….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 |
12 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
A Marathi Manoos’ house is ransacked in Jamshedpur for no other reason except that he belonged to the wrong “state”
A 10-year old boy - almost certainly too young to understand what the fuss is all about - gets killed in Bihar
Four people are killed in violence at Kalyan that erupted after Sh Raj Thackeray’s arrest.
The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation suffers a loss of Rs 30 Lakhs in two days of violence which resulted in 286 of its buses being damaged.
And the last “not funny” bit:
A Sikh group supports Raj’s cause and his “approach” since the “state doesn’t provide suitable enviournment for non-violent struggle”…Oh, by the way, they also express alarm at the “heavy influx” of migrant population into the state and accuse all political parties of “pursuing narrow political ends” [ link ].
Will Sh Thackeray now show genuine leadership and commitment to national interest and call off his mis-guided supporters?
Related Posts:
There is a “राष्ट्र” in “महाराष्ट्र”…
After Maharashtra, it is the turn of West Bengal
October 23rd, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
An Indian Identity, Current Affairs, Debates & Discussions, Identity, Politics and Governance in India, Post Independence History |
39 comments
Some of you must have read the news from two days ago regarding a call by some Muslim leaders to form a “Muslim political front“ that would also align “secular forces”. Quite how a religious front can align secular forces is beyond me but I felt a deep sense of unease as I read this piece of news…
In some ways it was reminiscent of the background that eventually led to the formation of the Muslim League just over a century earlier in Dhaka. The mood amongst Muslims at the time was captured in these words by Sir Percival Griffiths:
“…the Muslim belief that their interest must be regarded as completely separate from those of the Hindus, and that no fusion of the two communities was possible…”
I am seriously worried that we may be approaching that point again.
At the conference in Jama Masjid, some speakers went to the extent of saying that there is a “deep rooted conspiracy to eliminate Muslims”.
Keep Reading…
October 16th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Identity, Politics and Governance in India, Politics of Minority Appeasement |
31 comments
For the last few days, I have been following the twists and turns of the “clashes” in Assam with great interest…Not least because I have a very strong personal bond with the region but also because I know the region a little better than many other states in India…
As is the case in most situations, initial reports about the killings were sketchy and appeared to be more conjecture than facts…E.g.
…The communally tense twin districts of Assam, Udalguri and Darrang, witnessed yet another day of rioting as the death toll climbed to nine on Saturday. Over 50 people have been injured in clashes between Bodo tribals and Muslims that broke out on Friday…”
Udalguri police said reports about hoisting of a Pakistani national flag at Sonaripara caused fresh turmoil. [ link ]
A report from HT suggested another angle to the attacks:
The immediate provocation for the clashes was the attack on a group of Village Defence Party (VDP) volunteers early Friday by armed miscreants.
“The VDP members belonged to the tribal Bodo community and were attacked by members of a religious minority group and that sparked off the clashes,” the official said.
Meanwhile the death toll continued to climb…but the matter appeared to have dropped off the radar of mainstream media…Latest reports suggest that the death toll is already higher than the number of people killed in attacks in Orissa (49 according to this report)…but I have not yet seen any detailed report on the attacks and what triggered them…
Could it be because the reality appears to be slightly more complicated here?
According to this report, the clashes are not really between “tribals” and Muslims or Hindus and Muslims or even Hindus and Christians but between Christians and Muslims:
“…Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the root cause was a programme of “ethnic cleansing” implemented by the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), a rebel group fighting for an independent tribal homeland.
“They want to drive out all non-Bodos from the area… it’s a systematic pogrom,” Sarma told IANS.
The NDFB, which is a largely Christian outfit, entered into a ceasefire with the Indian government in 2005, but has never renounced its independence struggle.”
Many media reports though have conveniently forgot to mention the word “Christian” and are instead referring to “Ethnic Bodos” or “Bodo Tribals” or a lame “clashes between two communities”…
I will be watching this with interest…and sadness in my heart…
Who is there to cry for the innocents that have been murdered and the lives that have been displaced (1.1 lakh according to official reports)?…or is this something that happened so far away…in such a distant land that all this is merely statistics…and something to be read and forgotten with your next cup of tea?
Related Posts:
“India Breaking” - Read this and Weep
North-East “burning”
Some startling stats from the eastern front…
October 7th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Identity, India & Its Neighbours, Politics and Governance in India, Post Independence History |
20 comments
…Muslims need to look within their own community and build reforms within it.
Last weekend, I finally managed to read the entire transcript of the Karan Thapar – Shabana Azmi interview and stumbled upon this bit in which she comments on the need for reform within the Muslim community:
Karan Thapar: Today, not just abroad but even in India, people say that Muslims have to take on the onus of changing the image of their religion and the image of the community. Is that a fair thing to say?
Shabana Azmi: I think it is. I would accept that because I don’t think that the Muslim leadership has bothered to clear the air about what Islam is all about….
And:
Karan Thapar: Do Indians, particularly those who aren’t Muslims, understand the extent of these problems that we have created by this prejudice for the 14-15 per cent Muslim minority? Do you think people understand this?
Shabana Azmi: Yes, and no. And when they don’t, I think it’s about time that Indian Muslims stopped viewing themselves as Muslims. I think otherwise they tend to get into that victim mode.
Karan Thapar: But what can they do?
Shabana Azmi: Firstly, you have to look within your community, you have to build reforms within it. You have to say that you want to look into things like education.
Keep Reading…
September 7th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Distortions, Misrepresentations about India, Human Rights and Legal Issues, Identity, Islam & Reform, Muslim Population in India, Politics of Minority Appeasement |
12 comments
Thanks to Sh Nachiketa Tiwari for spotting this and Sh Kak for emailing it to me.
Although this is a fairly long excerpt from an exchange of emails re. learning Sanskrit, pl. try and read in full. It shows how some western academics tarnish any attempt(s) at learning more about our ancient heritage (including language) with labels such as “fundamentalism” and of course, “Hindutva”.
I have taken out email addresses of the respondents to protect privacy.
By the way, many of you would remember that learning Sanskrit is now considered to be a “communal” activity.
*** Excerpts from the email exchange ***
Keep Reading…
September 4th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Ancient Indian History, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, History, Identity, Indian Culture, Arts and Music, Sanatana Dharma, Spirituality & Philosophy |
7 comments
Amidst the flurry of Op-Ed pieces in mainstream (English language) media, suggesting granting Kashmir “complete autonomy (Khushwant Singh) ” or holding a plebiscite (Swaminathan S Aiyar) or a referendum (Vir Sanghvi), I failed to spot even one Op-Ed suggesting that the answer may lie in scraping Article 370 forthwith.
I believe it is time to say, “One Country, One Law”…and turn Jammu and Kashmir into a normal “State” in the “Union of India”.
This is my 3-point prescription to get out of this mess for good (I do need to think through the consequences in some more detail though):
1. Stop ALL talks with Hurriyat, PDP and other assorted outfits who demand “azaadi”.
2. Stop ALL aid and grants…forthwith (to get an idea of how much money is poured down the drain in Kashmir, read below)
3. Scrap Article 370 and begin an active programme to re-settle and rehabilitate Kashmiri Pandits back in the Valley.
Will this work? I don’t know.
Will Madam Gandhi and co. even consider it? Dream on.
Keep Reading…
August 17th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Identity, Jammu & Kashmir related, Pakistan related, Politics and Governance in India, Post Independence History |
25 comments
Great article by Tarun Vijay in today’s TOI: Reclaiming India.
*** Excerpts below (emphasis mine) ***
“None should say Omar is not allowed in Jammu. Let him come, listen and speak. Like any other Indian should feel free to visit Kashmir or any other part of the nation. He is welcome to visit my home even if he denies me a piece of land in Kashmir. Why should a few words uttered by him make me change my Indian-ness? If he spoke in Parliament as a Muslim, asserting his Islamic identity, let denial of land to Hindus be his Islam and my Hinduness must keep my nation as a free democracy where difference of opinion is a natural phenomenon unlike Islamic countries.
…But he must stop to think why he can own a bungalow in Delhi or Bangalore and at the same time deny that privilege to a fellow Indian in Kashmir? Kashmiri Muslim leaders would like to enjoy the fruits and liberties of a Hindu majority democracy but vehemently deny that to Hindus in their area of influence. Why?
When they are in a minority they crave and get special privileges. But once a majority, every single right to be at par is refused to other minorities.
…Kashmir is predominantly Sunni and Wahabi. Hence the intolerance that denies even the basic features of Kashmiriyat.
And see what the de-Indianised intellectuals wrote on the front pages in Delhi’s newspapers: “All over a piece of land!” Really?
Then why are the Indian soldiers defending a barren piece of dead snow in Siachen? Or what’s that piece of cloth known as the Tricolor? Is it worth dying for?
…In fact the whole movement is a revolt of Tricolour people against unpatriotic politics on Kashmir. It’s an effort to reclaim India in a region where the central leaders and regional parties have abandoned the idea of pan-Indian nationalism and geographical integration. India has been reducing every day in the valley and the seculars keep on counting their votes and encouraging separatists at the cost of an Indian identity.
Keep Reading…
August 6th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
A Hindu Identity, An Indian Identity, Current Affairs, Human Rights and Legal Issues, Impact of Islam on India, Jammu & Kashmir related, Medieval Indian History, Politics and Governance in India, Politics of Minority Appeasement |
8 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
Mufti Abdul Rehman Al Rehmani, head of Darul Ifta wa Al-Qazzath of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JD) Pakistan:
if…Indian Muslims…comply with Indian law, then the coming generations of Muslims in India will be involved in Hindu beliefs
Here is the story:
A few days ago, the mufti or head cleric of one of Indias biggest madrassas, the Darul Uloom Deoband (DUD), Mufti Habibur Rehman, said that Indian Muslims should take care when slaughtering the cow that is considered sacred by Hindus. He pointed out that the slaughter of the cow is prohibited under Indian law and thus it was not right to use its meat secretly.
In response, the head of Darul Ifta wa Al-Qazzath of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JD) Pakistan, Mufti Abdul Rehman Al Rehmani, said that the fatwa should be withdrawn immediately and justified. The fatwa encourages Hindu beliefs, Al Rehmani said while talking to Daily Times on Tuesday. His official stance was published on the JD website the same day.
Al Rehmani claims that Rehmans fatwa is wrong because according to Islamic education the cow was a major cause of idolism and polytheism. And if Mufti Habibur Rehman tells Indian Muslims to comply with Indian law, then the coming generations of Muslims in India will be involved in Hindu beliefs, said the text. [ link ]
Related Posts:
If Muslims revered cattle - excerpt
Of Sacred Bulls, Divinity &Development
July 16th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Identity, Impact of Islam on India, Pakistan related |
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.
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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 |
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About two weeks ago,the Royal Society of Arts in UK, together withTehelka, organised a Summit on India and Pakistan in London. It had a stellar line up of speakers and panelists (Jaswant Singh, Farooq Abduallh, Arun Jaitley, Mushahid Husain, Imran Khan, Asma Jehangir, Ram Jethmalani…et al) and I am sure it generated a lot of animated discussions…
I am delighted to present a guest post by my dear friend Ashutosh who attended the summit and graciously agreed to pen down his thoughts to share with everyone on this blog…Ashutosh has a blue-chip CV and he left McKinsey a few years ago to start his own consulting firm in London…Needless to say, he also has a deep and abiding interest in politics and international affairs. Without further ado, here are Ashutosh’s thoughts…in two separate posts…This is the first one (emphasis is mine).
*** POST BEGINS ***
Allow me to begin by saying that I attended the events over two days wearing essentially two separate hats- one that of a politically aware global citizen (after all vasudhaiva kutumbakam has not been a more relevant concept that today and best describes the world view of us expat desis) and the second more practical hat of a energy geo-politics analyst (and there is probably no other region than the sub-continent where geo-politics of nuclear- natural gas- renewable energy and climate change is most relevant, fragile and least appreciated); my thoughts on the meeting therefore are in that sequence…
As a relatively more aware follower of international affairs- I question the need to have any reconciliatory relationship with Pakistan. What follows is a brief summary of my thoughts…
A]Pakistan wants India to forget the recent past (and in my view the most important past of the last 60 years) and reflect on our much longer history before…when we were one country.
If the meeting was about burying the past and moving forward- well it was a very good first step but we have barely scratched the surface in establishing trust at a human level. One example of self contradiction- Mushahid Hussain opening his speech by greeting (read insinuating) the audience in every other language and style but (conspicuously) avoidinga single hindu greeting like namaskaar and then closing his speech (suggesting to India) by - Thoda Dil Bada Karein- this was just one example of several self contradictions in Mushahids speech. Grow up dude, look at that inexperienced Sachin Pilot, measured and moderated responses in face of insinuations- logical and consistent- through out.
B]Search for that sameness - another theme that came out…We are similar so there is no reason we cannot move forward.
Well- I challenge this notion of sameness- yes , we have common food habits, similar languages and to some extent a common civilization but our life experiences of the last 60 or more years driven by our national ethos have been totally different. Tolerance versus Fanaticism- and so have emerged our relative positions as a function of our individual national ethos.
Why should we desperately seek out that same-ness and struggle in this relationship? When we deal with China, be it at a Governemnt level or in business, the first thing we do is recognize our differences- much stronger footing to craft our way forward. Pakistan and India may have common history and gene pool but our ethos is totally different- we will not only struggle but even get frustrated more easily in making this relationship work. Lets recognize our differences first- tolerance v/s fanaticism then figure out what is the relative value at stake for each of us!
C] Dont Use the T-word. If you do, then at least dont use it as IT (Islamic Terrorism)…
Will someone please explain to me why not? Speaker after speaker mentioned that terrorism has no place in Islam. Good passionate rhetoric but frankly this is the 800 pound gorilla in the room and calling it militancy or freedom struggle aint any good, any more. Well done Tarun Vijay, for bringing it out into the open, chapter and verse with examples included. Of course no answer/response was forthcoming except a Humphrey Appleby-esque Dont use the T word and if you do dont call it IT
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July 9th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Debates & Discussions, Geo-Strategic Issues (incl. Nuclear, Oil, Energy), Global Terrorism, Identity, India & Its Neighbours, Jammu & Kashmir related, Miscellaneous, Pakistan related, Politics and Governance in India, Post Independence History, Terrorism in India |
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Fellow blogger Varnam recently wrote twoposts on how learning Sanskrit is now considered to be a “communal” activity and something that might put you at odds with the “secular” brigade.
In the first one, he pointed out:
Usually you see the word saffronization associated with the Hindutva folks, not Sanskritization…the revival (of this word)is with mischievous intent. Now the name of a language has become a synonym for communal politics.
In fact this attempt to brand Sanskrit as a non-secular entity happened once before, believe it or not - by the Central Board of Secondary Education. It was an attempt to pull the rug off India’s cultural heritage and history by branding an entire language as not-secular.
…The Supreme Court in a landmark verdict rejected the accusation that teaching Sanskrit was against secularism.
…the Court wrote that Sanskrit was the language in which Indian minds expressed the noblest ideas. It was also the language in which our culture, which includes the Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, the teachings of Sankaracharya to Vallabhacharya and classics of Kalidasa to Banabhatta were expressed. Without understanding Sanskrit, the Court wrote, you cannot understand Indian philosophy on which our culture is based.
In a follow-up, he wrote:
This January, the Indian Govt. cut funding for a Sanskrit program because it is now a sin to learn an ancient language and the reason: India has a large Muslim population.
When the Supreme Court of India writes judgements admiring the language in which Indian minds expressed noblest ideas, it takes the UPA Govt. to accuse that it is communal.
JK suggests (and I fully endorse): Instead of whining about the Govt. the best course of action would be to organize a Samskrita Bharati camp in your area.
Fellow blogger Sandeep has also commented on this issue:
…Sanskritisation, a noun used as a verb form is a strange creature that really defies definition. Interestingly, Seema uses this without defining it, an act similar to her boss Sonia Gandhi who wields power without responsibility but alludes to M.N. Srinivas who coined it.
…Sanskritisation, however, you want to define it, has no factual basis in Indian history or tradition or societyunless you equate Sanskritisation with Brahminisation (ugh and sic!).
Related Posts:
Dont wear a tilak to work!
Secular Fundamentalismalive & kicking inIndia
Also read: Pseudo-secularism at itsbest?
June 17th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Ancient Indian History, Current Affairs, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Distortions, Misrepresentations about India, Identity, Impact of Islam on India, Indian Culture, Arts and Music, Indian Media, Media Related, Politics and Governance in India, Politics of Minority Appeasement, Sanatana Dharma, Spirituality & Philosophy |
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