.

His success has indirectly bolstered the stand of Indians who advocate the privatization of government-run industries criticized for waste, poor service and fraud. Instead of creating a ponderous bureaucracy, he subcontracted most of the construction work, hiring top Indian and foreign engineering firms. Of the 20,000 workers involved in the project, only 400 are government employees. Older Delhi-ites marvel that Metro workers do an extraordinary thing for notoriously bureaucratic Indian civil servants: they quickly respond to complaints.

In a feat of engineering, construction workers are building almost seven miles of underground tunnels and nearly 32 miles of above-ground track without closing major roads. Down the center of busy avenues, precast 50-ton blocks of reinforced concrete are being fashioned into an overheard track. Cranes lift sections at night when there is little traffic. During the day, tens of thousands of cars speed underneath as workers secure the track.

(source: Clean, Modern Subway, Efficiently Built. In India? - nytimes.com).

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Terror's Mask: massacre probe at Godhra

Burning of Sabarmati train at Godhra carrying Hindu Ramsevaks

Recovering charred bodies of Hindus

***

Blaming the Hindu Victim: Manufacturing Consent for Barbarism?
It was a case of spontaneous combustion - says the ELM - (English language Media)

This 'secularist' viewpoint was best exemplified by the comment Teesta Setalvad made to The Washington Post of February 28. She said, 'Let us not forget the provocation. These people were not going for a benign assembly. They were indulging in blatant and unlawful mobilisation to build a temple and deliberately provoke the Muslims in India.' Setalvad must be perverse to label karsevaks returning from Ayodhya as those 'indulging in blatant and unlawful mobilization'. 

Ashok Chowgule, president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Maharashtra region, counters in an email statement that:

'if this provocation argument has to be accepted, then we have to accept that the terrorist attacks of September 11 on the USA was entirely justified because the terrorists have said that they have been provoked by the policy of the USA'.

Do you buy that, Ms Setalvad?

(source: Blaming the Hindu Victim: Manufacturing Consent for Barbarism - By Rajeev Srinivasan and  Apartheid in India - By Rajeev Srinivasan - rediff.com and Why 'secular' history repeats itself - By Arvind Lavakare - rediff.com). Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com. Watch History of Ayodhya - videogoogle.com.

***

On February 27, 2002, coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express was set afire at Godhra railway station in Gujarat. Fifty-eight passengers were killed, most of them VHP activists or Ramsevaks returning from Ayodhya. A throng of extremist Muslims, said to be 1,500 strong, was held responsible. The act set off a retaliatory carnage, a contentious election and changed the face of Gujarat's politics.

Igniting Murder: Umarji apparently directed the conspirators to coach S-6; his arrest has shocked his followers in Gujarat

The past year has been, truly, history. The original act, however, is still a mystery. As many as 75 of the 121 accused have been arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by the state Government. Yet it may actually be the latest arrest, that of Maulana Hussein Umarji, 55, on February 6 that signals a turning point.

Umarji, a prominent leader of the Deobandi-Tableegh Jamaat movement in the Godhra region, has been charged with being part of the conspiracy as well as obstructing investigations by protecting the accused. The mob that burnt down compartment S-6 is believed to have been drawn from the local Ghanchi community, zealous followers of the Tableegh Jamaat, a puritanical sect that set up shop in Godhra in the mid-1970s.

The group has been bringing in crores of rupees, largely using the hawala route. While this money has been mobilised from overseas sympathisers to build mosques and madarsas, the authorities suspect much of it may have been spent feeding fundamentalism and instigating violence.

Besides implicating Umarji, Behera also referred to the role of Razak Kurkur, another accused in the case. Kurkur's Aman Guest House, located near the Godhra railway station, was virtually the base of terror. At 9.30 p.m. on February 26, 2002, the evening before the murders, six people held a war council at Aman Guest House. They included Behera, Kurkur, Salim Paanwala, alias Badam, and Salim Zarda. They decided to set the Sabarmati Express on fire. The strategy was simple: at the slightest provocation from the Ramsevaks, or even without one, begin a full-fledged assault.

Some questions remain unanswered though. Who told Umarji to target coach S-6? Who set up his funding network? In short, which organisation is Umarji a front for? The families of the 58 victims would want to know. So would the rest of India.

(source: Terror's Mask - by Uday Mahurkar - India Today February 24 2003).  

58 pilgrims, including 26 women and 12 children, returning from Ayodhya when the Sabarmati Express carrying them was torched near Godhra railway station and the subsequent sectarian violence. These gory incidents shocked the nation to no end. Torching alive innocent citizens is in total violation of Indian values and traditions and is a blot on the fair name of this ancient civilization. It is a gross violation of human rights of innocent citizens who were roasted alive or brutally killed or maimed for no fault of theirs.

(source: Facts Speak For Themselves: Godhra and After).

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Religious Adherents of World Population

Christians - 33%
Muslims - 22%
Hindus - 14%
Buddhist - 6%
Silks - .4%
Jews - .2%
Non-Religious - 12.7%

In modern Western thought, the first writers to divide the world into "world religions" were Christians. Originally, three religions were recognized: Christians, Jews and pagans (i.e., everybody else).

After many centuries, with the increased Western awareness of Eastern history and philosophy, and the development of Islam, other religions were added to the list. Many Far Eastern ways of thought, in fact, were given the status of "world religion" while equally advanced religious cultures in technologically less developed or pre-literate societies (such as in Australia, Africa, South America, and Polynesia) were grouped together as pagans or "animists," regardless of their actual theology.

(source: Adherents.com). Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com

The English writer G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936) English author, critic, journalist, called America a “nation with the soul of a church,” and every president, at times, is the pastor in the bully pulpit. 

The Church of England is the official religion of the U.K. The U.S. President-designate has to swear by the Bible and in 1983 the American Senate unanimously voted to celebrate 1984 as Bible Year. 

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Henry Kissinger and Indian Philosophy 

On November 12, 1973 Kissinger met Mao Tse-tung. Kissinger told Mao: "There is a sentimental love affair between western intellectuals and India based on a complete misreading of the Indian philosophy of life. Indian philosophy was never meant to have a practical application." 

To which Mao's reply was: "It's just a bunch of empty words". So much for Mao's understanding of India. Is it any wonder then that he behaved the way he did? Nixon, Kissinger, Mao and Chou En-lai were all haters of India. That India outwitted them all only shows who really is politically savvy.

(source: Hindu Vivek Kendra - http://www.hvk.org/articles/0303/255.html).

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The Turk who loves the Gita

Bulent Ecevit (1925 - ) the then Turkish prime minister, was asked what had given him the courage to send Turkish troops to Cyprus (where they still remain). His answer: he was fortified by the Bhagavad Gita which taught that if one were morally right, one need not hesitate to fight injustice. Besides the Gita, Ecevit was also influenced by Nehru’s Glimpses of World History.

Ecevit first learnt Sanskrit at the Ankara University. Later his love for poetry and philosophy led him to Rabindranath Tagore. He learnt Bengali to appreciate and later translate Tagore’s writings, including some poems from Geetanjali. During his visit to India in early 2000, Ecevit fulfilled his dream of visiting Shantiniketan. After the 1971 military crackdown by the left, the Upanishads, Gita, and Geetanjali were banned in Turkey.

Turkish prime minister Bulent Ecevit's passage to India has far greater significance than that of an Indophile scholar-statesman realising his long cherished dream. Mr Ecevit, had translated Tagore's Gitanjali and the Bhagavad Gita into Turkish. Together with Delhi and Agra, he has included a visit to Shantniketan in his itinerary.

(source:  The Turk who loves the Gita -  http://www.telegraphindia.com/1021114/asp/opinion/story_1363040.asp). 

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Absurd secularism in India

It is normal for children in other countries to be taught about their own culture and civilisation and if it has not happened here already it is entirely due to a distorted interpretation of secularism. Ancient Indian civilisation and anything to do with it have almost been taboo subjects in Indian schools. It is absurd that the Ramayana should be part of the culture of Muslim Indonesia but considered anti-secular in India.

Indian astronomy, mathematics, systems of medicine, Sanskrit literature are all areas in which schoolchildren are taught nothing. So, though we have a satellite named after Aryabhatta few Indian schoolchildren know much about him.

(source: By Talveen Singh India Today Date: July 3, 2000).

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Gujarat and the secular overkill

That the election results in Gujarat have irrevocably altered the contours of secular discourse in this country is apparent not so much in the exultation of the religious right but in the response of professional secularists: They are either into denial or are sheepishly sidestepping failure by resorting to obfuscatory logic.

In his book, Secular Common Sense, Mukul Kesavan talks about Hindu chivalry vis-a-vis Muslims, wherein secularists among Hindus take it upon themselves to be chivalrous towards Muslims. This unequal power relationship is exacerbated by tokenism. The worst manifestation of such chivalric tokenism is secular acquiescence in even obscurantist practices among religious minorities. There is no secular voice calling for liberal education, gender equality and uniform laws for all citizens of the land.

Mourning Hindu bodies after Muslim mob burnt train at Godhra.

***

The Left has for long appropriated the secular space in this country, with other political parties (like the Congress) enamoured by, and coopted into, its semantic jugglery. At a meeting organised by historians in a Delhi University college, a member vociferously attacked the Sangh Parivar for having played up Godhra. They call the killing of 60 people a massacre, he hahed. Just then, a student, who till then was willing, with 20 other friends, to join a march in support of communal harmony in Gujarat, piped: A thousand Muslims were killed in Gujarat, whereas the pogrom in Nazi Germany saw the extermination of six million Jews. If the former can be called a pogrom, why can't Godhra be labelled a massacre? This is the sort of good work our professional secularists are doing across every swathe of society. They are alienating peace-loving and caring citizens and pushing them into adopting hardened positions..."

Religious iconography has always been used to preach the message of brotherhood and egalitarianism in this country. From Kabir to Gandhi, that is the medium that has always struck a chord with the masses. And whether they like it or not, it is not the secularists but the ordinary people of India who can preserve its pluralism. By denigrating and debasing these very people, professional metropolitan secularists are playing into the hands of the obscurantist forces within all religions.

(source: Gujarat and the secular overkill - Debraj Mookerjee pioneer.com).  For more refer to Godhra and After: The Role of Media  and Let's Call it Post-Godra Riots). Watch History of Ayodhya - videogoogle.com. Refer to My People, Uprooted: "A Saga of the Hindus of Eastern Bengal"  - By Tathagata Roy

For more on riots in India refer to Anti-Sikh riots a pogrom: says Khushwant Singh- rediff.com - Celebrated writer and journalist Khushwant Singh on Wednesday, deposing before the Nanavati Commission, probing the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 after the assassination of then Congress prime minister, Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards, said that the police were mute spectators while rioting was on. 

Refer to Sonia's Apology Lip-Service, Say '84 Riot Victims - by Gaurav C. Savant

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The Indian President: More ‘Hindu’ than ‘Muslim’

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (1931 - ) Branded as "200 percent Indian" by his colleagues and acquaintances, ‘India’s Missile Man’, the noted missile scientist who catapulted India as a nuclear state and influenced New Delhi’s policy to not sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, has landed his biggest job yet. He was elected as India’s 12th President and India’s third “Muslim” head of state. 

The bachelor-scientist, dubbed by some in his home state of Tamil Nadu as a “poonal podadha pappan” (Brahmin without a sacred thread). This is because silver-haired Kalam loves quoting from the Bhagavad Gita as much as the Qur’an. The reclusive Kalam is a vegetarian and a teetotaller, plays the Rudra Veena (a string instrument) and writes poetry in Tamil. During his first press conference after being declared a presidential candidate, he chose to quote from the Gita rather than the Qur’an. 

Kalam begins his day by reading from the Bhagwad Gita. Known for his fondness for Subramania Bharati's poetry. He is a self-confessed Ram Bhakt.

Kalam already has lofty visions for India - freedom, development and a keen desire that India should have global influence. “Unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. In this world, fear has no place ... Only strength respects strength,” said Kalam after India conducted the 1998 nuclear tests that won him the country’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna.

***

"In 3000 years of our history, people from all over the world have come and invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds. From Alexander onwards. The Greeks, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and looted us, took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other nation. We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, their history tried to enforce our way of life on them. Why? Because we respect the freedom of others."

"Why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why? We are the second largest producer of wheat in the world. We are the second largest producers in rice. We are the first in milk production. We are number one in Remote sensing satellites."

(source: 'Three Visions For India' - by Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam - outlookindia.com). For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

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Why Gandhi was not awarded Nobel Peace Prize

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), the greatest icon of non-violence, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times, even posthumously in 1948, as revealed by the diaries of former members and chairpersons of the Nobel Committee reveal.

In fact, when the fifth nomination got mired in technicalities as there was no precedent of giving away the award posthumously, the Commmittee took the unusual step of not awarding the Peace Prize for anyone.

The entries in the diaries make startling revelations regarding the thinking of the Nobel Committee on awarding the Prize to Gandhi. One such fact is that in 1947, he was not considered because he was a ''patriot''.

Gandhiji personified non-violence in the twentieth century and was the most natural choice for the Nobel Peace Prize. But, still the Nobel Peace Prize eluded him. Many questions have been raised on the issue, but there have been no convincing answers.  

***

Was the horizon of the Norwegian Nobel Committee too narrow? Was the committee unable to appreciate and take cognisance of the struggle for freedom among non-European people? Or were the Norwegian committee members perhaps afraid to award the Prize, which might be detrimental to the relationship between their country and Great Britain, at that time?

"Friends of India" associations in Europe and the US at that time were advocates of Gandhi's name for the Nobel. In 1937, a member of the Norwegian Parliament Ole Colbjornsen (Labour Party), nominated Gandhi for that year's Nobel Peace Prize.

However, the Committee's advisor, Professor Jacob Worm-Muller, wrote a rather critical report on Gandhi. He admired Gandhi as a person but was critical of him as a statesman.

He wrote, "He is, undoubtedly, a noble and ascetic person - a prominent man who is deservedly honored and loved by the masses of India...", adding that there were, however, "sharp turns in his policies, which can hardly be satisfactorily explained by his followers... He is a freedom fighter and a dictator, an idealist and a nationalist. He is frequently a Christ, but then, suddenly, an ordinary politician." 

(note: Nobel peace prize were given to Yasser Arafat and de Klerk - source: sifynews.com Jan 20'03).

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Non-Resident Nataraja

When the American art collector Norton Simon paid one million dollars to buy a stolen 10th-century bronze Nataraja in 1973, he certainly had no idea that it was so much money down the drain. For when he sent the idol to the British Museum for repairs, it was impounded as stolen property by the Scotland Yard, acting under pressure from Indian officials. A protracted litigation followed during which Simon pleaded "innocent purchase". Finally an agreement was reached whereby the Norton Simon Foundation in Los Angeles was allowed to keep the idol for 10 years until 1986, after which it was reinstalled at its original place of residence, the Sivapuram temple in Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur district.

The happy ending of the Sivapuram Nata-raja saga is one that evokes hope among those concerned about the fate of Indian antiquities. But the very fact that a saga is there to be told reflects the ease and impunity with which art thieves have been steadily depleting the Indian countryside of the treasures it is strewn with—bronze Natarajas from the Chola period being only one among them.

Coveted idols

The Cholas were a powerful South Indian dynasty who ruled over half of India between the 9th and 12th centuries from their base in Thanjavur in today’s Tamil Nadu. They also controlled a sea-borne empire that extended to Sri Lanka and as far as Indonesia.But a more lasting and benign legacy of the Cholas are the incredibly graceful Nataraja idols they so favoured, which today rate as collector’s items alongside Ming vases and Greek sculptures.

But what is it that makes these Natarajas so special? "Siva’s cosmic dance in magnificent bronze sculptures of dancing figures with four arms whose superbly balanced and yet dynamic gestures express the rhythm and unity of life," is how Fritjof Capra described them in his best-selling The Tao of Physics. An eloquent description indeed, but one that hastened the speed with which the Natarajas, and other Chola bronzes, left Indian shores for the sumptuous living rooms of private collectors and respectable museums in the West.  These bronzes stand out for the emphasis of maleness in the gods and beauty in the goddesses, says J. E. Dawson, an expert on bronzes at the National Museum in New Delhi. Chola artists breathed life into their work by using the cire perdue, or lost wax process, with minute details worked into the clay moulds closely following the Silpa Shastra texts. The craftsmen approached their task with the right Dhyana Shlokas pertaining to the particular deity so that their minds would be imbued with the essential quality of the deity. 

(source: Non-Resident Nataraja - by himalmag.com).

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5000 Christians to embrace Hinduism 

CHENNAI: The Dalit Ethnic Liberation Organisation (DELO), headed by D Periyasamy, an erstwhile associate of DPI leader Thirumavalavan, is organising a programme in Tiruchi on April 13, next year to re-convert Christians to Hinduism.

In a media briefing, he claimed that about 5,000 Christians would get converted to Hinduism on the occasion.

He further said his organisation would fight against the practice of untouchability in Hinduism and urged Kanchi Pontiff Jayendra Saraswathi to provide representation to Dalits in the Kanchi Mutt.

Welcoming the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Forcible Conversion Act, Periyasamy said the status of converted Dalits had been changed from scheduled caste to backward class whereby they lost the privileges for which they were entitled to and to get back such facilities, many of them were returning to their parent religion.

Endorsing Periyasamy's suggestions, Hindu Makkal Katchi general secretary Arjun Sampath who was also present on the occasion, appealed to the state government to appoint ``qualified and devout'' Dalits as archakas in temples as per the recent Supreme Court ruling.

(source: www.newindpress.com).

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Shivaji - The Cause for Hindu Freedom

Shivaji's mission was not parochial; he was no mere conqueror, or Maratha imperialist. His was the cause of Hindu freedom and Hindu civilization. According to the Adnapatra, the aim of Shivaji was that 'all people be free from trouble and should follow the path of Dharma.' In the traditional Hindu manner, he assumed the role of the Protector; the title of Chhatrapati (lit. lord of the umbrella), which he chose, was symbolic of this.  He regenerated the Marathas...He rescued Dharma, established gods and Brahmins in their places.."

His real nature is better brought out by his submission to Ramdas and Tukaram, than by any of his political adventures. Though he fought, all through his life, against the imperial domination of the Mughals, he neither hated Islam nor the Muslims, as such; he employed several of them in important services. 

Khwafi Khan, the contemporary Muslim historian, has testified with great candor that:

"He made it a rule that whenever his followers went plundering, they should do no harm to the mosques, the Book of God, or the women of any one. Whenever a copy of the sacred Quran came into his hands, he treated it with respect, gave it to one of his Mussalman followers. "

(source: Our Heritage and Its Significance - By Shripad Rama Sharma p. 138-139).

As Sir Jadunath Sarkar (1870-1958) eminent historian, has well expressed:

"Shivaji proved, by his example, that the Hindu race could build a nation, found a State, defeat its enemies; they could conduct their own defence; they could protect and promote literature and art, commerce and industry; they could maintain navies and ocean going fleets of their own, and conduct naval battles on equal terms with foreigners. He taught the modern Hindus to rise to the full stature of their growth. He demonstrated that the tree of Hinduism was not dead, and that it could put forth new leaves and branches and once again rise up its head to the skies.

(source: Shivaji and His Times - By Sir Jadunath Sarkar p. 406). For on refer to chapter on Glimpses_VIII).

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Life in Ancient India

Mrs. C. Speir wrote eloquently about India: in 1856:

"India, the land of gold and sunshine, has ever been regarded as a region of Romance. In the tales of our childhood magicians and jugglers move amid scenes oppressed by the luscious scents, gay with the flowers, and sparkling with the precious gems and fabrics of India. In the classic pages, India is the mysterious bourn to which point the fabulous expeditions of Bacchus and Sesostrius; and when history emerges from primeval haze, we see India as the gorgeous eastern boundary of Earth, where princes enthroned on elephants offer tribute in solid gold. Nor is there less romance in India’s natural history and geography; in the golden ant-hills of Herodotus, in the tree he notes as sheltering ten thousand troops, or his rivers too wide for the eye to reach across. Romance is inherent in the country, steeping even the science, meta-physics, and mythology of this wonderful country in its rainbow-tinted hues."

(source: Phases of Indian Civilization: A Historical and Cultural Outline - By C. Speir p. 1-3). For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

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Churches for Sale or Rent

Introduction: Christians find themselves with a surplus.

Hindus in India are astounded when they hear that one or another temple in America or England has bought or rented an unused Christian church. The Church of England has so many unused facilities that they have a web site, http://england.anglican.org/rcsale/redchhome.html  to solicit “successful and sympathetic conversions of and uses for redundant church buildings.” Since the 1960s, the Church has put to new use about 1,500 buildings, and has a fairly constant listing of 20 to 25 more available each year.

While the site lists “places of worship for other Christian bodies” as the first “suitable new use,” several have been turned into Hindu temples. They include the Shri Sanatan Mandir in Leicester and the Sanatan Deevya Mandal in Bristol. In the US, the Ganesha Temple in Flushing, New York, was begun in a church, later torn down to build a traditional temple. Such conversions of use have a distinct advantage to Hindus because religious services are already an “established use” under zoning regulations, avoiding the often very lengthy process of obtaining new zoning permission. But-most of the buildings currently listed on the Church of England's site have a distinct disadvantage for Hindus-they are surrounded by graveyards, something put as far from a temple as possible in India.

(source: Hinduism Today January / February / March 2003). Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com

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Universal Unity of Mankind 

Lord Krishna says: 

“I am the Self, O’Gudakesa, seated in the hearts of all beings; I am the beginning, the middle, and also the end of all beings.” 

He further explains: “Whatsoever is the seed of all beings that am I, O’Arjuna! There is not a single moveable or immoveable being, which can exist without Me.” 

Over and over again He insists on the importance of the unity of the Self and of the presence of the Self in each and all.  

All human relations exist because of this unity, as Yajnavalkya explained to his wife Maitreyi when she prayed of him the secret of immortality: "Behold! Not indeed for the love of the husband is the husband dear, but for the love of the Self is the husband dear. All are dear because the One Self is in all."

(source: The Wonder That Is Hindu Dharma - By Ram Chandra Gupta p. 223-224).

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The trauma of the 1947 partition cataclysmic events of August 1947

Even after Independence the problem of religious minorities continues to be one of the most vexing and intriguing problems of contemporary India. The temperament of the people of the country, and the trauma of India's partition contributed to the thinking of the Constituent Assembly on religious minority groups. There are elaborate articles on "minority rights" ensuring freedom of religious beliefs; in fact in no other constitution have the minorities had it so good as in ours. One might even call India a paradise of minorities. Yet, in no other country the religious groups have made such a serious encroachment on the happy, harmonious national life as in India.

(source: http://www.hindubooks.org/Retrospect_of_Christianity/ch2.htm).

In defense of Hindutva

Cho Ramaswamy is well known for his satiric humor. He was recently asked an hair-raising question in 'Thuglak'

In his famous work, 'Glimpses of World History', Jawaharlal Nehru wrote to the same effect by attributing India's integrity to some 'invisible silken bond' that from time immemorial has united the people of India from Kanyakumari to the Himalayas. There is no such thing as an invisible silken bond that unites India. Such vague reasons, especially from a self-proclaimed agnostic like Nehru, hide the real fact that the integrity of India really springs from the sole reason of India being the sacred land of tolerant Hindus who, despite the language, caste and other differences among them, take pride in being, first and foremost, devout followers of ancient Hindu religion. 

It is the de facto 'Hindutva' among Indians, from north to south and east to west, which lies at the root of the Indian integrity. But for the tolerant Hindu majority, India would have disintegrated long back. It is for this realistic reason that BJP has been striving hard to put 'Hindutva' above the foreign concept of secularism that can only damage Indian integrity in the long run. 'Hindutva' embraces Indians of all faiths and excludes none. It also stands for eradication of the scourge of untouchability that is an embarrassment to Hindu religion.

All attempts in the past to break up India on the grounds of race or religion died a natural death. For instance, the formation of DK and DMK was originally intended to pursue the goal of an independent Dravida Nadu which floundered at the very start since there were no takers for the same in Andhra, Karnataka and Kerala. The so called 'Khalistan' movement engineered by Pakistan met with the same fate. The insurgency by the rebels in Nagaland and Mizoram that was fuelled by the mischievous foreign missionaries in India has had little success. In all such cases, it is the 'Hindutva' spirit that won the battle against separatist tendencies.

'Hindutva' is not anti-Muslim or anti-Christian. If there is one religion in the world that abhors proselytization and is based on tolerance and respect for other faiths, it is Hinduism. The term Hindu fundamentalism is therefore a misnomer and a contradiction in terms. There were no non-Hindu minorities in India prior to the Muslim invasion of India from the north west and the start of British colonialism which alone are responsible for creating the Muslim and Christian minority in India through conversion of Hindus by force and enticement. Despite the above fact, 'Hindutva' does not consider Indian Muslims as some aliens from Saudi Arabia or other Muslim countries in the Middle East. It recognizes that India is as much the home of the Indian Muslims as it is for the majority Hindus. 

(source: In Defense of Hindutva - By Cho Ramaswamy). For more refer to Call For An Intellectual Kshatriya - by Rajesh Tembarai Krishnamachari. Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com

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The splendid capital of Emperor Chandragupta Maurya

We must draw even more on our imagination if we are to conjure up a picture of Chandragupta Maurya's capital, Pataliputra, the foundations of which were excavated outside the gates of Patna, the present capital of Bihar: fragments of pillars from a great hall, a few palisades and other finds are all that remain of the splendid capital which the Greek ambassador Megasthenes described. 

The  palace with its gilded pillars stood in a magnificent park in which peacocks and pheasants roamed, meals were served in huge golden dishes, and the king would appear, surrounded by a highly colorful retinue, in a golden litter or enthroned on an elephant.

(source: India - By Martin Hurlimann  p. 224).

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Mother Teresa - The Final Verdict
by Aroup Chaterjee

Mother Teresa issued thousands of disclaimers about any knowledge of politics, but even a casual look at her career would make one wonder if she 'doth protest too much.'

On an international level, Mother Teresa's political agenda were narrow - the 'politics' of human reproductive intervention and Catholicism. In India however, she often involved herself with less subtle and more raw politics.

On the issues of abortion, contraception and Catholicism, she found her political allies in a particular spectrum in the political arena, who are most vociferous in the United States. Indeed, her biggest political allies were also in this country, as were her most powerful financial backers. Not all her political friends were Catholics, and some - like Ronald Reagan - are sturdy Christians from other denominations. Without actually giving an overt call to the American people to vote Republican, she made it very clear - especially by meeting Republican hopefuls before elections - who she supported. When the Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole was once challenged by his own party over his anti-abortion credentials, he invoked the Teresa card, saying that he had been endorsed by Mother Teresa. After Mother Teresa's death, there remained in the small coterie of the pope's closest circle other ultra-orthodox stalwarts like Cardinal O'Connor of New York (now deceased), Cardinal Sin of Philippines and Cardinal Ratzinger. Ratzinger, who was also close to Mother Teresa, cannot tolerate other religions - he recently called Buddhism 'auto-erotic'. He also excommunicated his own priest, Tissa Balasuriya of Sri Lanka, whose crime it was to portray the Virgin Mary in a robust, unorthodox light. Ratzinger heads the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (CDF), the successor to the Holy Office of the Inquisition. In this all male, chauvinistic, women-unfriendly club Mother Teresa was made welcome, because her views were identical to those of the male members. She was their most effective ambassador. Indeed, this supremely feminine wispy nun clad in a saree was regarded an honorary man by the Vatican inner circle.

Mother Teresa took a keen interest in the complex political processes of India; she allied herself with the political party which she felt was friendliest to Catholicism. This she felt was the Congress party, of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. Mother had a personal relationship with Indira Gandhi, and her ties with the Gandhi family became stronger after Mrs Gandhi's son Rajiv married the Italian Catholic Sonia.

(source: Mother Teresa The Final Verdict - by Aroup Chatterjee - http://www.meteorbooks.com/chap10.html). Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com

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Don't put them in convents: Hindu Munnani

As Christian institutions have protested against the State governments anti-conversion law, children should not be sent to convent schools, Rama Gopalan, convenor, Hindu Munnani, has said. 

In convent schools, children were preached on Christianity and this would result in conversion to Christianity and as a precautionary measure parents should not send their children to such institutions.

In Tamilnadu, people were still being converted to Christianity and we all should come together to fight against these Christian institutions, he said.

A yagna was performed at A K R Marriage Hall at Virugambakkam here yesterday by Hindu Annayar Munnani, affiliated to Hindu Munnani. A special pooja was conducted by women who lit 1008 kuthuvillaku. Participating in the yagna, Rama Gopalan said, we should pray to God to bring peace in the world and join together to build Ram Temple at Ayodhya. We should also oppose the governments stand to build a dam at Kasi and join together to prevent cow slaughter. 

The anti-conversion law is a boon to the people of the State and we should be thankful to the government, he said.

Sri Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam attended the yagna and said it would help in bringing peace in society.

(source: Don't put them in convents: Munnani - Newstodaynet.com). Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com

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India's pluralist ethos

Regarding the Hindutva overtones, whether one likes it or not, it has been a Hindu nation, it is so even now and will remain so; not because the Hindu religion is in a majority, but the ethos which has shaped our nation has come to identity itself with Hinduism. Hinduism is nothing but a geographical-cum-cultural concept. The Church of England is the official religion of the U.K. The U.S. President-designate has to swear by the Bible and in 1983 the American Senate unanimously voted to celebrate 1984 as Bible Year. Yet we do not hold them as fundamentalists because they only conform to the ethos on which these nations were evolved. Though it is only 50 years since we got political freedom, it is a fact that both the fundamentalists and the secularists alike boast of a history of at least 5,000 years. 

In our case it is the Vedas, the Upanishads and the epics which have shaped the ethos on which this nation is evolved. For those who think that the word "Hindu" is religious and is of a recent origin, let me quote from Agama Purana: Himaalayam samaarabhya / Yaavad Indu sarovaram / Tham deva nirmitham desom / Hindustaanam prajakshatheth.

It means, "This God's own land which extends from Himalaya to Indu sea is called Hindustaanam." Still, the son of this soil, irrespective of his religious belief, finds it difficult to call himself a "Hindu." The fault lies in our education system.

The Vedas and the Upanishads have nothing to do with the Hindu religion. They only expound the theories of the existence of the world and the do's and don'ts for the creatures living in it. We just cannot wish away the fact that everything that we consider our contribution to mankind lies in Sanskrit. Until and unless we, learn that language how can we come to know the greatness and pitfalls of our tradition?

As Max Mueller, the propagator of the Aryan invasion theory, wrote to his wife, "It took only 200 years for us to Christianise the whole of Africa, but even after 400 years India eludes us, I have come to realize that it is Sanskrit which has enabled India to do so. And to break it I have decided to learn Sanskrit." The soul of India lies in Sanskrit. And Lord Macaulay saw to it that the later generations are successfully cut off from their roots.

(source: Assaulting India's pluralist ethos - by D. Harikumar The Hindu). For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor. Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com

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Panini methodology for secret defence codes

The ministry of defence is working towards developing secret codes using Sanskrit, making it the first serious effort to prevent the language from becoming redundant.

The 'Panini methodology' of the language is going to be used to develop a system of coding network, that is expected to be extremely useful in keepingthe information under wrap. In his work Ashtadhyayi, that covers the entire literature in Sanskrit, Panini had used a method of coding so that maximum could be said in a little space.

This method has its base in two steps and involves a combination of 4000 sootras. Firstly, a sootra once used in his work is never repeated, and is replaced by a code. For example, if the word 'method' is used once, one can only write 'm' instead of writing the whole word, although it is not that simple, says Dr Prakash Pandey, assistant director for research and development, Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan.

Secondly, Panini created situation-based principles, termed adhikar sootras, for coding, and they had to be changed after a few hundred words. Like, if at any place one encounters the letter 'a' preceding the letter 'd', it should be read as 'e' and not as 'a'. This principle will apply to the next 200 words and, thereafter, a new principle will take over for the same situation, making it impossible to comprehend.

This can really solve many problems that the ministry of defence faces due to unreliable coding systems. Union home secretary N Gopalaswami had announced that a software firm in Bangalore had been asked to develop a coding system after studying the methodology used by Panini, informed Dr Pandey. Moreover, a speciality of this ancient language is the possibility of exact translations. Sanskrit is the only language in the world in which all the languages can be translated, without changing the meaning. The Brahmi lipi in Sanskrit is based on triangles which are modified to form different letters or signs. Work is going on to try and make a software or even try and make a new system, which does not rely on the ones and zeroes principle, but is based on this sign system, according to Dr Pandey. It will be a revolution if this research is successful as it will open a plethora of possibilities.

(source: Panini methodology for secret defence codes - Timesofindia.com). 

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Bhagavad Geeta in hotel rooms in India?

Staying at Hotel? Check if they have a copy of Holy Geeta.

Whenever you visit any hotel please check whether it has a copy of Holy Geeta. I visited Hyderabad on work and found that the hotel kept only the Bible. The owner a Hindu did not even know about it. For starters the hotel will now keep a book titled 'In Indian Culture - Why Do We' by the Chinmaya Mission.

(source: Indiacause.com - by Sanjeev Nayyar).

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Making India a superpower?

When India attained freedom, it thought of emerging as a global leader, without becoming a global power. Its claim to leadership rested on the age-old Indian, value of universal tolerance, peace and happiness. But the post-war World afflicted by cold war had no reverence for such high values. So India was swiftly marginalised in a World which respected only power.

But, within India, the Indian leadership did the other way round - it persuaded the people not to pursue their age-old values, but, accept the Anglo-Saxon ideas and institutions in the main. It folded back the philosophic lead shown by Gandhi, Aurobindo, and Tilak. Their definition of the Indian identity was substituted by the western ideas of secularism and socialism. Since then, for over four decades, the Left-Socialist parties and intellectuals mounted a vicious attack on the Indian past, and virtually delinked the Indian polity, economy, history and education from its past and turned to Anglo-Saxon values. Because of this drift to the Indian intellectual, India's past became a burden - and ceased to be matter of pride. 

National Pride and self-confidence:

Again what India and Indians critically need is a measure of national pride and self-confidence. Without both, no nation can prosper. It is unfortunate that the English-educated Indians have repeatedly failed to generate personal or national self-confidence. Instead, they began to depreciate everything Indian. In the process, they depreciated each other resulting in all-round self-depreciation.

(source: Looking to the future: Making India an economic super-power - by S. Gurumurthy).

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Nationalism and The Christian Church - Fear of Hindu Nationalism?

Religion holds a people together. Besides religion there is yet another binding force which holds a people together more closely. It is the spirit of nationalism which in depth is the inborn longing of the human heart to be free. The Hindu has always been a nationalist. He has always loved, adored and worshipped his Motherland more than his worldly mother. However, for a pretty long time attempts have been made – overt and covert – to destroy the Hindu nationalism. The enemies of the Hindu will die his own death. And no one has tried to kill and destroy the nationalism of the Hindu more than the Christian Church and the Christian colonizers. 

After they lost their colonies the Christian colonizers under went complete metamorphism.  They turned champions of human rights, of freedom of expression and of liberty of conscious. They became liberals and progressives though at heart they remained what they have been. One of them, a Hindu converted to Roman Catholicism and who, at one time, was the blue eyed boy of the Church gave his verdict thus : 

“Speaking for ourselves, our loyalty to our Master (Jesus Christ) comes first, our loyalty to our Motherland, second. We are first Christians, then Indians.” Another Christian missionary was more emphatic. In his opinion nationalism had been the undoing of Christianity in mission lands. According to him: “ ….the surrender of the Church to the rising powers of nationalism is the major betrayal of Christ.” 

That there exists close nexus between international Christianity and Christian imperialism needs only little explaining. Both want and try to defeat, and if possible to expurgate, the Hindu of his nationalism so that it might become the easier to destabilize Hindustan. In a study covering “major forces affecting human developments in India and Pakistan” its author, W. Norman Brown, an American, has very significantly given away a secret. He said: 

“Colonialism is on the way out, but whenever we appear to be on its side, we strengthen communism by throwing it and nationalism (of the Indians, the Hindus) into alliance.” Christian colonialism bolstered and boosted by Christian imperialism and capitalism has already successfully humbled communism. Its next and big target is Hindu’s nationalism which manifests itself in its determined opposition to Christianism in any form or disguises.”

(source: The Hindu - By K V Paliwal and B. Datt Bharti p.95-97 and The United States, India and Pakistan - By W. Norman Brown. Foreward). Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com

Thus, for the Macaulayists-Marxists Missionaries-Madarsas, the Indian nationhood with pride in its culture and heritage is their biggest enemy. They have been trying all these years to dilute the intensity of Indian nationalism. They tried to divide the Indian society on the basis of religion, language, and caste in a bid to weaken national solidarity. For them every divisive idea is a weapon to disintegrate Indianness. Only in a fragmented, weakened society, can they hope to advance their agenda. All efforts and programmes that strengthen Indian nationhood and create a sense of pride in India's heritage is an anathema to them.

(source: The tirade against NCERT – A Conspiracy - By D. P. Sinha). For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

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The Sarasvati for a river grid

The grand plan that hundreds of scientists and engineers are working on is a two-part one, according to Kalyanaraman. At the heart of the plan is the perennially water-rich Brahmaputra, which, from time to time, devastates the Northeast States and, as the Padma, Bangladesh. Linking the Brahmaputra to the Kaveri - and possibly even to the Tambraparni and thence to Kanniyakumari - is the first part of the plan. This will solve the water-related problems of the East, the Deccan and the South, state the planners. The second part of the plan calls for linking the Ganga to the resurrected Sarasvati to provide the north-western desert with perennial water.

As for the legendary Sarasvati, to which the Vedas devoted 72 slokas against just one for the Ganga, its entire course of 1600 km from Manasarovar in Tibet to Somnath in Saurashtra, has now been re-discovered and mapped. And with that discovery, the river can be revived and linked to both the Indira Gandhi Canal and the Ganga to make the desert bloom, states Kalyanaraman. The rediscovered Sarasvati is a bonanza to not only hydrologists but also to archaeologists. The great civilisation nurtured on its banks and mentioned in the Mahabharata is no myth; over 2000 archaeological sites have been found on the river's banks and scores of them are being worked on, says Kalyanaraman. There are, I am told, over 12,500 satellite images of the 6 km wide river and its banks now available, showing a wealth of information about a river, which could make India never again food-short.

(source: The Sarasvati for a river grid - Hinduonnet.com).

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Globalization is one way street?

For instance BBC and CNN etc., always mention 'Indian Controlled' or 'Administered' Kashmir. We need to mention in our TV about 'London controlled' Ireland or Wales or Scotland and also 'Washington controlled' Texas, since lots of Texans are not particularly happy with Washington.

India controlled Kashmir? vs ‘London controlled Ireland?

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Calcutta digs up a 2000-year history

Traces of an urban settlement over 2000 years old have been found under the mound on which Robert Clive built his house on the northern outskirts of Calcutta.

At the site in Dum Dum, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has discovered materials that suggest the existence of a settlement of the Sunga Kusana period dating back to 2nd Century BC, where people lived continuously for centuries without any significant break.

The second phase of the excavations by the ASI between December 2001 and April-May 2002 yielded “amazing results”, says Bimal Bandyopadhyay, superintending archaeologist, ASI, Calcutta Circle.

The excavations had started in June 2001. Going deeper, the ASI found Sunga Kusana period materials at least 2,200 years old.

A conclusion can be drawn from these discoveries that thriving urban centres, not just jungles and marshy land, existed on the peripheral zones of the city long before Calcutta came up, says Bandyopadhyay.  

The site was occupied in two phases from 2nd Century BC with continuous occupation up to 11th-12th Century AD. After a short gap, it was further occupied during 15th-16th Century AD up to modern times.

There were terracotta plaques displaying figures of Yakshinis and materials of a later period such as divine and semi-divine figurines, numerous punch-marked and cast copper coins datable to the same period. The most remarkable find is a miniature icon of Mahishasuramardini carved out of stone and datable to 9th-10th Century. Historian Dilip Biswas said: “This is not surprising. The river was highly navigable and foreign ships sailed down regularly. The Greeks write of a port named Gange. The two sides of the Ganga are archaeologically very rich. A Gupta gold coin was discovered near Kalighat. Unfortunately, systematic excavation of this area has never been done.”

(source: Calcutta digs up a 2000-year history - telegraphindia.com).

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Makar Sankranti and Pongal

Makar Sankranti marks the beginning of Uttarayan, the Sun's northward journey. Makar is called Capricorn in the western astrological calendar. Makar Sankranti falls on 14th of January every year. The day and night on Makar Sankrant are of exactly of equal hours. This day is observed as the most auspicious day by the Hindus all over the country. In the south, it is known as Pongal

Makara literally means 'Capricorn' and Sankranti is the day when the sun passes from one sign of the zodiac to the next. The Sankranti of any month is considered auspicious as it signifies afresh start. However Makara Sankranti is celebrated in the month of Magha when the sun passes through the winter solstice, from the Tropic of Cancer to the Tropic of Capricorn. This feast is celebrated on January 14th, and is the only feast of the Indian calendar which is not celebrated on a fixed day of the lunar month.

On this day the sun enters the constellation of Makar (Croco-dile) and begins to move towards the north. Throughout the year the sun passes through twelve constellations: Mesh (Ram, Aries), Vrishabh (Bull, Taurus), Mithun (Couple, Gemini), Kark (Crab, Cancer), 5mb (Lion, Leo), Kanya (Girl, Virgo), Tula (Balance, Libra), Vrishchik (Scorpion), Dhanu (Bow, Saggitarius), Makar (Crocodile, Capricorn), Kumbh (Wateijar, Aquarius), Mm (Fish, Pisces). When the sun does not cross any constellation then there is an extra month called “Adhik Mas”. The crossing of the Makar constellation takes place in the month of Paush.

“Tilgul”, Symbol of Friendship

On this day people eat “Khichadi” made of rice and dal. The Paush month is also known as Dhundhur Mas and people eat “bajari” bread mixed with “til” (Sesamum). On the feast of Sankrant “til” is given great importance, for in this season it is considered to have special nutritive and medicinal qualities. “Til” is a very oil-giving seed. Mixed with jaugari or sugar it becomes a very sticky sweet which people exchange with one another as a sign of friendship. “Tilgul ghya, god bola.” (“Take tilgul and speak sweetly”) is the phrase on everybody’s lips. With this good social custom enmities are forgotten and new friendships started. People are encouraged to emulate the quality of “Tilgul” and stick to-gether in permanent union and love. On this day ladies apply “halad-kumkum” (turmeric powder) on each other’s forehead, and children fly kites. Many people take bath at Prayag, near Allahabad, at the meeting point of the Ganges and the Yamuna.

Makara Sankranti is also celebrated throughout India as a harvest festival. It is a way of giving thanks to the elements of nature that help man. This is the period when the winter recedes, paving the way for the summer. It is the time the farmers bring home their harvest. In the coast al regions, it is a harvest festival dedicated to Indra. In Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, it is celebrated as a three-day harvest festival Pongal. In Assam, the festival is celebrated as Bhogali Bihu, and in Punjab it is called Lohri. A big fair is held at the confluence of the Ganga, the Yamuna and the Sarasvati rivers at Triveni in Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh) on this occasion. Being the month of Magha, this fair is also called Magha Mela. Apart from Triveni, ritual bathing also takes place at many places like Haridvar and Garh Mukteshwar in Uttar Pradesh, and Patna in Bihar. Since it is also the season to fly kites, the evening sky is awash with colourful kites of all shapes and sizes. Several kite competitions are held in various localities.

(source:  Makar Sankrant).

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India is One 

“This admixture of races,” says Cyril Edwin Mitchinson Joad (1891-1953) English philosopher “has had important effects on India’s past history and present outlook. The first of these is a sense of fundamental unity far more vivid and persistent than can be accounted for by the circumstance of propinquity in the same geographical area. Europeans live together in a geographical area whose size is not very different from that of India. But as the wars which have disgraced European history in the past and the quarrels and rivalries that enfeeble the League of Nations in the present only too clearly show, that the inhabitants of Europe are very far from being imbued with the sense of unity which distinguishes the inhabitants of India. We cannot, in short, speak of a “European” with the same appropriateness as we can speak of an “Indian,” who, in spite of differences of color, caste and creed, looks upon all other Indians as his fellow-countrymen and upon India as his home.”

(source: The Vision of India - By Sisirkumar Mitra p. 51).

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Modernization in India

In India, modernization still means primarily westernization, not only in socio-political institutions but quite comprehensively. India seems to aspire towards western modes of thought in education, research and management, and towards industrialization according to the procedures and developments of western sciences and technology, western social values and goals, and western institutions of government, information and warfare. No doubt, all of these institutions, procedures and modes of thought are quite modern within the western world. Arising out of the western soil, they are likely to be more in tune with the western soul. However, either owing to military and economic pressures or because of the seduction of progress and success, these modern western values and aspirations have been adopted by the whole world. 

From India’s point of view, the initiative for any change or innovation has been outside her borders and control for two hundred years or so. What is true of India is, of course, true of what westerners and following them now most Indians call Hinduism; for Hinduism without India is an abstraction, as is India without Hinduism.

(source: Yoga and The Teaching of Krishna - By Ravi Ravindra p. 20-21).

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Legendary tolerance of Hinduism

The inherent tolerance of the Hindus, an integral part of their ethos, is well accepted. The Jews, the Parsis, the Syrian Christians, and the Buddhist Tibetans had to flee their own land because of persecution by the Christians, the Muslims, the other Christian sects, and the communists, respectively. It was only amongst Hindus that they were able to survive - not only in terms of keeping their own faith alive, but also in material terms. 

On December 19, 2002, the Hollywood actor, Richard Gere, a former Methodist, during his visit to India, said:

"No nation has helped the Tibetans more than India. Its contribution remains unparalleled, as the displaced people have not only been able to rebuild their monastic institutions but have also prospered materially."

(source: sifynews.com

However, Hindus have resisted those who came here with an intention of destroying their culture and civilisation. The interface of Islam and Christianity in Indian history can be said, at the very least, to have been architecturally and spiritually harmful on a fairly vast scale. This is a continuing story, with the threat still persisting. Because of strong resistance, Hinduism today is the oldest surviving civilization.

(source: The Foreign Exchange of Hate: IDRF and the American Funding of Hindutva - by Ashok Chowgule - sulekha.com).

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Desi secularism

Take, for instance, conversions: They cause social tension and mutual distrust. Take the attitude that if Hindus do something, that should be condemned, but if Muslims do it, it should be overlooked. Or that if the VHP says something, that is wrong, but if the Imam of the Jama Masjid says something, that is OK. A film or a book that offends Hindus is alright, but one that offends Muslims must be banned. Post-Godhra riots are condemned but not train burning at Godhra.

We must stop thinking in terms of majority and minority. The majority will take care of the minorities; the minorities, in turn, must respect the majority. There must be give and take and mutual respect. No government can expect to leave out a section of the people and rule. The minorities have an equal place in India; indeed, it is not the minorities who are at fault, but the pseudo-secularists who want to consolidate their vote banks.

Hindu-bashing must end.....

It is the same mindset which holds that popularising Urdu is "secular" but revitalising Sanskrit is "communal" since it implies the "imposition of Hindutva." The double standard is thus self-evident.

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Indologists urge studying past

When the West tries to study and understand the past, it is termed Renaissance, whereas when the same is done in India, it is called revivalism and an attempt to rake up the past, said Motilal Banarasidass Publishers chairperson Rama Ranjan Banerjee on Saturday.

“People often say studying the past is a waste of time. What they do not understand is that studying is not going back in time. It is necessary to understand who we are,” Mukherjee, a former professor of Sanskrit at Jadavpur University said.  

Sanskrit scholar and former chancellor of Tirupati Sanskrit University Sitanath Goswami regretted the increasing western influence on teaching in schools and colleges.  

He said India’s contribution to the sciences, philosophy and literature was being overshadowed. “Students know more about Galileo and Copernicus than about Aryabhatta. Few know that Bhaskaracharya worked with calculus almost five centuries before the west discovered it,” Goswami said.  

To build awareness on India’s contribution, more than 100 seminars on Vedic mathematics has been held across the country, Goswami said. 

(source: Indologists urge studying past - timesofindia.com - Friday April 4 2003). For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

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Lack of Pride in being Indian?

Adam Osborne (1939 - 2003) who launched the world's first portable computer in a suitcase well ahead of IBM and other PC makers. He  is the guy who invented the first microcomputer bus called S-100. He's one of the two that started Apple computers. He was the director of Silicon Valley Technologies and publisher of a monthly newsletter "From the Fountainhead. He said:

"I was raised in Tamil Nadu in South India, in the ashram of Sri Ramana Maharishi, of an English father and a Polish mother. Both were dedicated followers of Sri Ramana Maharishi. Therefore as a child growing up in the small town of Tiruvannamalai, Tamilnadu. I was fluent in Tamil and was surrounded by Indians who were proud of their nationality and heritage, and believed they had a lot to teach us Europeans.

I still speak enough Tamil to get by, and feel that my roots are indeed in India. I must be only professed "vellackaaren" (white) Tamilian in America. After all, how could anyone, even an English boy, grown up in Tiruvannamalai, in the ashram of Sri Ramana Maharishi, and not acquire a pride in his roots?

It is therefore with some misgivings that today I find myself dealing with Indians, many of who do not feel proud of their Indianness. Indian Americans represent the most affluent minority in America, ahead of Jewish Americans and Japanese Americans. This is a statistic and not an opinion. Indians swarm all over the Silicon valley, where they are an integral part of most product development teams: be they teams developing new semiconductor chips, software packages or computers. Indians are recognized throughout America as technically superior. No Indian in America has to explain his educational background, or apologize for his technical training. And yet, as a group, though Indian Americans are quick to acknowledge their caste, religion or family, they lack national pride. Indians are not proud of their nationality as Indians, something I realized many years ago.  Recently, talking before Indian audiences on the lecture circuit, I have frequently talked to Indians of their lack of national pride, with telling results. Invariably, after making this assertion from the lecture podium, I find myself surrounded by Indians: Engineers, Scientists, doctors, even lawyers, all asserting the correctness of my observations, "You are correct," they will assert. "I am not proud that I am an Indian." Is the reasons India's colonial heritage? Who knows? But whatever the reason, it is a pity. 

Since the day Indians learn pride, India will rapidly move out of its third world status to become one of the world's industrial powers."

(source: http://www.geocities.com/rajeevgm/iu_index.html).

Moved for India he swears: "I will return to India, to preach Indian pride. I will preach that Indians must learn to be proud of being Indians.....irrespective of their race or religion."

National pride is thus equally the winning formula in trade wars as in actual wars. No amount of foreign investment is substitute for that. Will our elites who undermine the pride of Indians day after day realise Adam Osborne's prescription for them? For two reasons, I have quoted Adam Osborne. One, as he is a White man, his words are important to the Indian elite who want validation from the west. Second, as he sought solace in India, his words are important to me.

(source: But that was not just what Adam Osborne was - By  S Gurumurthy). For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

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Church the 2nd biggest land-owner in all of India  

Tens of billions of dollars worth of land in India is owned by the Church, and in Mumbai, the Church is the second largest land owner, the largest being the Indian military. Most of this land was given under land grants by the British to the Church, and by subsequent Indian governments. Such generosity to a minority religion followed by only 2.5% of the Indian population has gone unreported. Given the foreign controlled nexus of the various Churches, this is tantamount to giving billions of dollars to subsidiaries of foreign entities that are engaged in social re-engineering of Indian society. The US government has never contemplated such generosity towards minority religions, especially those controlled from overseas.

(source: The Axis of Neocolonialism - by Rajiv Malhotra - sulekha.com). Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com

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Joint families are planet-friendly: Scientists

To some, the great Indian joint family is tiresomely traditional, hopelessly outdated and irretrievably on the decline, but Western scientists say it may actually be a hugely 'green' or eco-friendly institution.

And while we are on the subject, divorce is bad for the eco-system as well.

Not to speak of the new urban trend from Mumbai to Madrid of leaving mum and dad to live alone. The startling new arguments are newly published in Britain's Nature group of publications. They are part of a study that says the modern trend for a decreasing number of generations to live under one roof is damaging the environment. It says split families and fragmented households may be more damaging than simple population growth.

(source: Joint families are planet-friendly: Scientists - timesofindia.com).

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Christian terrorism in the North east

Lot of people are aware about the Islamic Terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, but how many are aware about the Christian Terrorism in the North-East India?  With the support of Christian Missionaries,  terrorist organisations like NLFT and NSCN are spreading terror in parts of North-East India to convert the whole of North-East states to Christianity at gunpoint. NSCN has already succeeded in Nagaland to convert masses to Christianity and asking "Nagaland for Christ" and still fighting for a greater Nagaland called  Nagalim,  with the adjoining districts of other Indian states.  NLFT is in process of having a repeat of NSCN in Tripura.  

(source: Christian terrorism in the North east ). Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com

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It’s conversion time in Kashmir Valley

After Hindu have fled the valley, slowly and discreetly, Christian evangelists make inroads into Muslim heartland of Kashmir

Srinagar, April 5: Amid booming guns and endless violence, Kashmir is witnessing a discreet spurt in conversion — from Islam to Christianity. Christian groups are putting the number of neo-converts at over 10,000 and a Sunday Express investigation confirms that conversions have been taking place regularly across the Valley.

At least a dozen Christian missions and churches based in the US, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland have sent evengelists to the Valley and are pumping in money through intermediaries based in New Delhi. In the Valley where death and trauma are a way of life, the missionaries are getting immediate attention because they reach out to the poor, needy and those affected by violence. Also, they bring in a lot of money.

The native Christians are increasingly getting vocal against the outsiders. ‘‘This type of conversions aren’t good for local Christians who had shared a cordial relationship with Muslims here for centuries. The conversions they are doing are Bibilically wrong. There are umpteen cases in which one person has been baptised thrice within a few months. These so-called evangelists have set up businesses in the garb of Church and social work,’’ says Pastor Leslie Richards, a native protestant living in Braen, Srinagar. ‘‘The converts here do it for monetary reasons and the people who convert them too do it for the same reasons,’’ he adds.

Christianity Today, a magazine, puts the number of Kashmiri Muslims who recently converted to Christianity at thousands. An article, Harassed Kashmiri Christians Reach out to Discreet Muslims, posted on their website Christianitytoday.com reasons:

‘‘Wearied by violence, thousands are interested in the Prince of Peace. They have faith in Jesus but don’t come out. Their number goes into thousands in the rural areas.’’ The estimates pieced together by the evangelists here say the number of converts to Christianity touch 12,000 in the Valley.

The founder of Agape Mission, Pastor Neethi Rajan, a Hindu convert from Chennai, says, ‘‘God spoke to me clearly and asked me to go to Kashmir.’’ Determined to spread the Gospel among Kashmiris, Rajan says as long as people are not exploited, spreading the message of Christ isn’t wrong. ‘‘Thousands of people have accepted Jesus as their saviour and many more are showing interest across Kashmir. There’s nothing wrong in preaching the Gospel,’’ says Rajan. Asked about the source of funds, Rajan says friends help him out. Insiders, however, say he is linked to Assemblies of God, a US-based mission.

Though many organisations say they are interested in social work and not conversions, an investigation across the Valley confirmed conversions. Among the churches and missions that have set up bases are US-based German Town Baptist Church, US-based Frontiers, a mission with an avowed aim to reproduce churches among unreached Muslim people (www.frontiers.org) and Assemblies of God. They have funded around a dozen churches and missions in Kashmir. Two German-based missions, Call of Hope and Overseas Social Service, have a base with over 60 evangelists. Another mission, The Campus Crusade for Christ, with bases in the West has a strong network of evangelists among the students in the Valley.

The Switzerland-based mission, The Good Way, has a base in rural Kashmir. Two Indian missions, National Missionary Intelligencer and Cooperative Outreach of India, too fund evangelists here. The focus of evangelical work is mostly in rural Kashmir and areas bordering Srinagar. Cooperative Outreach of India (COI), a Delhi-based NGO that works among the lepers and downtrodden in Srinagar, makes no bones about the source of funding. Insiders say COI receives funds from the German Town Baptist Church, one of the wealthiest Protestant churches in Tennesse, US, Frontiers, another US mission and Call of Hope, a mission based in Germany. The director of the COI, Remesh Landge — who was recently in the Valley to give away sewing machine to lepers — admits that they receive money from Churches overseas.

(source: It’s conversion time in Kashmir Valley - indianexpress.com). Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com

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Muslim inscribes Bhagavad Gita on copper

Jameelbhai Rangrez, the son of a grocer from Jalgaon, was regarded as a man of more than modest means. With two autorickshaws, a couple of shops and even an Ambassador car to his name, the trader from Nashik led a placid yet content life. Then one day, Jameelbhai says, he discovered the Bhagawad Gita.

Today, he is at the end of an arduous spiritual journey during which he has exhausted all his savings, liquidated his assets and even incurred the wrath of his own family members. But the man has realised his dream of engraving all 18 chapters of the Bhagavad Gita on copper plates at a stiff cost of Rs 2.28 lakh.

Jameelbhai says he embarked on what became a monumental task on the advice of his guru, Musababa Ashrafi. It was the Baba who asked him to do something that would stand the test of time and from which society at large would benefit.

"I started reading holy books of different religions and when I came across the Bhagavad Gita, I was fascinated by its philosophy," he says, "Especially Lord Krishna's exhortation that even one's blood relations should not come in the way of doing justice."

That was the time when Jameelbhai had already started inscribing the Quran on copper. But he was so moved by the teachings of the Gita that he put the Quran plates aside and started work on the Hindu text. Starting out on Gokul Ashtami last year, he completed engraving over 60 plates on March 30 this year.

Regarding his personal faith, he says he's crossed the barriers of religions and would not like to be confined to any single creed. "It is more important to become a good human being" he says.

(source: Muslim inscribes Bhagavad Gita on copper - newindpress.com).

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Golden Quadrilateral highway

The Golden Quadrilateral highway project. In a giant public works project reminiscent of the 1950s U.S. efforts, the government has embarked on three large highway building efforts: 1. The Golden Quadrilateral connecting Bombay, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai 2. The North-South corridor connecting Jammu & Kashmir to Kanyakumari 3. The East West corridor connecting Gujarat to Assam. The GQ project is moving ahead steadily, by rapidly converting existing highways into six to eight lane expressways. Amazingly, the date of completion has been pulled in by one year, to late 2003.

(source: Looking Back at 2002 - By Rajeev Srinivasan).

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Lord Krishna ‘spreads AIDS” says American missionary

The real story behind the attack on US Missionary Joseph Cooper, who was injured and operated upon, is somewhat different from what was reported. 

The attack was made by the relatives of a Dalit woman Sali who was raped by one Benson Sam and his close relatives some months back at a Bible college at Sreekaryam, some 10 km from here. Unable to bear the pressure at Sreekaryam, Benson Sam has come here at Kilimanoor and the attack was actually meant on him. The Missionary however bore the brunt of the attack. The areas in and around south Kerala are a hub of missionary activities and some eight months ago another foreign missionary was attacked by the locals for allegedly passing derogatory remarks about Lord Ayyappa. 

As for Joseph Cooper, according to the local people who inhabit areas in and around this dalit hamlet at Kilimanoor, he was reported to have talked of Lord Krishna as the one who had spread AIDS. This may have provoked the locals against Cooper. 

This dalit colony is highly religious. Just after their Bhajans and other religious ceremonies, the Missionaries had allegedly made derogatory remarks against the Gods that the locals worship, which might be another reason for the attack on the missionary. 

The State Organising secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad Kummanam Rajashekharan, while talking to this correspondent over phone said that "We demand the arrest of the American Missionary. He is here on a visitor Visa. How can he indulge in religious preaching?"

(source: Was attack on US missionary a case of mistaken identity? - dailypioneer.com). Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com

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Mindless attack on Gandhi

"Muscle" T-shirt beating up an image of Mahatma Gandhi

It is ironic that while India is observing the martyrdom of the Father of the Nation, certain US publications and TV channels are ridiculing Mahatma Gandhi. An article in the latest edition of Maxim, a lifestyle magazine, depicts a strapping man in a “Muscle” T-shirt beating up Gandhi. The article calls for “a healthy regimen of violent assaults” and urges readers to “teach those pacifists a lesson about aggression”. The three-page article includes 21 illustrations of the strapping man hitting, choking, kicking and throwing Gandhi. The magazine had gone after Gandhi in November, 2000, also when in an article headlined “Oh, Calcutta: Three Reasons to Hate Gandhi” had described him as a “lousy husband”, a “rotten father” and a “horrible role model”.

Its licentiousness becomes all the more odious in today’s context because, as Mr Michael Matsuda, chairperson of the Orange County Asian Pacific Islander Community Alliance in California, says, after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the USA and with the anti-war movement, this article is telling people to beat the crap out of Asians and pacifists. It is thus fanning the flames of hatred and bigotry. The Indian community in the USA is scandalised. 

(source: Mindless attack on Gandhi - tribuneindia.com and IndiaCause.com).

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Transmigration of the Soul 

Transmigration of soul (atman) is at the bottom of Hindu (Vedic) Dharma and he or she alone is a Hindu who accepts and believes in this phenomenon.   

Dr. S. Radhakrishnan points out that the doctrine of rebirth has had a long history even outside India. Among the Greeks, it found a place in the Orphic religion, it was believed in by Pythagoras, Plato and Empedocles, and later by Plotinus and the Neo-Platonists. Among the Hebrews, it is found in the writers of the Kabbala, and among the Muslims, in the Sufi writers. In ancient Britain the Druids taught it, as we see from Caesar's account of them. Within the Christian Church, it was held by some Gnostic sects and the Manicheans. And as for individual writers who believed in the doctrine, mention may be made of Origen, Brunco, Von Helmont, Swedenborg, Lessing, Herder and MacTaggart. The Theosophists teach it now. 

The doctrine of rebirth, says Radhakrishnan, is more reasonable than the denial of rebirth. The way of Nature is one of continuity. The goal of perfection cannot obviously be reached in one life. And the capacity of the self for endless improvement points to an unbroken future. Life in a particular body is, therefore, only an episode in the larger career of the individual soul.

That the soul (atman) takes on new bodies necessarily leads, as a corollary, to the Karma theory which again is a Hindu belief but not a basic Hindu belief. Karma theory is a direct offshoot of the phenomenon of transmigration of soul. Transmigration of soul leads to Karma theory. The Hindu Law of Karma is not so much a principle of retribution as of continuity. It should not be confused with either a hedonistic or a judicial theory of rewards and punishments, in the shape of pleasure or pain. The law is both prospective and retrospective. It asserts both the creative freedom of man and his continuity with his past. 

The Hindu believes that unlike his or her body which is perishable atman is permanent, perennial, and imperishable. It dies not and is neither born nor destroyed. He believes that it is the atman that lends the perishable body its capacity to act and become a doer of things. 

The Hindus are now the only people whose religious belief is centered around transmigration of soul. It would, however, be wrong to presume that no other people ever subscribed to this phenomenon. The Phoenicians and the Egyptians believed long ago in this phenomenon. So did Pythagoras: “With respect to man, the doctrine of Pythagoras was that known by the name of Metempsychosis, that the soul after death rested a certain time till it was purified, and had acquired a forgetfulness of what had previously happened to it; and then reanimated some other body.” Again: “Empedocles, the Sicilian,” agreed with Pythagoras in his belief in the metempsychosis.” 

Gautam Buddha accepted the theory of birth-death-rebirth and likewise the Sikhs too accept the phenomenon of transmigration and birth-death-rebirth.  

Dr. Ian Stevenson, professor of Parapsychology at the Univ. of California first came to India in 1961 to investigate cases of reincarnation and since then has been frequent visitor because he has found a large number of cases of reincarnation in India. 

He delivered a lecture “Scientific Investigation of Reincarnation Phenomena at the Max Muller Bhavan in New Delhi in 1922. In the course of his lecture, he made the following remarks: 

“British paid little attention to Hinduism.” “The are “abundance of cases in India” or reincarnation. He found “over 300 cases in India.” “Reincarnation is the best explanation.” 

Thus it proves, as far as it is possible within limits, that reincarnation is a valid explanation, the Hindus call it transmigration of soul-coming-going and coming again.

(source: The Hindu - By Krishna Vallabh Paliwal and Brahm Datt Bharti p.. 63-64 and Hinduism Through the Ages - By D S Sharma  p. 241-242).

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The Myth of Saint Thomas and The Mylapore Shiva Temple

According to Christian leaders in India, the apostle Thomas came to India in 52 A.D., founded the Syrian Christian Church, and was killed by the fanatical Brahmins in 72 A.D. Near the site of his martyrdom, the St. Thomas Church was built.

In fact this apostle never came to India. The Christian community in South India was founded by a merchant Thomas Cananeus in 345 A.D. (a name which readily explains the Thomas legend).

In Catholic universities in Europe, the myth of the apostle Thomas going to India is no longer taught as history, but in India it is still considered useful.

Koenraad Elst in his book Negationism in India: Concealing the Record of Islam, writes:

"In reality, the missionaries were very disgruntled that the damned Hindus refused to give them martyrs (whose blood is welcomed as “the seed of the faith”), so they had to invent one. Moreover, the church which they claim commemorates St.Thomas' martyrdom at the hands of Hindu fanaticism, is in fact a monument of Hindu martyrdom at the hands of Christian fanaticism. It is a forcible replacement of two important Hindu temples (Jain and Shaiva) whose existence was insupportable to the Christian missionaries. No one knows how many priests and worshippers were killed when the Christian soldiers came to remove the curse of Paganism from the Mylapore beach."

The myth of St. Thomas is a prototype of today's popular Jesus-in-India story. The myth was invented by the Syrian Christians of Malabar and later taken over by the Portuguese, and the Jesus story was promoted around the beginning of this century by western spiritualists who also paraded as historians of the arcane. The myth of St. Thomas is a prototype of today's popular Jesus-in-India story. The myth was invented by the Syrian Christians of Malabar and later taken over by the Portuguese, and the Jesus story was promoted around the beginning of this century by western spiritualists who also paraded as historians of the arcane.

(source: The Myth of Saint Thomas and the Mylapore Shiva Temple). Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com

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India unveils huge supercomputer

India has launched an advanced supercomputer known as Param Padma.

The move places India in a leading position in the field of supercomputing, normally led by the US and Japan.

There are plans to market the supercomputer internationally and build on existing markets in Europe, North America and the Far East.

India began developing supercomputers in the late 1980s after being refused one by the US. Arun Shourie, the information technology minister, said the development of the Param Padma at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) showed India's technological capabilities.

The advanced supercomputer was launched in the southern city of Bangalore on Tuesday. The Param Padma has 1 teraflop of power, which means it can make 1 trillion processes per second.

"It could also be used for defence and space applications." The thrust of India's supercomputing work, however, will be in areas such as bio-technology, nanotechnology, weather forecasting, climate modelling, seismic data processing and structural mechanics.

India's earlier version of the supercomputer 'Param 10,000' with 100 gigaflop (floating point operations per second) memory has been sold to 8 countries including Russia, Canada, Singapore, and Germany. India began developing a supercomputer after being denied a Cray supercomputer by the United States in 1987.

The US decision was based on fears that it could be used for military purposes.

(source: India unveils huge supercomputer - bbcnews.com).

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Hindutva: a liberating or confining force?

Tectonic changes are taking place quietly in Hindu society and hardly anyone seems to be aware of the phenomenon. For years the revolt against secularism has been brewing with no one being any the wiser for it. It started to explode during the agitation for the take-over of the Ram Janmabhoomi site. Even political Hindus who wouldn't have hurt a fly came to the conclusion that something is basically wrong with the secularism as practised by the Congress and the Left-leaning parties.

The Congress secularism aptly described as ``pseudo-secularism'' stood exposed. Since then there has been no turning back. Godhra was something waiting to happen. It merely confirmed gathering Hindu opinion that there has to be a stop to the enternal pandering to the Muslim electorate. What subsequently happened was an explosion of long-pent up feelings. No Narendra Modi, no L. K. Advani, no Sonia Gandhi, no intervention of Armed Forces could have controlled the ire of a frustrated people.

The feeling of revulsion against secularism is so deep that it is unbelievable. What is happening today is something that was unthinkable a decade ago. It is Hinduism not just Hindutva resurgent. This resurgence needs to be understood and properly canalised, not condemned or laughed at. And this also be said: the more it is belittled and besmirched, the more it is going to thrive.

Our pseudo-secularists do not know what force they are confronting, let alone understand its significance. Never in the past has Hinduism been united. That is happening now, right in front of our eyes. It is not going to brook any insult and it is there to stay.

Our pseudo-secularists do not know what force they are confronting, let alone understand its significance. Never in the past has Hinduism been united. That is happening now, right in front of our eyes. It is not going to brook any insult and it is there to stay.

Significantly it is a force with a very positive content. It is by no means anti-minority. That supercilious charge made by ignoramuses cannot withstand scrutiny even for a will turn out to be. Hindutva is going to release forces that will take India to the pinnacle of glory. Those with petty minds will continue to cavil. But they cannot stop Hindutva's momentum which, like a mighty or oceanic wave will sweep everything before it. There have rarely been instances of Hindu resurgence in the past.

We are seeing one now in action. And it is dazzling.

(source: Hindutva: a liberating or confining force? - by MV Kamath - samachar.com).

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Scramble for India  

The clashes in India are not between the Hindus and the Christians, but between the Christian missionary activities and the Hindus who see it as an assault on their culture and national identity. This is aggravated by actions like John Paul II’s recent proclamation in Manila: “ A great new harvest of faith will be reaped in this vast and vital continent; “ and by Father Monanchin’s Christianization of Indian civilization is to all intents and purposes an historical undertaking comparable to the Christianization of Greece.” Many Indians firmly believe that the Vatican and other international organizations are on a crusade to destroy the Indian Civilization – as happened to the Greek 1500 years ago and to the Americas a thousand years later.  

The 19^th century was dominated by European colonialism, which became the vehicle for the expansion of Christianity. Religion was a ruse. Christopher Columbus, the Founder of European Colonialism wrote his patrons,  

“Their Christian Majesties’ Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain: “Your Highness have an Other World by which our faith (Christianity) can be so greatly advanced and from which such great wealth can be drawn…And I say to Your Highnesses ought not to consent that any….who sets foot here (in America) who is not a Christian Catholic since this was the end and the beginning of the enterprise, that it should be for the enhancement and glory of the Christian religion.” 

Brahminism is the standard missionary term for Hinduism meant to create divisions within Hindu population.

***  

The Vatican Agenda 

The collapse of Christianity in the West has forced the Vatican to look for new pastures in the East. India, in particular. It is now making a desperate effort to convert the Hindus, especially in rural and tribal areas. They see the Hindus, because of their tradition of tolerance as a soft target that is safe to convert by hook or crook. But their activities are running into resistance from Hindus in Gujarat and also in tribal areas of Orissa. The Vatican regards its missionaries as ‘Soldiers for Christ.’ It is an imperial movement whose goal is to Christianize India, by destroying the Hindu Civilization.  

Before the rise of Christianity, the Pagan Greek Civilization, centered on the Mediterranean Sea, gave the world a Golden Age. It produced thinkers like Socrates and Plato, poets like Homer and Hesiod, dramatists like Aeschylus and Sophocles, as well as scientists like Ptolemy, Pythogoras and Euclid. The seat of this ancient wisdom was destroyed by the rise of Christianity. Alexandria used to be a great center of Platonic learning. One of the greatest Neo-Platonic scholars was Hupatia, who used to teach at the academy. A Christian monk named Cyril and a gang of hooligans dragged her out of the academy and murdered her in public. (Cyril is considered a saint and was named a ‘Doctor of the Church’ by the Pope in 1882). Greece never recovered from the disaster. The Vatican’s goal is to repeat its ‘success’ in Greece in India by destroying Hinduism. It was put in so many words by Father J. Monachanin, a Catholic priest: 

“India has received from the Almighty an uncommon gift, an unquenchable thirst for whatever spiritual. From the Vedic and Upanishadic times, a countless host of her sons and her daughters have been great seekers of God…”“Communion with Him and liberation from whatever hinders that realization, was for them the unique goal.. Unfortunately, Indian wisdom is tainted with erroneous tendencies and looks as if it has not yet found its own equilibrium. So was Greek wisdom before Greece humbly received its Paschall message of the Risen Christ…” But once Christianized, Greece rejected her ancestral errors..” (Greek Civilization was destroyed). 

“Is not the message she (India) has to deliver to the world similar to the message of the ancient Greece? Therefore the Christianization of Indian civilization is to all intents and purposes an historical undertaking comparable to the Christianization of Greece.” 

(source: Christianity's Scramble for India and The Failure of The Secularist' Elite - By N S Rajaram Hindu Writers Forum 1999 New Delhi. p. 3-30). Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com

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The Lost Continent of Mu and India?

Mu, the Motherland, a lost culture which was the center of civilization some 25,000 years ago. In 1868, while serving with the British Army as a Bengal Lancer in India, James Churchward (1851-1936) became close friends with a Hindu temple priest who taught him how to decipher numerous stone tablets which had lain hidden for centuries in the temple vaults. 

He writes that he found the civilizations of the early Greeks, the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Egyptians, and the Hindus had been definitely preceded by the civilizations of Mu. Churchward also identified the flying chariots mentioned in the Ramayana and Mahabharata as early scientific wonders. The Continent of Mu in the Pacific was almost completely sunk 60,000 years ago, with the Hawaiian Islands and Easter Island being virtually the sole traces left of it.

He traced the same story from Mu to India, where colonizers from the vanished continent had settled; from India into Egypt; from Egypt to the temple of Sinai, where Moses copied it; and from Moses to the faulty translations of Ezra 800 years later. 

There is confirmation of Mu in other ancient manuscripts, including such a classic as the Hindu epic Ramayana, written by the sage and historian, Valmiki, from the dictation of Narana, high priest of the Rishi temple at Ayodhya, who read the ancient temple records to him. In one place Valmiki mentions the Naacals as “coming to Burma from the land of their birth in the East,” that is, in the direction of the Pacific Ocean.   

The Book of the Dead is a sacred memorial, dedicated to the multitudes of people who lost their lives at the destruction of Mu, the forefathers of the Egyptians and all mankind. These are the “dead” referred to. Upper Egypt was colonized and settled by Mayas from India and when their settlement Maioo was firmly established, a party of Naacals left India and went to Egypt.

(source: The Lost Continent of Mu - By James Churchward  p. 21-109). For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

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Iraq - Creation of the Old Indian Army

The modern state of Iraq is a creation of the old Indian Army. So we can’t really wash our hands off the problem once Saddam Hussein is gone. Originally referred to as the Mosul, Basra and Baghdad Wilayats in the Indian Army’s GHQ, the state was painfully put together between 1918 and 1924 by the Indian political department under Sir Percy Cox, albeit acting under the direct orders of Whitehall. The danda was provided by about 150,000 troops of the Indian Army, of whom only about a half were combatants, the remainder being logistic, maintenance and administration troops. Somewhere in the background lurks the presence of Charles Greenway, later Lord Greenway, the chairman of the Anglo-Persian oil company, at whose instance it would appear Iraq, as a country, was created.

The efforts made by the Indian political department to give Iraq a modern civil administration will certainly rank among the great post-war reconstruction stories, along with the establishment of the allied government in post-war Germany and the American-led Japanese Government in devastated Tokyo. At the peak of the Indian administration in Iraq, there were 62 officers in the Accounts, Audit and Finance departments, 30 in Agriculture, including cattle-breeding and poultry, 24 in Customs, 34 in Education, 102 in Irrigation and Canals, 117 in the Justice department, including 63 Qaidis, 84 in the para-military, the Levies, Gendarmerie and Jails administration, 128 in the Health and Hospital services, 39 senior nurses, 49 police officers of the rank of ACP and above and (not surprisingly) 440 British civil servants and 460 Indian subordinate senior staff. The list goes on to include 25 officers in the Port administration, 60 in the Iraq P&T, 32 in the PWD, 82 to run the Iraqi railways, 8 Newspaper Editors, 10 to establish Iraq’s survey department and 6 Veterinarians. Try and match that America! 

But more importantly, somewhere in the dusty files of the archives in Delhi lives the institutional memory of this gigantic effort at state-making.

(source: How India can help post-war Iraq - By Raja Menon - Indian Express March 26 2003).  

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Did You Know?

Equal before God

A Dalit presides over the unique traditions of a Krishna temple in Gujarat. Jhanjharka town in Ahmedabad district of Gujarat is no place for prophets of doom. They will find no stories of caste war and religious hatred here.

To put it simply, Maharaj Baldevdasji, the resident priest of the Krishna temple, is not a Brahmin. Defying all tenets of Hindu tradition, the temple is headed by a Dalit. Amazing, because untouchability still persists in rural Gujarat. It is, therefore, an unusual sight to see Brahmins, Rajputs, Banias and the powerful Patels congregating at the temple and reverently touching Baldevdasji's feet. There is no rancour here, just the simple acceptance of the fact that for two centuries, the head priest of the temple has been an untouchable.

And the feeling has percolated down to other sections of Jhanjharka."Thanks to the influence of the temple, this area is completely free from caste discrimination," says Balwantsinh Jhala, a Rajput farmer. "Baldevdasji is the spiritual guide for many members of the upper castes." All manner of people come to worship at the temple, and the poor never return without a good meal. "We continue to hold the view that the way to God is through the stomach of the poor and the hungry," says Baldevdasji, whose forefather served God by feeding people seven generations ago. Around 500 people have free meals at the temple every day.

The Gujarati New Year's Day, which falls on the day after Diwali, is an especially happy occasion at Jhanjharka. For the 30,000 devotees who flock to the temple that day, it is an experience in social harmony. The celebrations may consist of Hindu rituals, but it is a Muslim who kicks off the day's proceedings. Rukmuddin Mohammad arrives at the temple early in the morning with a band of Muslims and a troupe singing bhajans. He is received at the gates by Baldevdasji. After the welcome, Mohammad climbs up the flagpole in the temple complex and hoists a white flag stamped with Islam's crescent. Only then do other programmes follow. Acrimony between the Hindus and the Muslims has not diminished the commonality that these two have found in a temple. "For me it is a question of faith and tradition. I am proud of it," says Mohammad.

(source: Equal before God - by Uday Mahurkar India Today November 10, 1997).

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Updated - October 28, 2008