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A Glorious Hindu Legacy: Indic influence in Southeast Asia.

Laos

Lord Shiva in Laos

The cultural roots of the present-day Lao lie in Indian civilization, not Chinese. From the first century AD, Indian traders began introducing Hinduism and then Buddhism to Southeast Asia. 

From about the 7th century to about the 11th or 12th century, there was a strong influence of Hindu culture and religion in Laos. This is reflected in the Lao national version of the Ramayana and archaeological finds, Shiva Lingas and similar icons in different parts of the country. Laos used to part of Khmer Empire. The Wat Phou is one of the last influences of that period.

Predating the temples of Angkor (some time before the 9th century), this stunning hilltop site is a highlight in Laos. Wat Phu was built in homage to the Hindu God Shiva. Some archaeologists posit that the temple is also homage to the Mekong and a copy of a similar site along the Ganges in India. The compound is symmetrical, with a broad causeway as the central axis and expansive reflecting barays, or ponds, now gone dry, as flanks. The approach to the main temple site passes between two pavilions, crumbling but still grand, before ascending the steep central stair.

Wat Phu temple, near Champasak. 

Laos used to part of The Khmer Empire. Its Sanskrit name was Souvannaphoum Pathet (Suvarnabhumi Pradesha) meaning regions rich in gold.

(For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor).

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Srestapura was ”founded around the middle of the 5^th century, as suggested by an inscription of a king named Davanika, found in the modern village of Vat Luang Kau. Two inscriptions discovered recently in the same area inform us that as early as in the end of the 6^th century AD, it was the capital city of King Mahendravarman, who later became the ruler of the Sambor Prei Kuk area …”

”Some inscriptions belonging to the 5^th and 6^th century do mention a sanctuary built on the hill, contemporary with the foundation of the city, but this building has gone and is replaced with the building we see today. This was built during the first part of the 9^th century, with some additions and reconstructions in the 12^th and 13^th centuries”. ”Carved blocks (elephant, crocodile, staircase framed with two snakes) dating from after the 13^th century"

”The remains of sandstone meditation cells (monolithic base, walls, and ceiling), maybe dating to the 7^th century, are also seen here”.  (Project de Recherches en Archeologie Lao – Research Project in Lao Archaeology) Present day Laos lies entirely on the left bank of the Mekong River (Ma Ganga), and this was the northern most point reached by the Khmer Empire and at a distance from their capital. 

Hindu Trinity: Lord Shiva in center, Lord Brahma on left and Lord Vishnu on the right.

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The temple of Wat Phu, near Champasak, can justifiably claim to be one of the most sacred sites in Southeast Asia. Dedicated to Lord Shiva near the Linga Paravata. Situated half way up the Lingaparvata, the “Mountain of the Linga”, the temple of Wat Phu is indubitably the most ancient and most holy of all the provincial foundation. An enormous rock crowns the summit; recalls a gigantic lingam, the manifestation of the creative powers of Shiva. 

”A small temple built in sandstone and bricks (11^th century) wedged below the cliff, would sanctity the water from the southern spring and would probably have contained a Linga. Behind this temple under the cliff, small bronze Khmer statues of Vishnu and a female divinity representations were found”  (Project de Recherches en Archeologie Lao – Research Project in Lao Archaeology).

At Wat Phu, the whole monument can be taken at a single glance. The majestic approach runs up to the first slopes, passing between two side buildings whose long halls enclose twin courtyards. A staircase, now dilapidated, climbs the mountain between two rows of red jasmine trees, up to a terrace edged with naga.  

Lord Vishnu on Garuda lintel

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Wat Phu has remained a sanctuary venerated by the Laotians. As the pilgrims pass, the faithful lay an offering of flowers and candles at the feet of a statue of Lord Vishnu riding on the shoulder of Garuda. 

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Minor temples sanctify the approaches of the mountain. 

No one knows in which of them the silver statue of Lord Vishnu was worshipped, only its head has been found in the waters of a little stream, near the Lingaparvata. 

Wat Phu (or Vat Phou) is an ancient religious site of pilgrimage and a ruin of majestic proportions. It is also a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. Two red sandstone Khmer temples - a male and a female temple which mirror each other - guard a well beaten path through naga (snake) statues up to the Linga Parvata, the sacred mountain of the south.

From the cave at the top a natural spring gives water believed to purify the soul. The ruins date from the Late Angkorian period (12th-13th Century) and once a road connected Wat Phu with the great capital at Angkhor in Cambodia.

The ruins of Wat Phu form the backdrop for this Magha Puja festival. The entrance to Wat Phu passes a grand but now derelict house where the King of Laos, Savang Vatthana, used to stay during the Festival

For many, this is an intensely religious experience. Wat Phu is a popular site of pilgrimage for Lao Buddhists even though the remains here hark back to an age of Khmer Hinduism and the temple sculptures depict the triumvirate of the Hindu Pantheon - Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma. The sheer grandeur, serenity and fragility of the place is immense. It has been a holy site since the Chenla Dynasty ruled the area in the 5th Century AD.

Silver head of Lord Vishnu 8th century, now in mutilated condition. 

(source: The Civilization of Angkor – by Mideline Giteau and Angkor: Art and Civilization – By Bernard Groslier)

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This exquisite piece is probably of 8^th century date. The sumptuous material, the fine workmanship, the nobility of the features and more than all else the infinite sweetness of its smile make this image, sadly mutilated though it is, one of the most extraordinary masterpieces of southeast Asia. It bears witness to the piety and splendor of the princes of Chenla from whom all the Khmer kings were to proclaim their descent. 

(source: The civilization of Angkor – by Mideline Giteau   p. 80 – 82 and infoclub.com).

Lord Krishna killing Kamsa.

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Wat Phou was initially associated with the city of Shrestapura, which lay on the bank of the Mekong directly east of mount Lingaparvata (now called Phu Kao). By the latter part of the 5th century the city was already the capital of a kingdom which texts and inscriptions connect with both Chenla and Champa, and the first structure on the mountain was constructed around this time. The mountain gained spiritual importance from the linga-shaped protruberance on its summit; the mountain itself was therefore considered the home of Shiva, and the river as representing the ocean or the Ganges River. The temple was naturally dedicated to Shiva, while the water from the spring which emerges directly behind the temple was considered sacred.

Wat Phou was a part of the Khmer empire, centred on Angkor to the southwest, at least as early as the reign of Yashovarman I in the early 10th century. Shrestapura was superseded by a new city in the Angkorian period, located directly south of the temple.

The temple of Wat Phu, one of the most important Hindu sanctuaries of the Khmer Empire. 

Wat Phu temple was built in homage to Lord Shiva. Behind is Lingaparvarta, resembling Shiva Linga. The site, called "Mountain of the lingam" owes its name to the rock overtopping it which is considered to be a lingam "which arose by itself" by the will of Lord Shiva.

(For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor).

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The Laotion adoption of the Ramayana is called Phra Lak Phra Lam. The title comes from the Lao names for Lakshmana and Rama. Phra Lak Phra Lam also exists in Northeast Thailand where there is a large population of ethnic Lao. There are several versions of this story, each slightly different but also similar to the Ramakien in Thailand. Originally written on palm leaf manuscripts, the story of Phra Lak Phra Lam has also been adapted to Lao ballet where it is known by the same title. 

The story is considered by Laotians to be a Jataka tale and regarded as very sacred. It is also believed that Prince Rama is actually an incarnation of the Buddha contrary to other versions which traditionally regard Rama as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu.  

Ramayana (Phra Lak Phra Lam) in Laos: The stamp of The Royal Ballet.

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Universal to the literature and poetry of Laos, as well as to its dance, music, and sculpture, are oral myths and legends based on the Phra Lak Phra Lam, the Lao version of the Hindu epic, the Ramayana. This tale of Rama, a prince and the seventh incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu, is known and loved throughout Southeast Asia. Other popular Lao literature includes the Jatakas, stories of previous incarnations of the Buddha. Both the Phra Lak Phra Lam and the Jataka tales contain moral metaphors enacted through rigorous battles in which good always triumphs over evil. Favorite stories tell how heroic princes defeat powerful demons. 

Lao innovations include the tiered roof style that curves near to the ground, and a bronze roof ornament with five spires that symbolizes the Hindu Mount Meru. 

The classical music and dance of Laos was inspired by the court dances of India, Cambodia, and Thailand. Its themes draw from Hindu mythology, the Buddhist Jataka tales, and local legends.

(source: http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761551958_4/Laos.html and http://s.pravong.free.fr/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25 and http://www.indiacause.com/columns/OL_040128.htm).

The Ramayana in Laos 

Few people know that in earliest times the land known today as Laos was called Muong Xieng Thong or Laem Thong. 

Its Sanskrit name was Souvannaphoum Pathet (Suvarnabhumi Pradesha) meaning regions rich in gold. Souvannaphoum Pathet was a large peninsula situated between the Indian Ocean and the China Sea. 

According to Maha sila Viravong (1905-1987) His History of Laos (‘Phongsawadan Lao’), tracing Lao history from its earliest time at Muang Lung and Muang Pa (before the year 843 BC) down to the end of the French occupation in the mid 20th century, is perhaps the best-known history of Laos written by a Laotian historian. He was the most reliable contemporary historian of Laos, this region included 2,500 years ago, parts of Burma, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The entire landmass comprised by Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and some parts of Malaysia had strong cultural ties with India and represents the Indian part of the larger area formerly known as Indo-China. The culture of Laos, Thailand and Cambodia is made up of the earliest forms of Hinduism and Buddhism. Consequently it shows the deep meditative and philosophic aspect of the teachings of the Buddha coupled with the aesthetic imagination and literary aspects of the Hindu mind. This entire region is dotted with temples dedicated to Buddha, decorated with figures of Hindu gods and goddesses, united and protected as if within the mother-like embrace of long rows of gilded paintings on the wall depicting the story of the Ramayana. 

Indian culture began to spread in Indo-China from the 1^st century AD onwards. During the next 500 years the Ramayana had gained enough popularity for its author Valmiki to be considered as incarnation of Lord Vishnu and the temples were dedicated to him describing his compassion and creativity. A stone image of Valmiki and a Sanskrit inscription have been found in a temple in Champa (modern day Vietnam) belonging to the period of King Prakashadharma (6530678 A D). The inscription read: 

Yasya sokar samutpananam Slokam Brahmabhipujati
Vishnuh pumsah puranasya manushasyatmarupinah 

All of Malaya, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos have their own versions of the Ramayana story, or the Chroniclers of Rama as versified by sage Valmiki. In Laos The Ramayana is present in five forms – Dance, Song, Painting and sculpture and Sacred texts to be recited on festive occasions and manuscripts, and enjoy popularity in that order. The Ramayana as dance-drama enjoys the pride of place, in the Royal Palace at Luang Prabang and the ‘Natyasala’ dance school at Vientiane. With the dance drama goes its appropriate music and song. The Ramayana in painting and sculpture is seen within the temples. In its richest forms it is found in the court-temples of Luang Prabang and Ramayana frescoes are preserved in Wat Oup Moung.  

To quote Maha sila “the Khmer race is of ancient Indian descent. This race has given birth to various ethnic groups known as the Khmer, Mon, Meng, Kha, Khamu and Malay. The Khmer came to settle down in Souvannaphoum pathest even before the advent of the Buddha, 2, 500 years ago. But the largest migration took place in the reign of Ashoka Raja who ruled Pataribud (Pataliputra) from the year 218 to 228 BE. According to Mahasila Emperor Ashoka’s war in Kalinga was responsible for thousands of “Indians from the southern part of India to live in Indo-China.” 

In Laos two versions of the Ramayana are known, the Luang Prabang version as found in the Royal Capital and the Vientiane version as found painted on the walls of the VAT PA KE temple.  

Phonetic changes in the name of Ramayana characters: 

The proper names of the classical Valmiki Ramayana have undergone great change owing to the phonetic peculiarities of the Lava language. Thus, 

Rama                               became Lam or Lamma
Sita                                 became Nang/ Sida
Laksmana                          became Lak
Hanuman                           became Hanumone or Hullaman
Sugriva                             became Sukrip
Ravana                              became Raphanasuane or Phommachak
Lanka                                became Langka. 

There are 29 murals on the walls of the central hall of the Vat Oup Muong, describing the ‘Pha Lak Pha Lam’ (Beloved Lakshmana, Beloved Rama) story. Oup Muong means ‘underground hall’ or ‘tunnel.’

(source: The Ramayana Tradition in Asia  - Edited by V Raghavan. The Ramayana in Laos - By Kamala Ratnam p. 257 - 281).

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Huei Thamo (Goddess Durga) temple

This temple dates from 889, and is dedicated to Rudani - Goddess Durga, consort of Lord Shiva in her terrible aspect.

Huei Thamo temple was - dedicated to Rudani - Durga, consort of Lord Shiva in her terrible aspect.

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The temple is oriented towards the south-east. The course of the Huei Thamo and its now dry small tributary stream seem to have formed part of an effective moat. The best preserved gopura is that on the southwest side, and this is the first building that you notice as you approach along the forest trail.       

One of the most interesting pieces from Huei Thamo and surprisingly still in situ is an unusual mukhalinga. This stone linga has four large faces a the tip, and is in the southwest gopura. Other artifacts include a lintel featuring Indra on a three headed Airavata, and naga antefixes.

(source:  A Guide to Khmer Temples in Thailand and Laos - By Michael Freeman   p. 198 - 199). 

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Follow Up History
US Aggression in Laos?

During the administration of US President Richard Nixon, and under the counsel of his advisor for National Security Affairs Henry Kissinger, the United States drops more than two million tons of bombs on Laos during more than 500,000 bombing missions—exceeding what it had dropped on Germany and Japan during all of World War II—in an effort to defeat the left-leaning Pathet Lao and to destroy North Vietnamese supply lines. The ordnance includes some 90 million cluster bombs, 20-30 percent of which do not detonate.

A Senate report finds: “The United States has undertaken a large-scale air war over Laos to destroy the physical and social infrastructure of Pathet Lao held areas and to interdict North Vietnamese infiltration ... throughout all this there has been a policy of subterfuge and secrecy ... through such things as saturation bombing and the forced evacuation of population from enemy held or threatened areas—we have helped to create untold agony for hundreds of thousands of villagers.” 

And in 1970, Far Eastern Economic Review reports:

 “For the past two years the US has carried out one of the most sustained bombing campaigns in history against essentially civilian targets in northeastern Laos.... Operating from Thai bases and from aircraft carriers, American jets have destroyed the great majority of villages and towns in the northeast. Severe casualties have been inflicted upon the inhabitants ...

(source: History of US Interventions - cooperativeresearch.org).

Watch We are Warlike people - By George Carlin.

For U.S political and military intervention, refer to Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace – By Gore Vidal

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A Timeless Tale

Ramayana, the ancient Indian tale of devotion, separation, and reunion, is a story almost as old as civilization itself. It is an expression of the eternal battle between good and evil, ranging from short stories to lengthy epics. Combining elements of religion, romance, myth, magic, action, adventure, fantasy, and a fascination cast of characters including gods, goddesses, semi-divine humans, amazing monkeys, and powerful ogres, the story of Rama’s love for Sita and her abduction by Ravana, king of the ores, has withstood the rest of time and nationality. 

For over two thousand years, the story has captured the imagination of peoples from India to Iran, Tibet to Thailand, Cambodia to China, Japan to Java, Malaysia to Myanmar, and Sri Lanka to Siberia.  

In journeys beyond the geography of its setting and origin, it was even adapted by other religions in the process, local cultures have transformed Ramayana – more than any other story in the world – into a rich source of inspiration for the arts in a great variety of literary traditions, narrative expressions, artistic manifestations, and performance styles.  

The Epic of Ramayana. Murals from Thailand's Grand Palace. 

For over two thousand years, the story has captured the imagination of peoples from India to Iran, Tibet to Thailand, Cambodia to China, Japan to Java, Malaysia to Myanmar, and Sri Lanka to Siberia.

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India beyond borders  As evidence of the extent that the epic traveled – along inland trade routes – variations of the story are found in areas towards the north, west, and central parts of Asia. Between the 13^th to 19^th centuries, the Persian and Mogul sultanates adapted Hindu culture into Islaamic art and literature, resulting in such works as the 16^th century Dastan-e-Ram O Sita and Razmnama from Persia (Iran), and 18^th century Pothi Ramayan in Urdu, the language of Pakistan. During the 19^th century, Ramavatara Charita was written in Kashmir, another predominantly Muslim area. The story, however, was not Islamised in any of these narratives. In distant Xinjing in northwest China, the 9^th century Khotances Ramakatha has a Buddist orientation. This probably was due to influences from Dunhuang, an important central Asian Buddhist center during the 7^th to 9^th centuries. Dunhuang also had a later impact on the 13^th century Tibetan Son-om Gar-a and 15^th century Zhang-zhung-pa Chowanga-drak-pai-pal.

(source: A Timeless Tale - By Garrett Kam - azibaza.com).

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Ideology and Race in India's Early History

Probably without realizing it, World History textbooks often take sides in an ideologically charged controversy over the role of race in India's early history. Their account of the so-called Aryan invasions may reflect nineteenth-century Eurocentric scholarship that privileged lighter skinned peoples over darker skinned ones.

I have taught World History at colleges in the United States for many years. When it came to the early history of India, I once taught that "Aryans" invaded India in 1500 B.C.E., conquered the "Dravidians" and then became predominant. This is what I had learned in elementary school, high school and college courses in India. This is still what is taught in most textbooks. About ten years ago, I became aware of challenges to the idea of the Aryan invasion and decided to look more critically at what World History textbooks were saying about this topic. My study was published in the History Teacher. More than half of the textbooks I examined stated that the ancient Harappan civilization was "burned, destroyed and left in rubble by invading Aryan-speaking tribes." 

These Aryans were "virile people, fond of war, drinking, chariot racing and gambling" and were also "tall, blue-eyed and fair-skinned." The defeated natives were "short, black, nose-less." The victorious Aryans had a "strong sense of racial superiority" and "strove to prevent mixture with their despised subjects". Accordingly they evolved the caste system with the lighter skinned Aryans at the top.

In fact, archaeologists have been aware for several decades that Aryan invasions had nothing to do with the demise of the Harappan civilization. In contrast, most of the textbooks relied on out-dated sources and presented erroneous material.

The Indians who favor the invasion theory are largely of a progressive or leftist political persuasion. They believe that the iniquities of the caste system are a result of the Aryan invasion. For such Indians, questioning the invasion theory would undermine the work of redressing the injustices of the caste system. It would be akin to Holocaust denial. On the other hand, many Indians who doubt the invasion theory view it as a matter of national pride that their civilization is rooted in the ancient past on Indian soil and is not a result of barbarian invaders a mere 3500 years ago. Each side believes that ideological commitment blinds the other side from seeing the true facts. Western supporters of the invasion theory are accused of intellectual inertia. They are also diagnosed as suffering from "the Liberal White Man's Burden" - the guilt that some Western scholars and journalists feel for the sins of their fathers in perpetrating racism and imperialism in modern times. This predisposes them to believe in the idea that their Aryan ancestors committed similar crimes 3500 years ago. 

It is argued that the desire of Western liberals to atone for these sins inclines them to support uncritically Indian leftist views on the Aryan invasion. As for Western scholars who question the Aryan invasion theory, they are accused of being sympathetic to the Indian right wing.

Let us go back now to how the commonly accepted date of 1500 B.C.E. for the Aryan Invasion of India was proposed. It is not based on any archaeological evidence, but instead was based on Friedrich Max Mueller's linguistic work in the nineteenth century explaining the similarity of the Indo-European languages. In his view, the speakers of the Indo-European languages are descended from Japheth, one of the sons of Noah, the speakers of Hebrew from Shem and Africans and Indian Dravidians from Ham, the least favored of Noah's sons (Ham and his line were accursed because of Ham's disrespect of Noah). Since the Flood can be dated from the genealogies of the Bible to be around 2500 B.C.E. and the Vedas were ancient scripture at the time of the Buddha (around 500 B.C.E.), the Aryans (said Max Mueller) likely invaded India and defeated the Dravidian descendants of Ham around 1500 B.C.E. Around the same time, the Israeli descendants of Shem were defeating another of Ham's descendants, the Canaanites. Max Mueller dated the composition of the earliest of the Vedas to around 1200 B.C.E., allowing the Aryans a few centuries to get settled in India.

(source: Ideology and Race in India's Early History - By Padma Manian - San Jose City College).  Refer to chapter on Aryan Invasion Theory, First Indologists and European Imperialism

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The Wisdom of the Mahabharata
The Neglect of India's own intellectual and cultural heritage

"Instilling guilt about the "evils of Hindu society" is indeed a favorite weapon of the secularist elite."

                       -   Professor Ashish Nandy is a political psychologist, sociologist and director of Delhi's Center for the Study of Developing Societies.

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Most Indian intellectuals are familiar with Lord Acton's famous observation, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." How many of them know of Bheeshma's observation on power in the Mahabharata? 

Grand Patriarch Pitamah Bheeshma on bed of arrows. Angkorwat carvings.

(image source: Sacred Angkor: the Carved Reliefs of Angkor wat - By Vittorio Roveda).

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According to the Great Epic, Yudhishtira approaches the Kuru patriarch as lies on his bed of arrows, waiting for the Sun to begin its northward journey, to die, and requests to be told about the dharma of a king. His intense pain removed, and clarity of thought restored, by Krishna's blessing, Bheeshma begins to answer Yudhishtira's many questions, and says in response to one that power "changes men. A man who was scrupulously honest, can be corrupted by power and become dishonest"

While historians have debated as to when The Mahabharata was written, it was beyond doubt centuries before Lord Acton's (1842-1902) perceptive observation in a letter to a friend. Yet, this writer cannot think of a single Indian intellectual who has quoted Bheeshma on power while he can recall several of them quoting Lord Acton. Few other instances, perhaps, illustrate more poignantly the alienation of a large section of Indian intellectuals from their own intellectual and cultural well springs and identification with those of the West. 

What merits criticism is an obsessive admiration for the West that leads to the neglect of India's own intellectual and cultural heritage, its great epics and monumental works of religion and philosophy. For one thing, it would mean the non-utilisation of the wisdom, insights, customs and practices that have evolved in the matrix of the country's history.

Bana and Krishna. Angkorwat.

(image source: Sacred Angkor: the Carved Reliefs of Angkor wat - By Vittorio Roveda).

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In India's case, the need to draw from its own repositories of wisdom is all the greater given the profound treasures they contain. The Mahabharata is a striking example. While The Bhagavat Gita overwhelms with its breathtaking encapsulation of the metaphysics of The Upanishads and the grandeur of its metaphors, Bheeshma's answers to Yudhishtira's questions reflect a deep understanding both of the compulsions of realpolitik that would impress Chanakya as well as the high-minded morality that kings must practice.

Apart from Bheeshma's answers to Yudhishtira, there are pronouncements by Krishna (besides those in The Bhagavat Gita), Vidura and Sanjaya that are highly relevant to the management of the affairs of the State in today's world. What explains this is perhaps the fact that these feature not in a vacuum but in the midst of the unfolding of a profound epic that is a mirror to its contemporary society and has at its heart a gigantic conflict between the forces of Dharma and Adharma. Hence it not only tells what should be but what actually is in a highly imperfect world. Thus, in the Bheeshma Parva, it relates how, on the eve of the battle of Kurukshetra, the commanders of the Pandava and Kaurava armies meet and lay down the norms of honourable combat. One, however, encounters violations galore as the narrative unfolds the manner of Bheeshma, Abhimanyu, Drona and Karna's killing, and the nocturnal murder by Dhrishtadumnya and others by Ashwatthama, Kripa and Kritavarman being the most notable. 

Also, The Mahabharata has stunning insights into the future. Thus Rishi Markandeya says that the kings of the Kali Yuga, which descended on the earth on the tenth day of the battle of Kurukshetra and prevails even today, "will be short-lived, greedy and rapacious", and that "wealth alone will confer nobility, regardless of a man's birth or his character; power will define virtue". Also, "Arrogance and sin will pass for wisdom and righteousness, brashness and a loud voice for scholarship. Only the poor will have any honesty of virtue left, and the powerful will make life so miserable for them that they, too, will become corrupt." 

Rishi Markandeya said, "Terrible wars and demonic diseases will decimate the human race, and savage cold and scathing heat, scorching droughts and sweeping floods will terrorise the people...."  

"Man is the dispenser of his own destiny. The actions done in a former life are seen to produce fruits in this life. The soul is born again with its accumulated load of karma. By performing only virtuous actions it attains to the state of the celestials. By a combination of good and bad actions, it acquires the state of human beings. By indulgence in sensuality and similar vices, it is born among the lower animals. Therefore must we strive to do what is virtuous and forbear from doing what is unrighteous."

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Global warming?

"Terrible wars and demonic diseases will decimate the human race, and savage cold and scathing heat, scorching droughts and sweeping floods will terrorise the people...."

Did Rishi Markandeya foresee global warming, AIDS and Katrina, which savaged New Orleans in the US? 

One does not know. It is unwise to read too much into past events and observations in the light of later developments, particularly since in an epic like The Mahabharata one does know where facts end and fiction takes over. One thing, however, is certain. It is a great treasure chest of wisdom and insights and the country will be the loser if it continues to ignore it.

(source: The Mahabharata: A Modern Rendering - Ramesh Menon Vol II, Rupa, 2004, pp 595-96 and The Wisdom of the Mahabharat - By Hiranmay Karlekar Edit page July 6 2006).

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Biblicists target Hindus

Harry Sinclair Lewis (1885 - 1951) was an American novelist and playwright. In 1930 he became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. His works are known for their insightful and critical views of American society and capitalist values. 

He has observed that:

"When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the Flag, carrying a Cross." 

Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com.  Refer to Proving that Bible is Repulsive video - godisimaginary.com. Watch the movie - Indoctrination in Jesus Camp. 

Refer to Bush-sponsored Evangelisation of India -I  - By V Sundaram
Refer to Bush-sponsored Evangelisation of India -II – By V Sundaram
Refer to Bush-sponsored Evangelisation of India -III – By V Sundaram

Watch video - Christian Missionary Misdeeds in India

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Unknown to most Indians, the raging controversy over the California school textbooks being challenged by Hindu American parents is rooted in the staunch commitment of certain academics to the Biblical version of Creation. 

Herr Michael Witzel, whose professional reputation is linked to the Aryan Invasion Theory, which derives from a Biblical perspective, denies the decisive scientific evidence to the contrary. 

His devotee, Mr Steve Farmer, is equally convinced that "Genesis 1:28 contains god's words".

Mr James Heitzman, the 'expert' secretly hired by the State Board of Education (SBE), has famously claimed that the non-decay of Francis Xavier's body is a true miracle. Mr Stanley Wolpert, another expert, insists the Aryan Invasion happened even though there is no proof for it. 

It will be surprising if Harvard University, which made president Larry Summers step down for his controversial opinions, retains Herr Witzel on its rolls for long. Not only is he a Creationist; he reportedly teaches his doctoral students the Sanskrit alphabet! Does Harvard teach the English alphabet to doctoral candidates in English? A decade ago, Herr Witzel's Sanskrit Department was mired in a lawsuit, and it seems matters have hardly improved since. Professional worries could explain why his friends have launched a mis-information blitzkrieg about the Hindu American Foundation lawsuit against SBE, when hearings have not even begun.

Prof Witzel's claim that his letter of December 7, 2005 to the California Department of Education (CDE), which checkmated the reasonable corrections sought by Hindu parents in the schoolbooks, was signed by "world specialists on ancient India - reflecting mainstream academic opinion," does not stand scrutiny. Far from being "world specialists," many signatories are not academics at all; many are linguists (the dubious discipline on which the Aryan Invasion rests) or Sanskrit professors, rather than historians or archaeologists with expertise on India. Many are Marxists; others have controversial theories about South Asia. 

To begin with, Prof Witzel himself teaches Sanskrit and is no expert on ancient Indian History or Hindu dharma. He clearly lacks the credentials to determine how Hindu children should be taught their religion and history in a manner that does not demoralise them. Mr Steve Farmer's theories regarding Harappan scripts have been discredited by academics, including JM Kenoyer and Asko Parpola, who signed Witzel's appeal. The famous Marxist ideologue, Ms Romila Thapar, is an 'expert' on ancient India with poor knowledge of Indian classical languages, including Sanskrit.

Mr S Palaniappan holds a PhD in Engineering and works for a company in Houston! Prof Homi Bhabha teaches English and American Literature and Language. Prof Madhav Deshpande and Ms Patricia Donegan teach Linguistics; Dr Garrett Fagan teaches Roman History and Ms Joanna Kirkpatrick has done work on Anthropology, folk art and gender studies. Then, Prof Hideaki Nakatani teaches Philosophy in Tokyo; Ms Sudha Shenoy Business and Law in Australia; Mr Lars Martin Fosse was a commercial translator; and Prof Wim van Binsbergen teaches African History at Leiden. Prof. Rajesh Kochhar did his Ph D in Astrophysics and worked for 25 years (1974-1999) at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore; Mr Dominik Wujastyk taught in the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology at the School of Oriental and African Studies; Dr JM Kenoyer teaches Anthropology and Prof Maurizio Tosi teaches Archaeology in Italy.  

The Churning of the Milky Ocean.

This has the effect of officially promoting a Judeo-Christian conception of Divinity to the exclusion of other perspectives, with the result that the Hindu faith is projected in a negative manner as compared to other religions. 

***

This worldwide signature campaign is not about sixth-grade textbooks. It is an issue of Hindu dignity and civil rights everywhere in the world; hence the decision of the California Parents for the Equalisation of Educational Materials (CAPEEM) to file a Federal lawsuit is remarkably bold and correct. Victory here will drastically curtail the Hindu-baiting industry in the West, with a trickle-down effect in India. This is the first time a Hindu community has filed a lawsuit against a state agency (California State Board of Education and California Department of Education) for violation of its civil rights, and against discrimination, defamation and mistreatment of their religion and people.

This has the effect of officially promoting a Judeo-Christian conception of Divinity to the exclusion of other perspectives, with the result that the Hindu faith is projected in a negative manner as compared to other religions. This deprives Hindu students of an educational experience at par with that of their peers, and thus violates their rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution.

(source: Biblicists target Hindus - By Sandhya Jain  Edit page – May 2 06). For more refer to the chapter on Aryan Invasion Theory. Watch Sex Crimes and the Vatican video. Also refer to The Rapture of America - By Mark Biskeborn - intervention magazine.com and American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century - By Kevin Phillips.  Refer to Extremism in America. Refer to chapter on Aryan Invasion Theory and The uncertain future of Hindus - By Gautam Sen - india-forum.com).  Refer to Death throes of Aryan Invasion theory?

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Run, Hindu, Run, say the Jihadi Outfits

When right to life is questioned...  

It's time for Hindus to change, if they want to survive in Jammu & Kashmir, their mindset of depending too much on state for security, says R K Ohri  

Run, Hindu, Run" was the chilling message conveyed by jihadi outfits when they killed 35 Hindus, including women and children, in Jammu & Kashmir on May 1. These gruesome killings have been carried out for the umpteenth time as part of the diabolical programme of ethnic cleansing launched at the behest of the Pakistani Army's ISI.  

After successfully driving out nearly four Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley, the Islamist forces are focussed on ethnic cleansing of Hindus from Jammu region. The inability of the Central and State governments to protect the lives of Hindus and Sikhs from jihadi terrorists conveys the grim message that the "Right to Life", as enshrined in the Constitution and guaranteed for all Indian citizens, stands extinguished for Hindus and Sikhs in Jammu & Kashmir.  

Unfortunately, neither the highly vocal English media nor any human rights jholawalas, including the National Human Rights Commission, have shown any concern for Hindu victims of repetitive carnages. Surprisingly, in the midst of coldblooded killings of Hindus of Doda and Udhampur, most TV channels, even print media, remained casual, even dismissive. They stayed fatally attracted to Vadodara riots and persistently glossed over the collapse of governance in Jammu & Kashmir due to sheer pusillanimity of the Central government. For all intent and purposes, the mainstream media's single-point agenda was to pour vitriolic ridicule on the Narendra Modi Government. 

Now that the state has abandoned Hindus and Sikhs of Jammu & Kashmir, what should they do? Should they die unhonoured, unwept and unsung, while running away from their hearths and homes, or is there any honourable solution?

There are two alternatives, including the exercise of legal option to fight back the purveyors of terror, available to Hindus and Sikhs. These should be taken up for implementation by the BJP, and the VHP - the groups that claim to work for the welfare of Hindus. It is time to recall Sections 96 and 97 of Indian Penal Code, which invest every citizen with the right of self-defence. For making use of this provision, the only requirement is to get arms licences for all residents of vulnerable villages of Hindus and Sikhs, thereafter financially empower them to buy weapons and provide effective training to fight back the terror.   

Time has come to read the message of Bhagavad Gita to the beleaguered Hindus.

(Artwork courtesy of The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, Inc. www.krishna.com).

***

Time has come to read the message of Bhagavad Gita to the beleaguered Hindus and apprise them of the legal provision of self-defence under Indian Penal Code. They should be told that if they have to die, they must die with dignity. These are testing times for Hindu organisations. Instead of wasting money and time on yatras and sammelans, they must rise to the occasion to save valuable lives by reorganising and funding the hapless Hindus of the State for buying guns. 

To further reinforce their resolve, the Hindu villages should be regrouped as closely knit enclaves - as was done decades ago in Mizoram during the peak of insurgency. It is time Hindus got rid of the mai-baap mindset of seeking protection of the effete Government. The second solution, too, is perfectly legal. The BJP, the VHP and other Hindu organisations should draw attention of the Supreme Court by seeking a writ of "mandamus" saying that the "Right to Life" of Hindus has been extinguished in Jammu & Kashmir. The Government ought to be forced to restore this right with the help of the apex court.  

Both these solutions are unexceptionable and must be implemented to protect the life and dignity of Hindus in Jammu & Kashmir.

(source: When right to life is questioned... Opinion May 12 06 dailypioneer.com). Refer to Hindu Genocide in East Pakistan - By Shrinandan Vyas and What if a 'Lebanon' comes up on our border? - By T V R Shenoy - rediff.com.

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Terror attack to undermine Hindu Civilization: Swami

"No blood has been shed for religion in India except by its invaders. Intolerance came with Islam and Christianity; the Moslems proposed to buy Paradise with the blood of “infidels” and the Portuguese, when they captured Goa, introduced the Inquisition into India.”  

                                - Will Durant (1885-1981) American historian, would like the West to learn from India, tolerance and gentleness and love for all living things. 

***

The UPA government is now a confirmed failure on all major dimensions of government policy--economy, national security and foreign affairs. This failure is partly due to ineptitude but more often to due deliberate disregard of public interest on the part of the Congress and Left parties. Everyday terrorists are coming from abroad and setting off explosions at will and with impunity. 

The latest being the attack on Mumbai suburban rail stations killing hundreds and harming thousands of hapless commuters.    

Lord Vishnu, 13th century, India.

yada yada hi dharmasya
glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya
tadatmanam srjamy aham

"Whenever there is decay of righteousness O! Bharatha
And a rise of unrighteousness
then I manifest Myself!"

 (source: The Bhagavad Gita  4.7).

***

All these attacks are aimed at undermining the Hindu civilization and are foreign inspired. 

This dastardly audacity of terrorists is due to the soft approach of UPA to all terrorists, from LTTE, Maoists, Naxalites and to Islamic organisations and is aided and abetted by UPA's deliberate policy of negotiating with unrepentent terrorists and killers or showing mercy to them.  

In a government dominated by the widow of Rajiv Gandhi, who was killed by the LTTE, the Supreme Court judgment ordering capital punishment to four LTTE conspirators has been held in abeyance for the last seven years because Ms. Sonia Gandhi wants them pardoned even though the convicts have not asked for mercy.  

In the economic front, the recent collapse of the stock market and the huge price rise is directly the result of corrupt activities of those in high positions in government. The stock market crash is due to insider trading in portfolio investment stocks by those inside the government itself. They have earned a huge windfall by ruining the life savings of the middle class retail purchasers.  Food and vegetable prices have risen because of the forward trading at high prices and for which the poor are being made to pay today because of the government's refusal to be a party to the purchase of food graiins from abroad. One industrial house venturing into food grain forward trading is expected to net Rs 3000 crores on the misery of the people resulting from inflation. 

The biggest humiliation is seen in foreign affairs since the Prime Minister of a billion people is seen as a cipher who is all the time playing second fiddle to a semi-literate foreign lady. Not since Shah Alam has the throne of Delhi seen such debasement. 

There is no hope of any improvement unless the UPA is thrown out of government. I therefore warn the Prime Minister that if as a first step he does not bomb the terrorist training camps in Pakistani held territory or in Bangladesh, and he does carry out the Supreme Court judgment to hang the four LTTE terrorists by August 15th, I shall organise the toppling of the UPA government in the larger national interests.

(source: Terror attack to undermine Hindu civilization: Swami). Refer to Why my website was banned in India - By Rusty Shackleford - worldnetdaily.com).

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Islamic Terrorism in India
Mumbai bomb blast - 7/11/06 - after Varanasi, Godhra, Akshardham, Ayodhya, Delhi and Srinagar blasts
Massacre of innocent civilians in Mumbai, India.

Allah's Apostle said "I have been made victorious with terror (cast in the hearts of the enemy). - Bukhari 4:52:220  

(source: Fighting for the Cause of Allah (Jihad) - usc.edu).   

Refer to chapter on Islamic Onslaught and Islamic Terrorism - Is it a New Threat? - By M A Khan - Islam-Watch.org  July 24 2006). Refer to Was There an Islamic "Genocide" of Hindus? - By Koenraad Elst). Refer to Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing of Kashmiri Hindu Pandits - And the World Remained Silent - Movie http://www.jaia-bharati.org/films/and-the-world.mpg and Refer to video Statistics on Islamic Terrorism - By B Raman and 11/7 in Mumbai: Another Wake-Up Call: International Terrorism Monitor – By B Raman. Refer to Will Islam convert itself? – By Francois Gautier - indowave.com.  

Refer to Kashmiri Pundits : Are they facing a Dodo future? and Kashmiri pandits alienated again - ibnlive.com. Watch Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against The West

***

Jihad is war against the Infidels

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), German philosopher and writer. He was one of the greatest philosophers of the 19th century. He was the first Western philosopher to have access to translations of philosophical material from India, both Vedic and Buddhist, by which he was profoundly affected. Counted among his disciples are such thinkers as Nietzsche and Wittgenstein, as well as Sigmund Freud, who takes a large part of his psychological theory from the writings of Schopenhauer.

He comments on the atrocities inflicted on the Hindus:

"...on the fanaticism and endless persecutions, the religious wars, that sanguinary frenzy of which the ancient had no conception! Think of the crusades, a butchery lasting two hundred years and inexcusable, its war cry 'It is lasting two hundred years and inexcusable, its war cry  'It is the will of God,'  Think of the orgies of blood, the inquisitions, the heretical tribunals, the bloody and terrible conquests...in three continents, or....in America, whose inhabitants were for the most part, not looked upon as human!  And above all, don't lets forget India, the cradle of the human race, or at least of that part of it to which we belong, where first.. were most cruelly infuriated against the adherents of the original faith of mankind. The destruction or disfigurement of the ancient temples and idols, a lamentable, mischievous and barbarous act still bear witness to the monotheistic fury...carried on from Mahmud, the Gahaznevid of cursed memory, down to Aurengzeb, the fratricide, whom the Portuguese...have zealously imitated by destruction of temples and the auto defe of the Inquisition of Goa..."For the sake of truth, I must add that the fanatical enormities perpertrated in the name of religion are only to be put down to the adherents of monotheistic creeds...We hear nothing of the kind in the case of the Hindoos and Buddhists." 

(source: The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer - By T. Bailey Saunders  p. 42 - 43).  Refer to chapter on Islamic Onslaught. Watch History of Ayodhya - videogoogle.com.

Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) was the foremost disciple of Ramakrishna and a world spokesperson for Vedanta. India's first spiritual and cultural ambassador to the West, came to represent the religions of India at the World Parliament of Religions, held at Chicago wrote that: 

"the Mohammedans used the greatest violence" and he asserted: "You know that the Hindu religion never persecutes. It is the land where all sects may live in peace and amity. The Mohammedans brought murder and slaughter in their train, but until their arrival peace prevailed."

(source: Complete Works - Swami Vivekananda volume 5 p. 190 and volume 8 p. 217).

Marxist historians, who maintained their hegemony in authoring the school textbooks during long period of Congress rule, masked the barbaric role of Muslim invaders in India and were reticent to portray their bigotry against the Hindus. They preferred to paint destruction of Hindu temples more for economic motivation than iconoclasm.

"Islam is always presented as the one, progressive, emancipatory religion."

(source: Eminent Historians: Their Technology, Their Line, Their Fraud - By Arun Shourie Harper Collins India  ISBN 8172233558 p. 71).

Koenraad Elst (1959 -) born into a Flemish (i.e. Dutch-speaking Belgian) Catholic family. He graduated in Philosophy, Chinese Studies and Indo-Iranian Studies at the Catholic University of Leuven. He has pointed out: 

"Hindu Society has been suffering a sustained attack from Islam since the 7^th century, from Christianity since the 15^th century, and this century also from Marxism. The avowed objective of each of these three world-conquering movements, with their massive resources, is the replacement of Hinduism by their own ideology, or in effect: the destruction of Hinduism."

Writing about the Rampant Negationism by Indian Marxists historians, he writes: 

"The Marxist historians had the field all to themselves, and they set to work to “decommunalize” Indian history-writing, ie. To erase the importance of Islam as a factor of conflict."

(source: Negationism in India: Concealing the Records of Isalm - By Koenraad Elst   p 78 - 79 and Was There an Islamic "Genocide" of Hindus? - By Koenraad Elst).

Sir Jadunath Sarkar (1870-1958)  the pre-eminent historian of Mughal India, wrote the following in 1920 regarding the impact of centuries of jihad and dhimmitude on the indigenous Hindus of the Indian subcontinent:

”Islamic theology, therefore tells the true believer that his highest duty is to make 'exertion (jihad) in the path of God', by waging war against infidel lands (dar-ul-harb) till they become part of the realm of Islam (dar-ul-Islam) and their populations are converted into true believers.

Sir Vidiadhar S. Naipaul (1932 - ) Nobel laureate, He is the author of several books including Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples,  Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey, and India: A Wounded Civilization. He has said: "India was wrecked and looted, not once but repeatedly by invaders with strong religious ideas, with a hatred of the religion of the people they were conquering. People read these accounts but they do not imaginatively understand the effects of conquest by an iconoclastic religion." 

"India became the great land for Muslim adventurers and the peasantry bore this on their back, they were enslaved quite literally. It just went on like this from the 11th century onwards."

"In art and history books, people write of the Muslims "arriving" in India as though they came on a tourist bus and went away again. The Muslim view of their conquest is a truer one. They speak of the triumph of  their faith, the destruction of idols and temples, the loot, the casting away of locals as slaves."

(source: Economic Times - http://www.economictimes.com/today/30poli04.htm and 
 No comparison between Buddhas and Babri - Chao Mumbai.com).  Refer to chapter on Islamic Onslaught and Massacre at Godhra - Glimpses IX.  Refer to video Statistics on Islamic Terrorism - By B Raman and 11/7 in Mumbai: Another Wake-Up Call: International Terrorism Monitor – By B Raman. Refer to Will Islam convert itself? – By Francois Gautier - indowave.com. Refer to Cruel genocide by Muslims in India - slideshow.

Refer to Hiding Historical truths in the name National integration? Refer to Kashmiri Pundits : Are they facing a Dodo future? and Kashmiri pandits alienated again - ibnlive.com.  Refer to Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing of Kashmiri Hindu Pandits - And the World Remained Silent - Movie http://www.jaia-bharati.org/films/and-the-world.mpg

Will Durant (1885-1981) American historian, would like the West to learn from India, tolerance and gentleness and love for all living things. 

He says in the book The Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage  page 459:

"The Mohammedan conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history". The Islamic historians and scholars have recorded with great glee and pride of the slaughters of Hindus, forced conversions, abduction of  Hindu women and children to slave markets and the destruction of temples carried out by the warriors of Islam during 800 AD to 1700 AD.  Millions of Hindus were converted to Islam by sword during this period. "

Lamenting this bloodiest story in history, (pg 463) advises peace living people never to trust the barbarians again and be always prepared to pay the price of civilization.

"No blood has been shed for religion in India except by its invaders. Intolerance came with Islam and Christianity; the Moslems proposed to buy Paradise with the blood of “infidels” and the Portuguese, when they captured Goa, introduced the Inquisition into India.”  

"At Elephanta the Portuguese certified their piety by smashing statuary and bas-reliefs in unrestrained barbarity; and almost everywhere in the north the Moslems brought to the ground those triumphs of Indian architecture, of the fifth and sixth centuries, which tradition ranks as far superior to the later works that arouse our wonder and admiration today. The Moslems decapitated statues, and tore them limb from limb; they appropriated for their mosques, and in great measure imitated, the graceful pillars of the Jain temples; time and fanaticism joined in the destruction, for the Hindus abandoned and neglected temples that had been profaned by the touch of alien hands.” 
 
"The bitter lesson that may be drawn from this tragedy is that eternal vigilance is the price of civilization. A nation must love peace, but keep its powder dry."

(source: The Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage  - By Will Durant page 459). For more on Will Durant refer to chapter on Quotes. 

Hugh Fitzgerald, Jihad Watch Board Vice President has observed:

"Hindu civilization in Jammu-Kashmir should be defended. It is a pity that so many in India among those who are called, quite loosely and often quite comically, "intellectuals" -- all shy away from anything that might conceivably be taken as a defense of Hindu (or Sikh) civilization, or culture. Above all, no thoroughly modern Indian will dare suggest that Islam has done great damage to Jammu and Kasmir, as well as to India as a whole, and to Indian civilization. No, there are exceptions -- such as that cosmopolitan of Indian descent, V. S. Naipaul, who is not afraid of anyone. There are Indian-Americans (Hindu, Sikh, and even disaffected ex-Muslims) and their counterparts in Great Britain, who also know how silly it is not to make the case, to ignore history, or to shy away from the slightest hint of Hindutva, which is often mocked. Why, exactly? Is K. S. Lal to be mocked for "The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India"? Is Sir Jahundath Sarkar? Are all the other Hindu historians of India who have been unafraid to discuss what Muslim rule did to India?”

(source: Why a jihad in Jammu-Kashmir? - By Hugh Fitzgerald - jihadwatch.org). Refer to Will Islam convert itself? – By Francois Gautier - indowave.com. Refer to Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing of Kashmiri Hindu Pandits - And the World Remained Silent - Movie http://www.jaia-bharati.org/films/and-the-world.mpg

***

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" 

               -  George Santayana (1863 - 1952) American philosopher. The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905.  Refer to chapter on Islamic Onslaught

7/11 - Ground Zero. Global jihad has arrived in India.

A section of the Indian intelligentsia is still trying to erase from the Hindus' memory the history of their persecution by the swordsmen of Islam.

***

Simultaneous bomb blast leaves 150 dead and many injured in India's financial capital. 

Dazed survivors were shown with wounds from injuries to heads, legs and hands at the railway station, with little sign of any emergency medical aid.

The Mumbai blasts came just hours after suspected Islamist militants killed seven people, six of them tourists, in a series of grenade attacks in Indian Kashmir's main city, Srinagar, police said, the most concerted targeting of civilians in months.

Mumbai, a city of about 17 million, has been hit by a series of bomb blasts in the past decade.  More than 250 people died in a string of bomb explosions in Bombay in 1993 for which authorities blamed the city's underworld criminal gangs.

'Like a horror movie in slow motion'  - 'Limbs lying everywhere'   

'Like a horror movie in slow motion' 
'Limbs lying everywhere'    

Jihad is war against infidels.

Refer to Massacre at Godhra - chapter Glimpses IX. 

***

The blasts hit trains or platforms at the Khar, Mahim, Matunga, Jogeshwari, Borivili and Bhayander stations. The seventh explosion struck a train between the Khar and Santacruz stations. Police also found and defused another bomb at the Borivili station. A CNN-IBN correspondent who was on one of the trains said it was leaving a station when the blast occurred. People jumped and were killed as the train hit them. "Limbs [are] lying everywhere, bodies [were] cleared from the tracks by local business owners who rushed from their shops," the correspondent said.

Refer to A river of blood at Mahim http://us.rediff.com/news/2006/jul/11firdaus.htm  

India: A nation of wimps ? 

Once again terrorists have sent a chilling reminder that they can strike at will. The objective of 11/7 is clear: to cock a snook at the Indian state. Can any self-respecting nation allow this state of affairs to exist? India’s whole approach to terrorism over the past 26 years can be dismissed as a series of knee-jerk reactions.

India: A nation of wimps ? 

Once again terrorists have sent a chilling reminder that they can strike at will. The objective of 11/7 is clear: to cock a snook at the Indian state. Can any self-respecting nation allow this state of affairs to exist? Go, ask someone who has lost her breadwinner, her son, his daughter, his father, his wife; life can never be the same for them. Never Ever. 

A Deafening silence from our self proclaimed, alienated English-educated and mostly Left-leaning elite that noisily advertises its "secularism" including Teesta Setalvad, Arundhati Roy, Shabana Azmi, Kuldeep Nayar, Sagarkia Ghose, Praful Bidwai, Vinod Mehta, Akhila Raman and Arjun Singh? Not a single word condemning the blasts, or the Islamic terrorist responsible for it. Imagine the same writer writing about Modi or any Hindu organizations; they would have gone berserk. Arrogance and elitism are the hallmarks of the India's leftist intellectuals who have no useful opinion on the slaughter of the Kashmiri Pandits. Their Hypocrisy, is merely cloaked with hatred for the majority (Hindus).

(photo source: Islam strikes Mumbai - hinduunity.com).

***

In ’99, the foreign minister personally escorted terrorists to Kandahar, who promptly repay the courtesy by orchestrating an attack on the J&K assembly and Parliament. The attack on Parliament was followed up by an unprecedented mobilisation of the Armed Forces (Operation Parakaram), which ended in not even a whimper. These and such policy waffling benchmark India’s approach to combating terror. A distinguished analyst of South Asian affairs once told the Pakistani government that “India does not react to the loss of people. They have just too many. India only reacts to the loss of territory”.  

Innocent victims of Mumbai.

 Carrying the dead away from the trains. 

All we could see was the aam-aadmi, the large-hearted samaritan picking up the body parts, dead and the injured from the railway track on some lungi-cloth?

***

(source: A nation of wimps - indianexpress.com). For more refer to Islam strikes Mumbai - hinduunity.com.  Refer to chapter on Islamic Onslaught

***

9/11, 7/7 AND 7/11 
There’s only one thing common with these 3 dates – Islamic Jehadi Terrorism.

With 9/11, US learnt a very good -- though expensive -- lesson about Islamic Jehad; something they knew about but thought happens only to others. They had always supported kings, despots, and corrupt rulers as long as it suited their national interests. Despite repeated pleas from sufferers like India, they thought it always happens to those third-world blokes. Now, the chickens had come home to roost. Only when their own people died, did they realize what Islamic Terrorism is all about. Varna, unka khoon khoon hai, aur hamara paani? But, at least, they realized.

Britain -- and Europe -- learnt it the hard way. They also were complacent and convinced that it always happens to others. Soon after the 7/7, whose footage they showed recently on the TV, we saw how the efficient administration with those ambulances, Para-military forces, Police, Doctors, nurses, Civic administration and agencies swung into immediate action and provided all help to the affected citizens. Despite that, the recent survey conducted in UK shows that many British Muslims support what happened on 7/7 and the terror philosophy behind it. Well, that’s a different story. 

Did you see any sign of the state machinery after the train blast in Mumbai? Any police, ambulance, or Home Guards in sight? All we could see was the aam-aadmi, the large-hearted samaritan picking up the body parts, dead and the injured from the railway track on some lungi-cloth?

And, now we’ll see the vultures, er, the politicians descending in droves to create more confusion and their usual big talks and lectures about need for maintaining communal amity, the undying spirit of Mumbaikar and the spirit of Mumbai. As if, the common Mumbaikar has any alternative except to travel by the same train and face the same danger for his sheer survival.

Please wait, Kuldip Nayyar jee. Let me get my candles for lighting at the Wagah Border. Series of granade attacks on tourists in Kashmir, did you say? Wahan toh log marte hee rehte hain jee. But, the peace process with Pakistan must continue. Terming the blasts in Jammu and Kashmir and Mumbai as ‘inhuman’, President A P J Abdul Kalam appealed to the people for maintaining calm and assist the administration in providing relief to the injured. All blasts are 'inhuman', Kalam Jee!

(source: 9/11, 7/7 AND 7/11 - indiatimes.com).  Refer to Islamic Terrorism - Is it a New Threat? - By M A Khan - Islam-Watch.org  July 24 2006). Refer to Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing of Kashmiri Hindu Pandits - And the World Remained Silent - Movie http://www.jaia-bharati.org/films/and-the-world.mpg and 11/7 in Mumbai: Another Wake-Up Call: International Terrorism Monitor – By B Raman. Refer to Will Islam convert itself? – By Francois Gautier - indowave.com. Refer to Cruel genocide by Muslims in India - slideshow. Refer to Why my website was banned in India - By Rusty Shackleford - worldnetdaily.com. Watch Vigil Hindu Conference of Canada - videogoogle.com.

(Note: A Preferred Term? When terror strikes USA or England, the perpetrators are termed as Islamic Terrorists, but in India, they become mere Militants? Why these double standards? Is Life cheaper being an Indian?).  

***

Hindu Tolerance or Cowardice?

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) was among India's most fervent nationalists, fighting for Indian independence from British rule. Gandhi rose to the eminence of being called “amoral genius” by no less a person than the celebrated British philosopher C. E. M Joad.

He has remarked on Hindu cowardice:

"There is no doubt in my mind that in the majority of quarrels the Hindus come out second best. But my own experience confirms the opinion that the Mussalman as a rule is a bully, and the Hindu as a rule is a coward. I have noticed this in railway trains, on public roads, and in the quarrels that I had the privilege of settling. Need the Hindu blame the Mussalman for his cowardice? Where there are cowards, there will always be bullies....

But I, as a Hindu, am more ashamed of Hindu cowardice than I am angry at the Mussalman bullying. My non-violence does not admit of running away from danger and leaving dear ones unprotected. Between violence and cowardly flight, I can only prefer violence to cowardice."

(source: Hindu-Muslim Tension: Its Causes and Cure - Young India -  29/5/1924; reproduced in M. K. Gandhi: The Hindu Muslim Unity p. 35-36 and Bharatiya Janata Party vis-a-vis Hindu Resurgence - By Koenraad Elst p. 44). Refer to Cruel genocide by Muslims in India - slideshow. Refer to chapter on Islamic Onslaught. Refer to My People, Uprooted: "A Saga of the Hindus of Eastern Bengal"  - By Tathagata Roy. Refer to Kashmir Holocaust  http://www.hinduhumanrights.org/kashmirspecial.pdf Refer to Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing of Kashmiri Hindu Pandits - And the World Remained Silent - Movie http://www.jaia-bharati.org/films/and-the-world.mpg. Refer to video Statistics on Islamic Terrorism - By B Raman. Also refer to Arundhati Roy makes a case for Terrorist Afzal - rediff.com and Petition for No mercy for a Terrorist and Lashkar threat to blow up Golden Temple

Enough is Enough!

I cannot but notice that the United States of America, which then declared its biggest offensive since Pearl Harbour and which action brought it tonnes and tonnes of international criticism -- not to mention unveiled threats of attack from Osama bin Laden, abduction of US nationals and their murder -- has not faced any terrorist attack since 9/11.

I cannot but notice that the United States of America, which then declared its biggest offensive since Pearl Harbour and which action brought it tonnes and tonnes of international criticism -- not to mention unveiled threats of attack from Osama bin Laden, abduction of US nationals and their murder -- has not faced any terrorist attack since 9/11.

When somebody directs terror at you, nation-States are expected to hit back with maximum force, carry the fight into the enemy camp.  

Majesty of Indian State? 

Missiles parading down Janpath on Republic Day Parade - India.

All your nuclear weapons, your missiles, your tanks, come to nought when you don't have the steel in your soul to defend yourself and your subjects -- at any cost.  

***

And not merely through caparisoned missiles parading down Janpath once a year, but by responding forcefully to challenges to the State's very existence.

All your nuclear weapons, your missiles, your tanks, come to nought when you don't have the steel in your soul to defend yourself and your subjects -- at any cost.  Has the Indian State done this? Ever?

(source: Enough is Enough! - By Saisuresh Sivaswamy - rediff.com). Refer to My People, Uprooted: "A Saga of the Hindus of Eastern Bengal"  - By Tathagata Roy.

Refer to Dec 13 victims' kin return medals and Is Afzal a rallying point for intellectuals?

India after Mumbai
So nice of the Government to admit there’s a security threat. Now will it do something about it?

How could it be when the current political establishment sought to make such huge capital out of abolishing POTA? 

That the law was prone to abuse was clear. That it was junked with so much glee, and with so little thought given to security professionals’ concerns, presaged trouble.

(source: India after Mumbai - indiatimes.com). Refer to Cruel genocide by Muslims in India - slideshow.

***

Massacre in Mumbai 

The coordinated attacks on Mumbai's commuter trains are the latest chapter in a sustained covert war against India by Pakistan-sponsored Islamist terror groups, says Ajai Sahni of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi.

(source: Massacre in Mumbai - By Ajay Sahani - opendemocracy.net). Refer to My People, Uprooted: "A Saga of the Hindus of Eastern Bengal"  - By Tathagata Roy

Respect our lives, Mumbaikar slams politicians 

Yet another blasts in Mumbai and Srinagar. More than 190 innocent people killed so far. Politicians have once again taken the podium to ‘condemn the blast’, assure that they ‘are keeping watch on the situation, won’t spare the guilty and justice would be done’

Here begins the blame-game. Centre will blame Opposition for playing politics on such sensitive issues… Then follows a probe, which moves at a crawling pace. And thus goes on the cycle. The politicians know how to divide ignorant mass on lines of religion and castes and keep their vote banks intact. They know and have mastered the art of poll rigging. They know the ways to dig into public funds. Indian political establishments should understand that for India’s survival they have to start respecting the life of the ordinary citizens. Recently a Palestinian group has abducted one Israeli soldier and was not ready to release him. Israel responded with a heavy iron hand and now that group just wants some prisoners to be released from Israeli jails. But sooner or later we all know Israel will hunt down those responsible and will have its soldier back.

(source: Respect our lives, Mumbaikar slams politicians

Carrying the dead after the massacre.

Indian political establishments should understand that for India’s survival they have to start respecting the life of the ordinary citizens. 

'You idiots, it is not ballot box and communal strife. It is an all out invasion of India.' 

***

Journalists and Government still Mouthing silly platitudes ?
Useful idiots and their chorus of appeasement for radical Islam?

Mumbai 1993 down to Coimbatore explosions to Delhi Deepavali blasts to attack in IISc in Bangalore to explosions in Varnasi to countless blasts in Kashmir to Mumbai again yesterday. It has been a never-ending bloody saga. No country in the world has suffered, humiliated, battered, pummelled as India has been due to what is simplistically called as acts of terrorism. And no country has been so weak-kneed, naive and pusillanimous as India has been in the face of relentless targetting by the ultras.  

Grieving and mourning the dead in Mumbai. Journalists and Government still Mouthing silly platitudes ?

There is a tendency, distressingly familiar among the global fraternity of liberals, to shy away from facing awkward realities. India is no exception to this escapism. 

(photo source: Islam strikes Mumbai - hinduunity.com).

Dr. Subramanian Swamy, Harvard professor and former Union Cabinet Minister, has rejected the often repeated theory of the Islamic intellectuals, pseudo-secularists and the Muslim apologists that it was because of the problems of poverty, lack of education, unemployment, and social discrimination among Muslims that their youth take to the path of terrorism. Dr. Swamy debunked that theory stating that the top-class Islamic terrorists like Osama Bin Laden are, on the other hand, billionaires. Other young terrorists involved in the London bombings of 7/7 were all well educated and employed as doctors, lawyers and accountants. He said the root cause of Islamic terrorism is the application of the outdated Islamic theories of Dar-ul-Islam and Dar-ul-Harb to the civilized democratic societies.

***

On the one hand, you have the media mouthing the silly platitudes with the whole coverage being more predictable than the run-of-the-mill potboiler from Kollywood or Bollywood.         

The nation needs to wake up at least now. Or else, it will be eternal slumber.

(source: Say it hard and true, at least now - By V Sundaram - newstodaynet.com).   Refer to chapter on Islamic Onslaught.

Bumptious UPA secularism vs. Jihadic terrorism 

Our helplessly hopeless Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has won for himself an immortal place in world history by describing the public response in Mumbai and elsewhere as 'the people's relilience and resolve to triumph over the evil designs of the merchants of death and destruction'. By coming out with such pious nonsense, he and the UPA Government have lost the battle against Islamic terrorism even in the first round. 

Does the UPA regime have the courage to confront them? Those who are seeking to divert attention from the enormity of Tuesday's terrorist bombings in Mumbai that have left at least 200 commuters dead and more than 600 injured, many of them crippled for the rest of their lives, by repeatedly stressing on what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described as the people's "resilience and resolve" to "triumph over the evil designs of the merchants of death and destruction", are doing a disservice to the interests of the nation and the war against terrorism. Only an effete and irresolute Government will simply suggest that the people must fight and win the battle against Islamist terrorism while those in power wring their hands in abject despair or, worse, refuse to act in any manner that may be seen as not being in consonance with an astounding policy of appeasement whose scary contour has now come to include pandering to radical Islamism'. 

Craftily worded platitudinous statements may make speechwriters proud and keep 'secularists' who see nothing wrong with bloodletting in the name of jihad happy, but they can neither fetch comfort to those who have encountered the brutality of terrorism nor scare those who perpetrate terror. On the contrary, they generate loathing for a soft and supine Government too enervated to act even in the face of grave provocation. It is laughable that at this moment of monumental tragedy inflicted on the nation by jihadis aided, abetted and armed by their masters in Islamabad, the Government should even talk of the so-called 'peace process' with Pakistan.

Appeasing state sponsored terrorism from Pakistan?

General Pervez Musharaf, who seized power in October 12, 1999 after a coup d'état and was the architect of the Kargil War. Pakistan High Commissioner Aziz Ahmad Khan and Foreign Secretary of India Shyam Saran after they signed a Memorandum of Understanding in New Delhi on July 11, 2006, to help Pakistan with $25 million for the victims of the October earthquake.  Paksitan has redefined Terrorism as a deadly art form.

(source: Kargil invasion was pre-planned: Musharraf - rediff.com and  India's $25 million gift to Pakistan - rediff.com).  

***

It does not require the Prime Minister to remind the people of their "resilience and resolve". This nation has had the resilience and resolve to survive invasions and aggressions in the distant and not so distant past; it shall withstand jihad, too. What we need is a demonstration of determination and conviction by those who presume to rule India; we need a Government that is not lacking in resilience and resolve.

Let the Prime Minister show that he means business by sacking some of these exalted keepers of India's security. That would be a good first step. Second, it is amply clear by now that the abrogation of POTA was a disastrous decision propelled by the Congress's craving for minority votes which, actually, is an insult to the vast majority of India's Muslims. Therefore, POTA must be brought back on the statute books. This is the least that the Prime Minister can do to convince sceptics, who have justifiable reasons to doubt this Government's ability to protect the lives of citizens, that India's war against terror means more than mere lip service. Inaction after Terror Tuesday will only suggest that the Government has abandoned the people, leaving them at the mercy of jihadis.

US President George Bush (1946 - ) gave to his nation over the television on the evening of September 11, 2001 in a measured and forthright manner: 

'We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbour them.' 

In India, terrorists who commit these acts enjoy minority rights and those Muslims who harbour the terrorists have the Government incentive of Haj subsidies. Whereas, Bush was not worried about losing his Muslim votes in America in the next elections while making his heroic declaration. 

The UPA Government decided to put on a mock show of official sympathy when they made a royal visit to Mumbai yesterday. 

I cannot resist quoting the brilliant words of Saisuresh Sivaswamy in this context: 

'On the streets of Mahim, close to where we work, the MAJESTY OF THE INDIAN STATE was on full display as Congress president Sonia Gandhi accompanied by Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Railway Minister Lalu Yadav drove past, en route to the blast site. My colleague counted 38+ cars in the motorcade that swept past, as other traffic on the road was kept frozen in place by the security phalanx. It was truly an impressive sight - only, I couldn't help thinking, it was put on for someone who doesn't hold an office of authority. While the man who does, simply reviewed the security situation in the face of the Srinagar and Mumbai blasts, and directed that New Delhi's security be beefed up. This was the majesty of the Indian State on display yesterday. I could have wept.' 

Betrayal of Hindus?

Sonia Gandhi, an Italian Roman Catholic, Manmohan Singh, Shivraj Patil and Lalu Prasad Yadav.

The Majesty of the Indian State?  It was on full display as Congress president Sonia Gandhi accompanied by Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Railway Minister Lalu Yadav drove past, en route to the blast site. My colleague counted 38+ cars in the motorcade that swept past, as other traffic on the road was kept frozen in place by the security phalanx. It was truly an impressive sight - only, I couldn't help thinking, it was put on for someone who doesn't hold an office of authority. 

Refer to Manmohan Singh weakest PM: says Mulayam Singh - The prime minister does not take any decision himself and all decisions are taken by the Congress President Sonia Gandhi, which is the real centre of power, he said. 

Also refer to Puri Sankaracharya criticises PM's comment - Sankaracharya of Puri Swami Nischalananda on Saturday criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent statement that minorities have the first right to the country's resources. "This government will face the consequences," he told reporters here. He said even after India 's partition, Hindus have to raise their voices to demand their rights.

***

I fully endorse the views of Dr. Babu Suseelan that 'Jihad terrorism is not over the policies of US, Israel, and India, or due to globalization, social change, poverty, economic deprivation or lack of self-esteem, but rather the ideology, the cognitive-behavior processes of Jihad Muslims. Terrorism, bombing, beheading and suicide murder are symptoms of a deep-rooted pathology stemming from their 'addictive thinking' on Islam. The Islamic 'addictive thinking' convinces jihad terrorists that attack on infidel would restore Islamic pride and prove to the infidel world that Jihad warriors are full of confidence and Islamic pride. The root cause of jihad terrorism is to be found in the defective, dangerous dogma that binds Jihad Muslims around the world together. The Jihad Muslim's thinking process and behaviours are sanctioned in Islam. What is less understandable is how and why mindless liberals fall prey to so much distorted thought.' 

(source: Jihadis on rampage - The Pioneer Edit Desk  - July 13 06 and Bumptious UPA secularism vs. Jihadic terrorism - By V Sundaram - newstodaynet.com).   Refer to chapter on Islamic Onslaught. Refer to My People, Uprooted: "A Saga of the Hindus of Eastern Bengal"  - By Tathagata Roy. Refer to Kashmiri Pundits : Are they facing a Dodo future? and Kashmiri pandits alienated again - ibnlive.com.

Why it's Islam vs rest of the world? - By Tavleen Singh

At Davos representing the Indian subcontinent was, ironically, General Pervez Musharraf.

As I watched him expound on his theory that Islam was a peaceful religion that sought only friendship and peace with the world, I found myself wondering why then it had been necessary to break India up for reasons of Islam. But, that is the sort of politically incorrect question nobody asks these days just as we do not ask why the Kashmir Valley’s struggle for autonomy has ended up becoming part of the international jehad against Americans, Jews and Hindus.

Our friendly, neighbourhood military dictator went so far as to say that because of these unresolved political issues young Muslims had developed a sense of persecution and had begun to believe that the world was against Islam.

Since this column has never had pretensions of political correctness let me spit it out. It would, in my view, be a terrible mistake to try and understand the causes of Islamic terrorism. And, please let us call it Islamic since nearly every terrorist act in recent years has been committed by Muslims in the name of their so-called jehad. 

Please let us call it Islamic since nearly every terrorist act in recent years has been committed by Muslims in the name of their so-called jehad.  As for ‘‘socio-economic’’ causes we need to remember that none of the hijackers of 9/11 were poor, illiterate or underprivileged. 

***

These terrible acts of violence cannot be excused on political grounds. There have always been political disputes and there always will be but the solution is not terrorism. As for ‘‘socio-economic’’ causes we need to remember that none of the hijackers of 9/11 were poor, illiterate or underprivileged. Moderate Muslims need to ask why just as they need to ask why, despite all their oil, even rich Muslim countries are unable to create just and enlightened societies instead of ones that produce disaffected, desperate youths who are prepared to give their lives to kill innocent people.  If the West is such a terrible place and America Satan incarnate then why do so many Muslims choose to migrate to cities like New York and London? Why are they not happy to live bigoted, blinkered lives in Riyadh and Jeddah? In Davos we were supposed to have heard the voices of moderate Islam but what we ended up hearing, at session after session, was an endless litany of complaints. 

Buddhas of Bamiyan: Holocaust of Indian heritage - Fanatic iconoclasm.

Watch History of Ayodhya - videogoogle.com.

image source: http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~iany/photos/bamian_buddha_caves.jpg

***

Just an explanation, for instance, for why the Buddhas of Bamiyan were smashed to bits without one Islamic country intervening. I did not hear it.

(source: Why it's Islam vs rest of the world? - By Tavleen Singh - indianexpress.com). Refer to My People, Uprooted: "A Saga of the Hindus of Eastern Bengal"  - By Tathagata Roy. Refer to Will Islam convert itself? – By Francois Gautier - indowave.com.

Stop Looking For Western Sanction To Fight Terror 

Mumbai has shattered the government’s false complacency that Indian Muslims are not part of Al Qaeda’s global terrorist empire. Yet it seems unlikely that Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will be permitted to take concrete action to safeguard the security of ordinary Indians; Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi made an inane call for calm and restraint and retreated into the safety of her luxurious bungalow. 

If I were Prime Minister of Hindu-majority India, I would discard without delay the debilitating missionary propaganda about turning the other cheek (interestingly never followed in western Christian nations), and respond to the grave national challenges with manly valour and statesmanship. In the penumbra of the approaching Krishna Janmasthami, this would be the most appropriate message to our pusillanimous national leadership.

(source: Stop Looking For Western Sanction To Fight Terror - By Sandhya Jain - organiser.org). Refer to Will Islam convert itself? – By Francois Gautier - indowave.com.

Mumbai: India is now facing homegrown jihadis

The suggestion that Islamist terrorism has developed strong roots within India is one that the government in New Delhi does not relish. The Congress Party, the regional parties and the Communists who are the constituents of the ruling coalition, depend substantially on Muslims--13% of the population--for political sustenance. This explains why Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has encountered strong resistance against pressing on with India's deepening strategic relationship with the U.S. Around the same time as President Bush visited India, the Congress- and Communist-dominated state legislature of Kerala passed a unanimous resolution seeking the release, on "compassionate grounds," of a Muslim extremist who masterminded a series of explosions that killed 58 people in the southern city of Coimbatore in 1998.

India has often boasted that its vibrant democracy ensured that there was no Indian to be found in al Qaeda. Nominally, the claim is incontrovertible, but Islamist terrorism is not manifested through the direct control of bin Laden alone. The LeT, HuJI and SIMI are carbon copies of al Qaeda. They all have Indian Muslim adherents, including educated professionals, many of whom have received arms training in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Indian politicians frequently blame a "foreign hand" for terrorism. The assertion is not untrue. But after Tuesday's savagery, they would also do well to look at a burgeoning homegrown menace. 

The Mumbai blasts may symbolize the coming of age of Islamism in India.

(source: Mumbai: India is now facing homegrown jihadis - By Swapan Dasgupta - wall street journal). Mr. Dasgupta, a Delhi-based political commentator, is a former managing editor of India Today.   Refer to chapter on Islamic Onslaught

This is Jihad

The holy warriors who carried out the 7/11 bombings in Mumbai may be members of local sleeper cells of the LeT and SIMI but the battle they are fighting is part of the global war being waged by Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda. With Islamism finding an increasing number of converts in India, Osama and his generals will now find it easier to deploy foot soldiers in our country to push the frontiers of jihad.

I don't speak, of course, to the vultures who seeing the September 11 images scornfully giggle 'Good. Americans-got-it-good'. I speak to the people who, though neither stupid nor evil, delude themselves in pietism or uncertainty or doubt. And to them I say: Wake up, folks, wake up! As intimidated as you are by the fear of going against the stream... you don't understand or don't want to understand that a Reverse Crusade is on march. As blinded as you are by the myopia and the stupidity of the Politically Correct, you don't realise, or don't want to realise, that a war of religion is being carried out. A war they call Jihad...

Osama bin Laden and Ms. Oriana Fallaci. 

Osama bin Laden Bin Laden and al-Qaeda have allegedly carried out a number of terrorist and guerrilla attacks worldwide including the September 11, 2001, attacks in USA. Oriana Fallaci, Italian author of Rage and Pride has asked us to "Wake up, folks, wake up!" This is jihad.

The lib-left intelligentsia in India unleashes a propaganda offensive with the aim of painting the criminals as victims and placing the blame at someone else's door. Hours following the Mumbai bombings, wide-eyed television news anchors breathlessly asking all and sundry: "Do you think this was a terrorist attack?" Perhaps the anchors hoped to hear someone say, "No darling, it was fireworks to celebrate Italy's victory in the World Cup."

***

The lib-left intelligentsia unleashes a propaganda offensive with the aim of painting the criminals as victims and placing the blame at someone else's door. Every time a bomb goes off, leaving in its wake death and destruction, we get to hear the familiar refrain: Babri demolition, Gujarat riots, poor Muslims. We also get to hear, as we did during the hours following the Mumbai bombings, wide-eyed television news anchors breathlessly asking all and sundry: 

"Do you think this was a terrorist attack?" Perhaps the anchors hoped to hear someone say, "No darling, it was fireworks to celebrate Italy's victory in the World Cup."

Notwithstanding the crafty propaganda of the lib-left intelligentsia and the cunning disinformation campaign of the UPA Government, the writing on the wall is clear: Global jihad has arrived in India. We have the choice of either reading the message and acting accordingly, or demolishing the wall and pretending that all is fine and such "minor irritants" cannot be allowed to come in the way of the peace process with Pakistan. If there is any lesson to be learned from the carnage in Mumbai, it is that we should not delude ourselves in "pietism or uncertainty or doubt". 

Heed Oriana Fallaci (author of Rage and Pride)  rage and, "Wake up, folks, wake up!" This is jihad.

(source: This is Jihad - By Kanchan Gupta - dailypioneer.com).  Refer to chapter on Islamic Onslaught

Terrorism, the undeclared war
India bows in defeat in the face of terrorism

As I sit in my Mumbai apartment the morning after the bomb blasts what I feel most is a sense of helpless rage at the inability of those who rule us to understand that terrorism is not a law and order problem. It is war. In the words of Ajay Sahani of the Institute of Conflict Management and one of our leading experts on terrorism, ‘We are engaged in a protracted war organised by Pakistan. And, we haven’t given our fighting men a mandate to fight more than a defensive war’.

The Prime Minister called an Emergency cabinet meeting and made the usual noises about the ‘cowardice’ of the terrorists in a written statement. Should he not, at the very least, have been on television reassuring the country? He sent his Home Minister to perform this task and Shivraj Patil appealed for communal harmony and in a disturbingly namby-pamby fashion talked of how the terrorists would be ‘dealt with firmly’. How? When we have not yet succeeded in punishing those responsible for the 1993 bomb blasts? Then he and Sonia Gandhi made a flying visit to Mumbai in the middle of the night? What for? What purpose did it serve other than to divert officials from the far more serious task of helping victims of the terrible carnage on Mumbai’s trains. Flying visits may have made sense in the days when telephones did not work and Doordarshan was our only television channel but they make no sense now and are an example of how little the political class understands about the seriousness of this undeclared war on India.

India bows in defeat in the face of terrorism. You do not have to look far to find supporters of this ‘jehad’. They function openly from Indian soil under names like SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India) and the Raza Academy. There are others, many others, but so sure are they of the namby-pamby nature of the Indian state that SIMI went to the Supreme Court against its ban. The Court upheld it on July 6, 2006 five years after the ban. How can we win this war with a justice system that works this way? How can we win this war if we dare not even accept that it is war?

(source: Terrorism, the undeclared war - By Tavleen Singh).  Refer to chapter on Islamic Onslaught. Refer to Hindu Genocide in East Pakistan - By Shrinandan Vyas and What if a 'Lebanon' comes up on our border? - By T V R Shenoy - rediff.com.  Refer to Ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Bangladesh - muktomona.com.  Refer to Prophet not perfect, says Islamic scholar - theaustraliannews.com and  Kill Pope, says Lashkar fatwa . Refer to video Statistics on Islamic Terrorism - By B Raman.  Refer to Will Islam convert itself? – By Francois Gautier - indowave.com. Refer to Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing of Kashmiri Hindu Pandits - And the World Remained Silent - Movie http://www.jaia-bharati.org/films/and-the-world.mpg

Shahi Imam 'Syed Ahmed Bukhari 'absolves'' LeT, blames RSS for Mumbai blasts

''I can say with authority that it is not any Muslim but the Shiv Sena, the RSS and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad who are responsible for the serial blasts in Mumbai,'' Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari told a gathering inside the historic mosque.

''We were rulers here for 800 years. Inshaallah, we shall return to power here once again'', he said to loud approval by the nearly 200 assembled men.

(source: Shahi Imam 'Syed Ahmed Bukhari 'absolves'' LeT, blames RSS for Mumbai blasts). Refer to Kashmiri Pundits : Are they facing a Dodo future? and Kashmiri pandits alienated again - ibnlive.com. Refer to Will Islam convert itself? – By Francois Gautier - indowave.com. Refer to Why my website was banned in India - By Rusty Shackleford - worldnetdaily.com.

Have terrorists declared war on India?

Consider the broad facts. A series of terrorist blasts occurred in Mumbai and Kashmir on the same day. More than half a dozen innocents died in Kashmir. The Mumbai blasts claimed over a hundred victims. The victims in Kashmir were mostly, if not, exclusively tourists. At the critical time in Mumbai ~ peak hour on the suburban rail network ~ the mobile phone system was jammed.

And yet the Union home secretary was quoted as having said that there was no connection between the terror in Kashmir and in Mumbai. How does he know? Was such synchronised terror pure coincidence? Can such planned and complex operations effected with military precision be conducted without the resources and planning of a very powerful organisation?

(source: Have terrorists declared war on India? - By Rajinder Puri - thestatesmannet.com).  

Indian Government in Denial after Bombay Train Blasts

Sonia Gandhi’s softness towards Islamic Fundamentalists runs the risk of making India an attractive destination for the Jihadis. …Sonia Gandhi, though not officially a member of the government has the responsibility for keeping the ruling coalition afloat. Her principal coalition partners—the Communists and Islamic power brokers—are in a position to make demands, which she is not in a position to reject. Both of my contentions— Sonia Gandhi’s dhimmitude, which I called ‘softness towards Islamic Fundamentalists’ and India becoming a destination and even a base for Jihadis were in full display following the Mumbai train blasts of 7/11 that killed more than 200 and injured 700 more. While the public was reeling from this brazen attack, Sonia Gandhi and her hand-picked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other members of the government went around trying to assure the public that Indian Muslim groups were somehow not responsible for the terror attack. The government trotted out the timeworn ‘foreign hand’ theory, blaming Pakistan for engineering the outrage.

The idea in all this is to assure the public that Indian Muslims are somehow not affected by the worldwide Jihadi movement. But no one is buying this theory in spite of the Sonia-Manmohan Government’s strenuous propaganda through dhimmi journalists. The appeasement policy of her government has serious consequences for the global war on terror. As Tavleen Singh pointed out, the bombings in Mumbai (Bombay) are proof that Indians can no longer run away from the reality of a jihad indigenous to India. This means, India, far from being a bulwark in the war against terror will be a weak link as long as Sonia Gandhi’s hold over the government lasts.

(source: Indian Government in Denial after Bombay Train Blasts -  By N S Rajaram - americanthinker.com).Refer to Kashmiri Pundits : Are they facing a Dodo future? and Kashmiri pandits alienated again - ibnlive.com.

Radically different responses to terror by Israel and India?

Hezbollah

India suffers the loss of a stated 200 civilian lives (more likely 1000 IMHO) in a terrorist attack in their largest city and financial capital. 

What does India do? Dawood Ibrahim is on Interpol's most wanted list and has his passport flagged for immediate arrest and his foreign funds are frozen under the international anti-terrorism laws. He couldn't go to his own daughter's wedding in Dubai of all places. Bush bombed and invaded two countries with less probable cause.  

(source: Look at India and Israel's radically different responses today - democraticunderground.com). Refer to Hindu Genocide in East Pakistan - By Shrinandan Vyas and What if a 'Lebanon' comes up on our border? - By T V R Shenoy - rediff.com. Refer to Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing of Kashmiri Hindu Pandits - And the World Remained Silent - Movie http://www.jaia-bharati.org/films/and-the-world.mpg and Refer to video Statistics on Islamic Terrorism - By B Raman. Refer to Why my website was banned in India - By Rusty Shackleford - worldnetdaily.com. Watch Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against The West

Where's the steel in our national character? Why doesn't our Government respond with the vehemence of Israelis when our jawans are abducted and mutilated..

(source: Where's the steel in our national character? - By Balram Misra - Op ed daily pioneer.com July 12 2006).

Apologists of Islamist terror

Explanation that frustration and alienation breed Islamist terrorism is too glib; the secularists must do better than this.

Every time Islamist terrorists bomb a train or a civic building, apologists quickly offer two explanations: First, poverty is forcing some Muslims to take to terrorism. Second, Hindus have alienated the minority Muslims, some of whom have taken to terrorism out of frustration. 

Let us put this "blame-it-on-the-victim" apology to litmus test. In Jammu & Kashmir, seven lakh Hindus have been ethnically cleansed. Out of those, four lakh face deprivation, poverty and deaths in refugee camps. How many Kashmiri Hindus have become terrorists? Tibetan Buddhists have been expelled from their country. Their spiritual leader, Dalai Lama, lives as a refugee in India. How many of them have become terrorists? Millions of Hindus and Buddhists have been raped, butchered and ethnically cleansed from Bangladesh. They live in abject poverty in refugee camps in India. How many of them have become terrorists? So, the reason has to be something other than poverty.

Jews came as refugees to India 2,000 years ago, Orthodox Christians 1,500 years ago and Parsis 1,100 years ago. Instead of alienating them, Hindus encouraged them to retain their uniqueness and flourish. These groups produced some of India's renowned industrialists, generals, educationists and lawyers. How about some introspection? Muslims ruled most of India for nearly a millennium and imposed the jiziya on the majority Hindus. If the Muslims are still educationally backward, they have only themselves to blame. They did not value education. They opted to put their daughters behind a burqa, instead of sending them to schools. They preferred the madarsa education to modern scientific education. Whose fault is this?

Neither poverty nor imagined alienation causes terrorism. Many terrorists are well educated and affluent. They have not personally faced deprivations in life. They do not know their victims personally. They select their victims in a cold and calculated manner so as to inflict maximum damage. The jihadis are influenced by Islamic fundamentalism that teaches Muslims to alienate themselves from "infidels". Islam sanctifies the killing of those it has arbitrarily branded "infidels." Even Prophet Mohammad is said to have persecuted the pagans, Jews and Christians.  Millions of madarsas across the country brainwash gullible Muslim children into emulating the Islamic fundamentalism. Is it a wonder that some adolescents exposed to this heady mix of intolerance end up as terrorists? 

Nearly 200 people have been bombed to death in Mumbai. Hundreds more have been maimed. They have left behind orphans, widows and aging parents. The jihadi fire has torched their hopes and dreams. Let us sympathise with the innocent victims of Islamist terrorism, not with the terrorists. It is time to call a spade a spade.

(source: Apologists of Islamist terror - By Kalavai Venkat - dailypioneer.com Op ed July 21 2006). Refer to Islamic Terrorism - Is it a New Threat? - By M A Khan - Islam-Watch.org  July 24 2006). Refer to Was There an Islamic "Genocide" of Hindus? - By Koenraad Elst). 

One year Anniversary - where are the So-called Secular class?
Cry, The Beloved Country

Our so-called secular political class and elite kept away from the observance of the anniversary of the Mumbai tragedy of 11/7/2006. Forget about flowers. Not a drop of tear. Not a word of sorrow. Not a sign of grief. Not a single expression of solidarity with the relatives of the victims.

Large sections of the nation shed tears on July 11, 2007, in memory of the 190 innocent Indians belonging to different religions who were killed a year ago in a series of explosions in suburban trains of Mumbai by jihadi terrorists inspired by the ideology of Al Qaeda. Their tears were also an expression of solidarity with the surviving relatives of these victims.

Just as millions of Americans and their leaders belonging to both sides of the political spectrum shed tears on September 11 every year in memory of the over 2,500 innocent civilians belonging to different nations who were killed by Al Qaeda in the US homeland on September 11,2001, and in solidarity with their relatives.

Just as millions of Indonesians and Australians and their political leaders shed years every year on the anniversary of the Bali bombing of October,2002, in which nearly 200 innocent civilians--Indonesians, Australians and others--were blown to pieces by jihadi terrorists.

Just as millions of Spanish people, their royal family and their political leaders shed tears every year on the anniversary of the Madrid bombing of March,2004, in which the jihadi terrorists targeted suburban trains, killing nearly 200 innocent civilians.

Just as millions of British, their royal family and their political leaders shed tears every year on the anniversary of the London bombings of July,2005, in which jihadi suicide terrorists targeted the public transportation system killing over 50 innocent civilians.

There was a significant difference between the observance of the anniversaries of these great human tragedies inflicted on humanity by the jihadi terrorists in other countries and in India .

We shed tears for the victims of last year's Mumbai explosions yesterday.

Let us shed tears for ourselves today for having the misfortune of having a government for which the feelings of the Muslims are more important than saving the lives of innocent civilians from the continued depredations of the jihadi terrorists. 

(source: Cry, The Beloved Country - By B Raman - outlookindia.com - Counter point July 12, 2007).

Refer to New book lambast Hindu Right - indolink.com - A forthcoming book by a Professor at the University of Chicago - Martha Nussbaum a close associate of Amartya Sen  claims that the “Hindu Right” has created a pervasive “anti-Muslim feeling in India that is deeply alarming,” and goes on to implicate it in Muslim “genocide” and complicity in the “murders of thousands.”  

Note:  Would Ms. Nussbaum sitting in her ivory tower of academia have the courage and the audacity to lambast the Muslim terrorists or the Christian Fundies?  

Refer to Quotes from the The American Taliban

Refer to Hindus feel the heat in Pakistan - BBC.com and Destruction of Hindu Temples in Malaysia - haindavakeralam.org and Refer to Ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Bangladesh - muktomona.com. Watch God’s Warriors – By Christine Amanpour – CNN.com - Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Refer to Bush-sponsored Evangelisation of India -I  - By V Sundaram. Refer to Bush-sponsored Evangelisation of India -II – By V Sundaram. Refer to Bush-sponsored Evangelisation of India -III – By V Sundaram. Watch the video - Pat Robertson Says All Other Religions Worship Demonic Powers - Rightwingwatch.org. Also refer to Using TV, Christian Pat Robertson Denounces Hinduism as "Demonic" Watch the movie - Indoctrination in Jesus Camp.

Refer to Refuting Evolution in USA and Christian Fascism - By Carolyn Baker.  Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com and Watch Sex crimes and the Vatican - videogoogle.com.  Also refer to We are warlike people - George Carlin on Bush War. Refer to Cruel genocide by Muslims in India - slideshow.  Refer to Kashmiri Pundits : Are they facing a Dodo future? and Kashmiri pandits alienated again - ibnlive.com. Watch Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against The West

Watch History of Ayodhya - videogoogle.com. Refer to Why my website was banned in India - By Rusty Shackleford - worldnetdaily.com. Refer to A Dark and Distorted Hinduism and Invading the Sacred: An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America - By Krishnan Ramaswamy, Antonio de Nicolas and Aditi Banerjee. Watch Scientific verification of Vedic knowledge'.  Refer to Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing of Kashmiri Hindu Pandits - And the World Remained Silent - Movie http://www.jaia-bharati.org/films/and-the-world.mpg. Refer to video Statistics on Islamic Terrorism - By B Raman and 11/7 in Mumbai: Another Wake-Up Call: International Terrorism Monitor – By B Raman. Refer to Kill Pope, says Lashkar fatwa. Refer to Will Islam convert itself? – By Francois Gautier - indowave.com.

Prof. Amartya Sen - a man who had babbled at a Hong Kong forum about how wonderful medicine was under Mao praising the communist China 's state medical system under the cultural revolution. Sen in his usual self-righteous style was treading along very well with facts and figures on infant mortality and life expectancy, especially in comparison to India, when suddenly was confronted by Weijian Shan, who had actually lived through the Cultural Revolution in China as one of Mao's "barefoot doctors". According to an article in February 22, 2005 Wall Street Journal entitled, "A Nobel Prize-winning economist spouts off, and a Chinese survivor sets him straight", Shan is quoted as saying "I observed with my eyes the total absence of medicine in some parts of China . The system was totally unsustainable, we used to admire India ."

Sen who in his book, Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny has never voiced any useful opinion, on the slaughter of the Kashmmiri Hindu Pandits. He has found the slaughter of the Kashmiri Pandits abhorrent. That's it. 

Arrogance and elitism are the hallmarks of the India's leftist intellectuals.

Watch the Bloody History of Communism - videogoogle.com. Watch Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against The West.  Refer to Reality check India. Refer to Kashmiri Pundits : Are they facing a Dodo future? and Kashmiri pandits alienated again - ibnlive.com.

Dr. Sen propagated during the entire 1960s and early 1970s that only a Communist revolution can rescue India from poverty. He also recruited students of Delhi University for the Naxalite movement. He lent the status of his professorship in Delhi School of Economics to the chant that India’s miserable growth rate in GDP of 3½ per cent per year, which was in fact due to the heavily regulated socialist system, as instead being the “Hindu rate of growth”! That is, we Hindus are incapable of anything better because we are Hindus. Instead of being made accountable for propagating this rubbish, the NDA government on Ms. Sonia Gandhi’s recommendation awarded him the “Bharat Ratna”! Some ratna !! Every winter like the migratory birds, he now flies in free on Air India to give us sermons on democracy and Indianness, since socialism is thoroughly exposed as bogus.

Even his recent speech in London made to curry favour with the white majority that only Christians in UK are entitled to run religion-based schools but not NRIs to run Hindu or Muslim schools, was not reported here in Indian media because that would undermine his legitimacy here.

(source: Media is a tool of anti-Hindu conspiracy - By Subramanian Swamy.   Refer to Inside India's hidden war - guardian.co.uk.

Also refer to Plight of Kashmiri Hindu Pandits - Kashmir Holocaust and Brutalities on Hindus in Bangladesh and Refer to Conversion activities in North East by Christian Missionaries - crusadewatch.org. Refer to chapter on Conversion and Rosie O'Donnell: Radical Christianity is just as threatening as Radical Islam - alternet.org and Pakistanis protest, cleric says Pope should be crucified - newsyahoo.com and Tolerance: A Two-Way Street - By Charles Krauthammer -washingtonpost.com and Creed of the sword - By Dr Mark Durie - australiannews.com and Hypocrisy Most Holy - By Ali Al-Ah - opinionjournal.com.  Refer to Prophet not perfect, says Islamic scholar - theaustraliannews.com.

Refer to American Theocracy: For The Rise of Christian Nationalism in USA

Refer to Bush: God Told Me to Invade Iraq - By Rupert Cornwell Friday -  The Independent October 7, 2005 and Bill Graham: War Criminal - By Alexander Cockburn - New York Press and American Taliban and The War They Wanted, The Lies They Needed - Vanityfair.com and The Christian Right in American Politics and Is America a Christian Nation? and God's Country? - foreignaffaris.org and Book: Bush told reporter Jews are 'all going to hell' - rawstory.com. Also refer to American Wahabbis and the Ten Commandments - tomdispatch.com and and Film Shows Youths Training to Fight for Jesus - By Dan Harris - abcnews.com. Refer to Rapture or Rupture? and Rapture Ready and Christian Fundamentalism Agenda in USA and Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism - By Michelle Goldberg and watch Jesus Camp movie and Book: Bush told reporter Jews are 'all going to hell' - rawstory.com and An Inconvenient Truth and Stephen Colbert roasts George W Bush and Jon Stewart Quotes and Peddling Democracy - By Chalmers Johnson and Neoconservatives Predict The Apocalypse Starts Tomorrow and Right Behind: A Parody of Last Days Goofiness - By Nathan D Wilson.

Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com and Confront the anti-Hindus: The only way to rescue Hinduism - By J.G. Arora and Why this war on Hinduism? - By George Thundiparambil - organiser.org. Refer to Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects – By Bertrand Russell and Why I Am Not a Muslim - By Ibn Warraq  

Refer to Righteous: Dispatches from the Evangelical Youth - By Lauren Sandler and God And Country: How Evangelicals Have Become America's New Mainstream - By Monique El-Faizy and The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right's Plans for the Rest of Us - By James Rudin and Divine Destruction: Dominion Theology and American Environmental Policy - By Stephenie Hendricks.  Watch Jesus Camp movie.  Also refer to Pope's comments on Islam hit 'civilization clash' fault line and 'A man with little sympathy for other faiths' - guardian.co.uk and Attempted assassin warns Pope against Turkey visit . Watch video - Christian Missionary Misdeeds in India

***

Zion to Sion 
From Israel, lessons for Mumbai  

Facetious as it may sound, weeks like this one are ripe for bemoaning the limits to outsourcing, and the fact that the mandate for India's internal security cannot be contracted out to the iron-willed consciousness of Israel.  

In the past two days, Israel has bombed Beirut airport and begun a naval blockade of Lebanon, aimed at disrupting the supply lines of Hizbullah terrorists and weaponry. It has refused to negotiate following Hizbullah's kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers, recognised that outrage for what it is - an act of war - and gone on the offensive, determined to uproot the sources of terror. In the past fortnight, Israel has also moved its soldiers into Gaza, after fresh attacks from there - even as the rogue "Government of Palestine" looked on encouragingly - and the abduction of a military officer. 

It is impossible not to contrast these tough and unambiguous measures with the pusillanimity and squeamishness of the UPA Government after the Mumbai train blasts or, indeed, the relentless cycle of terrorist assaults that began almost exactly one year ago, in Ayodhya. There is denial about home-grown terrorism - UPA Ministers never tire of claiming that no Indian is a member of Al Qaeda, ignoring the growing number of non-Kashmiri recruits in the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, with cells uncovered in, at least, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. There is praise for Mumbai's "resilience" and "spirit", as if these were substitutes for concrete Government action. No country suffers the frequency of bomb attacks that Israel does - in markets, discotheques, restaurants, everyday places.  

Ordinary Israelis get up, dust themselves and go on with life. They display the remarkable human ability to bounce back that, on the morning of July 12, brought Mumbai back on track. Yet the Government in Tel Aviv doesn't take solace from this, wring its hands, sit down and do nothing. It salutes its brave citizens by destroying - or pre-empting - those who mean them harm. 

It is nobody's suggestion that the UPA Government should immediately begin bombing terrorist camps across the Line of Control - though that eventuality is a compelling and perhaps inevitable option - but what of action against indigenous bastions of terrorists and their logistical support structures, against institutions and groups known to be hand in glove with Laskhar, Jaish-e-Mohammed and their sister organisations, a crackdown on jihadi fifth columnists within India? This is a national imperative, however much "secular" UPA allies may protest. The post-bombing arrest of 200 people in Mumbai is a case in point. It is unlikely these people were actually involved in the suburban train strikes. They are probably SIMI/Islamist sympathisers whose names have long appeared in police records but who have never been questioned, let alone taken into custody, as the Congress and its allies went looking for their votes and repealed POTA. If hard steps had been taken a year ago, Mumbai's trains would probably still have been safe. The terrorists would have been warned: Governments change, but this is a country you don't mess with. In the summer of 2006 those messages are being delivered loud and clear - as it happens, by Israel. 

Meanwhile, Mr Manmohan Singh can go back to his fiddle.

(source: Zion to Sion: From Israel, lessons for Mumbai - Edit Page - dailypioneer.com July 14 2006). Refer to 'Never trust the US on Pakistan' - By B Raman - rediff.com

Israel supported India during the 1962 conflict with China and then again during the 1965 war with Pakistan at a time when no formal diplomatic relations. Israel earned big points with New Delhi when, during Kargil War it sent over the laser-guided missiles that allowed India's Mirages to bust Pakistan's bunkers. 

Jason Isaacson, who heads the American Jewish Committee's Washington office, described India and Israel as democracies surrounded by “hostile neighbours, well armed and numerous.” Secular establishment and their cheer leaders in the Muslim fundamentalist sections oppose close ties with Israel. “They should explain why Comrade Jyoti Basu visited Israel. Deve Gowda, who had high level interactions with Israel in Davos.

Refer to Massacre at Godhra - chapter Glimpses IX.

***

'It's an all out invasion of India'

I would like to shout:  

'You idiots, it is not ballot box and communal strife. It is an all out invasion of India.'

Civility does not permit that. Politicians on either side of the 'secular fence' should tell people that Pakistan has now attacked the heartland and peninsular India after targeting the northeast, Punjab and Kashmir. It is an extension of the international Islamist jihad of which the high priests are the Jamia al Salafia, the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda Inc, Pakistan's ISI and over 35 tanzeems operating from Pakistani and Bangladeshi soil.

There are over 25 such collaborative tanzeems in India. These forces are trying to create ferment and alienation amongst Indian Muslims and drag them to the arena of global Islamist jihad, leading to demands for more 'partition of India'. Without a strong defence, a strong economy is meaningless. And without a strong economy, a strong military is meaningless, like the Russian situation. They had a strong defence system, but didn't have a good economy. We have to have a marriage of both.

(source: 'It's an all out invasion of India' - rediff.com). Refer to 'Never trust the US on Pakistan' - By B Raman - rediff.com

This is an undeclared war

Arun Bhagat, former director, Intelligence Bureau, assesses the terrorist threat to India after the July 11 blasts in Mumbai: 

Gujarat is just an excuse for the recent acts of terrorism. The real reason is that the terrorists want to spread the flag of Islam. The foot soldiers are brainwashed into believing this. These people are brainwashed and motivated very thoroughly. It is time Muslims got up and told the terrorists that terrorism is not our religion.

(source: This is an undeclared war - By Arun Bhagat - rediff.com).

This is war, Mr Prime Minister, not just a crime

Last week, Jihadi terrorists blasted running trains in Mumbai, killing some 200 innocent commuters returning home and almost killed another 700, who were injured. This was on Tuesday. The next day, Wednesday, Lebanese terror outfit Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers. Israel is a tiny dot on this earth while India is a huge country in land and people. See how the two countries responded to the attacks on them. By Friday, that is, within a couple of days, Israel struck back, extinguished over 50 Lebanese in air strikes, and almost destroyed Beirut airport in the next 72 hours. 

At stake for Israel were two Israeli soldiers, who are armed combatants, not unarmed innocents, like Mumbai commuters. 

In 48 hours, wilting under Israeli attack Lebanon had begun crying before the United Nations for a ceasefire. The US President refused to calm Israel and asked Lebanon to stop cross border terror!

See, in contrast, what India, seen as an emerging super power, does when over a thousand innocents are roasted and injured on its soil by terror from across its borders. 

Look at the chronology. Terrorists mass slaughter innocent commuters en masse on Tuesday evening. The next day Prime Minister swears that 'terror will not cow us down', the usual rhetoric. On Thursday, he is confused as to what to do next. Finally, on Friday he summons enough courage and declares that the blasts were engineered by "elements across the border". In contrast, Israel is murdering Lebanon for capturing two Israeli combatants and crushing it to cry before the world!

Secular India's debate on terror ignores that Jihad is war against infidels, not a crime under the Penal Code. The Jihadis believe that they operate under a higher law. So, normal laws are inadequate to counter the Jihadis.

Special laws, even draconian ones, have to be put in place, to contain terror. Even this can do only part of the job. The other part will have to be handled by war. But shockingly - yes, it is shocking - secular India feels anti-terror laws are anti-minority. Nothing is more anti-minority than equating, by implication, minority to terror.

But secular India has convinced many among the minorities that anti-terror laws are against them!

Tail piece: The media adds, at the Friday Cabinet meeting, a senior, but almost senile, minister told the Cabinet that it was not Jihadis, but, RSS - yes RSS - which bombed the trains and killed the innocent commuters!

(source: This is war, Mr Prime Minister, not just a crime - By S Gurumurthy - newindpress.com).  Refer to chapter on Islamic Onslaught

Lashkar-e-Qahar warns of blasts in Delhi, Mumbai  

Lashkar-e-Taiba's founder and spiritual guide Hafiz Mohammed Saeed in 1999, wrote 

"The Hindu," is a mean enemy and the proper way to deal with him is the one adopted by our forefathers, who crushed them by force."

Lashkar-e-Qahar, the terrorist group that claimed responsibility for the Mumbai train bombings, warned on Tuesday that it was planning attacks against government and historic sites in India in an e-mail to a news television station. Lashkar-e-Qahar said in the e-mail that 16 people took part in the July 11, 2006 attacks in Mumbai, and that one of them was killed.  But "all the remaining 15 mujahideens are totally safe, and celebrating the success of this mission and also preparing for the next mission," the e-mail said.  "We also request all the Muslim brothers and sisters not to go near the main historical, governmental and the monumental places of India (especially in Delhi and Mumbai) in future," the e-mail said. "Otherwise, they get hurt too."  The train bombings killed 207 people and injured hundreds more. Investigators believe the group may be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Righteous).

(source: Lashkar-e-Qahar warns of blasts in Delhi, Mumbai - sifynews.com).  

Refer to 'Secularists try to rationalise terrorism' - timesofindia.com - Why do Muslims feel the system is biased against them? Our society is divided into so many sections and everybody is angry about something or the other. Even a Dalit is angry about the way he's treated. Why doesn't he react in the same fashion? Theologically, there is a fundamental difference between Muslims and non-Muslims. The Muslims have problems of co-existence with most other communities. Examples abound all across the world: look at Indonesia, Bangladesh, Philippines, Pakistan. In Bangladesh, there is a systematic attack on symbols of Hinduism. All over the world, Hindus are considered moderate and accommodating people. If secularism and democracy has survived in India, it is only because of us. 

***

Fake Secular Stupor?
Denial and Self-deception

Instead of punishing Pakistan and Bangladesh for launching terrorist attacks, Indian government has a standing policy of denial, self-deception and inaction against terror; and is content with the ritual sounding of red alert after each terrorist strike.

Unlike what USA has done after September 11, 2001 attack; and what U.K. has done after July 7, 2005 attack, India has not taken any concrete action to prevent terrorist attacks.

Steeped in fake secular stupor, most of the Indian political parties and media are busy with disinformation campaign, and are inventing phony explanations for frequent terrorist attacks. Just like the government, most of the media are brushing aside the imperative need to defeat the Pak-Bangla demographic invasion and terror attacks; and are just emphasizing inanities like peace-talks and harmony.

We cannot expect others to fight our battles. The injury India is suffering now is self-inflicted because of prolonged inaction against repeated attacks and demographic aggression. Since the government's policy of denial, drift and inaction is leading to gradual Pak-Bangla take-over of India, the only alternative for the nationalist organizations, political parties and individuals is to assert themselves, and force the government to crush India's tormentors.

Chanakya's Chanakya Niti and Sun-tzu's Art of War as also countless lessons of world history emphasize the complete crushing of enemies before the enemies crush us.

(source: Crush these daily attacks on India - By J.G. Arora - centralchronicle.com). Refer to 'Never trust the US on Pakistan' - By B Raman - rediff.com

“Modi”fy your backbone
A grotesque celebration of national helplessness?

There are some moments in the life of a nation when people eschew individualism and look for leadership. I don't know whether history will record the carnage of July 11 as a defining point for our country - just as the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919 was for our grandfathers, the fall of France in 1940 was for the British, and September 11, 2001 was for a majority of Americans. It is not the scale of a disaster that prompts a country to break with the past. A decisive shift in a nation's collective way of thinking is invariably provoked by a corresponding feeling of vulnerability and helplessness.

Last week, India confronted a twin threat. First, the Islamist jihadis defiantly proclaimed to the world that they have the determination, organisation and technology to strike at the heart of India. The attacks on Parliament, Ayodhya and the RSS headquarters in Nagpur were foiled and the bombings in Delhi and Varanasi were dress rehearsals. 

Mumbai was the real thing and it left India distraught, disoriented and exposed.

Gujarat CM Narendra Modi and Sardar Vallabhai Patel (1875 - 1950) and Mahatma Gandhi.  

Sardar Patel was a great constructive genius - Patel was certainly one of the greatest constructive geniuses the country has known. He has often been compared with Chancellor Bismark, who effected German unification in the late nineteenth century. But Patel's achievements regarding the integration of state were far more remarkable. Bismark wove only about a dozen states into German fabric. Patel had to handle 561 states of a wide variety. Patel is hailed by historians for his strategic use of military force to bring Junagadh and Hyderabad into the union. His admirers call him the Iron Man of India.   

Before departure from India, Lord Mountbatten wrote to Sardar Patel on June 19, 1948: 

"There is no doubt that by far the most important achievement of the present government is the unification of the states into the Dominion of India. Had you failed in this, the results would have been disastrous. But since you succeeded, no one can see the disastrous consequences that you avoided. Nothing has added to the prestige of the present government more than the brilliant policy you have followed with the states."

Modi who was equated to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the Iron Man of India, and hailed as the only Indian leader to have fought terror. . It has become fashionable in India's 'Sickening 'Secular Media' to dismiss Modi as communalist and fascist. 

These people (the Congress-led UPA government) cannot send a strong signal to terrorists, let alone fight them," 

"He launched a scathing attack on what he called "five-star activists" (Arundhati Roy, Anand Patwardhan etc) and people "brought up with foreign values," saying, "they paint as communal whoever speaks up against terrorism."  

(For more refer to Sickening 'Secular Media' - By M V Kamath - cybernoon.com). Refer to Online guide: Killing 'infidels' - ynetnews.com.  

***

The media invocation of the "Mumbai spirit" of gritty resilience was actually a grotesque celebration of national helplessness.

Was Sonia Gandhi any better? She certainly upstaged Manmohan Singh by rushing to Mumbai first and comforting the victims. But where India needed the steely determination of a Margaret Thatcher, or even Indira Gandhi, she chose to play Florence Nightingale for an evening.

When defeatism parades as enlightenment, you know that something has to give way. We need a leader who can call a spade a spade, brook no nonsense and do what is right. We need a man the jihadis dread and loath. We also know that such a leader exists. It is time we stopped being afraid of mentioning his name.

(source: “Modi”fy your backbone - By Swapan Dasgupta - daily pioneer.com).  Refer to chapter on Islamic Onslaught and Why the Media hatred against Narendra Modi? - haindava keralam.org.

Attack on the idea of India

This is more true of the Indian subcontinent than anywhere else since it is home to the largest Muslim population in the world, but our political leaders continue to behave as if our fight is merely against a handful of radical Islamists. In her first major comment after the Mumbai bomb blasts all that Sonia Gandhi could think to say was that we must make sure that the Muslim community was not targeted. What will not be lost in translation to our security forces is that this is a message to continue to fight only a half-hearted, defensive war. The terrorist attacks in Mumbai, Ayodhya, Varanasi and elsewhere are proof that our problem with the Islamists, and with Pakistan, is no longer about Kashmir. It is about whether we have the courage to defend the value system of India.

Liberal, ''secular'' Indian journalists would help find it just as some tried to link the train bombings in Mumbai to Gujarat. One national newspaper was insensitive enough to print names of dead Gujaratis on its front page to prove this point.

(source: Attack on the idea of India - By Tavleen Singh - indianexpress.com).

Soft Centre
We, you and I, have become cannon fodder for terrorists.

By now, we have become predictable in our responses to terrorist outrages, and it is no different with the Bombay serial bombings, which have killed nearly two hundred people since yesterday, and injured more than three times the number.  

The media leads the act in playing down the terrorist attack, by painting up a perfectly fraudulent picture of a city hurtling back to normalcy within hours if not minutes, and the more pseudo-secular, pseudo-liberal of the papers come out with absolutely crummy headlines.  

Just as the politicians ordered. When has tearing into the authorities for their inability to preempt such terrorist acts become non-secular? And why mustn’t the horror of it be fully published or telecast, without attempting to make it a routine violent incident, no more worse than a train disaster or airplane crash? Although with airplane crashes probably, India’s nouveau media would go aggressive. Those who get bombed in trains, or while shopping happily on Diwali eve, or sightseeing around Srinagar, are obviously lesser people, to become statistics at the soonest. It is nauseating.    

They call us resilient? Are we glorifying 'resilience' or 'stony heartedness'? The biggest tragedy is we are glorified for not feeling.  

Refer to chapter on Islamic Onslaught

***

Followed by these worthies and the condolences and ill-timed visits, condolences pour from abroad. Previously, the occasions were probably famine deaths, or natural disasters, tsunami and their lesser cousins, or assassinations, now, they are terrorist attacks.  

We sort of get a grim pleasure, a masochistic pleasure, in publishing these condolences, from the US and the rest, as if almost glad that they have remembered us, even if at a time of the wanton massacre of our people. Not to forget, because it is politically convenient now, Pakistan wires in its own sorry message, while congratulating whoever masterminded the terrorism on their side, and it looks a clear giveaway on the Lashkar-e-Toiba.

History repeating itself as farce. We have become a soft state, and our rapid regression should bring us in serious competition with Pakistan and the other failed states in some years. The Bombay blasts are the result of systems failure, and the entire political-government establishment at the Centre and in Maharashtra must take blame, and not one or two individuals, although they may happen to be in the line of fire.

(source: Soft Centre - newsinsight.net).

Journalists Singing Meaningless Paeans to Resilience?

As I made my way home, I saw more ambulances than I had seen in my life. There were people in pain, angry, desperate, and searching for signs of hope from unlikely sources. I saw the police struggle to curtail angry mobs stoning taxi drivers who refused to take them where they wanted to go. I admit, I silently applauded the attackers, as I believe public servants should serve the public, not hold them to ransom. I stayed clear of the station roads, where the blasts occurred. The media had descended in full force, hungry for sound bites, pictures and video footage. The next day, it was the same journalists who applauded the fact that Mumbai was back at work. They called it our resilience and celebrated our 'spirit of courage'. 

But, as I made my way to work, I saw the remains of yesterday in the form of the expressions on faces, the worry, the police and overflowing hospitals with weeping relatives outside.

(source: They call us resilient? - By Jeffrey Rufus - rediff.com).   

A repetition of Godhra

What happened in Mumbai on 11 July 2006 is a calculated repetition of what happened in Godhra four years ago and in just as ghastly a fashion but with more finesse. In Godhra our secularists gave the excuse that some kar sevaks pulled the beard of a Muslim tea vendor at Godhra station and did not pay him for a wretched cup of tea. Yet another - and entirely imagined - excuse was given that the kar sevaks right in front of their own wives and daughters kidnapped a Muslim girl and raped her. Those who believe that would believe anything.

The girl allegedly raped was not even produced before court. Forgotten was the fact that some two thousand plus Muslims has forgathered close to the station and were seen throwing stones and burning rags at the coaches. It was also claimed that the kar sevaks were demanding of the Muslim tea vendors to say Jai Ram Shri Ram. But whatever happened in Mumbai? Some 'terrorists' - apparently they dropped from heavens - managed to plant bombs in the first class compartments of seven local suburban trains and got them exploded through remote control.

Meanwhile, in all this, the Muslim community in India has a great role to play. They must expose the terrorists in their midst and put the interests of India first, second and last. That is true secularism. For far too long has the community remained silent. As for our secularists, the less said about them the better. Which is why we have growing terrorism not only in Jammu and Kashmir but now all over India. 

(source: A repetition of Godhra - By M V Kamath - newstodaynet.com).

Mumbai is in fatal denial. That has made a wimp of a once spirited city

A carnage of this magnitude would, in any healthy democracy, have provoked a bout of both anger and soul-searching. It did neither.

Mumbaikars, if media reports are any indication, tut-tutted their way home from the destruction on the tracks, exchanged horror stories and then decided that it was best to pretend nothing unusual has happened. This was no stiff upper-lip and forbearance at work; it was a remarkable display of ostrich-like behaviour - pretending that nothing has happened.

Killing innocent Muslims in an insane act of retribution was, of course, never the answer. But the least that was expected of Mumbaikars was a focused show of anger. What we have seen instead - rather, the TV channels have shown - are gestures of collective wimpishness. Mumbai needs to show it cares for itself and the country.

(source: The Dynamics of Deadlock - By Swapan Dasgupta - tehekla.com).

The Usual Pieties from a clueless Indian Politicians?

And pieties: 'Terrorism is a bane of our times and it must be condemned, rejected and countered effectively and comprehensively." From Pakistan to USA, from the Prez to the PM and the CM...blah, blah, blah....

Sonia Gandhi, president, Congress Party:

"Dastardly and inhuman. We should collectively isolate such elements from society." 

Prakash Karat, general secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist)

"The aim of this terrorist outrage is to foment disruption and this should be foiled. All efforts should be made to track down the culrpits."

Sitaram Yechury, polit bureau member, Communist Party of India (Marxist)

"We would also appeal to the people not to fall prey to any provocation. The whole country must unitedly face the situation. While security should be beefed up across the country, efforts should be made on war-footing to provide medical help and relief to the victims, he said."

(source: Solidarity, Condemnations, Blame Game - outlookindia.com)  

SIMIwadi Party - Keep your mouth shut, Mr Yadav

(source: SIMIwadi Party - Keep your mouth shut, Mr Yadav - tribuneindia.com - editorial).   

Timetable of last few years of Terror in India:

1993: Muslim underworld figures tied to Pakistani militants allegedly carried out a series of bombings that struck Bombay's stock exchange along with trains, hotels and gas stations in the city, killing 257 people and wounding more than 1,100.

Oct. 1, 2001 - Militants storm the Jammu and Kashmir state assembly complex, killing about 35.

Dec. 13 - More than a dozen people, including five gunmen, die in an attack on the national parliament complex in New Delhi.

Sep. 24, 2002 - Militants with guns and explosives attack the Akshardham Hindu temple in the western state of Gujarat, killing 31 people and wounding more than 80.

May 14 - Militants attack an army camp near Kashmir's winter capital Jammu, killing more than 30, including several wives and children of soldiers.

Mar. 13, 2003 - A bomb attack on a commuter train in Mumbai kills 11.

Aug. 25 - Two almost simultaneous car bombs kill about 60 in Mumbai.

Aug. 15, 2004 - Bomb explodes in northeastern Assam state, killing 16 people, mostly school children, and wounding dozens.

Oct. 29, 2005 - Sixty-six people are killed when three blasts tear through markets in the capital New Delhi.

Mar. 7, 2006 - At least 15 people were killed and 60 wounded in three explosions in the north Indian Hindu pilgrimage city of Varanasi.

July 11 - More than 100 people are killed in seven bomb explosions at rail stations and on trains in Mumbai.

Refer to Islam’s Lethal Certitude - By Alan Caruba and chapter on Islamic Onslaught.  

Time for anger, not sermons

What makes me most angry are these silly paeans we sing to the undying spirit of Mumbai. We heard them, in 1993, immediately after the terrible rioting and the bomb blasts which left 257 people dead and 713 severely injured. We heard them again, in 2003, after another set of horrific bomb blasts left 58 people dead and 172 injured.

We hear them again today, even as the body count crosses 200 and hundreds more lie seriously wounded. This does not include the large number of mangled, dismembered bodies that were found scattered on the train tracks. They are not even counted. Or countable. The kind of people who die in such carnages are usually little known, little remembered. And it’s even easier to forget them when we go on our usual self-congratulatory spree, with everyone talking the usual, convenient nonsense about how brave we all are, how Mumbaikars never get cowed down by violence or disaster. Rubbish. It’s almost as if we are embarrassed to acknowledge the fact that terrorism has taken its toll on us. Just as we were embarrassed to admit that the rains could bring this city to its knees.

How long will we continue to delude ourselves with such gibberish?

Those who run this city have now concluded that you and I are incapable of punishing them. So they watch amused as we sit around doing nothing apart from congratulating ourselves on coping with each crisis. This sick, asinine attitude will be the death of this city. This tolerance which we pride ourselves on has allowed a useless, callous, incompetent bunch of public servants and their political masters to get away, again and again, under different governments, mouthing the same inanities.

(source: Time for anger, not sermons - By Pritish Nandy - timesofindia.com).

Mumbai blasts a warning to the entire country

Accusing the leadership of the UPA government of not taking a strong stance against terrorism, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi said the train in Mumbai were a warning that terrorism has gone beyond Jammu and Kashmir and spread in the country 

"The blasts (in suburban trains) in Mumbai is a warning to the entire country that terrorism has not limited itself to Jammu and Kashmir," said Modi while addressing a function at Gujarat Chambers of Commerce and Industries (GCCI).

Mumbai blasts a warning to the entire country. It seems like the US has finally woken up to the reality of terrorism in India.

Refer to Massacre at Godhra - chapter Glimpses IX. 

***

Terror, counter terror
Attack the Pakistani terrorist leadership in their redoubts.

While Pakistan has more or less implicated itself in the Bombay serial blasts, by its foreign minister, Khursheed Mahmoud Kasuri’s linking them to the lack of progress on a Kashmir solution, we still fumble for a viable and sustainable response to Pakistani terrorism. 

Let it be clear, the counter to Pakistani terrorism won’t come in one single tactical strike, we are dealing with a state sponsoring terrorism, a nuclear power state at that. So the analogy to the post-9/ 11 US war against Taliban’s Afghanistan is out, and we should learn from how tough it is for Israel to roll back Palestinian/ Hamas terrorism, although the Palestinians have even less territorial depth than Israel. 

(source: Terror, counter terror - indiareacts.com). 

America's ambivalence on terrorism

Washington's War on Terrorism appears increasingly to be falling short of a coherent and reasoned campaign, with its ambivalent attitude to States like Pakistan which at best provide sanctuary for Islamic extremists and at worst actually support, organise and control major terrorist groups. Pakistan's infamous Inter Service Intelligence agency has long had strong links with Islamic terrorists including both the Taliban in Afghanistan and Kashmiri militants whose actions have already taken the lives of tens of thousands of India's citizens. The fact that the ISI was established with CIA help and has often acted on behalf of their American paymasters must further cast doubt on America's real commitment to fight terrorism.  

You cannot prevail over terrorism by merely using strong language in Parliament or in the media. It is perhaps difficult to find even one politician in the country who holds the national interest above the interest of his or her party.

***

That India should be the target of a prolonged and vicious Islamic terrorist campaign -- in all probability covertly supported by one of Washington's closest allies in the War on Terrorism -- is perhaps not quite so surprising when seen in the light of the large number of determined espionage operations run by the CIA to steal India's most important secrets. 

Power is drifting slowly, but surely into the hands of fundamentalist and extremist Islamic politicians, and without a shadow of doubt, ill thought out campaigns launched for the joint purpose of regime change and economic self interest have merely hastened the polarisation of the Middle East. America for all its undoubted military might has yet again proved quite capable of that remarkable feat of quickly winning the war and slowly losing the peace.

(source: America's ambivalence on terrorism - By Richard M Bennett - rediff.com). 

America wakes up to India's reality

A friend from the US tells me that the blasts are getting maximum coverage on CNN in USA. It seems like the US has finally woken up to the reality of terrorism in India. I was amused to read a few American bloggers write about the blasts as if terrorism has made a debut in India. They mean well of course. They just don't know that terrorism has been a problem in India for over 2 decades now. This is not Spain or Bali where terrorism just "arrived". We've been nursing the tapeworm in our bellies for ages. Five blasts in Srinagar. Seven in Mumbai. Twelve more ‘incidents’. So what should the government do, beyond the usual blather of “investigations are progressing”?  We have seen this, in a variety of ways, after the Delhi Diwali blasts last year, after the Bangalore attack, after the Varanasi bombs, after many Kashmir killings.  

Go for full-scale war against terror: says the BJP 

The BJP demanded ‘hot pursuit’ of terrorists in the wake of Tuesday's train bombings in Mumbai. Party spokesman Prakash Javadekar defined the ‘hot pursuit’ that he spoke about as a full-scale war against terror.  

Are we tolerant or timid; indifferent or insensitive; or merely stupid?  

Refer to Manmohan Singh weakest PM: says Mulayam Singh - The prime minister does not take any decision himself and all decisions are taken by the Congress President Sonia Gandhi, which is the real centre of power, he said. Refer to Online guide: Killing 'infidels' - ynetnews.com.  

Also refer to Puri Sankaracharya criticises PM's comment - Sankaracharya of Puri Swami Nischalananda on Saturday criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent statement that minorities have the first right to the country's resources. "This government will face the consequences," he told reporters here. He said even after India 's partition, Hindus have to raise their voices to demand their rights.

Refer to Massacre at Godhra - chapter Glimpses IX.

***

He, however, said that the war against terror need not be trans-border. "There has to be a hot pursuit of terrorists. There also has to be tough laws in place to tackle terrorism," he said. He parried questions on the release of terror mastermind Masood Azhar, who was escorted to Kandahar by the then External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh in 1999 in exchange of release of IA hostages, saying the current situation warrants a ‘hot pursuit’ of terrorists. He also announced that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi would be visiting Mumbai, the scene of deadly train bombings, as part of the party's two-day campaign against terrorism.

Senior party leader L K Advani will visit Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh and party chief Rajnath Singh will visit Nagpur during the campaign on July 15 and 16, he said. The spokesman also condemned Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's reported move to set free jailed SIMI activists, calling it an ‘electoral stunt’.

(source: Go for full-scale war against terror: BJP).   

Refer to If Not Now... - By B Raman - outlookindia.com and Where Is The Political Will? - By K P S Gill  - outlookindia.com - You cannot prevail over terrorism by merely using strong language in Parliament or in the media. It is perhaps difficult to find even one politician in the country who holds the national interest above the interest of his or her party.

Also refer to If Mumbai Falls.. - coverstory - outlookindia.com India falls. You and I know this. Unfortunately, so do the terrorists, the bearded fanatics who run Lashkar-e-Toiba, SIMI and Al Qaeda. And Mumbai says it's payback time - timesofindia.com and CIA help track bombers - mumbaimirror.com and SIMIwadi Party: Keep your mouth shut, Mr Yadav - tribuneindia.com and Silence of the lambs and Islam strikes Mumbai

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This is war, not terrorism    
Are we tolerant or timid; indifferent or insensitive; or mere stupid?

It is shocking that though through its well-planned terrorist attacks and demographic aggression, Pak-Bangla combine is waging a unilateral war against India, Indian government is treating the same as a routine law and order problem, and not responding to it. 

In the latest of such attacks, Pak-sponsored terrorists massacred 32 Hindus on 30th April, 2006 in Doda in Jammu & Kashmir. And as usual, the Indian Prime Minister just condemned the killings, appealed for peace and harmony, and did nothing to punish the killers or prevent such attacks in future. 

And the same Prime Minister had ritually condemned the killings and appealed for harmony after March 7, 2006 Bangladesh-sponsored attack in Varanasi which had claimed over 30 lives. And the government had gone through similar meaningless rhetoric after pre-Diwali Pakistan-planned attack in Delhi in October, 2005 which had claimed 71 lives.

It may be recalled that during 1980s and 1990s, Pak-sponsored terrorists killed thousands of Hindus in Kashmir forcing several lakhs of Hindus to flee from Kashmir. And after making Kashmir a Hindu-less region, terrorists have massacred hundreds of Hindus at several places in Jammu region to drive out Hindus. The recent murder of 32 Hindus in Doda is the latest of such assaults.

Lack of a deterrent Indian response has invited more such attacks. In 2001, 16 BSF Jawans were murdered by Bangladesh Rifles men without any provocation. But India did nothing to punish Bangladesh for these murders. Even Pak-sponsored attack on Indian Parliament in 2001 went unpunished. The year 2002 witnessed attack on Raghunath Temple in Jammu and Akshardham temple in Gujarat. 2003 saw Mumbai bomb blasts. In 2005, terrorists attacked Ayodhya, New Delhi and Bangalore. And 2006 has brought more of such attacks.

History of invasion

The recent attack on Doda is the latest of a long line of unprovoked invasions Indian sub-continent has suffered since Muhammad bin Qasim's Arab army attacked Sind in 711.  Starting with a zero Muslim population, Indian sub-continent including the present day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan and even a part of Iran was Hindu land till Muhammad bin Qasim's attack in 711.

After repeated invasions over the centuries, Hindus lost Afghanistan in 987. Pakistan was lost in 1947. And though Hindus fought bravely to defend their religion and motherland, they suffered the loss of millions of lives and plunder and destruction of thousands of temples during the repeated attacks for over a thousand years.

Are we tolerant or timid?

Are we tolerant or timid; indifferent or insensitive; or mere stupid?

Those lacking courage to confront their tormentors are timid; not tolerant. It is a fact of life that cowards always remain in peril since only courage can ensure peace. The adage, "if you want peace, be prepared for war" is true. But successive Indian governments have displayed only tolerance, and no action, thereby inviting more attacks. Since those who behave like sheep are eaten by the wolves, only a strong deterrent action, and no amount of tolerance or emotional shrieks, will save India from continuing Pak-Bangla aggression.

What must India do?

Venerable Chanakya's Chanakya Niti and Sun-tzu's Art of War as also countless lessons of world history emphasize the complete crushing of enemies before the enemies crush us. Enemies must be crushed; not embraced. Only the strong deterrent action can defeat the aggressors.

Will India fight its tormentors now to prevent grim tragedies like Doda massacre in future?

(source: This is war, not terrorism - By J G  Arora - Central Chronicle). For more refer to chapter on Islamic Invasion. Refer to Why my website was banned in India - By Rusty Shackleford - worldnetdaily.com.

Refer to Manmohan Singh weakest PM: says Mulayam Singh - The prime minister does not take any decision himself and all decisions are taken by the Congress President Sonia Gandhi, which is the real centre of power, he said.

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Yogic Maestro 

In 1952, BKS Iyengar, the famous yoga teacher, met the legendary violinist, Yehudi Menuhin. Their meeting was instrumental in introducing Iyengar and yoga to the Western world, as Menuhin (1915 – 1999) became one of Iyengar's devoted students. 

KS Iyengar and legendary violinist, Yehudi Menuhin. 

BKS Iyengar, the famous yoga teacher, met the legendary violinist, Yehudi Menuhin. Their meeting was instrumental in introducing Iyengar and yoga to the Western world, as Menuhin became one of Iyengar's devoted students. 

***

Year after year Menuhin brought Iyengar to teach yoga to him and his family and friends. Menuhin acknowledged Iyengar as his "best violin teacher" and continued practicing yoga until his death in 1999. Menuhin also introduced Iyengar to the Queen Mother of Belgium, who at age 82 learned to "stand on her head."

(source: Yogic Maestro - hinduismtoday.com). Fore more refer to chapters on Quotes and Yoga and Hindu Philosophy

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Biotechnology thrives in India
Hinduism doesn’t share the moral skittishness sometimes displayed by Western Christian thought

In India, Hindu culture trumps all. And although India is a growing hub of technological and biological influence, Hinduism dominates even the sciences.

India is ranked 37 among the 82 countries assessed by the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report for the “state of their information technology system and its effects on economic growth and productivity.” India’s biotech industry is also on the rise, with 500,000 doctors and nurses entering the workforce annually. Stem cell research in both the public and private sectors has grown considerably over the past few years in India, where politics or faith has not hindered its expansion. As a result, India is home to not one but three national stem cell research facilities.

In Western nations like the United States, however, stem cell research is a hot-button issue. Just a public discussion of the research has triggered furious protests and stirred up government officials. Not so in India, where the Hindu-influenced worldview pervades scientific progress and everyday discourse.

Hinduism, for its part, “doesn’t share the moral skittishness sometimes displayed by Western Christian thought,” said Arvind Sharma, the Birks Professor of Comparative Religions at Montreal’s McGill University. 

If no life is destroyed when taking stem cells from an aborted fetus, and the purpose is not evil, it would not disturb their morality, he said.

India is officially a secular republic, home to the largest number of Hindus and Muslims in the world. “Nearly every Indian, regardless of religion, is Hindu-thinking and lives according to Hindu culture and philosophy, ”For Hindus, this philosophy translates to a respect for all life, a belief in an immutable soul and the body as a vessel.

Even Christians — a growing population in India (refer to chapter on Conversion) do not have as strong criticisms of biotechnology as their Western counterparts. The reason is that Hinduism casts a long shadow even over other religions.

“Life and death are not points in a line. It is a Möbius strip,” said Shridhar Venkatraman, an engineer in Chennai who lived for 10 years in the United States. “All living things work toward escaping this cycle,” and so life and death are personal issues.

Hinduism, itself, is not a monolithic entity. “Unlike Christianity, Hinduism is not a codified religion with a single papal authority to pontificate on every subject,” said Jayanthi Iyengar, a practitioner of the Art of Living, in Pune. “You won’t find a position on these issues like the one the Catholic Church has on abortion or genetic modification,” Iyengar said.

“Hinduism has a fulcrum of pragmatism,” according to Lalitha Khanna, a researcher with a Delhi-based think tank. “What is good for making a better world is condoned, even eagerly embraced. Stem cell research, therefore, doesn’t bring out the fierce opposition that Christians in the West probably experience and evince,” she added. Religious mandates would be out of place here. “Every sect and subsect has a guru of its own and will not follow the religious directions of another,” said Khanna.

Cloning is also not a dirty word in India. “Hinduism will not have any major conflicts with engineered life forms of any kind because the tradition has always had multiple life forms and considers any and all of them as co-travelers on the Möbius strip,” said Venkatraman.

“We are culturally desensitized to the possibility of the existence of such things,” added Sharma. Case in point: The Hindu god of good beginnings, Ganesha, is human with an elephant’s head; the god Vishnu came to earth as a Narasimha — half man, half lion.

(source: Biotechnology thrives in India - By Chhavi Sachdev - Science & Theology News). Refer to Extremism in America.  Refer to Proving that Bible is Repulsive video - godisimaginary.com. Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com

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Christian Missionaries in Bali: Why they failed to convert Balinese Hindus?

"The pioneers and missionaries of religion have been the real cause of more trouble and war than all other classes of mankind." 

                           -  Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) American writer. Ira D. Cardiff, What Great Men Think of Religion, quoted from James A. Haught, ed., 2000 Years of Di.

Watch The Bible is Bullshit - Penn & Teller examine the Bible.

Watch video - Christian Missionary Misdeeds in India

***

The Miguel Covarrubias ( ? ) Mexican painter's book Island Of Bali talks about how Christian missionaries have tried over the last 200 years to convert the Balinese. Balinese culture, family life, daily life and social organization are all inter-linked with the Agama Hindu religion and its is hard to imagine anyone converting. 

Last year I talked to a young Mormon from Salt Lake City USA who was on a RTW trip. He said coming across the Pacific he had some success in talking to people about converting, but that he could not figure out what was going on here in Bali and that he felt slightly uncomfortable with the elaborate ceremonies.

Covarrubias elaborates on the history of missionary activity in Bali:

During the past century all efforts to Christianize the Balinese have failed, and the story of Nicodemus, the first Balinese convert, is already well known. Nicodemus was the servant and pupil of the first missionary who came to Bali. He allowed himself to be baptized after some years in his service of the missionary, but time went by and no other converts could be made, so the missionary began to put pressure upon Nicodemus to baptize others. The poor boy, already mentally tortured because his community has expelled him, declaring him morally dead, unable to stand the situation any longer, killed his master, renounced his faith, and delivered himself to be executed according to Balinese law. The scandal aroused in Holland brought about a regulation discouraging missionary activities in Bali.

This, however, did not stop the missionaries, permits were granted to them in 1891, again in 1920, and in 1924, when Roman Catholics requested special concessions, but waves of opposition from the Balinese thwarted these attempts. Meetings were held among the Balinese leaders to stop the catastrophe, and the permits were revoked. But towards the end of 1930 the American missionaries again succeeded in securing an entrance, supposedly only to care for souls already saved and not seek new converts. But quietly and ostentatiously they began to work among the lowest classes of the Balinese. The more sincere of the early missionaries had aimed at obtaining converts of conviction and consequently had failed, but these later missionaries wanted quicker results and followed more effective methods. Taking advantage of the economic crisis that was already making itself felt in Bali, they managed to give their practically destitute candidates for Christianity the idea that a change of faith would release then from all financial obligations to the community-all they had to do was pronounce the formula: Saja pertjaja Jesoes Kristos-I believe in Jesus Christ. If the man who was induced to pronounce the magic words was the head of the household, the missionaries claimed every member of the family as Christians and soon they could boast about 300 converts.

Hindu temple in Bali.

(For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor).

***

Soon enough the new Christian discovered they had been misled; they had to pay taxes just the same, had become undesirable to their communities, and were being boycotted. In Mengwi, where the missionaries had their greatest success, the authorities refused to release converts from their duties, bringing endless conflict with the village and water distribution boards. In many villages regulations were written into local laws to the effect that those who were unfaithful to the Balinese religion were to be declared dead; meetings were held to discuss the possibility of banishing the converts to remote parts like Jembrana, together with other criminals. The Christians had also become deeply concerned when they found out they could not dispose of their dead, because they were not permitted to bury them in the village cemeteries and all the other available lands were either rice fields or wild places. At times the situation became intense and near riot took place. The alarmed village heads reasoned with some converts and succeeded in bringing back a number of them to the old faith.

Covarrubias gives further examples of Balinese converting to Christianity not really understanding the meaning and converting back to Agama Hindu. He then goes on:

In the meantime, while the controversy rages on, the shrewd missionaries are steadily gaining ground. At present a Catholic priest and a Protestant missionary are stationed in Denpasar, and another missionary, a Catholic, is stationed in Buleleng, all three undoubtedly discreet but tireless in their efforts to save the Balinese.

The Epic of Ramayana in Bali.

Bali Ramayana puppet.

(For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor).

***

But Bali is certainly not the place where missionaries could improve in any way the moral and physical standards of the people and it is hard to believe, knowing the Balinese character, that they will succeed. Religion is to the Balinese more than spectacular ceremonies with music, dancing, and a touch of drama for virility; it is their law, the force that holds the community together. It is the greatest stimulus of their lives because it has given them their ethics, culture, wisdom, and joy of living by providing the exuberant festivity they love. More than a religion, it is a moral philosophy of high spiritual value, gay and free of fanaticism, which explains to them the mysterious forces of nature. It is difficult to imagine that it will ever be supplanted by a bleak escapist faith devoid of beautiful and dramatic ritual.

This was written in 1937 and to this day most Balinese are Agama Hindu. Obviously Covarrubias is totally against missionaries and in love with the Balinese culture, but what he says about the religion being the center piece of Balinese life is totally true, everything from the banjar, to the ceremonies, to the control of water, to life and death is structured around their religious beliefs. Take away that central system and much of the social fabric is gone.

(source: Missionaries in Bali: Why they failed - christianaggression.org).  Watch Sex Crimes and the Vatican video. Refer to World Conquering Creeds in chapter Glimpses XVI. Refer to Columbus, The Indians, and Human Progress - By Howard Zinn. For more on Bali refer to chapter on Suvarnabhumi, Glimpses XIII, Conversion and European Imperialism.  

Islamist group attack Bali - The 2002 Bali Bombing occurred on October 12, 2002 in the town of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali, killing 202 people and injuring a further 209. It is considered the deadliest act of terrorism in Indonesian history.

(source: Bali bombing 2002). Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com and Refer to Proving that Bible is Repulsive video - godisimaginary.com.

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The conspiracy of selective silence? International hypocrisy?
Indian Government does not react to demolition of Hindu Temple in Islamic Malaysia

When a mosque was demolished in India there was an international outcry, but nothing when a temple was destroyed in Malaysia.

A century-old Hindu temple was demolished in Malaysia despite devotees pleading with the authorities to stop the operations. Though the Malaysian Hindus were understandably upset, the Hindus in India did not react, which is fine.

The Malaimel Sri Selva Kaliamman temple in Malaysia.

The conspiracy of selective silence? When a mosque was demolished in India there was an International outcry, but nothing when a temple was destroyed in Malaysia.
India's "Secular" Government does not react to demolition of Hindu Temple in Malaysia.

Watch Demolition of Hindu Temples in Malaysia - youtube.com.

Refer to Hindu Rights Action Force - http://www.hindraf.com and policewatchmalaysia.com.

***

The Government of India did not react, which might have been right, had it not officially objected to the Danish Government about the publication of the Prophet's cartoons in a Danish newspaper. The UPA Government had even suggested the Danish Prime Minister to postpone his visit to India.

The International Herald Tribune published a cartoon depicting US President George Bush as Lord Shiva. Though an organisation, Indiacause, did find the cartoon offensive, most Hindus did not react to it. When Mohammed's offensive cartoons were published, Muslims all over the world, including in India, protested. One must not forget that the cartoons were first published in September and the protests occurred months later.  

Lord Ganesha statue destroyed.

Fake Secular Stupor? As for the world and the media, these too seem to have double standards when it comes to religion. 

There was a huge outcry when an unfrequented mosque was demolished in India, but nothing happened when a well-frequented temple was destroyed in Malaysia. Never mind that the temple was destroyed at a time when 300 devotees were praying there.

Refer to Destruction of Hindu Temples in Malaysia - haindavakeralam.org

***

Hindus did not react similarly when the Malaimel Sri Selva Kaliamman temple was destroyed in Malaysia, nor when a Krishna temple was demolished in Moscow. Hindus are not obliged to react like Muslims when such incidents occur. Even many Muslims, though they might have been offended by the Danish cartoon, did not participate in the protests. But should not have the Government of India reacted in similar manner to these religious incidents?

Secularism means treating all religions equally. If the Government can officially object to the point of postponing a prime ministerial visit on cartoons of the Prophet being published in a Danish newspaper (which had nothing to do with the Government), how can it claim to be secular when it says nothing to another (Malaysian) country about demolition of a Hindu temple - an act which done by the Malaysian authorities?

Perhaps the best policy would be not to react to religious incidents abroad, be it related to Hindus or Muslims. Religious occurrences abroad are not the affair of the Government of India, whether they involve the publication of offensive cartoons or demolition of Hindu temples. The UPA Government does seem to observe that policy, except in the case of Muslims. Is it fair to have different policies for different religions in a secular country?

As for the world and the media, these too seem to have double standards when it comes to religion. There was a huge outcry when an unfrequented mosque was demolished in India, but nothing happened when a well-frequented temple was destroyed in Malaysia. Never mind that the temple was destroyed at a time when 300 devotees were praying there.

(source: The conspiracy of selective silence - By Seema Sarin - dailypioneer May 3 2006). Refer to Malaysia demolishes century-old Hindu temple. 

Demolition: Swamy faults Centre's silence
Pseudo-secularism of India

"If a Hindu protests it is communalism where as if it is a Christian or Muslim protest it is secularism! "

Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy on Sunday found fault with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for not objecting to the demolition of a temple in Malaysia.

"When a newspaper in Denmark published an offensive cartoon caricaturing the Prophet... the Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh called up the Denmark Prime Minister to object to the publication of the cartoon," he said and added that after the "100-year-old Malaimel Sri Selva Kaliamman temple in Kuala Lumpur" was demolished, "the Prime Minister did not even issue a statement, much less call up the Malaysian PM."

Addressing presspersons here, he claimed that this was the second Hindu temple overseas to be bulldozed in recent months. Earlier, a Krishna temple in Moscow was demolished, he added. Dr. Swamy described the United Progressive Alliance Government's idea of "secularism" as a "one way obligation" and said that Hindus were ``under siege'' from international forces. He said that UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's nomination should be rejected because it was not in order. In the Register of Citizens containing the names of those granted Indian citizenship, there was no one by that name.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a Sikh and and Sonia Gandhi a devout Roman Catholic.

United Progressive Alliance Government's idea of "secularism" as a "one way obligation" and said that Hindus were "under siege'' from international forces.

***

How would the Malaysian government feel if the Indian government started tearing down Islamic mosques for redevelopment?

The Malaysian Government recently destroyed a Hindu temple in Kuala Lumpur which was located on government-owned land, and the Malaysian government wanted to develop the site. How would the Malaysian government feel if the Indian government started tearing down Islamic mosques for redevelopment?

(source: Demolition: Swamy faults Centre's silence - hindu.com and Friskodude.blogspot.com).

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Hinduism as a Danish writer sees it
Hinduism as an Atheistic religion

Hinduism is not a religion in its traditional understanding. All religions have a God and people worshipping in submissive way, following do's and don’t do's, dictated by Him in their daily life. But Hinduism does not prescribe any such.

Hinduism is life style, where human beings are exalted to God himself. Thereby it is atheistic religion, no God, everyone is God. All living beings, human, animals and plants do have an element of God, the soul and again a part of a kind of suzerainty.

Before 1829, there was no word as Hinduism. It was Christian missionaries that coined the name Hinduism to corner and identify of the religion.

It was known to Indians as lifestyle according to Vedas. The term “Veda” means wisdom to understand and to know oneself. In Vedanta, popularly called as Hinduism, maya, the unwisdom, a kind of mental darkness, covers the Godly element, as ash covers the embers, needs to be blown out to come to it.

Lord Ganesha with consort. 12th century.

Hinduism is life style, where human beings are exalted to God himself. Thereby it is atheistic religion, no God, everyone is God. All living beings, human, animals and plants do have an element of God, 

***

Therefore, we have no 10 commands nor any do this and that. It is all left to each individual how to blow the ash away.

It is both very good and very bad. It promotes individual capabilities but the collective society weakens, looses. It was therefore completely incomprehensive in any religious understandings. If the man can control himself, what God is to do? Muslims gave up to understand and used sword to convert Hindus and Christians.

Very heinous and barbaric crime is to deprive human to think and take decision. It was/is exactly why Indian society was so much divided, never was a unique unit. Every individual made a stall for himself, it is what we know now is caste system. Indian society was divided in various stalls without contact to the other. Wiser exploits unwise. This was the backside of the medal. All religions try to create a uniform society at the cost of individual freedom and have a rigid central control.

The present Christianity in the West, is slowly moving towards Vedanta understanding while Islam still waiting.

The central element in Hinduism is all moves in cycle around suzerainty, with no beginning and no end. There was nothing that evolves into an other soul. It was time when dinosaurs were dominating, now it is human beings are dominating the earth. No indication that human beings were not there, at dinosaurs’ time.

Lord Vishnu sleeping on a coiled serpent. Chalukya Period. Relief in Sanctuary # 9, Aihole, 6th century A.D.

***

The Hindu trinity, the creator, Brahma, did not create the human being on one fine morning at 5 o’clock, but a thought is created, an action is taken, a possibility opens up by Brahma, and Vishnu sees it conducted perfected, while Shiva ends it. Then all start again, that is how mathematical zero, was born in Hindu thinking. Karma ones behaviour, decides ones future.

Rebirth, therefore, is not ununderstandable thought but a natural part of life. A man is born again as man, cow as cow, likewise, as we all know there are no DNA between man and animals.

Dharma, another central point in Hinduism, is a kind of human behaving plan. It is neither, nor was decided by any central body, but by every individual for himself. It needs wisdom. It can be achieved by studying, listening and understanding the epics of Hindu and performing certain rituals, meditation and puja. It gives clarification to clarify the behaviour of humans in all situations.

What praying means to me: It is to get contact with God, who is in me. The few seconds contact, I achieve, gives me a state of mind, where I can identify myself completely with God and feel His presence in me, knowing fully well I am too a part of Him. As if some thing of me comes out as God and sometimes I talk to Him. It always ends with “I can do it.”

Hinduism demands all to carry their duties and take responsibility; therefore anybody can be a Hindu. It is, therefore, causing many suffocations and indigestion to Muslims and Christian Missionaries to convert Hindus by augmentations.

(source: Hinduism as a Danish writer sees it -  By Dhamu Chodavarapu - organiser.org). Refer to World Conquering Creeds in chapter Glimpses XVI.

(The author who contributes frequently in Danish newspapers (Nordjyske) has sent the English version of his latest article. He can be contacted at Kajmunksvej 21, DK 9600 Aars, Denmark).

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Don’t call us Asian: British Hindus

Majority of Hindus in Britain do not like to be described as Asian, but want to be called British Indian, Hindu or even 'desi', according to a survey.

The survey, 'Connecting British Hindus', to be published in the British Parliament on Tuesday, showed that 80 per cent of the respondents prefer to be called British Indian or British Hindus, rather than be identified under the British Asian tag along with others from Pakistan, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka.

British Hindus also voiced concern over a ‘general assumption’ that any brown-skinned Asian person was Muslim and said they feel "neglected, marginalised and misunderstood," according to the survey, carried out by the Runnymede Trust and the Hindu forum of Britain.

The survey, which questioned about 800 Hindus of different backgrounds and ages, found that some often felt ‘misunderstood and excluded’ from discussions on race.

(source: Don’t call us Asian: British Hindus - expressindia.com).

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The Media Reality in India
Which Media is controlled by whom and how does it derive benefit ?

a) NDTV: Funded by Gospels of Charity in Spain supports Communism. Recently it has developed a soft corner towards Pakistan because Pakistan President has allowed only this channel to be aired in Pakistan. 

Indian CEO Prannoy Roy is co-brother of Prakash Karat, Gen Secy of Communist party of India. He is also the cousin of Arundhati Roy.

b) CNN-IBN: 100% Funded by Southern Baptist Church with its branches in all over the world with HQ in US. The Church annually allocates 800 Million Dollars for Promotion of its channel. Its Indian Head is Rajdeep Sardesai and his wife Sagarika Ghosh. 

c) TIMES GROUP LIST: TIMES OF INDIA, MID-DAY, NAV-BHARTH TIMES, STARDUST, FEMINA, VIJAYA TIMES, VIJAYA KARNATAKA, TIMES NOW (24 hr News Channel) & many more. Times Group is owned by Bennet & Coleman. 80% of the Funding is done by "WORLD CHRISTIAN COUNCIL", and balance 20% is equally shared by an Englishman and an Italian. The Italian ROBERTIO MINDO IS A CLOSE RELATIVE OF SONIA GANDHI.

D) STAR TV: Is run by an Australian, who is supported by St. Peters Pontificial Church Melbourne.

E) HINDUSTAN TIMES: Owned by Birla Group, but hands have changed since Shobana Bhartiya took over. Presently it is working in Collobration with Times Group.

F) The Hindu: A English Daily, started over 125 years has been recently taken over by Joshua Society, Berne Switzerland.

G) INDIAN EXPRESS: DIVDED INTO TWO GROUPS. THE INDIAN EXPRESS & NEW INDIAN EXPRESS (SOUTHERN EDITION). Acts Ministries has major stake in the Indian express and later is still with the Indian counterpart. 

H) EENADU: Still to date controlled by an Indian named Ramoji Rao.

I) Andhra Jyothi: The MUSLIM PARTY OF HYDERABAD known as (MIM) along with a Congress Minister has purchased this Telgu daily very recently.

j) The Statesman: It is controlled by Communist Party of India.
k) Kairali TV: It is Controlled by Communist party of India (Marxist)
l) Mathrabhoomi: leaders of Muslim league and Communist Leaders have major investment.
L) Asian Age & Deccan Chronicle: Is owned by a Saudi Arabian Company with its chief Editor M.J.AKBAR.   

(source: The media reality - haindavakeralam.org). Also refer to Media in India - By N Ananth Padmanabha - india-forum.com.

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Freedom of the press (to tell lies)? 
Sterling Soldier of Secularism? Mr. Vinod Mehta, editor of Outlook lies, BBC pays

""The Indian press, like most of its Third World counterparts, puts a premium on all that is modern and condemns as degenerate all that is traditional...In order to put the stamp of legitimacy on modernization, we have to believe that the traditional civilization was inhuman."  

"Instilling guilt about the "evils of Hindu society" is indeed a favorite weapon of the secularist elite."

                       -   Professor Ashish Nandy is a political psychologist, sociologist and director of Delhi's Center for the Study of Developing Societies.

***

When a Saint of the stature of Sri Jayendra Saraswathi was slandered, it was the sacred tradition of Advaita Vedanta, the highest light of humanity that was slandered. When the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham was attacked, Sanatana Dharma, the root religion of all that deserves to be called religion, was attacked. 

Among the English journals the most virulent attacks against Sri Jayendra Saraswathi came from Outlook magazine whose articles were compilations almost exclusively of slanderous back alley innuendos, invariably attributed to vague police contacts and other faceless sources. 

The demonization of Sri Jayendra Saraswathi was internationalized on 28th January 2005 by the editor of the magazine, Mr. Vinod Mehta, who did not merely indulge in fibs. His entire article was a colossal lie -- by omission. Mr. Mehta passed over the Supreme Court findings as if they had never existed, for the pronouncements of the Apex Court would have demolished his viciously fictitious story.

To Hindus who happened to be listening to BBC Radio Four on that Sunday morning, the contrast between the dignified church services and the vicious slander heaped on one of their foremost religious leaders must have been excruciatingly painful. The BBC remained adamant about keeping the offensive article on their website, purged of the "errors and inaccuracies." The threat of legal action compelled the BBC to remove the article, apologize and reimburse the greater part of the legal costs incurred by the Acharya’s devotees.

The BBC got hoodwinked not just by Vinod Mehta but by the Indian media as a whole. Having accorded them the benefit of a doubt, one can’t help wondering why the British, after having plundered, divided and departed, still feel a pathological need to humiliate the Hindus. Would the BBC have dared to allow similar calumnies against a Muslim religious leader of even the lowest ranks? No, they wouldn’t, for obvious reasons. They knew that calumniations against the revered Shankaracharya of Kanchi would not bring them bombs and sundry forms of violence. Hence the platform given so nonchalantly to the pseudo-secularist Vinod Mehta.

(source: Vinod Mehta, editor of Outlook lies, BBC pays).  For more refer to chapter on Glimpses XII.

Watch The Bible is Bullshit - Penn & Teller examine the Bible.

Refer to Bush-sponsored Evangelisation of India -I  - By V Sundaram
Refer to Bush-sponsored Evangelisation of India -II – By V Sundaram
Refer to Bush-sponsored Evangelisation of India -III – By V Sundaram

Refer to chapter on Glimpses XVII - Indian Media's deep sense of inferiority complex. Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com.  Watch Sex Crimes and the Vatican video.  Watch the movie - Indoctrination in Jesus Camp. Refer to The multi-million dollar business called evangelism - By David Barnett. Refer to Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing of Kashmiri Hindu Pandits - And the World Remained Silent - Movie http://www.jaia-bharati.org/films/and-the-world.mpg. Watch video - Christian Missionary Misdeeds in India

***

To win brownie points they damn their own forefathers

The upper crust of Hindu society educated in a certain class of schools has always been notorious, for its scornful approach towards everything that Hinduism stands for. Anti-Hinduism certainly is prevalent in some sections of the English media. What has been missing so far is the why and wherefore of this mind-set, that is so destructive of all human values. Condemn it and the reaction is to call the questioner a communalist! One theory has it that being anti-Hindu is a password to international approbation. The desperation of some of our media intellectuals to be known as secularists is so great that they would rather damn their own forefathers and current Hindu contemporaries to win brownie points to the point that they would suffer any insult hurled at Hinduism gladly. There is a sense of shame in admitting that one is a born-Hindu. Only a professional psychiatrist will be able to anaylse the anti-Hindu mind in certain sections of the English media mostly run by Hindus themselves.

(source: To win brownie points they damn their own forefathers - By M V Kamath - organiser.org). Also refer to Media is a tool of anti-Hindu conspiracy - By Subramanian Swamy.

BBC apologises and withdraws article against Kanchi Shankaracharya 

In response to protests from a group of devotees of Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, the Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram, the BBC has removed from its website an article by Mr. Vinod Mehta, the editor of Outlook magazine. 

Further, the BBC has paid out £4000 for the legal costs incurred to obtain this out-of-court settlement. These devotees came together on a web-based discussion forum, www.kanchiforum.org.

The website article was the transcript of a talk given by Mr. Mehta on 28 January 2005 on BBC Radio 4 about the Sankararaman murder case. After months of protracted protests, the BBC Complaints Unit authorities adjudicated that the talk contained “serious errors” and inaccuracies on several counts. 

Mr. Mehta had wrongly asserted that the charge sheet contained several police accusations of personal misconduct by the Shankaracharya. The BBC has apologized for the errors and the delay in reporting them.

On a number of points Mr. Mehta’s account ran counter to the findings of the Supreme Court of India, made public some three weeks before the BBC talk titled “A View from India.”

Mr. Mehta had passed over the Supreme Court verdict in total silence.

(source: BBC apologises and withdraws article against Kanchi Shankaracharya Chennai (March 8 , 2006).

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Despoliation and Defaming of India: The Early 19th century British Crusade - By Dharampal

"Of all religions the Christian is without doubt the one which should inspire tolerance most, although up to now the Christians have been the most intolerant of all men." 

                            - Voltaire  (source: An Intellectual and Cultural History of the Western World - By Harry Elmer Barnes 1937 p. 766). Refer to Columbus, The Indians, and Human Progress - By Howard Zinn and Refer to Proving that Bible is Repulsive video - godisimaginary.com.  Watch The Bible is Bullshit - Penn & Teller examine the Bible. Refer to A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom - By Andrew Dickinson White - umich.edu.  Watch the movie - Indoctrination in Jesus Camp.

***

It seems that by the mid-1920s the British created images of India as depraved, ignorant, and wretched had got worn out. Hence the need for similar but newer presentation on India. Therefore, Miss Mayo’s Mother India, and a large number of similar works were written and published.  

In the mid-1920s Miss Katherine Mayo, hailing from the United States of America had made a long visit to India, was feted by the British Viceroy, and looked after his administration in her travels round India, and, sometimes later, she came out with a book titled Mother India.

The book was felt as an outrage, there was an around public condemnation of it in India, and perhaps elsewhere too, and Mahatma Gandhi called it “Drain Inspector’s Report.” 

The materials, speeches, and writings by the great Englishmen on India Mr. William Wilberforce (1813), Mr. James Mill (1817), and Mr. Thomas Babington Macaulay (1835, 1843), were far more virulent than Mother India, in their observations on India, and paint India in the darkest possible hues.   

The British could not generally conceive of coexistence of people of different ethnic backgrounds, or even of different religious backgrounds, as for instance, with the people of Ireland. 

The conquered in their view, had ultimately to disappear, if not wholly physically, at least as a culture and civilization. In Australia, and New Zealand practically all the local inhabitants were wiped out soon enough; in North America near complete elimination happened, over 300-400 years, and in Ireland only partially. The indigenous population of the Americas had been estimated at 112 to 140 millions in 1492. In India a large number perished by British brutality and deliberate creation of famines, violation of persons bodies and dignity; in Palnad in Andhra, half of the population was said to be have perished every ten years, during several decades after the subjugation of the areas by Britain. 

Mr. William Wilberforce, Mr. James Mill and Mr. Thomas Babington Macaulay.

The materials, speeches, and writings by the great Englishmen on India Mr. William Wilberforce, Mr. James Mill and Mr. T B Macaulay, were far more virulent than Mother India, in their observations on India, and paint India in the darkest possible hues.   

***

It seems as if the intellectuals and leaders of Britain hated India, and felt outraged that in spite of all their brutalities, smashing of Indian institutions, high extortions, and tortures, men made famines and expropriation of Indian resources to the British state, and thus the all round breakdown of Indian society, the Indians on the whole, could not be wiped out that easily.

Much could be said about the practices of European and British society during the centuries. Two of these practices are mentioned here. 

Witchburning

One of them, the more known, was witch burning during the 15-16-17 century which led to the burning of several million men and women in Europe, and around 1,00,000 or more in Britain. Some persons were still burnt as witches in Britain at the end of the 17^th century.  

Child Abandonment

The other widespread practice, perhaps beginning around the start of the Christian era and continuing till the 18^th century, was the abandonment of 20% to 30% of all European children by their parents. A large proportion of children so abandoned, died soon after in the very places they were exposed. A proportion were taken to be adopted in families, another proportion taken by the Christian church to later become monks and nuns, a few of whom reached high status in the Christian hierarchy, and the rest taken by other people and turned into slaves, prostitutes and the like.  

To illustrate what used to happen we may quote, the 18^th century European philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rosseau (1712 - 1778) wrote: 

“My third child was thus deposited in a foundling home just like the first two, and I did the same with the two following: I had five in all. The arrangement seemed to me so good, so sensible, so appropriate, that if I did not boast of it publicly it was solely out of regard for their mother….In a word I made no secret of my action…because in fact I saw no wrong in it. All things considered, I chose what was best for my children, or what I thought was best…” (Confessions: Paris, 1964, p. 424). 

(source: Despoliation and Defaming of India – By Dharampal  p. 1 - 17).  Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com. Refer to World Conquering Creeds in chapter Glimpses XVI. For more refer to chapters on European Imperialism and First Indologists.

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After 500 years, sheer chance reunites head and body of Hindu statue in Paris

A wife of the Hindu God Shiva, decapitated in Cambodia in the 15th century, finally has her head back, after it was discovered 500 years later on the other side of the world. A Paris museum dedicated to Asia, the Musée Guimet, is celebrating the implausible chain of events that reunited a divided masterpiece of ninth-century Cambodian art.

The headless body of a wife of the Hindu god of destruction and renewal was found by French archaeologists near the shattered temple of Bakong, amid the celebrated Angkor ruins, in 1935. The statue has been exhibited since 1938 at the Musée Guimet in the Place d'Iéna in Paris, which has the finest collection of ancient Khmer artefacts outside Cambodia.  

Lord Vishnu's consort: Goddess Lakshmi. Prasat Kravan. Angkor, Cambodia.

(For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor).

***

Last autumn, the museum held an exhibition on Vietnamese art which paid tribute in its catalogue to a retired American diplomat, John Gunther Dean. The catalogue recounted Mr Dean's efforts, as ambassador to Cambodia in the early 1970s, to rescue ancient Khmer art from the ravages of the Khmer Rouge, which was determined to expunge all record of Cambodia's past.

To thank the museum, Mr Dean, now 80, offered a gift from his own collection of ancient Khmer artefacts. Last month, the gift arrived, the sculpted head of a woman found at the Bakong temple site in 1939. "I asked him for a Khmer head because we only had headless statues but I didn't think for a moment about a possible match," said Pierre Baptiste, the museum's curator for south-east Asian art.

"I brought the head into our [Cambodian] hall looking for a place that it could be exhibited," said M. Baptiste. "I had a sudden notion the two pieces resembled each other but then thought, 'no, things never happen that way'."I put the head on the statue's shoulders. It shifted a few millimetres. I heard the little click that you get when two stones fit together and the head fell perfectly into place. It was as if it had put itself together. I still get goose-bumps thinking about it."

The reformed statue, which is 4ft 10in high, was beheaded in the temple when it was destroyed in the 15th century.

(source: After 500 years, sheer chance reunites head and body of Hindu statue in Paris - news.independent.co.uk).

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My Life History with the Pentecostal Mission - By An Indian Christian

"When I think of all the harm the Bible has done, I despair of ever writing anything equal to it."

                                                     - Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish author and Playwright who wrote The Importance of Being Ernest. 

***

Sir/Madam,

I saw your website. It was amazing. I am basically an Indian Christian I have enclosed my Life History in a txt File. I really feel that I would have born as Hindu. A religion, which has its own culture and their God who encourages the standard  and Quality of Their Own People (Hinduism). I wanted my self to convert to Hinduism. Please send me the necessary articles. Some 5 years before I was a preacher in Christian Church. I was a good translator in church. 

I would be Happy if you publish My Life History in your webpage to give awareness all Indian Youths about their own Life.

***

My Life History with the Pentecostal Mission. 

My Life is Pathetic History Because of "The Pentecostal Mission" which is one part of Group in Christian Community. During My 2 year of Graduation I used to attend the churches and do a lot of social activities, I have done it to build up my character and as a matter of Humanism. But I don’t know I was slowly mesmerized and I have become slave to their doctrines. They always speak of eternity (life after death). I got offer from ONGC as software Engineer in year 1999 January. I did not joined. I started working as a programmer in Engineering college nearby.  

Slowly my mind was captivated by their (Pentecostal) doctrines. After understanding myself after 4 years I wanted to come out from that. I came out but I am not able to survive in life.  4 times I committed suicide.  I am not able to survive in life. Even though I am getting offers in Many ISO and SEI CMM LEVEL Company.

My Father after seeing my situation died of a Heart Attack. I am greatly ashamed of being From Pentecost Community in Christian Religion. This is not the case with Catholics and CSI Christian Community. So I Kindly advised the Youth Community of India Not to join in such kind of Anti - Social Elements, which Ultimately destroys Life’s on many Innocent Engineers   and Qualified Youth Like us. I don’t know when I am going to commit the Next Suicide. 

I am Happy if this incident can brought to focus to our Indian Society to alert younger Generations of the Church that I served for 6 years. 

TPM (The Pentecostal Mission),
Pammal. Chennai -75. 

Regards.
Sanjay David. B.E (Comp Science), L.M.I.S.T.E. Life Member of (Indian Society for Technical Education). 
5/4/06

(source: Contributed to this site by email by R Sanjay David of India).  Also refer to a Critic of Pentecostal Mission and refer to Extremism in America.  Refer to Pentecostals widening influence - A new 10-nation survey of Pentecostal and charismatic Christians, considered the fastest-growing stream of Christianity worldwide, shows they are deeply influencing the Roman Catholic and mainstream Protestant churches and are poised to make a big impact on global affairs. Refer to Forced conversions: SC commission steps in - rediff.com.

***

Rejoicing in Hindu Revelation - Contributed by an Indian Christian - Alphanso D'Souza

I want to express my gratitude for HINDUISM TODAY.

It not only imparts the Vedic knowledge but has also given me the encouragement that I lack at times to hold fast and practice its doctrine and teaching. Dion Scouter Beggs (Conversion /Reconversion, Letters, Jan/Feb/Mar, 2002), said, "One merely has to drop the Christian dogma, and the dharma reveals itself unsullied. It is not so much a matter of conversion or re-conversion, but of reversion to the truth. How easy is that?" So very true! One sees the divine refulgence that Hinduism radiates, its love and respect amongst its people, and the desire to be a part of it becomes almost irresistible. But, as is often the case, past dogmas are so different that unless one lays these influences aside and seeks the wisdom imparted by the Vedas, revelation of truth can be hindered. I rejoice in this revelation of truth, and I am truly grateful and proud of being Hindu. Conversion to Hinduism was only as difficult as my resistance was to the truth, but never, ever has it been regrettable. Continue the great work!

***

Yes! Conversion Is Possible

I was really thrilled to read about the conversions to Hinduism (Nov/Dec 2000). I always associated conversion with people converting to Christianity! Past doctrines were brainwashed into me as a child: not to even read about other religions, much less learn of or convert to them! Your magazine has surely opened my mind to more reasons. However, I am not yet convinced that it is essential for one to be ethically [formally] converted from one's religion to Hinduism, or maybe I am just not courageous enough! As for me, I accept the teachings of the Vedas, and I live a self-professed Hindu life and see nothing wrong in it. Or is there?

(source: Rejoicing in Hindu Revelation and Yes! Conversion Is Possible - By Alphanso D'Souza). 

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In a storm of controversy 
MV Doulos, the world's largest floating book fair

“Christian nations have produced, and indeed in the name of Christianity, things even more hateful than the pariah village of India."

                             -  Nicol Macnicol (1870 - 1952) Professor and author of  Is Christianity Unique  p. 52.

***

Last week, Chennai port welcomed MV Doulos, the world's largest floating book fair, which has been listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest, active ocean-going passenger ship. 

Stocked with more than five lakh books, the book fair was inaugurated by Governor Surjit Singh Barnala last Wednesday and had occupied a major space in almost all the newspapers. And it was also said that the book fair would give an ultimate experience to book worms.

While all of us were thinking that the ship had brought a lot of cheer, it had also brought some controversies. Some visitors who had been on a visit to the ship said that the vessel is owned by Christian missionaries. 

'The crew was trying to spread Christianity among the visitors rather than promoting reading habit,' said a visitor who had been aboard the ship.

'Everyone who visits the ship is given a cassette which has messages of Christianity in it. Apart from that, most of the books in the ship are about Christianity. I had been with my family to the ship by paying Rs 50 for every person, thinking that we might get a good variety of books. On seeing this, all of us were very disappointed,' said another visitor.

'The only thing in which the crew members of the ship are keen on is spreading Christianity. Majority of books here are with Christianity content and the response from these people is also not good when we ask for something,' says Sekar, a bank employee. When News Today contacted Emilie Noteboom, project coordinator of MV Doulous, she denied all the charges and said they had come here only to serve the people. 'We have all kinds of books here including medical and children's books. We are here to spread hope and happiness among people. It is ridiculous to hear the charges against one of our crew members,' she said.

Refer to M V Doulous - Purpose on their website states  - Sharing a Message of Hope in God

(source: In a storm of controversy - By M Bhaskar Sai - newstodaynet.com). Refer to chapter on European Imperialism. Also refer to Mega-church Minister Linked to Paramilitary Video Game - You are on a mission - both a religious mission and a military mission -- to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state - especially moderate, mainstream Christians. and What the ‘Left Behind’ Series Really Means - yurikareport.com and Soldiers of Christ - harpers.org).

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To be comfortable in your second skin
Mindlessly Aping the West ?

I wonder why all of us men of the East have no confidence in our own traditions as far as dress codes go. Japanese men won’t wear kimonos to work and Indian men won’t wear kurtas. As soon as a young man earns his MBA, he retires all his Indian clothes and gets himself a wardrobe of suits. Never mind that the suit is completely unsuitable for tropical climates. 

But then it seems to start young, with men. First, they climb into jeans, which don’t suit our climate either. They are so hot in summer that when you take them off, you actually feel the trapped heat escape. In the rains, they get wet and take ages to dry which means you walk into an office – which has been air-conditioned to keep the men in suits cool – and you stay wet and cold all day. In the winter, they’re fine but how many cities in India have a winter?

And yet we don’t think of anything except triple spun cotton as denim. We want to be hot and uncomfortable. We choose it. What is this about? Masochism? Or simply a lack of confidence?  

A kurta would keep you cool in the sun; it would keep you warm in the office. Pyjamas of some natural fabric would let you breathe, and they would dry fast if you got them wet in some thundershower. And the cut of the outfit is far more flattering to Indian men than western clothes.

Now, all we need is for someone with a great deal of self-confidence to go and do it. The rest wouldn’t follow. The rich and powerful are status quo-ist at best and at worst, afraid of change. But it would be a beginning. And we would all be a lot more comfortable.

(source: To be comfortable in your second skin - By Jerry Pinto).

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Mantras of Anti-Brahmanism  
Colonial Experience of Indian Intellectuals  

"Christianity did not come with tidings of great joy, but with a message of eternal grief. It came with the threat of everlasting torture on its lips. It meant war on earth and perdition hereafter."   A Christmas Sermon 1891.

                 - Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899) Well known post civil war American political speechmaker and Secular-Humanist. Among his admirers were president James Garfield, poet Walt Whitman, General Ulysses S. Grant, industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, inventor Thomas Edison, and Mark Twain.  

***

Opposing factions in the Orientalist-Anglicist controversy in the 19th century shared a common understanding of Indian religion and society. Europeans from diverse ideological and religious backgrounds identified the Brahmins as priests and Brahmanism as a 'religion of the priests'. This common understanding derived its consistency from a Christian understanding of religion. Even the writings of Rammohun Roy and Babasaheb Ambedkar, this article suggests, reveal an unconditional acceptance of Europe's conceptualisation in a debate over religion that continued into the 20th century. 

Anglicists considered India to be corrupt. They believed that its culture was degenerate and its population irrational, retarded, superstitious and morally depraved. The Orientalists, on the other hand, genuinely sought to understand the foreign culture. Surely, they wanted to bring reform. But they were certain that a transformation could only be successful if it resonated with the mores of the natives. Hence, they studied the Indian culture, learned its local languages, collected and preserved what belonged to its cultural inheritance, and discovered a grand past that presented an India excelling in the political, social, religious and intellectual domains.

However, we would like to highlight that they turn out to be superficial when it comes to the assessment of the fundamental structure of the Indian society. Unerringly, both identified Brahmins as the ‘priests’. They both were convinced that these ‘priests’ had a negative influence on religion and society. Brahmins were held responsible for the creation and sanctification of the caste system, which brought social development to a halt. They accepted as true that this system consisted of a rigid social compartmentalisation and that it was created to preserve religious and social privileges of the Brahmin caste. They were convinced that the brahmins used their religious authority to dominate those in civil power which explained why the system of hierarchical castes was not contested by those in power as well, etc.  

Lord Indra - King of the Gods in the Rig Veda. 

Razmanama MS, Akbar School, 1598.

***

If there were differences between Orientalists and Anglicists in this regard, they were very shallow. Anglicists found Indian culture and society intrinsically corrupt from the very beginning. Orientalists, however, saw India’s culture as being based on sound principles which steadily degenerated. But the cause of corruption, however, was in both cases the same, i e, ‘Brahmanism’.

In this article, we propose that both the idea of religious degeneration and the role played by the priests in this process are derived from deep seated Christian conceptions of religion. On the one hand, the biblical story of a god-given religion that was subsequently corrupted through the course of time was the general framework that structured the history of Christianity and of all the other so-called religions. On the other hand, because Christianity assigned a primary role to the clergy, religion was an affair of the priests only. Consequently, the mechanism of degeneration had to be found in the priesthood: priests became the instruments of the devil and began to transform the original god-given religion. This understanding of religion, we would like to suggest, structured the European quest for the ‘religious’ elsewhere. Brahmins were identified as ‘priests’, who created ‘brahmanism’, which was imposed upon Indian society.

If this suggestion is convincing, the prevalence of Europe’s conceptualisation in the modern Indian intellectual’s reflection on his own society is nothing but remarkable. Even though there existed a long tradition of criticism of brahmins and caste in India itself, Rammohun Roy, for example, while criticising contemporary brahmanism vigorously, merely echoed the assessment of the British. Similarly, Babasaheb Ambedkar did the same a century later when he took up its sacerdotal invention of caste along familiar lines. By doing so, both accepted exactly that which Orientalists and Anglicists shared: they ended up criticising ‘brahmins’ as ‘priests’ and ‘brahmanism’ as a deprived ‘religion of the priests’.

(source: Mantras of Anti-Brahmanism - By Raf Gelders, Willem Derde).

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In Varanasi, Vedic studies go hi-tech 

Varanasi: Think of Vedic gurukuls and the mind conjures up an image of a Hindu purohit (priest) chanting shlokas, his batuks (disciples) repeating in unison.

Not anymore. Keeping pace with the introduction of computers at every level of education, Vedic studies have just gone hi-tech. Varanasi, the seat of Hindu learning, is now producing GenNext pundits well versed in computers.

Visit conservative bastions like the Shri Vidya Mutt and other ashrams in Varanasi and you will see purohits and Vedic scholars, mouse in hand, learning the scriptures on their computers.

"Abhi guruji jo bolte hain vo hum computer mein tipte hain (We key in the words our teacher utters),"" says Ganesh, a student of Praveshika (introductory) course in Vedic learning.

His Sanskrit teacher Ayyar says computers are facilitating Vedic learning. Though his batuks are more interested in computers than any other subject, he says they are making steady progress in all streams.

"While Vedic knowledge is relevant in all ages, we felt the traditional method of imparting it was out of sync with the modern world. Our students were developing an inferiority complex and Vedic learning was on the wane,"" says Swami Avimukteshwaranand of Shri Vidya Mutt.

(source:  In Varanasi, Vedic studies go hi-tech - timesofindia.com).

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Secularism is not just pleasing Muslims

The world "secularism" is unquestionably the most misused word in the Indian political language. In the Indian context it means that one must make a deep bow before the so-called minorities and give them no offence. Artist M F Husain can draw vulgar and indecent pictures of Hindu gods and goddesses, but one should not complain. One must take it in the "right spirit".

If deliberate efforts are made to convert adivasis or people from the depressed classes to Christianity there should be no protests. It would be against the spirit of the Indian Constitution. Missionaries have the right to preach. For years now the Congress has prided itself on its secularism, no matter how poorly defined.

To divide the people into Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Parsis, Jains, etc., is not only harmful to the country but is clearly anti-secular. It is not just the Opposition that has been shocked. One can hardly condemn the commander-in-chief of the Indian Army as biased. It is not the Opposition that is communalising the issue; it is the UPA government that is doing so even with the best of intentions. Good intentions are not necessarily wise decisions.

The government should be concerned with the economic betterment of all people and not of any one class, caste, creed or community. One does not become more secular by wishing one non-Hindu community well. Has the UPA government heard of the Vedic prayer: Sarve janaha sukhino bhavantu? The Sachar Committee and the UPA Government would do well not to appear to be favouring any one community.

(source: Secularism is not just pleasing Muslims - By M V Kamath - sify.com). Also refer to Sickening 'Secular Media' - By M V Kamath - cybernoon.com).  

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Now, a Frenchman's Mahabharata
The Mahabharata at Foix l'estive

The Mahabharata is the greatest epic poem ever composed by man. Fifteen times longer than the Iliad, it tells of a far off and mythical India. Covering love, respect, hardship, trickery, hatred and disappointment, the Mahabharata is the story of humanity itself. Told by the wise old man, Vyasa, to the elephant headed God, Ganesh, this story is our story, each and every one of us. Nothing that is in the world is missing from the Mahabharata.

The Mahabharata is the greatest epic poem ever composed by man. Fifteen times longer than the Iliad, it tells of a far off and mythical India.

***

19 years after the unforgettable production by Peter Brook, in which twenty-five actors of different nationalities performed, Massimo Schuster is alone on stage. Mixing the work of an actor, puppeteer and story teller, he manipulates the puppet-sculptures of the great Italian painter, Enrico Baj, in order for us to rediscover, with passion, one of the writings that shaped the world.

(source: The Mahabharata at Foix l'estive - Ariege Life).

Puppets have an ability to tell great stories, which is why French artiste Massimo Schuster has chosen to use them to narrate the Mahabharata.

"The Mahabharata belongs to all humanity. Everyone should know that there are great stories outside their own culture," Schuster says, justifying his choice of the classic Indian epic for a production travelling primarily in Europe.

Using waist-high, statue-like puppets with wooden sticks with wires for hands and legs, and Cubist-influenced faces sculpted from wood and metal, Schuster brought to life Ved Vyasa's tale, playing narrator, actor and puppeteer all at once. The puppets, designed specially for this international production by the late Italian sculptor Enrico Baj, were draped with many-hued dupattas of cotton and silk, with the colours representing the virtues of the characters.

The Pandavas were in varying shades of blue, symbolic of the vastness and purity, while the Kauravas were in black and red, representing blood and the dark-side, in an allusion to their warrior-caste.Karna, the son of Surya, was in yellow and orange, depicting his parentage, while Dhritarashtra, in purple silk, showed off his royal lineage. Interestingly there is no puppet for Krishna." There is an element of divine. It is for the audience to see him, in the course of my performance."

The choice of rather eclectic puppets - some with motifs like leaves and pitch forks - was because Schuster has an aversion to more popular forms of puppetry especially string puppets. "If puppets look like humans then I think human beings are better," he says, adding that "puppets have been used too often for little silly things." He emphasises that texts like the Iliad and the Mahabharata are necessary to encourage people to know and respect cultures other than their own, and especially important for a world increasingly subsumed by religious fanaticism.

That the story belongs to the world was shown in the influences that went into the production -- Italian-designed puppets, directed by a French actor, narrating an Indian epic in English, with a background score including Japanese drums and Mongolian vocals." The confluence reflects my love for India and my pride in being European," says Schuster. Schuster trained as an actor with the School of Drama in Milan, before forming his own theatre troupe, the Theatre de larc-en, thirty years ago. His fascination for multi-cultural productions has also been seen in his puppet-adaptions of the Greek mythological war-drama, the Iliad and the Ethiopian epic, "Kebra Nagast" (The Glory of Kings).

(source: Now, a Frenchman's Mahabharata - rediff.com).

“I am not here to teach the epic to Indians; rather it is my homage to India,” says Massimo Schuster, who is as much an actor and a narrator on stage as he is a puppeteer. “I am partners with my puppets,” he adds. Schuster finds similarities between the birth of Bhisma and Achilles, as well as the role of Krishna and Ulysses in the two epics. While he plans to return to the Iliad story in his next production, his link with India stretches beyond The Mahabharata. “My daughter Nora has married a boy from Kanpur. My grandson Soham is now a month old,” the 65-year-old grins.

(source: Tribute, string attached - telegraphindia.com).

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Sikh Fundamentalism?
Frescos of Hindu Gods missing

At least six frescos of Hindu Gods, including Lord Rama and Lord Krishna, which were unique specimens of the Sikh school of art of the Maharaja Ranjit Singh era have been replaced with Sikh paintings during kar seva at Darbar Sahib here.

The upper storey would be opened to the Sikh sangat on the 400th death anniversary of Guru Arjan Dev in June this year.  

At least six frescos of Hindu Gods, including Lord Rama and Lord Krishna, which were unique specimens of the Sikh school of art of the Maharaja Ranjit Singh era have been replaced with Sikh paintings during kar seva at Darbar Sahib here.  

***

The frescos were visible on the upper storey of the sanctum sanctorum of the Sikh shrine before launching the kar seva. However, Baba Amrik Singh of Dera Baba Jagtar Singh Kar Seva Wale, while talking to The Tribune, claimed that he was not aware of any painting belonging to Hindu gods on the upper storey of Darbar Sahib. He said most of the paintings were beyond recognition since these were destroyed due to seepage from the dome.

The frescos were unique specimens of the Sikh school of art, completed in 1824 during the regime of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. According to Sikh history, Maharaja Ranjit Singh got the gold-plating and interior decoration of the Darbar Sahib completed by taking personal interest.

The other paintings visible at the time of the kar seva were, however, preserved after a lot of painstaking efforts. Now, all 16 paintings which were revived by using a similar style and colours as that of the time of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, belong to Sikh Gurus, Sikh warriors and religious leaders, including Baba Deep Singh, Bhai Mani Singh, Bhai Ghanaiya, Baba Budhaji, the first head granthi of Harmandar Sahib, four Sahibzadas (sons of Guru Gobind Singh) and Bhai Gurdass. Some of the paintings depict Guru Nanak Dev flanked by Bhai Bala and Bhai Mardana. Jaswant Singh, an artist of Dera Baba Jagtar Singh Kar Seva Wale said specified colours were used to complete the art work and the paintings would last long as efforts had been made to stop seepage in the upper storey.

When Dr Kanwarjit Singh Kang, a renowned fresco expert, visited Darbar Sahib, Tarn Taran, in June 1971 in connection with his Ph.D thesis “Mural paintings in the 19th century Punjab”, several frescos were intact in the upper storey of the shrine. According to Dr Kang, though originally the paintings were executed sometime in the middle of the 19th century, the dome of the shrine developed cracks during an earthquake in 1905 and was rebuilt again and embellished afresh with murals.

In June 1971, the surviving frescos depicted mixed themes, including portraits of Sikh Gurus and scenes from the Hindu mythology.

(source: Frescos of Hindu Gods missing - By Varinder Walia - Tribuneindia.com).  

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Before European Hegemony ?
A Book review

Welcome to a world whose hub is India. To the east Southeast Asian gold and spices and Chinese silks and porcelain. From the west come carpets, dye, incense, gold, silver, and slaves from the Persian Gulf and Red Sea - gold, ivory, and slaves from East Africa. To the north, the Mongols control Central Asia and the Silk Road that Marco Polo takes to China. However, much like "westernization" is sometimes used as a concept in modern history, this was a time of "southernization" in an Asia-centered world connected by monsoon winds. Way out on the periphery of an overlapping Mediterranean network lie Genoa and Venice. Indeed, if Europe were mentioned at this time, most literate people would think of Constantinople - not medieval Western Europe, but the postclassical Byzantine Empire.  

A scholarship providing welcome adjustment to views that overstate Europe's precocity and importance before 1500. Europe was a peripheral backwater prior to its export of the Eurasian disease pool to the Americas.

(source: Before European Hegemony : The World System A.D. 1250-1350 - By Janet L Abu-Lughod - amazon.com readers review).

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Did You Know?

Word Ancestors

Linguists for hundred of years have been studying the striking similarities between Sanskrit, Latin, Greek and other languages. 

Not only were many words obviously the same, but in 1816 German philologist Franz Bopp (1791 - 1867) found that the grammar, specifically the verb structure and endings of these languages, was also similar. Below is a chart of six words for basic concepts in eight languages showing the connections. 

This becomes specially intriguing when correlated with DNA research indicating Indians and Europeans separated some 60,000 years ago.

Word similarities: A small selection of words in eight languages shows their remarkable connection to Sanskrit.

(source: Hinduism Today: July/August, 2001  p. 15).

(For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor and Sanskrit).

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Updated - October 28, 2008