Dear All, pl. continue the robust discussion on “Why are Christian Missionaries targeting India - III” below.
I have reproduced the last four comments for the sake of continuity. Please continue the discussion via comments to this post.
*** Comments from Why are Christian Missionaries targeting India - III ***
# ‘42,000 converted, only two followed law’
KANDHAMAL (Orissa): There has been a 66 percent growth in Christian population in Orissa’s Kandhamal region, which has seen attacks on Christians and churches. Of the 42,353 who adopted Christianity between 1991 and 2001, only two followed law to change religion.
According to data available with the district collectorate, the Christian population in Kandhamal was 117,950 in the 2001 census, up from 75,597 a decade earlier.
“The Christian growth rate in the district is 66 percent as against 18.6 percent for the overall population growth in the district,” District Collector Krishan Kumar told IANS.
Of the over 650,000 people in the troubled district, at least 53 percent are tribals, less than 20 percent Christians. Of the nearly 118,000 Christians, a majority has converted from Dalit families.
more here.
Comment by Bharat | October 27, 2008
# Crime Branch sleuths chasing Congress RS Member Radhakant Nayak
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
By Anurjay Dhal
Bhubaneswar: Congress Rajya Sabha member Radhakant Nayak is on run. If unconfirmed reports are to be believed, Nayak, alleged villain behind Swami Laxmananda Saraswati’s murder, is in trouble.
Crime Branch of Orissa Police looking into the brutal murder of noted Hindu saint has reportedly listed name of Nayak as an accused, who is very close to Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi for his Church back-ground and searching him in several areas for his role.
Sources pointed out that police might lay it hand either on Radhakant Nayak or his men. Nayak, a former bureaucrat, was considered the chief patron of Pana Christians and protector of the Church in the district.
However some adverse IB report against him came as a hurdle. In 2004 he was elected to Rajya Sabha on Congress ticket. Hindutava forces always suspected his hand behind the killing. Alleged involvement of Nayak would also help BJP to target Sonia Gandhi.
more here.
Comment by Bharat | October 28, 2008
# …On the other hand, Swami Vidyanand is white and Bhakti Swami Thirtha Krishnapad is an African American but are revered by all Hindus, regardless of race. There is no talk of white swami or African American swami.
My take: ISKCON have brown, white, black, etc Swamijis, and devotees from all color spectrums, race, nationality, languages. And they are nobodys concern, but the devotion and love to Krishna.
========
Christian church is obsessed with race
Published:Oct 26, 2008
The Times
It is a white supremacist mindset that claims “Pope Benedict XVI has created India’s first woman saint”.
Sister Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception is not “India’s first woman saint” but the first Christian, or more specifically Catholic, woman saint in India. India has many woman saints belonging to the homegrown faiths.
If race consciousness were not so pronounced in the Christian church, especially the Catholic church, she would have been a saint for the entire Catholic world.
After all, the media did not refer to Mohammed Siddique Khan, the mastermind of the London bombings of July 7 2005, as a British terrorist (although he was born in Britain) but as an Islamic terrorist.
Similarly, a Catholic saint, even if born in India, is a Catholic saint, not an Indian saint.
For instance, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, although he resided in the West for a great number of years, was always described in the media as an Indian Rishi, Yogi, spiritual master, etc.
On the other hand, Swami Vidyanand is white and Bhakti Swami Thirtha Krishnapad is an African American but are revered by all Hindus, regardless of race. There is no talk of white swami or African American swami.
Another noteworthy example of the Christian obsession with race was the picture of former Miss Deaf World, the lovely Candice Morgan, sporting a symbol of Hindu affirmation, the bindi, on her forehead. On April 15 2007, in an interview on the TV1 programme Spirit Sundae, Morgan stated that she was a Christian.
Many Indian Christians have taken to sporting such symbols of Hindu affirmation in the new South Africa in order to repackage their racism as culture, in order to segregate themselves from Christians of other races, especially black Christians.
Some Indian Christians no longer want to be buried in what used to be called “sanctified ground” but choose to enter the Christian heaven via the back door, the Clare Estate Hindu Crematorium, previously regarded as a “demonic” place! These are the clever ways of racism. — REALITY CHECK
http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/News/Article.aspx?id=870299
Comment by Bharat | October 28, 2008
# Hi to all
Check this website
Comment by Indian | October 28, 2008
Related Posts:
“Why have Missionaries chosen to attack India?”
“Why are Christian Missions targetting India?” - II
Why are Christian Missionaries targeting India - III
October 28th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Conversions, Missionaries in India, Current Affairs, Debates & Discussions, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Miscellaneous |
13 comments
First this weekend, a post by Sandeep in which he explains why Aravind Adiga’s ”White Tiger” is award-winning India-bashing. To Sandeep’s analysis, I would add this nugget (Hat Tip: Sh Kak; emphasis mine)
Michael Portillo, chairman of the five-member judging panel, praised The White Tiger…
“What set this one apart was its originality,” Portillo said. “For many of us this was entirely new territory — the dark side of India.
“It’s a book that gains from dealing with very important social issues — the divisions between rich and poor and the impossibility of the poor escaping from their lot in India.”
Next, a fascinating scheme involving “naked” streets (i.e. streets without road signs, traffic lights etc) being trialled in London which suggests that the apparently mindless chaos on Indian roads may actually be saving lives and increasing road-safety!
Brief excerpts from all the articles below:
.
Keep Reading…
October 18th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Conversions, Missionaries in India, Current Affairs, Distortions, Misrepresentations about India, Miscellaneous |
one comment
Was it the Maoists?
Orissa’s top ranking Maoist Sabyasachi Panda has once again claimed that the red brigade killed Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and four of his disciples at his Jalespeta ashram on August 23.
or Christians?
…The police have arrested Pradesh Kumar Das, an employee of the World Vision, a Christian Charity, from Khadagpur while escaping from the district at Buguda. In another drive, two other persons Vikram Digal and William Digal have been arrested from the house of Lal Digal, a local militant Christian, from Nuasahi at Gunjibadi, Nuagaan. They have admitted to having joined a group of 28 other assailants.
or both?
Admitting that Maoist groups in Orissa derive major support from minority communities, a prominent Maoist leader has said there was pressure from both Christians and Dalits to eliminate VHP leader Laxmanananda Saraswati.
…Noting that most of the cadre members and supporters in Orissa belonged to Christian community, Panda said, ‘It is a fact that Christians are in majority in our organisation.
Our supporters in Orissa’s Rayagada, Gajapati and Kandhamal also belonged to Christian community.’
UPDATE: ”…Police arrested two Christians in Orissa on Monday in connection with the murder of a Hindu leader that sparked weeks of deadly clashes, a killing which is also blamed on Maoist rebels…”
Related Posts:
The other side of Kandhamal…
Why are Christian Missionaries targeting India - III
October 7th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Conversions, Missionaries in India, Current Affairs, Politics and Governance in India |
10 comments
I have decided to move recent comments to the earlier post to this fresh post (mainly to avoid the overload of 100+ comments).
Please continue with your comments below
*** COMMENTS BEGIN ***
Comment by B Shantanu | September 12, 2008
Short excerpt from Mainline Churches Must Address Christian Fundamentalism, Says Scholar, August 14, 2008
CHENNAI, India (UCAN) — A communication expert has urged mainline Churches in India to counter growing fundamentalism in Christianity.
Christian fundamentalism has grown in India as neo-conservative Christian sects mushroom, says Pradip Ninan Thomas, associate professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Queensland, Australia.
Such groups use television channels to project “triumphalistic, narrow and sectarian understandings of Christianity,” Thomas observes in his new book Strong Religion, Zealous Media, a two-year study of modern-day Christian fundamentalism in southern India’s Tamil Nadu state.
The India-born scholar says these groups, which now monopolize Christian broadcasting in India, support narrow understandings of Christianity, and demean other religions and lifestyles, and their content includes anti-Hindu and anti-Islamic sentiments.
*** Keep Reading…
September 19th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Conversions, Missionaries in India, Debates & Discussions |
118 comments
From the original post by Dr Andrew Bostom, “End the Moral Idiocy on Kashmir”
*** EXCERPTS BEGIN ***
I participated in a forum on Kashmir last night at MIT in Boston, as this Muslim supremacist, jihad-inspired conflictreally a tragic ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Hindus by Muslim jihadists which began in earnest during the 14th centuryre-emerged in the news recently when the Indian government had the temerity to want to transfer 99 acres of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board…
…Please watch the video linked below, which chronicles in gory detail the brutal ethnic cleansing of some 350,000 indigenous Hindus from Kashmir during early 1990, orchestrated by Pakistan and its moderate Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto.
I was privileged last night to meet the astute, courageous, and passionate filmmaker, Ashok Pandit, who produced this documentary, And the World Remained Silent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCRFWStxV_4 (Part 1)
Focus on the time period 2:15 to 4:00 minutes, from part 1 above, and witness the jihadist speech of the late, much ballyhooed modernist reformer Benazir Bhutto. She was a jihadist, plain and simple; the head of what remains a jihadist state, our ally Pakistan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2vsztUdkpU&feature=related (Part 2)
Here is the text of the comments I delivered last night for historical background:
Islamic Separatism & Kashmir: A Panel Discussion Exploring the Relationship Between Religion and Kashmiri Tangle, July 9, 2008,
During mid-November, 2007, a grim milestone was recorded in the macabre tally being kept assiduously in cyberspace by blogger Glen Reinsford: the 10,000th attack by jihad terrorists resulting in some 60,000 dead and 90,000 injured since the cataclysmic acts of jihad terrorism on September 11, 2001.
Reinsford does not include combat-related statistics…His tally also excludes the genocide in Darfur committed by the Islamic government in Sudan…whose murderous ravages the UN estimated last year had resulted in some 400,000 dead, and 2 million displaced.
Reinsford identified three episodes of such continuous, mind numbing jihadist carnage which had perhaps unsettled him most: Nadimarg, Kashmir India (3/23/03), dozens of Hindu villagers roused out of their beds and machine-gunned by Lashkar-e-Toiba; Beslan, Russia (9/3/04), some 350 people slaughtered by jihadistshalf of them children; Malatya, Turkey (4/18/07), three Christian Bible distributors bound, tortured for hours, then gruesomely murdered by men who acted explicitly in the name of Islam.
These data should remind us that there is just one historically relevant meaning of jihad despite contemporary apologetics. Jahada, the root of the word Jihad, appears 40 times in the Koranunder a variety of grammatical forms. With 4 exceptions, all the other 36 usages (in specific Koranic verses) are variations of the third form of the verb, i.e. Jahida. Jahida in the Koran and in subsequent Islamic understanding to both Muslim luminariesfrom the greatest jurists and scholars of classical Islam (including Abu Yusuf, Averroes, Ibn Khaldun, and Al Ghazzali), to ordinary peoplemeant and means he fought, warred or waged war against unbelievers and the like, as described by the seminal Arabic lexicographer E.W Lane. Indeed, Lanes, An Arabic English Lexicon (6 volumes, London, 1865) is still used to this day by Muslim and non-Muslim scholars for definitive Arabic to English translation. Thus Lane, who studied both the etymology and usage of the term jihad, observed, Jihad came to be used by the Muslims to signify wag[ing] war, against unbelievers.
Keep Reading…
July 12th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Conversions, Missionaries in India, Hindu Dharma, Identity, Impact of Islam on India, India & Its Neighbours, Islamic Rule in India, Jammu & Kashmir related, Medieval Indian History, Modern Indian History, Pakistan related |
no comments
Some thought-provoking excerpts from: Does Europe have a Civilising mission in India?byJakob De Roover*, published on 16 June 2008 - Issue : 786.
*** Excerpts Begin ***
Recently, the European Parliament hosted a meeting on caste discrimination in South Asia. At the meeting, participants stated that India is being ruled by castes not by laws and that they demanded justice, because there is one incredible India and one untouchable India. The EU was urged to come out with a policy statement on the subject. One MEP, referring to the caste system, said that this barbarism has to end. This is not the first time. However, before the EU decides to publish policy statements on caste discrimination in India, we would do well to reflect on some simple facts.
First, the dominant conception of the caste system has emerged from the accounts by Christian missionaries, travelers and colonial administrators. Rather than being neutral, these accounts were shaped by a Christian framework. …Especially the Protestants rebuked the evil priests of Hinduism for imposing the laws of caste in the name of religion. They told the Indians that conversion to Protestantism was a conversion to equality. Thus, Indian souls were to be saved from damnation and caste discrimination.
Second, this Christian account of the Hindu religion and its caste system informed colonial policies in British India…
Building on the theological framework, scholars now wrote scientific treatises on Hindu superstition and caste discrimination.
The Christian mission found its secular counterpart in the idea of the civilising mission, which told the West that it had to rescue the natives from the clutches of superstition and caste.
Third, the colonial educational project had a deep impact on the Indian intelligentsia. Hindu reform and anti-caste movements came into being, which reproduced the Protestant accounts of Hinduism and caste as true descriptions of India.
…Political parties and caste associations were created to safeguard the interests of the lower castes. The elites of these groups united in associations and received financial and moral support from the missionaries and other progressive colonials.
Fourth, the Dalit movement of today is the product of these colonial movements. The notion of Dalits makes sense only within the colonial account of India, which had postulated the existence of one single group of outcastes or untouchables that was supposedly exploited by the upper castes. In reality, it concerns a variety of caste groups, with no criteria to unite them besides the claim that they are all downtrodden. Indeed, many of these groups are poor and discriminated against by other caste groups.
…In the name of the downtrodden, these elites establish NGOs and then travel from conference to conference and country to country in order to reveal the plight of the Dalits to eager western audiences and secure funding from donor agencies.
Fifth, when present-day Europeans rebuke Indian society for the barbarism of caste discrimination, they are reproducing the old stanzas of the civilising mission. Such a stance of superiority perhaps worked in the context of colonialism. But today, at a time when Indians buy some of the European industrial giants and Europe is in need of more collaboration with India, it is ill-advised to continue this type of civilisational propaganda.
In fact, such propaganda derives its plausibility from a series of assumptions that no one would be willing to defend explicitly. It attributes all socioeconomic wrongs of the Indian society to its structure and civilisation. The implication is that there is only one way to get rid of socio-economic wrongs here: one has to eradicate both the social structure and the Hindu civilisation. It is as though one would blame the racism, bingedrinking, pedophilia, poverty, homelessness and domestic violence in the contemporary West on its age-old civilisation.
The times have changed. As Europeans, we need to reflect on our deep-rooted sense of superiority and how this informs our moralising discourse on human rights in other parts of the world. To appreciate the impression we give to Indians with our statements on caste discrimination, just imagine a possible world in which the Indian government regularly castigates the US for its racism against African-Americans and the disproportionate death penalties, and the EU for the treatment of South Asians in England, Turks in Germany, women in Romania, the Basque movement in Spain, gypsies in Italy
just imagine Indian members of parliament consistently blaming the very structure of western societies as the cause of all these wrongs. Europe needs to wake up fast. The time of colonialism is over. If we do not change our attitudes, the irritation towards the EU will grow in countries like India and China. So will the unwillingness to collaborate. In the fast-changing world of the early 21st Century, Europe cannot afford this.
*** End of Excerpts ***
Related Posts:
The British Caste System -excerpts
Hinduism, Caste System and discrimination - Join thedebate
Caste, Varna and Jatis: The need for clarity in intellectualdebate
* Jakob De Roover is a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Research Foundation (FWO) at the Research Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap, Ghent University, Belgium.
June 26th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
British Rule in India, Conversions, Missionaries in India, Current Affairs, Debates & Discussions, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Distortions, Misrepresentations about India, Hindu Dharma, Hindu Social System, Human Rights and Legal Issues |
2 comments
From an article in UK’s Daily Mail today:
The Church of England was accused by one of its most senior bishops yesterday of failing in its duty to convert British Muslims to Christianity.
…The Pakistani-born bishop…was echoing concerns that many Church leaders are abandoning attempts to spread Christianity among Muslims out of fear of a backlash.
The bit that I found most interesting was this:
Synod member Paul Eddy…said that the active recruitment of non-believers and adherents of other faiths had always been a Biblical injunction on Christians, commanded by Christ himself.
But he claimed that many bishops were downplaying the missionary role of the Church and official documents often glossed over the requirement to convert Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs or followers of other religions.
I thinkthis “officially” answers the question I had raised inan earlier post wondering why Christian missionaries appeared to be targetting India?
The article went on to reveal that “…numbers attending mosque on Fridays will overtake those going to church on Sundays by 2050″ and an estimated “50,000 Britons had converted from Christianity to Islam over the past decade, while the number of Muslims becoming Christians was negligible.”
I wonder though whether Muslims are “allowed” to change their religion (see: Can Muslims change theirreligion?). As a commentator on Daily Mail’s website has pointed out, the punishment for apostacy in Islam is death.
The problem of course is that with everyone going around claiming that they are the sole purveyors of “truth” the stage is ripe for conflict.
Does anyone need more convincing why Sanatan Dharma may offer the best “model” for any faith and.or religion and why Hinduismmay be key toan inclusive, peaceful, liberal and tolerant culture in the 21st century?
.
Related Posts:
Of Monkey Gods and ElephantHeads
Christian Aggression in CauveryLayout?
Excerpts from The Dangers ofMonotheism
Why have Missionaries chosen to attack India?
and finally,Francois Gautier on Conversions
May 25th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Conversions, Missionaries in India, Current Affairs, Debates & Discussions, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Hindu Dharma, Islam & Reform, Sanatana Dharma, Spirituality & Philosophy |
19 comments
I recently came across The Whitewashing of History, by Nithin Sridhar. Nitin has kindly agreed to let me reproduce the article on this blog. Those of you who are interested in history will find here a devastating critique of current studies and interpretation of Indian History - which has largely been driven by leftist-leaning scholars steeped in their prejudices and with varying agendas.
The article looks at the now thoroughly discredited “Aryan Invasion Theory” (AIT), the impact of Islamic invasions on India and the red-herring of “Hindu vandalism”.
I have also included a selection of comments at the end.
*** ARTICLE BEGINS / LONG POST ***
The history of India has been whitewashed and distorted, first by European rulers, and after independence by eminent historians of India and their supporters the Leftists, Seculars and self-claimed Progressives of India to meet their own ends. They have painted the pre-Islamic invasion period as a Dark Age and have glorified the Islamic period to be very peaceful and prosperous.
Ram Swarup says, Marxists have taken to rewriting Indian history on a large scale and it has meant its systematic falsification. They have a dogmatic view of history and for them the use of any history is to prove their dogma. Their very approach is hurtful to truth. The Marxists contempt for India, particularly the India of religion, culture and philosophy, is deep and theoretically fortified. It exceeds the contempt ever shown by the most die-hard imperialists.1 Some of the common claims of these eminent historians are:
1] The Aryan Invasion Theory is true2
2] Large scale destruction of Buddhists and Jain temples was done by Hindus in pre-Islamic India.3
3] The Muslim rulers were religiously tolerant and Islamic rule was prosperous. The eminent historians deny the destruction of Hindu temples or the killing of Hindus at the hands of Muslim rulers. They also deny the religious motive behind the killing of Hindus at the hands of Muslim rulers.4
Let us examine the Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT).
Keep Reading…
May 18th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Ancient Indian History, Conversions, Missionaries in India, Debates & Discussions, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Distortions, Misrepresentations about India, Impact of Islam on India, Islamic Rule in India, Media Related, Medieval Indian History, Politics and Governance in India, Politics of Minority Appeasement, Saraswati-Sindhu Civilization |
20 comments
Some of you probably read20,000 Christians threaten to revert to Hinduismbut today I came across 12 Lakh Vanniya Christians contemplating reverting to Hinduism(by A.V. Ragunathan):
VILLUPURAM: Over 12 lakh Vanniya Christians in Tamil Nadu will revert to Hinduism if they do not get a fair deal from the church.
The church, that has not taken any worthwhile measures to abolish caste discrimination, should not put the blame on the Vanniya Christians for creating divisions within the flock, C. Arokkiadas, founder of the Vanniya Christhava Sangham, told The?Hindu.
The Christians were verily divided on caste lines and it became accentuated during the recent Eraiyur incident. Mr. Arokkiadas said while the caste Vanniyas, classified as Most Backward Class, had the backing of political leaders, the Vanniya Christians, categorised as Backward Classes, did not have the support of the church and had to fend for themselves.
Hereis more aboutthe Eraiyur incident following which20,000 Christians threatened to revert to Hinduism (by P Arul).
“…Exposing the deep-seated animosities and divisions within the fold, over 20,000 caste Christians of Eraiyur village have threatened to revert to Hinduism unless a seperate parish was provided to the Dalit Christians there.
A parish in Eraiyur village was devastated by violent clashes between two groups a fortnight ago. It all started with the Arch Bishop Antony Anandarayar permitting Dalit Christians to undertake a funeral procession on Church Road, a privilege they have been denied for more than a century…
Protesting against this, the caste Christians have boycotted prayer sessions at the St Rosary Church for the past three days.
Anandarayar assured that none would be discriminated in church on any ground and this has not gone well with the caste Christians who have accused the bishop of not considering the sentiments of the majority. They have also stated that by the decree an age-old custom and tradition has been broken….”
Beware. All that glitters is notgold..
Related Posts:
Why are Christian Missions targetting India? -II
Francois Gautier onConversions
and finally, Utterly shameful andinexcusable
See also: Does Indian Christianity allow Untouchability?
April 1st, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
A Hindu Identity, Conversions, Missionaries in India, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Hindu Dharma, Hindu Social System |
11 comments
Came across this very well-researched article last week that looks at the other side of the story of Kandhamal.
It is written by Shri P Chand Dogra, a retired IPS officer who personally spent time in Kandhamal earlier this year to find out the “truth” of what happened in the district.
Shri Chand Dogra makes a few interesting points in the article, namely:
1.�Hindu households and dwellings were also attacked during the violence and in much larger numbers - a fact that has been overlooked by most of mainstream media.
2. The roots of the problem lie in social issues rather than religious ones.
Keep Reading…
March 15th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Conversions, Missionaries in India, Current Affairs, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Distortions, Misrepresentations about India, Hindu Dharma, Hindu Social System, Media Related, Politics and Governance in India, Reservations, Affirmative Action |
54 comments
Some of you may have already read this.
Francois Gautier’s exhibition on Aurangzeb, based on historical documents and paintings, has been forcibly shut down by authorities in Chennai (after successfully exhibiting in Delhi, Puneand Bengaluru).
“…An art show at the prestigious Lalit Kala Akademi (LKA) here curated by journalist Francois Gautier was at the receiving end of moral policing when an exhibition on Mughal emperor Aurangzeb was shut down.Stating that it had received three complaints that the show would disturb communal harmony, police Thursday night burst into the exhibition, shut it down forcibly, took into custody three women associated with the hosting of the exhibition and seized some of the works on display.The exhibition of 40 paintings, including exceptional miniatures by noted Indian artists, gathered together by Gautiers Foundation Against Continuing Terrorism (FACT) were on show at the LKA from March 3.
The show included farhans (edicts issued by Aurangzeb) from the Bikaner museum and other material on Aurangzeb. It also contained two pictures depicting Aurangzebs army destroying the Somnath temple in Gujarat and the Kesava Rai temple in Mathura.” [news-report]
Anotherreport mentions that the show was cancelled following some objections but does not mention that three ladies were arrested (It cryptically refers to four people).
Overall the Indian media and intellegentsia has been conspicuous by their silence on the matter.
Will Ms Arundhati Roy, esteemed Shabana Azmi and allother champions of free speech please stand up and defend the right of Francois Gautier to continue with this exhibition?
This report claims that the exhibition was cancelled
“…in the wake of some Muslim outfits and Hindu organisations failing to see eye to eye on some of the portraits on display.
Trouble started when some Muslim organisations and Prince of Arcot Nawab Mohammed Abdul Ali took up cudgels against some portraits, claiming it would disturb peace in the state and demanded the expo ‘Aurangzeb as he was according to Mughal records’ be cancelled.”
For those ofyouwho may not be familiar with FACT, here is some more informationand here is Francois Gautier himself, explaining what it is all about: “The truth about Aurangzeb“. Excerpts:
“….Why an exhibition on Aurangzeb, some may ask.
Firstly, I have been a close student of Indian history, and one of its most controversial figures has been Aurangzeb (1658-1707). It is true that under him the Mughal empire reached its zenith, but Aurangzeb was also a very cruel ruler ? some might even say monstrous.
What are the facts? Aurangzeb did not just build an isolated mosque on a destroyed temple, he ordered all temples destroyed, among them the Kashi Vishwanath temple, one of the most sacred places of Hinduism, and had mosques built on a number of cleared temple sites.
Other Hindu sacred places within his reach equally suffered destruction, with mosques built on them. A few examples: Krishna’s birth temple in Mathura; the rebuilt Somnath temple on the coast of Gujarat; the Vishnu temple replaced with the Alamgir mosque now overlooking Benares; and the Treta-ka-Thakur temple in Ayodhya.
The number of temples destroyed by Aurangzeb is counted in four, if not five figures.
Keep Reading…
March 8th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Conversions, Missionaries in India, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Distortions, Misrepresentations about India, Indian Media, Islamic Rule in India, Medieval Indian History, Politics of Minority Appeasement |
21 comments
Read this eye-opening report on Ladakhby Tarun Vijayin the Times of India in full…(Anirban, thanks for alerting me to this)
Excerpts below:
“…Of late Ladakh has been witnessing a continuous trespassing by Chinese shepherds and soldiers in Chushul area where we fought a famous war of Trishul mountains led by Major Shaitan Singh (who received Param Vir Chakra after his and his brave men’s bodies were discovered one year after their martyrdom) and in the vast grass lands near Demchok.
…Chinese are known to enter our region in a clandestine manner. In the initial stage they would do it through innocent passages into our territory using shepherds, soldiers and traders. If caught, they would say, oh nothing to worry we simply went wayward.
If not, it continues for years, the intruders would leave their marks, some properties and cattle too. Make some permanent bases. Later these small ‘marks’ would be used to claim that ’since ages’ Chinese have been using that piece of land - see the ‘proofs’!
We were caught napping during Kargil intrusion. When patriotic Ladakhi shepherds told the Army about Pakistani intrusions initially, it was not taken seriously. In the same way alarms about the latest Chinese intrusion are being taken lightly and in some ’strategic’ quarters its being suggested that such talks would hamper the growing trade between the two nations.
…
Now a few facts:
Out of 2,22,236 sq kms of the J&K state, Jammu has 26,293 sq kms and Ladakh 1,38,942 sq kms. It must be remembered that 78,114 sq kms of the state is under illegal occupation of Pakistan, 37,555 sq kms under illegal occupation of China and 5,180 sq kms have been illegally handed over to China by Pakistan.
While Ladakh constitutes 69.60 % of the state’s total land area, Kashmir valley, the most turbulent and vocal one is just 11.48 % and Jammu 18.92 %. Within Ladakh, Buddhist majority district Leh has 45,110 sq kms and Shia Muslim majority district Kargil has 13,000 sq kms. While Kargil has shown an extraordinary growth in population of 17.34 % in the years between 1981to 1991, Leh population grew at the rate of just 9.10 %. Even in Leh district the population of Muslims increased from 15.32 % in 1981 to 18.37 % in 1991 (projected).
Buddhists fear an assault on their culture and traditions through the conversion of Buddhist girls and a planned effort to outnumber Buddhists through a population aggression.
In 1992 an agreement was signed between the Ladakh Muslim Association and Ladakh Buddhist Association, the supreme organization of Ladakh representing Buddhists, at the intervention of Ministry of Home Affairs ensuring that the Buddhists converted to Islam shall be allowed to return to their original faith, but the Muslims never honoured the agreement.
The following points were raised by the Buddhist Association in a memorandum to the Central Government -
…Twelve villages with hamlets of Buddhists, comprising 651 families (numbering app. 5000 persons) located at 40 to 60 kms from Kargil town were targeted for conversions. Till 2002, 72 boys and girls were converted to Islam as per the survey conducted by the Ladakh Buddhist Association.
3. Muslims of Kargil are not allowing the LBA to repair and reconstruct a 40 year old. Gompa comprising three rooms and at present lying in shambles.
4. Cremation of dead Buddhists is not allowed at Kargil and the body has to be moved at a remote Buddhist area.
5. No Buddhist Sarai is allowed to be constructed at Kargil though there has been a demand for the last 35 years.
6. Six new mosques have been constructed at Leh town during 1989-99 in close vicinity of Buddhist habitations and in a planned manner more than 540 Muslim families have been settled at Leh, majority of them coming from Kargil.
7. Kargil has 20% Buddhist population. Yet (a) only one Buddhist was appointed as patwari out of 24 patwaris, the rest were all Muslims. (b) In 1998, 40 employees for class IV were appointed in education department, out of these only one was Buddhist, that too after his conversion to Islam.
Similar complaints, with proven statistics were given regarding discrimination against Buddhists in the Kashmir Administrative Services (KAS), admission to medical and engineering colleges, and allocation of development funds received from the Centre. Needless to say such discriminations would fuel the anger and communalise the polity in an ugly manner if proper corrections are not made immediately.
…
No government has considered the complaints of the local Ladakhi Buddhists seriously.
(By the way conversions were not limited to Islam)
…President of Ladakh Buddhist Association Mr Samphal…has requested the Union Home Minister to intervene and ensure that 39 Buddhist students who had been taken away from Ladakh by some Christian missionaries were brought back to the land of lamas before they were forced to adopt Christianity.’ (Jan 12, 2000, Tribune News Service).
When the UPA government took over, the first thing they did to Ladakh was to change the name of the world famous Sindhu Darshan Festival to Ladakh Singhey Khabab Spring Festival because, as the minister stated on record, the name Sindhu Darshan smacked of ‘Hindu Darshan’! This is the attitude towards the national integration of this secular government.
…
Himalayas, was once called the unconquerable security wall of the grand Aryavarta i.e. Hindustan. The myth fell apart in ‘62 aggression by the Chinese and still neither the younger generation nor the sunset leadership in politics seems to be much bothered about securing the security wall, nature had so thoughtfully gifted us.
From J&K to Arunachal, we have Ladakh, Himachal, Uttaranchal, UP and Bihar’s border area with Nepal, Sikkim and Assam reaching up to the Tawang region of Arunachal on this belt.
Not a single spot can be said to be a secure and unthreatened one and the fears of disturbance are increasing by the day on this entire belt.
***
When will we wake up?
RelatedPosts:
Arunachal: Sleepwalking into adisaster
Dancing with theDragon
India, China and Arunachal Pradeshare we missing something?
January 31st, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
China related, Conversions, Missionaries in India, Hindu Dharma, Jammu & Kashmir related, Pakistan related, Politics and Governance in India, Politics of Minority Appeasement |
5 comments
…Wall Street Journal thinks so.
And if the eminent WSJ says so (in a title, no less), it must be true, right?
During lastweekend, came acrossthis half-baked opinion passing off as a news-story (Note: this article is not available for free viewing; Subscription only) “How a Muslim Billionaire Thrives in Hindu India” - note the last two words.
It is written by Yaroslav Trofimov.
If the name rings a bell, there is a reason.
He tried to better his own record in this piece from a few days ago (Sept 19): “In India, ‘Untouchables’ Convert To Christianity - and Face Extra Bias” (Note: this article is not available for free viewing; Subscription only).
Do read Retributions’ review of the Azim Premji article andBarbarIndian’s take on it.
.
UPDATED:Additional posts that have have somerelevance to this (in the broader context)
Of Turkey, Secular States andReligion
Hinduism as a secularconcept
P.S. Thanks to “An only mouse” (see comment #4) for alerting me to this article, “A Nation of Christians Is Not a Christian Nation“. I found this sentence very interesting:
“The founders (of US) were not anti-religion. Many of them were faithful in their personal lives, and in their public language they evoked God.
They grounded the founding principle of the nation that all men are created equal in the divine. But they wanted faith to be one thread in the countrys tapestry, not the whole tapestry.”
Food for thought, I think.
October 7th, 2007
Posted by
B Shantanu |
An Indian Identity, Conversions, Missionaries in India, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Distortions, Misrepresentations about India, Hindu Social System, Media Related, Reservations, Affirmative Action |
20 comments
Thanks to Shadow Warrior on whose blog I first came acrossthisextraordinary piece of reporting: “Who says Indian Media isn’t biased?“*about the mass conversion of Dalits into Buddhism last Sundayin Mumbai.
After reading that, I was left wonderinghow many actually converted (the point is not trivial and this is not about conversions per se - I will write a separate post on that)…but the links below illustrate - once again - how sloppy, inaccurate and biased reporting passes for respectable journalism in India these days… Now read on (Ihave added The Hindu, TOI, Rediff and several other sources to the original post):
Here is the puzzle- just how many Dalits converted to Buddhism last Sunday in Mumbai?
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The Hindu’s front page news story “One lakh people convert to Buddhism”
The Times of India:”Though the number of people present at Mahalaxmi Race Course was a little less than the expected figure of 100,000, it was definitely one of the biggest mass conversions in modern Indian history”
NDTV:It was the biggest mass conversion in recent history as over one lakh Hindu tribals converted to Budhism in Mumbai on Sunday”
Rediff: “Failing to find an identity in the caste-dominated Indian society even 60 years after independence, about 50,000 Dalits converted at the function”
Reuters: “About 50,000 Indian low-caste Hindus and nomadic tribespeople converted to Buddhism before a vast crowd on Sunday in the hope of escaping the rigidity of the ancient Hindu caste system and finding a life of dignity”
IHT (Via Associated Press): “About 2,000 low-caste Hindu Indians bowed before orange-robed monks and recited prayers as they converted to Buddhism in a mass ceremony Sunday that they said would bring them dignity in a society that considers them “untouchables.”
MSN India mentioned the same figure (2000) as did AOL.
BBC: “Several thousand tribal and Dalit Hindus in India have converted en masse to Buddhism at a ceremony in Mumbai….”We estimate that close to 5,000 Dalits have chosen the path towards Buddhism by the end of the day,” said Shravan Gaikwad, representative of the Samatha Sainik Dal, a Dalit group…. ….the number of people converted was much less than the 100,000 expected…says the BBC’s Zubair Ahmed.
Same number (5000) has been reported by Yahoo News.
*****
Now to a more serious point…Is there still any doubt in anyone’s mind why the caste system is the biggest stumbling block in getting Hindus to unite?
Related posts:
Utterly shameful and inexcusable
Periyar was against Brahminism, not Brahmins(excerpts)
The great joke that is Indianmedia
*****
Please keep sending me links to other similar stories either via email ( jai DOT dharma AT gmail.com) or via comments here - pl. note that when you leave a comment, your email is NOT published.
.
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June 2nd, 2007
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Conversions, Missionaries in India, Current Affairs, Distortions, Misrepresentations about India, Hindu Social System, Indian Media, Media Related |
2 comments
