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'Hindus make India secular' 

'Hindus make India secular' - says former Pakistan PM Shujat Hussain

A group of Indian Muslim leaders on Friday told former Pakistan prime minister Shujat Hussain that India was a secular country "because of Hindus".

"It is because of the Hindus that India remains a secular country," a spokesman for the Jama Masjid mosque said. "This is what we told him." Former Pakistan prime minister Shujat Hussain prayed at the historic Jama Masjid and called upon Indian Muslims to integrate themselves fully with the mainstream.

Almost six decades after the sub-continent's partition, Pakistan's ruling party on Friday gave a formal burial to the two-nation theory by urging Indian Muslims to love their motherland.

"You are Indians by choice. So live like Indians. Nobody forced you to stay back (and not settle in Pakistan)," Hussain told a large gathering at the 17th-century red stone mosque in the city's old quarters.

He reminded the gathering in Urdu that Indian Muslims should love their motherland as they stayed back in India, ...rejecting the offer to move over to the newly created Pakistan. "You (Indian Muslims) should do everything for the progress and development of the country," he said.

(source:  Hindus make India secular -  timesofindia.com). Refer to Who Killed Our Culture? We Did - By Youki Kudoh - time.com  May 3 1999.

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“Every Indian Christian is considered to be a second class Christian in the Vatican” - Paulos Mar Gregorios

“Every Indian Christian is considered to be a second class Christian in the Vatican” -- this was revealed by the late Paulos Mar Gregorios (1922- 1996) who was the Metropolitan of the Syrian Orthodox Church in Delhi. He was a man of much substance. In addition to his religious qualifications he was a distinguished scholar. At one time he was the President of the Indian Philosophical Congress. He was also for some time the President of the World Council of [Christian] Churches. 

Metropolitan Gregorios asked the Pope John Paul II what he thought was the reason for such a small percentage of Indians having converted to Christianity although it had been in India for so long. The Pope said to him the reason was that the Indian mind was not developed enough to understand the subtlety of thought of St. Gregory of Nyssa or of St. Thomas Aquinas. Somewhat taken aback Metropolitan Gregorios asked the Pope if he had read Shankara or Nagarjuna. He was immediately shown out of the room where the audience was taking place. 

I found the incident merely amusing because I did not find this surprising at all, but he had been much saddened by it, for the issue was more personal for him. As he said, he realized for the first time and first hand that every Indian Christian is considered to be a second class Christian in the Vatican. This was even more galling for him because he belonged to a branch of Christianity as ancient as any.

It illustrates that the Eurocentricism, and the associated sense of superiority of the European races and culture, which has very much coloured Christian doctrine, does not seem to have yet suffered the fact of the shift in religious demographics.

(source: What Calls You, Pilgrim? - By Ravi Ravindra - infinityfoundation.com). Refer to Christian Supremacy: Pushing the Dhimmitude of Non-Christians in America .

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Life of Indians Overseas: Laborers in the Plantations
The indenture system of European Imperialism

In the colonies of the British, French and the Dutch, exploitation in one form or the other stalked the Indian indentured laborers.

The Coolies who arrived to work in the sugar estates in the West Indies were marched to their barracks known as ‘Nigger Yard.’ It was the same in Mauritius -- only the language was different, ‘camps des Noirs’ or the backbreaking work in the canefields.  

In 1843 the first shipload of 217 Indian labourers arrived in Port of Spain in Trinidad in the Caribbean. And in the same decade, others were taken to British Guiana in South America, and Mauritius off the coast of Africa; in the 1860's to the British colony of Natal in South Africa; in the 1870's to the Dutch colony of Surinam; in the 1880's to Fiji. By 1917-20 the indenture system was abolished but not before 1.5 million Indian bonded labourers had been induced move to remote parts of the globe in the service of British capitalism.

The plantation also kept the Indian coolies hard at work by a system of penalties and punishments.

In South Africa they worked from daybreak to nightfall, from four in the morning to seven in the night, and far beyond their capacity. They were strictly confined to the limits of their master’s estate. Beating and flogging was part of the regular routine in the plantations. In the West Indies the cattle whip was employed; in Malaya it was the cane, and in South Africa it was the rawhide cattle lash. One callous estate manager reportedly said “As long as the coolie is working for you, you have the right to do what you like with him—that is, short of killing”.

Cholera, typhoid, smallpox and malaria were rampant in the immigrant settlements. From time to time large scale epidemics scourged the plantations. Everything was blamed on the unsanitary life of the Indians. But they were not provided with clean water and no latrines were made available for their use. Beriberi, a disease of malnutrition, first emerged among the Indo-Mauritians in 1880. Hookworm was identified a few years later as universal among estate Indians in the Carribean and Malaya.

Some Caribbean planters solved the problem of the sick by abandoning them to fate. In Grenada the majority of the 2000 Indians were kicked off the estates when they became ill and allowed to die on the road. The editor of a Jamaica newspaper wrote in 1863: 

‘One must see these wretched hungry, houseless and outcast specters picking up in the streets a chance bone or any putrid offal…. and so crippled, nude, skeletoned before their death, they live on, no parish authority taking them in’.

Unlike the Chinese and the Blacks, the Indians were also wary of the penchant for proselytizing among white missionaries who were on the lookout for ‘heathen converts’. Indians were always branded as the dregs of their country, lowborn, even criminal. Inspite of this, the Europeans managed to take Indian women for sexual purposes – usually the daughter of a coolie.

(source: Life of Indians Overseas: Laborers in the Plantations - indolink.com). 

The first wave of Indian emigration comprised of mostly indentured labour to European colonies to fill in the vacuum created by emancipation African slaves in plantations, following the ban on the practice of slavery. Indenture labour was a new concept of plantation work on contract for a period of 3 to 5 years. The system of indenture labour was an ingenious invention of the British to keep their plantation economy thriving on labour under captivity and Hugh Tinker has very rightly described it as the new name for slavery.

(source: Indian Diaspora: A Brief Overview - C.S. Bhat, K. Laxmi Narayan and Sadananda Sahoo). 

"The Coolies were locked up in the sick-house; saw them the day after they were flogged; their backs were swollen; they were in the sick-house for two days after the flogging." -- Will. Clay.

(source: Indian Indentured Immigration to Guyana - Hill Coolies - guygana.org).

That is why Sir William Hunter called the indenture system almost as bad as slavery. Like the slave the indentured labourer was the property of his owner. Working conditions are savage and inhuman. Indentured Indians exploited, beaten and brutalized; women are sexually abused. One estate manager-overseer “had broken the ribs of several Indians, and had caused many to die.” And because medical care is rudimentary, the coolies, as indentured Indians are known, contract a variety of diseases – venereal diseases, dysentery, tuberculosis, hookworm, ground-itch, and chigoes. As for the physical conditions of their agricultural work, nothing could be more daunting.

(source: Sharlow: The Promise).

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India's Relationship With Israel 
Congress Party's Anti-Semitic policies ?

With the present government in India consisting of a coalition between Marxists and the Congress Party (which was responsible for anti-Semitic policies in the past), the nature of the relationship between India and Israel has once again come into focus. The reason for the historically unfriendly behavior towards Israel by various past Indian governments becomes easy to understand if one views India's foreign policy as a projection onto the international arena of its questionable domestic policies.

India's Muslim population is the world's second largest - some say third, but many believe that the official census tends to underplay the true numbers of Muslims - and holds the country for ransom. Those who appease Muslims in order to garner their vote dominate Indian politics.

Indian laws are heavily skewed to favor Muslims. The Indian government allows Muslims to control their religious institutions, and even subsidizes Haj pilgrimages and madrasas; yet, the government appropriates revenues from many Hindu temples and imposes restraints on Hindus who wish to open schools and colleges. Even though the country was split once to placate Muslims - thus forming Pakistan, an Islamic theocracy - Muslims continue to make ever-increasing demands and refuse to live in harmony with others. In Jammu and Kashmir, the only Muslim majority state in India, Hindus have faced ethnic cleansing and nearly four hundred thousand survivors live in refugee camps in squalid conditions.

This is a case of people Kashmiri Pandits living in refugee camps under their own government. For more refer to World blind to Kashmiri Pandits' plight?

The eagerness of ambitious politicians to woo the favor of Muslims resulted in India becoming the first country to ban the book The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, following the call of fundamentalist clerics who felt the book offended Islam. When the Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini died, India declared a three-day official period of mourning.

This placating attitude of Indian leaders found expression on the international front, too. India helped found the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), an irrelevant entity that did little else of note apart from serving the purpose of dictators and terrorists seeking acceptance from leaders of other countries. Yasser Arafat and Libya's Muammar Kaddafi used NAM to gain acceptability, while Iraq's Saddam Hussein was keen to host the NAM summit in order to be seen as a leader on the global stage.

The need for leaders such as Saddam Hussein and Muammar Kaddafi to associate themselves with NAM in order to gain credibility finds correspondence in Indian politics. Despite their hatred for Hindus, branding their opponents "Hindu fundamentalists", Communists and others who pander to the demands of Muslims gain respect by associating themselves with Hindus. They understand that their reputation, as well as that of NAM, would have been in tatters if India had been a Communist or Islamic state. 

Jawaharlal Nehru, who was an admirer of Josef Stalin and mimicked the Soviet economic model in India, chose not to declare India to be an overtly Communist state. Nehru, supposedly described by the Chinese Premier Chou En Lai as a "useful idiot", turned down the offer of permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council for India and argued that Communist China should get the seat instead.

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Even India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who was an admirer of Josef Stalin and mimicked the Soviet economic model in India, chose not to declare India to be an overtly Communist state.

NAM was founded by Nehru and the strongmen of Communist Yugoslavia, Islamic Egypt, Islamic Indonesia, et al., and gave Indian prime ministers who belonged to the Nehru family the illusion that they were world leaders, even though their focus was limited to Islamic and Communist regimes. 

Nehru, supposedly described by the Chinese Premier Chou En Lai as a "useful idiot", turned down the offer of permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council for India and argued that Communist China should get the seat instead.

The misguided narrow focus on the welfare of Muslims and Communists, while only half-heartedly trying to keep the majority of the population contented, resulted in India treating Israel in a shameful manner, as well. Despite officially recognizing Israel, India did not maintain any diplomatic relationship with it for over four decades. It entered into a diplomatic relationship with the Palestinians before it did so with Israel, and India boycotted Israel in sports meets. This kind of treatment by the government is dictated by the hatred for Jews among Muslims in India. The hatred among Muslims in India is an Arab import, and a curious phenomenon, because many Muslims in India have never even interacted with a Jew.

Complaints of appeasement of Muslims by Indian politicians go back to the time of Mohandas Gandhi, who led the non-violent civil disobedience movement against British rule in India. When the Ottoman Empire was dismantled and Turkey was formed, Gandhi took the side of those calling for a pan-Islamic Caliphate, even though the Turks were guilty of the genocide of Armenians; it was one of many such acts that might have disqualified Gandhi from getting the Nobel Peace Prize. In addition, Gandhi - who said that the cry for a national home for Jews did not appeal to him - is blamed by his detractors for helping Indian Muslims partition India and form the Islamic country of Pakistan.

In the recent past, with the Nehru family out of power, the relationship between India and Israel has bloomed. In 1992, India established a full diplomatic relationship with Israel, and since then, the two countries have signed several defense deals. Many Israelis who have visited India as tourists during this period have had pleasant experiences. While there seems to be no immediate danger of things taking a turn for the worse, it is a cause for concern that a member of the Nehru family is once again the de facto head of the government in India. Hopefully, the shortsighted foreign policy of ostracizing Israel will not become reality again, leading to the souring of relations between India and Israel.

(source: India's Relationship With Israel - By Arvind Kumar).

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Muslim terrorists slit throats of 5 Hindu shepherds in Kashmir

Raising fears of terror returning to this border district of Jammu and Kashmir, militants abducted five Hindu shepherds and slit their throats early this morning. Although no militant outfit has claimed responsibility for the massacre so far, police suspect it to be the handiwork of Hizbul Mujahideen. Over one and-a-half months ago, militants had killed six Hindu mine workers in Rajouri’s Kalakote, breaking the two-year calm in the district.

The murdered shepherds have been identified as Karnail Singh, brother Ashok Singh, cousin Swaran Singh, Dharam Singh and Shamber Singh—all residents of Dhar Sakki village, which has over 150 families, many of them Hindus.  

Massacre of Hindus in Kashmir.

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According to police sources, a group of four to five militants entered the shepherds’ shelters at Nangi—a high-land pasture ground 10 kms north of the village— late last night and forced the male members out at gunpoint. One of the militants then took one of the shepherds to ‘‘meet a commander’’ who was waiting at some distance. After a while, the militant returned alone and took away the other four shepherds, the sources said. The five were later taken to an isolated spot and their throats slit, the sources said. As rattled family members of the deceased stayed in the shelters, the villagers came to know about the massacre only in the morning. The killing sent shock waves in the area, with most of the shepherds rushing back to the village. Senior civil and police officers rushed to the spot immediately after news about these killings came in. The bodies were brought down from the pasture for post-mortem and later handed over to their relatives. The last rites will be conducted tomorrow, the sources said.

(source: Muslim terrorists slit throats of 5 Hindu shepherds - indianexpress.com).  

Refer to My People, Uprooted: "A Saga of the Hindus of Eastern Bengal"  - By Tathagata Roy

After quake, it’s terror in Rajouri - Militants slit throats of 10 of Hindu community

While residents of border districts were yet to come out of the shock of the deadly earthquake, terrorists mercilessly slit the throats of 10 Hindus of two families in the Budhal area of Rajouri district early this morning. The police said a group of heavily armed terrorists barged into the house of a former BSF official, Munshi Ram, in Dandot village and took five members of the family out of the house and slit their throats. Munshi Ram was also killed. 

(source: After quake, it’s terror in Rajouri - Militants slit throats of 10 of Hindu community - tribuneindia.com). For the Plight of Hindus refer to Hindus in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Kashmir - By Hindu American Foundation HAF

Terrorism comes to Londonistan

Muslim violence and terrorism in India have never bothered the British. The Maraad massacre and the Godhra incineration and the ethnic cleansing in Jammu and Kashmir were either ignored or rationalised by them. The recent incident in Jammu, when five Hindus were beheaded and a Hindu woman was hacked to death with an axe, did not excite their alleged sense of 'fair play'.   Then should Indians weep for them when they are victimised?

(source: Terrorism comes to Londonistan - By Rajeev Srinivasan - rediff.com).

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Another ignorant loud mouthed American runs amok ?

Imagine the unimaginable if you can. A senior M.P. from India goes to America and says at a press conference that the Bush Administration must treat the Blacks in New Orleans more humanely. Can we imagine Vajpayee or Somnath Chatterjee saying in Washington DC that America's policy of torturing detainees is illegal and barbarous? We may have strong opinions on the atrocities that go on in America under the smokescreen of democracy, but our civilisation stops us from expressing them in diplomatically uncivilised ways. Or it may be our complex of subservience before the White Man that restrains us. Whatever the reason, no M.P. or Government representative will break conventional decencies while on foreign soil.

But America's official representatives seem to consider themselves above (or is it below?) such decencies. An American Congressman named (Republican) Dan Burton has been visiting India and talking wildly about how India should behave. In the first place, he and a bunch of fellow members of the US Congress are here to discuss the Kashmir issue. Who gave them the right to do so when Indian MPs do not go to America to discuss New Orleans racism?

Secondly, the loud-mouthed Burton feels no obligation to confine himself to Kashmir. He is also an authority on the Khalistan demand for a separate state in India. That, he advises us, is an issue that the Indian Prime Minister must discuss with Pakistan's President. Ill-qualified experts like Burton constitute the pool of America's international wisdom.

(source: Another ignorant American runs amok - By T J S George - newindpress.com).  Refer to Quotes from The American Taliban. Refer to White House Defends Human Rights Record and Iraq Torture - memory hole.org and Human Rights News. Refer to Christian Supremacy: Pushing the Dhimmitude of Non-Christians in America . Refer to My People, Uprooted: "A Saga of the Hindus of Eastern Bengal"  - By Tathagata Roy

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84 Sikh riot victims burn Nanavati panel report
Call it ‘bundle of lies’

(Note: Biased reporting in the Media?  Riot vs. Massacre? When around 3,000 Sikhs were in killed in 1984, media calls it a mere riot and in Gujarat where Hindus were burnt in a train and 2,000 Hindus and Muslims killed is called a massacre and a progrom?).

Carnage was organised by Congress leaders: says Nanavati

Twenty one years after the sequence of cruel events, which changed their lives forever in 1984, horror lives on in their minds. Even if they wanted to, the ensuing circumstancely ensured that they relived the horror, day after day, year after year. Not surprisingly even two decades after what has been a long road in the search of justice, anti-Sikh riots victims feel let down. They burnt a copy of the report and vowed to keep alive their struggle to get the culprits behind the massacre punished. Only this time, they promised to take their fight to the international level to “show the world how the Delhi Police, the Indian judiciary and the Indian democracy let us down”.

Most of the women who were witnesses to their husbands and sons being burnt alive in the mayhem in the Capital, following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her bodyguards, are now old. Their daughters have managed to put together their lives after what has been a continuous fight for justice, at times under the most trying circumstances. Raising slogans against the Congress, the Delhi police, Mr Sajjan Kumar, Mr H.K.L. Bhagat and Mr Jagdish Tytler, as they staged a dharna in the middle of the police station on the Sansad Marg, they called the Nanavati Commission’s report “nothing but a bundle of lies”.

(source: 84 Sikh riot victims burn Nanavati panel report - tribuneindia.com). 

'Tytler goaded the mob to kill more'

Jasbir Singh, who is in hiding, told Newsline he was willing to repeat that he saw Tytler goading a mob to go for the kill even if it costs him his life. His 2000 affidavit helped provide the panel “credible evidence” against the leader.

“I can die but will always say this. For 18 of my family died and Tytler’s hands are coloured in their blood...” said Jasbir who had shaved off his hair to escape detection.

(source: Tytler goaded the mob to kill more' - indianexpress.com).

84 Sikh riot victims burn Nanavati panel report

Call it ‘bundle of lies’

***

PM 'bows head in shame' for riots

The report, by retired Supreme Court judge GT Nanavati, was the ninth inquiry commission into the riots, and was set up in 2000 by the then governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is now in opposition. The inquiry said that accounts from witnesses and victims of the rioting indicated that "local Congress leaders and workers had either incited or helped the mobs in attacking the Sikhs"

(source: PM 'bows head in shame' for riots - hindustantimes.com).

Justice delayed, justice denied 

Twenty years and nine investigations later, why have the people behind the anti-Sikh riots in the Indian capital, Delhi, not been brought to book and punished?

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

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A crime worse than Modi's - By Saisuresh Sivaswamy

If a mere description of Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh as 'silly' could incense Congress workers enough to vandalise Mumbai tabloid Mid-Day's office, you can well imagine the anger that must have coursed through their veins when the prime minister and their party's icon was gunned down more than 20 years ago.

For those who find Justice Nanavati's finding hard to believe, here's a simple question. Could Delhi have burned the way it did -- estimates put the loss of life in those traumatic days at around 3,000 -- without official connivance? Could the perpetrators and chief instigators of the violence have got away for so long -- it is now 21 years, mind you -- without official patronage? And can all of the victims fool all of us for such a long about who was behind the riots?The Modi administration was guilty on this count, as was the Congress government in 1984

Yet, consider the difference in how the two administrations have been treated. Not a single Congressman has paid the price for the 1984 riots. Twenty-one years down the line, we have had nine inquiry commissions going into the violence, and there is a possibility that another probe will now be instituted, yawn, to take up Justice Nanavati's findings. How many of the victims will even be alive 21 years later? How many of them will remember the details? How many will want to remember?

On the other hand, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi against whom there is no direct charge in the riots but one of presiding over an inactive administration, is blackballed, denied visa, a hysterical campaign is mounted whenever he tours the country or goes overseas.

(source: A crime worse than Modi's - By Saisuresh Sivaswamy - rediff.com).

A massacre is a massacre

When the Congress is the culprit. And when the victims are Sikhs.

Instead, the secular response to the report has been curiously low-key. It was a long time ago, we are told. What is the point in raking up old memories? Justice Nanavati doesn’t conclusively blame anybody anyway, does he? And anyway, all secularists must unite to fight Hindu fundamentalism, so let’s not get sidetracked by an old riot.

There is something sad and shameful about these responses. Listening to them yesterday, I had some sense of why secularism has fallen into such disrepute. It has become a flag of convenience for anybody who wants to oppose the BJP. And we have forgotten that all communal violence — no matter who it is directed against — is equally bad.

It saddens me that the secular establishment has forgotten basic morality. Its failure to stand up for the victims of the 1984 massacres shames us all.

(source: A massacre is a massacre - By Vir Sanghvi - hindustantimes.com). Refer to White House Defends Human Rights Record and Iraq Torture - memory hole.org and Human Rights News. Refer to Paris Burning - Riots in France and Intifada in France and Cars, windows smashed in Sydney race riots - Australia. Refer to My People, Uprooted: "A Saga of the Hindus of Eastern Bengal"  - By Tathagata Roy

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Hindu forum deplores US resolution as 'Hinduphobic'
'Hinduphobic' Agenda, Foundation Will Launch Campaign

A US-based Hindu organisation has flayed as "Hinduphobic" a resolution sponsored by two Congressmen in which they condemned "religious persecution" in South Asia while focusing on India. 

The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) expressed concern over the "Hinduphobic" resolution sponsored by Congressmen Joseph Pitts and John Conyers, last week.  

In letters written to both the Congressmen, HAF expressed frustration that they made India a focus of a resolution condemning "religious persecution" in South Asia, while completely ignoring the "persecution of minorities" in Pakistan and Bangladesh.  As the world's largest democracy with a constitution influenced by the Hindu ethos of tolerance and pluralism, combined with a mature judiciary and human rights monitoring mechanisms, India hardly deserved to be a target of such a resolution, the HAF felt. 

The resolution represented a political agenda, according to HAF, as it was submitted in advance of a planned visit by Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat, India, to the United States. The visit was cancelled on March 18, 2005 when the United States State Department abruptly revoked Mr. Modi's tourist visa and declined granting him a diplomatic visa. There is speculation that the resolution, in addition to a coordinated campaign by members of the Forum of Indian Leftists, Indian Muslim Council, Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America, Coalition Against Genocide, and others to vilify not only Modi, but his political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, led to the unexpected decision.

"Congressman Pitts (born-again Christian evangelist Republican Congressman) has a history of ignoring the suffering of Hindus everywhere, especially in South Asia," said Dr. Meghani. "His personal biases against Hindus and India are disappointingly transparent in this resolution."

"The heinous tragedy that befell Gujarati Muslims in riots after the murder of 58 Hindus burned alive on a train by terrorists must be denounced. But if the Congressmen were sincere in their censure of violations of religious freedom, they would not have ignored the situation in India's Jammu & Kashmir state, where thousands have been massacred, and where religio-ethnic cleansing by Islamist extremists supported by Pakistan has resulted in an exodus of 400,000 Hindus, Sikhs, and Indian Muslims from their ancestral homes," said Dr. Mihir Meghani, President of the Hindu American Foundation.

(source:  Hindu forum deplores US resolution as 'Hinduphobic'  - hindu.com). Hindu American Foundation).  (For more refer to US in Iraq: ‘not in our name’ - By Angana Chatterji - dailytimes.com). Also refer to India is now 6% Christian - World Christian Database. Also refer to chapter on Conversion. Refer to Christian Supremacy: Pushing the Dhimmitude of Non-Christians in America and The Burningcross

Refer to The Persecution Industry: What are the stakes? - By Ramapriya Abraham

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

Refer to White House Defends Human Rights Record and Iraq Torture - memory hole.org and Human Rights News. Refer to Paris Burning - Riots in France and Intifada in France and Cars, windows smashed in Sydney race riots - Australia.

Refer to Bible thumpers: Americans are being increasingly stereotyped as stupid - By Arvind Kumar - indiareacts.com and American Christian Fundamentalist Leader Calls for Global War - By Yoginder Sikand - christianaggression.org). Also refer to Dinosaurs, evangelicals and the state - By Justin Webb - BBC). 

For more on Christian Fundamentalism Agenda in USA, refer to: 

A conflict between science and God - By Martin Kettle - Guardian and Quotes from The American Taliban and Christian Fundamentalists to Push Bible as Classroom "Knowledge" and Bush, the Neocons and Evangelical Christian Fiction: America "Left Behind" - By Hugh Urban and The Christian Right, Dominionism, and Theocracy - publiceye.org. and Dinosaurs, evangelicals and the state - By Justin Webb - BBC. and Cornell President Says "Intelligent Design" Religion, Not Science and American Fundamentalists.  Also refer to Battlefield Earth - By Bill Moyers and The Godly Must Be Crazy - By Glen Scherer and Rapture or Rupture? - By Bryan Zepp Jamieson. Refer to The Republican War on Science - By Chris Mooney and Resurgence Of Religious Right Among Top Concerns - totallyjewish.com.  More evangelicals turning up in elite circles, schools - By Laurie Goodstein and David D. Kirkpatrick - The New York Times/May 22, 2005. The Crusaders:
Christian evangelicals are plotting to remake America in their own image - By Bob Moser - rollingstone.com and Dominionist.

Refer to A crime worse than Modi's - By Saisuresh Sivaswamy - rediff.com.  For the Plight of Hindus refer to Hindus in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Kashmir - By Hindu American Foundation HAF

Refer to VINDICATED BY TIME: The Niyogi Committee Report  On Christian Missionary Activities - Christianity Missionary Activities Enquiry Committee 1956 and The Sunshine of Secularism. Refer to Can Hinduism face the onslaught of Project Thessalonica? - By Alex Pomero and Christians have Destroyed Various Ethnic Cultures of the World - christianaggression.org. Refer to From De Nobili to Clooney: The Christian Methods of Inculturation

The best unofficial estimate put the death toll in the Gujarat riots at 2,000. Armchair aficionados of world peace term it as "genocide" (even "Holocaust"), link Modi with Hitler, and the RSS with the Nazi party. They conveniently hide the fact that one-fourth of those who perished in the post-Godhra riots were Hindus, and so were 40 per cent of those displaced. First, why is this fact being concealed? But more importantly, can the killing of 2,000 people be equated with the killing of reportedly six million people in the Nazi extermination camps? 

(Refer to The Great Scandal: Christianity's Role in the Rise of the Nazis - by Gregory S. Paul - secularhumanism.org). Refer to Quotes from The American Taliban

Communal truth, secular lies  - by Kanchan Gupta 

More often than not we come across absurd claims of "thousands of Muslims butchered by Hindu fanatics in Narendra Modi's Gujarat". This is a lie that has been repeated ad nauseam since that terrible day when Hindus travelling by Sabarmati Express where roasted alive after their coach was set ablaze by Muslim fanatics. 

It has been repeated the most by India's Marxists who subscribe to the Goebbelsian tactic of repeating a lie till in the popular perception it comes to be identified as the truth.

Stomach-churning details of the Bhagalpur riots - Muslims were killed, buried in fields and cauliflower and other winter vegetables planted over the rotting cadavers - no longer feature in the secularists' collective conscience. The anti-Sikh pogrom that followed Indira Gandhi's assassination is not even talked about any more: More than 4,000 Sikhs were murdered, many of them by placing burning tyres around their necks. 

Each of these massacres of innocent men, women and children took place when the Congress was in power and did nothing more than twiddle its thumbs as marauders went about their pillaging secure in the belief that they would not be punished.

(source: Communal truth, secular lies  - by Kanchan Gupta - dailypioneer.com - June 1, 2005). Refer to Paris Burning - Riots in France and Intifada in France and Cars, windows smashed in Sydney race riots - Australia.

A pogram?

India has for the first time published detailed figures on the number of people killed in the religious riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002. The government told parliament that 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed, 223 more people reported missing and another 2,500 injured.

(source: Gujarat riot death toll revealed - BBC). Refer to Anti-U.S. Riot Turns Deadly in Afghanistan -abcnews.com.  Anti-U.S. Protests Erupt in Afghanistan Over Quran Desecration Report; 4 Dead, 71 Injured - Shouting "Death to America!" more than 1,000 demonstrators rioted and threw stones at a U.S. military convoy Wednesday, as protests spread to four Afghan provinces over a report that interrogators desecrated Islam's holy book at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay).

Refer to My People, Uprooted: "A Saga of the Hindus of Eastern Bengal"  - By Tathagata Roy

The Jews comprised a mere 1 per cent of Germany during the Holocaust. Muslims are not so insubstantial a minority in Gujarat, let alone in the entire India. Jewish children did not study in madrasas where concepts of jihad and kafir were ingrained in young minds. Physical violence (let alone with religious overtones) was not something associated with Jews. In the Gujarat riots, like in most other previous riots of India, the first provocative act of violence came from the Muslim minority, and not the Hindu majority. A peaceful or scarred minority is not expected to mobilise an armed mob of 1,500 plus people to torch a train.

Caches of illegal arms and ammunition were recovered from Muslim houses (but not Hindu houses) during the riots. The Gujarat police recovered caches of arms from Muslim localities during the Jagannath rathyatra in 2002. But no rocket launchers, mortar shells, or guns were there with Hindus. Is this genocide?

(source: Whither, ‘Secularists’? - By Balbir K. Punj - saag.org). Refer to A crime worse than Modi's - By Saisuresh Sivaswamy - rediff.com.  For the Plight of Hindus refer to Hindus in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Kashmir - By Hindu American Foundation HAF

'Modi visit was about opportunity, not religion' - says Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of the Art of Living Foundation and the International Association for Human Values, spoke at the annual convention of the Asian American Hotel Owners Convention on Thursday.

Sri Sri then went on to talk about the unprecedented progress that was occurring in Gujarat under the Modi administration. He noted that more than 40,000 dams had been constructed in just one year. "The water level has come up in Gujarat so much. People are so happy," he said.

"In the villages for the first time in many years there is enough water for the people -- even in drought-hit areas. So see the positive things that are happening and tell the person all the nice things the person has done. You will uplift the goodness in people," he said.

Sri Sri reiterated, apparently referring to the sustained campaign against Modi, "If you always keep telling a person of all the negative things all the time, the person gets frustrated."

(source: Modi gets an unlikely supporter, Sri Sri - rediff.com).

Hindus angered by recent initiatives in Congress are protesting what they see as an effort to "systematically promote a Hinduphobic and anti-India agenda within the United States."

The Hindu American Foundation said Monday (March 21) it will launch a campaign to educate the nation's 2 million Hindus about risks posed by "a small minority ... in the House of Representatives, Islamist groups and radical communist groups." In particular, the group is objecting to two initiatives targeting a Hindu-led province in India that has experienced religious violence. 

American Hindus, however, see a pattern of selective condemnation in which their faith is unfairly singled out.

The killing of tens of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans, and the atrocities committed in the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay prisons, are there for all to see. Applying the same yardstick, how would the US feel if Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was denied visa by the Indian Government for the violation of human rights and atrocities committed by the US in Iraq or Afghanistan?  Mr Modi may still have the last laugh. Even if the US revokes its earlier decision and grants Mr Modi the visa, he should not go to America. He has already addressed a gathering at New York's Madison Square Garden through satellite from Gandhinagar. The US hasn't insulted Mr Modi alone, it has challenged the self-respect of the entire country and the Indians living abroad. The Gujarat Chief Minister has a knack of turning every controversy towards his advantage.

(source: America has made Modi a hero - by Anil Narendra - dailypioneer.com  - Op-ed Friday March 25th 2005 and 'Hinduphobic' Agenda, Foundation Will Launch Campaign. Also refer to chapter on Conversion.

Former US officials call Modi visa denial misjudgement

Some former senior State Department officials believe the decision to deny Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi a visa was unwise and has thrown up complicated questions for future US foreign policy. Despite the crimes that took place in Gujarat, they contend, using the International Religious Freedom Act and the Immigration and Nationality Act at this juncture with India has set a precedent that the State Department will find hard to live by.

"I wouldn't have denied him the visa," Ambassador Dennis Kux told IANS. Kux is a senior policy scholar in the Asia program at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars and a retired Foreign Service South Asia specialist.

Having set a precedent now, is the State Department going to move in the future to keep out several others that in the past have been associated with "severe" religious persecution, for instance those political leaders named during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in New Delhi, or those implicated in acts against Chechnyans in Russia, or even Beijing's Communist Party members that have moved against the Falun Gong sect or Christians in China, not to forget those who persecuted the Kashmiri Pandits?

"It is an issue fraught with dilemmas. It has opened up something of a pandora's box for the US," said Walter Andersen, former State Department official, now associate director of the South Asian Studies department at the Johns Hopkins University.

(source: Former US officials call Modi visa denial misjudgement - newkerala.com). Refer to The Persecution Industry: What are the stakes? - By Ramapriya Abraham

'I Stand By My Assessment' - By B Raman

Those who are vigorous in their denunciation of the human rights of the Christian and Muslim minorities in India remain muted on the Bush Administration's policies in Iraq and the serious violations of the human rights of the Iraqi Muslims by the American troops. Who is devious, mischievous and motivated?

(source: 'I Stand By My Assessment' - By B Raman - outlookindia.com).

Pyrrhic Victory  - By Dr. Ramesh Rao

The “success” of a motley group of activists in having the U.S. deny a diplomatic visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is a portent of more religious conflict in India. That the U.S. government has sought to bar Modi from visiting the U.S, by going the extent of even revoking his business visa, is yet another blow to peace and reconciliation between religious communities in India. The glee with which the “secular-Muslim-Christian” combine, who have nothing in common except it seems a visceral dislike of Hindu activism, has proclaimed victory at this hasty and undiplomatic move by the U.S. government goes to show that these “activists” are nothing but short-sighted, willful, and vulgar propagandists masquerading as messengers of peace and goodwill. They wish nothing more for India than continued religious and communal conflict. Denying Modi a platform in the U.S. is an undemocratic and unwise move. 

The “coalition against genocide” has successfully seduced Congressmen into pressuring the State Department to vilify and criminalize the lawfully elected Chief Minister of Gujarat. His role in the riots that followed the burning to death of 58 children, women, and men in the ghastly Godhra massacre is yet to be described, evaluated and judged by the Nanavati Commission that has been inquiring into the riots. The U.S. move is therefore a crude attempt at pre-empting the decision of the Commission. It shows how fickle, careless, and hasty the U.S. can be in its relations even with friends and democratic partners. What can we then say about its relationship with its declared enemies? One also wonders if the Bush administration has bought off or quieted the harsh critics of its Iraq and other foreign misadventures – those shrill critics who also happen to be the ones who have conspired to demonize Modi.

In targeting Modi they have sent a signal that it is easy to interfere in the internal affairs of India, and to play the old, White, supremacist “divide and rule” game. Thus the Indian-Muslim and Indian-Christian groups in the U.S. have colluded and collaborated on this misadventure though elsewhere in the world Muslims and Christians are hacking and heaving at each other. The Indian “secular, progressive” groups in the U.S. are on their usual short-sighted, self-aggrandizing power trip. Their will to win is powerful, and they don’t mind the costs. But we have to give them their due: they are good at rounding up the powerful and the influential at short notice, and they are good at posturing and parading their “peace activist” credentials.

To conclude, the cancellation of the visa for Modi is yet another kink in the twisted relationship between India and the United States. No one, except the myopic and foolhardy, will rejoice at this turn of events. This “victory” for the “coalition of convenience” is surely a defeat for India and the U.S.

(source: Pyrrhic Victory  - By Dr. Ramesh Rao -sulekha.com). For more refer to Carnage in Godhra, Gujarat and Images Of Godhra Carnage). http://www.rameshnrao.com/). Also refer to India is now 6% Christian - World Christian Database. Also refer to chapter on Conversion. Also refer to How various parts of the world was converted to Christianity. Also refer to and Missionary's Dark Legacy and Dutch Christians Target Hindus for Conversion. Also refer to Dinosaurs, evangelicals and the state - By Justin Webb - BBC). Quotes from The American Taliban and Christian Fundamentalists to Push Bible as Classroom "Knowledge" and Bush, the Neocons and Evangelical Christian Fiction: America "Left Behind" - By Hugh Urban and The Christian Right, Dominionism, and Theocracy - publiceye.org. Refer to Christian Supremacy: Pushing the Dhimmitude of Non-Christians in America .

Refer to My People, Uprooted: "A Saga of the Hindus of Eastern Bengal"  - By Tathagata Roy

Refer to The Persecution Industry: What are the stakes? - By Ramapriya Abraham

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