….and a deja-vu moment.
Courtesy Sridhar, this news-item from earlier today: Karuna does it again, flays Hindus for sporting tilaks
Flaying the Hindu practice of smearing ash or saffron or sporting a ’tilak’ on the forehead for yet another time, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi questioned the need for ‘such things in a country which preached equality of all religions’.
which reminded me of Don’t wear a “tilak” to work ! …
…and of Mark Tully’s memorable quote:
Secular fundamentalism is alive and kicking in India too.
Next target, Sanskrit?
P.S. I doubt that Thiru Karunanidhi needs any education in the significance of either a Tilak or a “Bindu/ Pottu” in Hinduism but I thought it would be nice to refresh my own memory.
A brief excerpt from Ten Questions about Hinduism on the “Bindu/ Pottu”:
Question Eight: Why do many Hindus wear a dot near the middle of their forehead?
A: The dot worn on the forehead is a religious symbol. It represents divine sight and shows that one is a Hindu. For women, it is also a beauty mark.
Longer answer: The dot worn between the eyes or in the middle of the forehead is a sign that one is a Hindu. It is called the bindi in the Hindi language, bindu in Sanskrit and pottu in Tamil. In olden days, all Hindu men and women wore these marks, and they both also wore earrings. Today it is the women who are most faithful in wearing the bindi.
The dot has a mystical meaning. It represents the third eye of spiritual sight, which sees things the physical eyes cannot see. Hindus seek to awaken their inner sight through yoga. The forehead dot is a reminder to use and cultivate this spiritual vision to perceive and better understand life’s inner workings…to see things not just physically, but with the “mind’s eye” as well.
…In addition to the simple dot, there are many types of forehead marks, known as tilaka in Sanskrit. Each mark represents a particular sect or denomination of our vast religion. We have four major sects: Saivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism and Smartism. Vaishnava Hindus, for example, wear a v-shaped tilaka made of white clay. Elaborate tilakas are worn by Hindus mainly at religious events, though many wear the simple bindi, indicating they are Hindu, even in the general public.
Related Posts:
“Who is this Ram?” - Will Thiru Karunanidhi look at this evidence?
If you thought banning a “tilak” was funny, think again
November 6th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
A Hindu Identity, Current Affairs, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Hindu Dharma, Hindu Social System, Sanatana Dharma, Spirituality & Philosophy, Women in Hinduism & India |
7 comments
…aka “The Great Joke that is Indian Media - Part VIII” or…one standard for Sadhvi Pragya and another for Mohammed Shakeel & Zia-ur-Rehman.
On Oct 23, NDTV reported that
The Maharashtra ATS “…claim that they have evidence that Hindu groups were involved in the blast” in Malegaon
Note that although there was only one (single) blast, the headline of the story says: “Police claim to crack Malegaon blasts case” (notice the plural?)
The NDTV report also mentioned that
Evidence of a Hindu group’s involvement was found while tracing the origins of a scooter found in Malegaon.
The Times of India later quoted Jt Commissioner of Police (ATS) saying that
There is no specific organisation to which the three belong…
The ToI report also mentioned:
The Joint Commissioner denied they had found any links between the trio and other right wing groups like Sanatan Sanstha in Maharashtra whose members were accused of carrying out blasts in Navi Mumbai and Thane earlier this year.
To my untrained mind (and speaking as a layman), it reads like Sadhvi Pragya has so far only been accused not convicted…
If you only rely on the English MSM (mainstream media) though, you may have missed that. Also, I have not seen anyone rising to her defence yet…
Quite a contrast to the students of Jamia who are allegedly involved in the terrorist blasts (as in plural) in Delhi. In a statement issued Sept 22nd, their Vice-Chancellor Mushirul Hasan said:
…the university feels morally bound to defend its students until proven guilty and we will use the legal apparatus for this purpose.
Very good.
Sadly Sadhvi Pragya does not belong to any university and appears to be short on any kind of support.
Also Mushirul Hasan almost got away with accusing the police of lying about the involvement of Jamia students in the Delhi attack:
On Saturday, I informed the minister for human resource development, the secretary and joint secretary of the MHRD and the chairman of the University Grants Commission that Jamia students had no connection with the unfortunate incident.” However, he simultaneously confirms that two of the students picked up by the police on Sunday are on the rolls of the university. [ link ]
…but I have not seen any one accusing the Maharashtra ATS of that (yet).
I would like to end with a quote by Prof Hasan:
“ (the students)…cannot be branded as terrorists until proven guilty — and if they are proven guilty by the court of law, not a tear will be shed by anyone.”
Amen.
P.S.Did anyone notice that the Sadhvi has been cleared of any involvement in the Modasa blast?
…Sabarkantha DSP KK Mysorewala also reached the city to question the Sadhvi in relation with Modasa blast. He gave her clean chit in the case.
“I interrogated the Sadhvi but didn’t find anything that could link her to Modasa blast,” he said.
Related Posts:
“The great joke that is Indian Media” series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, and Part 7
Malegaon, SIMI, “rule in and rule out”…
and finally, a thought-provoking piece by Sandhya Jain: Karachi, Kansas, Kurukshetra.
November 2nd, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Hindu Dharma, Human Rights and Legal Issues, Indian Media, Politics and Governance in India, Terrorism in India |
16 comments
I received this email yesterday and could not stop before reading it right through to the end…It is a long read…quite a long read, in fact. And it is seriously thought-provoking. Below, excerpts from a speech delivered by Sh. Gurumurthy at IIT Chennai in 2003 which - although five years old - still retains its and relevance and punch. This is a *must read*.
*** Excerpts from “The Intellectual Scene in Post-Independence India“ by Sh Gurumurthy ***
A critical review of strengths and weaknesses
… Defeat and anger go together. Abuse and defeat go together. So, it is in this norm and with this understanding of what an intellectual debate means, I would like to place before you some of my thoughts today. Some of may find it provocative. I am confident that the audience is competent enough to absorb this and think rather than get into the mood which all of us have got used to in the last 30-40 years abuse.
Background: India before Independence
Let us see the pre-independence background, the intellectual content of India. See the kind of personalities who led the Indian mind Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Gandhiji, Tilak- giants in their own way. Most of them were involved in politics, active politics, day-to-day politics, handling men, walking on the road, addressing meetings, solving problems between their followers. And, meeting the challenges posed by the enemy, the conspiracies hatched against them. They were handling everything, yet, they were maintaining an intellectual supremacy, and a record and an originality which history has recorded.
Let us look at the academic side. Whether it is a P. C. Ray who wrote on Indian Chemistry in 1905 or Sir C. V. Raman who wrote about mridangam, tabala, and violin, and saw the Physics in it (this was in 1913); whether it was R. C. Majumdar or Radhakumud Mukherjee who saw greatness in the Indian Civilization; trying to bring up points, instances, historical evidence to mirror the greatness of India, to the defeated Indian race, they were all building the Indian mind brick by brick. Sri Aurobindo spoke of Sanatana Dharma as the Nationalism of India. He didn”t rank it as a philosophy. He brought it down to the level of emotional consciousness. Swami Vivekananda spoke of spiritual nationalism; it was the same Swami who spoke of Universal brotherhood. For them philosophy was not removed from the ground reality. The nation was at the core of their philosophy. Swami Vivekananda was called the “patriot monk”.
Mahatma Gandhi spoke of Rama Rajya. Bankim Chandra wrote Bande Maataram. The song, the slogans in it, the mantra in it made hundreds of people kiss the gallows smilingly and many others went to jail. It transformed the life of the people; this was the intellectual scene, this was the content…This was the core of India, the soul of the Indian freedom movement.
The symptoms: India immediately after Independence
…Let us look at post Independence India. The persons who led post-Independence India were also trained in the same freedom movement. They went to jail, but they were not rooted in the intellectual content of the Freedom movement!
The first Prime Minister of India, he was in jail for 7 years. He was a great intellectual himself, purely in the sense of his capacity to reason, understand, read, and expound a thought. He told Galbrieth once, “I would be regarded as the last English Prime Minister of India. See the intellectual capability of the man, the enormously competent mind.
But intellectualism doesn”t exist in a vacuum. It has to be rooted in something concrete. Vivekananda”s universal brotherhood was rooted in India”s greatness as a civilization, which proclaimed it. The concept of “Vasudaiva Kutumbakam” cannot exist without a living form, a population which believes in it and believes in itself. You need to have a society, which believes in it.
That is why India could invite the Jews who were butchered, raped, all over the world. In 107 out of 108 countries, this race was butchered. At least they had the courtesy and the gratitude to publish a book, the Israeli govt. published a book that out of 108 countries that we sought refuge, the only civilization, the only country, the only people, the only ideology that gave us refuge was the Indian civilization. They published a book, which most Indians are unaware of.
And we invited the Muslims. The refugee Muslims first landed in Kutch. And they are called the Kutchy Memons even today but not the Memons who bomb Bombay. But the Memons who lived with us.
Keep Reading…
October 26th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
A Hindu Identity, An Indian Identity, British Rule in India, Hindu Dharma, Identity, Politics and Governance in India, Post Independence History, Sanatana Dharma, Women in Hinduism & India |
7 comments
Amidst the outpouring of years of pent-up anger in Jammu, I came across this vivid, very sad and intensely poignant first-hand account of living in the shadow of terror and the forced migration of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley… Please read and circulate widely…
*** Cry of the Valley ***
A cold winter night has fallen outside and the power cut makes it all the more gloomy inside. Huddled together in the warmth of blankets and a kerosene lamp we just sit silently watching each others expressions. I am too young a kid to understand the full implications of what is happening and my younger sister is busy watching a small bug circling the candle our mother had lit in the gallery just outside the kitchen. My thoughts drift from game of cricket I’d played earlier that day to how bright the snow makes outside look. Among all these childish thoughts is a nagging feeling that I’m just not able to get rid of. I feel I’m never going to be in this house again. Never ever in my life will I play cricket with these friends again. Never ever will mother and father have the careless laughs that I so love. Never ever will the things be same again.
It started a few months before in summer when I came home after an extended play session with my friends. Father was waiting for me on the porch of our relatively new house. We were still building the second floor and it already looked like the biggest and the most beautiful house in the community. I especially liked the way the roof was built. There were multiple parts slanting over each other and I couldn�t wait for winter to see the snow sliding off these. I knew father had worked day and night to take us from a one room kitchen-cum-bedroom place to this house. The evidence of his hard work was on his callous fingertips that had hardened by continuous writing on multiple carbon separated sheets of paper that he used while teaching. I met him at the porch of our house and my instincts had sharpened enough to know that I was in trouble. But usually I knew beforehand. This time did not have the slightest of clues. The day had been good so far and I had behaved within reasonable limits. The bigger issue was not that I was in for a tough time, the problem was that I did not know the severity of the mischief I was going to be accused of and therefore couldn�t estimate the severity of the punishment. Anyway, I sat down with a feeling of a lump in my throat. Then he told me something that surprised me. He had heard me arguing with a couple of friends over a game of cricket a few hours earlier. He told me that I was to stop doing that I should either play without arguments or stop going out for fun altogether. I couldn’t understand this. From the time I could remember, these small arguments were the part of fun we kids had. Elders never cared to comment on such silly things and now I was facing an expression on my fathers face which was as serious as it I’ve ever known it. If I didn�t know my father better I’d have argued to get to the bottom of this but wizened with previous unpleasant thrashings I decided against that.
I didn’t have to wait long to get the cause of my father’s concern. In a couple of weeks one of my cricketing buddies was missing from the game. When I suggested that friend we should go to his home and call him, one other friend said that he was not home but had traveled across the border to get training in handling weapons. Without me knowing so at that time, I’d just had my first brush with the extremism that would change our lives forever. Suddenly the world around me had changed in a way that I could never imagine. My friends one-by-started going missing. Muslim kids went across the border and Hindus mainly started to migrate across to other parts of the country. I started spending more and more time at home. When the schools closed the previous fall for winter break little did anyone know that they would never reopen. As a child that was a welcome development for me. I could have all the time in the world to myself for play and mischief. But the irony was that I couldn’t go out anymore and there was nobody else to go out with.
Keep Reading…
August 4th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
A Hindu Identity, An Indian Identity, Current Affairs, Elections Analysis, Hindu Dharma, Human Rights and Legal Issues, Jammu & Kashmir related, Politics and Governance in India, Politics of Minority Appeasement, Post Independence History |
10 comments
…or has he relied on some half-baked research presented to him as a backgrounder?
I was alerted today to this excellent analysis of ”Rama Setu in Padma PurANa” by Sh Sarvesh Tiwari. I sincerely hope that Sh Nariman reads this…although I am not very hopeful.
Regardless, the lie about BhagwAn Shri RAm “destroying” the Rama Setu needs to be nailed…(remember, a lie told often enough will become the truth etc…?)
But do you think any of the mainstream media (or the TV anchors) are going to take notice of this? I bet not.
*** Excerpts Begin (emphasis mine) ***
Representing the Union of India in the Supreme Court, Senior Attorney Fali Nariman was reported to have stated the following: “the Padma Purana states Lord Rama broke the bridge after rescuing Sita. And according to the Hindu faith, something that is broken cannot be worshipped” and “This is why nobody has till date declared it a monument.”
This statement prompted us to look into the original sources and examine the claim made by the Union of India. The below note summarizes our findings.
1. padma purANa is one of the eighteen main purANas, a mahApurANa of vaiShNava category, and is listed as second in that list. It is also counted among the six of this list that are considered to be of predominantly sAttvika content (the other five being viShNu, nArada, bhAgavat, garuDa and vArAha). This purANa comprises of fifty-five-thousand shloka-s and is therefore one of the lengthiest. There are four main recensions of this purANa available. The most commonly found is the northern one in devanAgarI, and is widely printed and circulated by several publishers like Geeta Press Gorakhpur etc. The other major recension is from the southern sources…Finally, another primary recension with quite a lot of differences and of fair antiquity is the eastern recension available in Bengali script….
…
6. The story of rAma finds an important coverage in the padma purANa, and occurs in two different books: the sR^iShTi-khaNDa as well as pAtAla-khaNDa. rAma-setu finds narration in both of these books as well. The story is generally the same as in vAlmIki’s rAmAyaNa but differs dramatically in the details. pAtAla khaNDa provides a very unique story about how the vAnara senA crossed the sea and reached the coast of laMkA. In some recensions of the sR^iShTi-khaNDa, rAma is described to be trifurcating the setu on request from vibhIShaNa. The text is generally the same in the referred recensions and editions, ignoring some scribal mistakes, and in one particular devanAgarI recension this mention is missing altogether.
…
8. Earlier in the sR^iShTi-khaNDa, is this another unique mention of rAma setu in the fortieth chapter known as vAmanapratiShThA (in some recension thirty-fifth chapter, and in some missing altogether). The background of the mention is that after winning the war at laMkA and fulfilling his objectives there, rAma is readying to return back to ayodhyA along with his entourage by using the puShpaka vimAna offered by vibhIShaNa. Before departing, rAma has entrusted the rAkShasa kingdom to vibhIShaNa …
In this context is the following dialog recorded between vibhIShaNa and rAma in the vAmanapratiShThA chaper of the sR^iShTi-khaNDa the first book of the padma-purANa:
{(130) Hearing this from rAghava, vibhIShaNa responded to him. ‘All that you have ordered shall be obediently executed, O rAghava. (131) (However,) O Lord, this sacred setu of yours could be used by all the people of the world to approach (into laMkA) and therefore should be obstructed. (132) What control do I have in this matter O deva, but this is a need of mine.’ Hearing these words uttered by the best rAkShasa, The Scion of Raghu (133) took in his hands the missile kArmukaM, and breached the setu in the middle at two places over a length of ten yojana, (134) therefore dividing it into three parts with a one-yojana gap on the either side. Then approaching the shore-forest, he worshipped mahAdeva the Lord of umA. (135) There he established The Three- Eyed mahAdeva by the name of rAmeshwara. rAma, the Great Prince then prohibited the God sAgara, (136) that the Southern Sea should neither thunder there, nor flow across. Issuing his prohibitions this way, rAma then sent off the God sAgara. From the sky then emitted the following AkAshavANI. (137) Spoke rudra: O rAghava, you have auspiciously established me here. O Brave One, so far as the worlds remain, so far as the earth is intact, (138- till then I shall reside myself at the Setu, O Scion of Raghu! Hearing these nectar-like words uttered by mahAdeva himself, rAghava the Hero then spoke in these intelligent and sweetest words. (rAma humbly salutes devadeva and sings a hymn in his praise which spans over shloka-s 139 to 147. shloka 148 is a comment by sage pulatsya in praise to this hymn. In shloka-s 149-151, rudra speaks again, praising the deeds of rAma.) (152) O raghunandana, to this place created by you whichever man comes and even (merely) glances at it in the sea, (153) (even if) he be an extreme sin-fallen, all their sins would get destroyed, O rAma. The wicked crimes as heinous as brAhmaNa-slaying etc., even these (154) would be released here by mere darshana, no doubt.}
9. In conclusion, we can only say that the statement made by the Attorney in the Hon’ble Supreme Court that according to padma purANa: a) rAma “destroyed” the setu; and b) setu can no more be an object of worship; – are both absolutely inaccurate if not downright false. Very unambiguously, the referred recensions of the padma purANa state that rAma trifurcated the setu for the sake of protecting laMkA, and at the same time he and lord mahAdeva invested spiritual powers into setu as a place of worship forever. Till this word remains, and till the earth is intact – “yAvajjagadidaM, yAvaddharAsthitA” are this purANa-s own exact words. As to “therefore, nobody has declared it a monument”, since the Attorney is referring to padma purANa, in which lord mahAdeva himself has declared it a unique sacred place of worship, releaser of the sin and crime, and abode of his own - this remains and would remain a sacred monument for Hindus; and Union of India can do little about it.
*** Excerpts End ***
Pl. do read the article in full with images of the scanned pages of the relevant text and complete references included. My heartfelt thanks to Sh. Tiwari-ji for this painstaking and excellent analysis.
Related Posts:
“Who is this Ram?” - Will Thiru Karunanidhi look at this evidence?
A Search for the Historical “Krishna”
The search for a historical “Rama”
Voices of caution on SethuSamudram
Comrades-in-arms: UPA & Pakistani “militants”
Find of the Day: “If only we had forgiven Iraq for 9/11“. Do read.
August 1st, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
A Hindu Identity, Ancient Indian History, Current Affairs, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Enviroment Related, Hindu Dharma, Indian Media, Miscellaneous, Politics and Governance in India, Politics of Minority Appeasement |
4 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
Great piece of reporting from The Hindu on an extraordinary archeological find from Tamil Nadu about politics and governance in ancient India.
*** Excerpts ***
It may be hard to believe that nearly 1,100 years ago, a village had a perfect electoral system and a written Constitution prescribing the mode of elections. It was inscribed on the walls of the village assembly (grama sabha mandapa)…This inscription, dated around 920 A.D. in the reign of Parantaka Chola, is an outstanding document in the history of India, says Dr. R. Nagaswamy, former Director, Tamil Nadu Department of Archaeology, referring to Uthiramerur in Chingleput district.
Dr. Nagaswamy says in his book, Uthiramerur, the Historic Village in Tamil Nadu”:
It [the inscription] gives astonishing details about the constitution of wards, the qualification of candidates standing for elections, the disqualification norms, the mode of election, the constitution of committees with elected members, the functions of [those] committees, the power to remove the wrong-doer, etc
The villagers even had the right to recall the elected representatives if they failed in their duty!*
Uthiramerur has a 1,250-year history. It is situated in Kanchipuram district, about 90 km from Chennai. The Pallava king Nandivarman II established it around 750 A.D.
R. Vasanthakalyani, Chief Epigraphist-cum-Instructor (Tamil Nadu Department of Archaeology) said:
About 1,100 years ago, during the period of Paranataka Chola, Uthiramerur had an elected village panchayat system, which was a step ahead of the modern day democratic system…
The Tamil inscriptions elaborate on the election procedure followed several centuries ago.
There were committees for the maintenance of irrigation tanks, roads, to provide relief during drought, testing of gold and so on.
Dr. Nagaswamy says: The village assembly of Uttaramerur drafted the Constitution for the elections. The salient features were as follows: the village was divided into 30 wards, one representative elected for each. Specific qualifications were prescribed for those who wanted to contest. The essential criteria were age limit, possession of immovable property and minimum educational qualification. Those who wanted to be elected should be above 35 years of age and below 70
Read the full story here. As Capt. Pullat remarked on the FTIdiscussion board: “Beats Magna Carta, isn’t it?”!
Related Posts:
Corruption - as mentioned in the Vedas
Democracy in AncientIndia
* Un-electing our leaders - Chhattisgarh shows the way
P.S. Have other readers (also) detected a subtle change in stance in The Hindu’s style of reporting? ORam I reading too much into LK Advani’s interview and recent Op-Eds? I should check outwhat the folks over at The Chindu think!
July 12th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Ancient Hindu Political Philosophy, Ancient Indian History, Hindu Dharma, Medieval Indian History, Politics and Governance in India |
no comments
I am no fan of Ashis Nandi and disagree strongly with many of his views but I just cannot accept the argument that his writings or thoughts should be banned/censored.
There are other (better) ways of dealing with his arguments and deconstructing them…
Calling for a ban on his writings or calls for his arrest puts us in the same league as fanatics calling for Taslima’s blood.
For those of you who missed it, here is the original article- which started it all. Many of you will find the comments on this site interesting too.
Some of you may have also read this statement signed by the big and the famous amongst our activists protesting against Ashis Nandy’s harassment…
Unfortunately the mask slips halfway through the press release:
“The harassment of well-known intellectuals and artists hides we fear, the daily intimidation being faced by members of minorities and especially the Muslims in Gujarat…”
No mention of Taslima, Kashmiri Pandits etc etc…
Having said all that, I am curious as to what Ashis thinks of his younger brother’s ideological leanings.
P.S. Personally, I did not find anything “objectionable” in the article…Some of the arguments were invalid, yes; It contained some sweeping generalisations, yes; It smelt of armchair analysis, yes…but objectionable content - I dont think so.
What do readers think?
Related Posts:
UPDATED: Is Taslima being treated differently from MFHusain?
Will Arundhati Roy pl. stand up for Francois Gautier?
MF Husain, Artistic Freedom and a sense of djvu
My Personal View on MF Husains Paintings
July 2nd, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Elections Analysis, Hindu Dharma, Human Rights and Legal Issues, Indian Media, Media Related, Politics and Governance in India |
2 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
On Bal Thackeray and his call for Hindu suicide squads/ Hindu terrorists: Nip it in the bud by Offstumped. A short excerpt:
Bal Thackerays remarks are reprehensible. There is no moral sanction for Terrorism by any tenet of Hindu Dharma. Those responsible for the Thane bomb blast must be brought to trial and any attempts by them to appropriate moral sanction under Hindu Dharma must be denounced unequivocally. There is no room or place for Terrorism by Hindus for Hindus with Hindu Dharma as moral cover.
Terrorism is Adharma let there be no ambiguity on this.
On Narendra Modi’s comment re. taxes and aid: Two curious legal cases by BarbarIndian. Excerpt:
The first involves the following statement by Narendra Modi:
“I want to tell the government in Delhi, lets sign a year-long pact, you don’t take any money from us and dont give us any aid. And then we will show the Centre how we run the state. You all tell me, am I not right,” he was quoted as saying. [link]It is not known if these were the exact words uttered by Modi, but calling these statements seditious is quite ambitious. As a matter of fact, Congress bigwigs have not made any public statements, leaving the hatchet job to foot soldiers like Manish Tewari.
Given that the UPA top brass have basically maintained a wall of silence about the Gujjar and Gorkha issues, one can only imagine the seriousness of this regime about the nation’s security. Perhaps this is a moot point, since many of UPA’s partners are unabashedly seditious, especially the communist factions.
As a side point, Congress claims that the Government does not have “any system to determine how much a state government contributed in taxes to the Centre”. This is quite funny. Evidently the Government does not have any mechanism to determine which castes qualify for OBC privileges either. The Government does not even have a mechanism to determine how much of social spending actually go to intended recipients (15% if you believe the late Rajiv Gandhi, 5% if you believe Rahul).
The center-state resource allocation issue is nothing new. A plethora of studies have been done on this issue, as an example - here. The fact of the matter is, there is a well defined system that determines these issues. That system is called “electoral opportunism”.
I will try a summary of the study in a future post.
On Jihad Against Freedom of Speech at the United Nationsby Jeffrey Imm. Excerpt:
The United Nations’ Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has no problem with its members suggesting that the 9/11 attacks were an “inside job” perpetrated by the United States on itself. …
Denying the role of Jihadists in the 9/11 attacks is apparently perfectly acceptable freedom of speech for the UNHRC, but criticizing Sharia law is another story.
On June 16, 2008, UNHRC president Doru Romulus Costea announced that criticism of Sharia law will not be tolerated by the UNHRC, based on the complaints and pressure by Islamist delegates to the UNHRC. In effect, the Islamist nations represented at the UNHRC have effected a Jihad against freedom of speech at the United Nations when it comes to criticizing Sharia or Islamic supremacist (aka Islamist) theocratic ideologies that threaten the freedom and lives of innocents around the world.
On Pakistan Army fires strategic broadsides at United States and Indiaby Dr Subhash Kapila. Excerpt:
General Ashfaq Kiyani, Pak COAS has been quoted by the respected Pakistan journalist, Ahmed Rashid in a Los Angeles Times feature as follows:
- General Kiyani has told US military and NATO officials that the Pakistan Army will not retrain or re-equip its troops to fight the counter-insurgency war on the Afghan frontier as demanded by the Americans.
- Pakistan will deploy the bulk of its troops on Pakistans borders with India and prepare for possible conflicts with traditional enemy India.
Related observations emanating in this report are as follows:
- More than 80% of the $ 10 billion aid provided by USA to Pakistan was diverted to buy advanced major weapon systems for the Indian front.
- Pakistan Army after its peace deals with Taliban leaders has virtually withdrawn from the seven districts of FATA
- Posts vacated by Pakistan Army now stand occupied by Taliban cadres.
- The peace deal with the Taliban has only one proviso that they will not attack Pakistan Army troops. There is no proviso that they will not attack US/NATO troops in Afghanistan and therefore the Taliban has now a free run against them.
Have a thoughtful weekend.
Related Posts:
Some good links for weekendreading
*Must Read* links for theweekend
Recommended weekendreading
June 22nd, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Global Terrorism, Hindu Dharma, Human Rights and Legal Issues, India & Its Neighbours, Indian Economy, Jammu & Kashmir related, Pakistan related, Politics and Governance in India, Terrorism in India |
one comment
Over the weekend, I came across this excellentcritique by Edward Hamala on the “caste system” in India andhow it is misrepresented in the West. Excerpts below:
***
…The Indian caste system that has so outraged Mr. Roger Williams, makes me wonder if he is equally outraged by the British caste system that is even more prevalent, although it is well hidden and invisible in the British and some European societies, where the nobility still exist, than it is in India today, where all noble titles have been abolished.
I would like to ask Mr. Williams when objecting to birthrights why has he failed to raise the same objection to the British Nobility and the Landed Gentrys birthright, inheriting their title, social status while they are also guaranteed perpetual political power by inheriting a peer-ship and a seat in the British House of Lords, the highest legislative body of the land?
…May I also remind you that the Indian Social Structure as it was depicted in the Vedas Millenniums ago, made it an edict to leave Tribals and Adivasis alone and not to impose Hindu religion, culture or values on them.
The word caste my friend is an English word! The Sanskrit word for caste is Varna and it means vocation or occupation and does not mean caste as it does in the English interpretation or translation of the term!
Likewise, untouchable meant not to go near them, dont touch them, dont intermarry with them and dont corrupt their culture dont try to conform them. Leave them alone!
The unfortunate thing was that Mahatma Gandhi was also British educated, trained as a lawyer and had little or no knowledge about the ancient Vedic philosophy, history or culture.
…
How many societies does Mr. Williams know, where a group of refugees arrived and sought refuge as the Jews did in Kerala, India in 70 AD and were given sanctuary and freedom to practice their religion. This community lived and prospered in India without anyone trying to convert them and many returned to their homeland when the State of Israel was created!
The same holds true for the Parsi refugees arriving from Persia when the forceful Muslim conversion was taking place there and they are still practicing their own ancient religion as Zoroastrians and no one tried to convert them.
Recently, a large number of Tibetians arrived in India along with the Dalai Lama and they were all received graciously and were given sanctuary.
…
So I think, Mr. Williams your indignation is somewhat ill placed and perhaps it would serve a better purpose if you dealt with more dire social issues that you may be more knowledgeable about, and better qualified to deal with.
*** End of Excerpts ***
Related Posts:
Hinduism, Caste System and discrimination - Join thedebate
Is this too much toask?
Utterly shameful andinexcusable
Caste, Varna and Jatis: The need for clarity in intellectualdebate
Read Edward Hamala’sarticle in full here(and the letter he refers to is probably this one).
As an aside: Someone mentioned to me yesterdayhow Christianity (in spite of a 2000-year history)still has to come to grips with ordaining women as priests…while some of Hinduism’s best knowns “gurus” have been(are)women…(to wit: Mata Anandamayi Devi, Mataji Nirmala Deviand many many others).
Says something about the status of women in India and the question of discrimination etc, I think.
June 9th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Ancient Indian History, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Hindu Dharma, Hindu Social System, Women in Hinduism & India |
7 comments
I dont know how many of you came across this story of a graduate from Deoband making it through the UPSC Civil Services Examinations
The story is good and inspiring but the odd thing is the way in which it has been reported. Note the differences (in blue) and enjoy (emphasis mine):
From: Madrasa student cracks civilsby Mateen Hafeez | TNN
Mumbai: At a time when eyebrows are being raised about education standards in madrasas, a maulana from the Darul-Uloom-Deoband in Uttar Pradesh has passed the country’s most elite examination, the civil services exam, in his fourth attempt. For his interview, the maulana took training from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-run institute Samkalp at Paharganj in New Delhi.
Maulana Waseem-ur-Rehman, 31, is the first student from a madrasa to clear the civil services exams. Rehman comes from a poor family in Siddharth Nagar, Basti, UP. He stood 404th among 734 successful candidates. Rehman, who took history and Persian as optional subjects, wrote the exam in Urdu.
He told TOI that he worked for four years. “In three earlier attempts, I failed in the prelims. As this was my last chance, I worked harder,” he said.
Rehman completed five years of schooling in a madrasa, Ahyaul Uloom, before joining Darul-Uloom-Deoband. He did a threeyear course in Islamic studies, Hadith, the Quran and Shariat laws.
He did not know there was a syllabus for the civil service exam. “I had to collect books and notes from several places and would study at night and early morning as I had to attend MD classes during the day.”
(Responding to the question)Was studying for the civil services exam difficult, since he came from a different academic background? (he said) “Yes, but madrasa education has given me the power to think and I have good knowledge of philosphy since it was explained properly in the madrasa,” he said.
About his experience at the RSS-run Samkalp, Rehman said, “I did not feel any bias. They are doing a good job,” he said.
So far, so good…Now read this report: Madrasa student cracks UPSC. It is almost identical except for the addition of this sentence to the third para above:
In my three earlier attempts, I failed in the prelim exams. This time, it being my last chance, I worked harder and made it a point to pass the exams. By the grace of Allah I am among the successful candidates, he said.
Also interesting is this tidbit:
Those on the interview panel for the exam asked Rehman to explain why the ratio of males to females is more equal for Muslims than for other communities. I answered everything in the light of Islam and they were convinced by my replies, he added.
I would be very keen to hear what he said.
Talking about his experience at the RSSrun Samkalp, Rehman said, It was a great time. They even informed me that I was selected for the coaching class and called me up regularly until I joined them. I did not feel any biased attitude over there. They are doing a good job, he said. Of 825 IAS aspirants trained by Samkalp, 295 have passed the exam this year.
Now for the twist:
From Not aware of IAS institute’s RSS connection - Deoband cleric(fromIANS). Note the snide insinuations:
”I was not aware that Sankalp, the coaching institute located in Jhandewalan (New Delhi), was run by the RSS,” Rehman, 31, told IANS. “I had only gone to them for the interview test coaching and they held four-five classes and a mock interview,” he said.
Sankalp is a coaching institute run by RSS for civil service aspirants. It has minimal charges and ropes in retired civil servants — preferably those close to the right wing Sangh parivar ideology. Claiming to be a highly professional institute, Sankalp boasts of a high success rate. It has several branches in Delhi and other cities.
Rehman had to start from scratch as nobody in his circle knew how to go about the preparations for the exams. “I collected the relevant books and took coaching from institutes other than Sankalp,” he said.
Congratulations Waseem-ur-Rehman and we hope your story inspires many others. Well done!
.
Related Posts:
The great joke that is Indian media - part 2 *mustread*
The great joke that is Indianmedia
June 7th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Hindu Dharma, Indian Media |
3 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
This ishow an otherwise straightforward news-story gets distorted in reporting:
From rediff, “Do TV serials promote the Hindu way of life?“
“…The Afghanistan government has banned Indian television serials because they feel it wrongly influences their culture and traditions.
In their words: ‘Indian serials are un-Islamic.’
Most Indian serials are about traditional North Indian families, and tend to celebrate Hindu festivals with more gusto than any other festival.
Do you think Indian telly soaps promote the Hindu way of life? Was the Afghan government right in banning them?”
As a commentator has noted on the rediff board, pl. notehow the last question was artificially framed.
Instead of a straight-forward “Is Afghanistan becomingTaliban-ised (once again)” it somehow manages to putthe TV serials on the defensive!
Of course for most of us familiar with Indian TV serials, saying that they promote a “Hindu way of life” is at best, a stretch andat worst,a joke.
Related Posts: The great joke that is Indian media series:Part 1,Part 2,Part 3and Part 4.
April 10th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
A Hindu Identity, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Distortions, Misrepresentations about India, Hindu Dharma, Hindu Social System, India & Its Neighbours, Indian Culture, Arts and Music, Indian Media, Women in Hinduism & India |
5 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
