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Miscellaneous news and discussion - 2 - Guest - 11-11-2005
Santhigiri sanyasis to perform Narayanan's last rites
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Former President K R Narayanan, who died on Wednesday after prolonged illness, had wished that his last rites be performed by sanyasis of the Santhigiri Ashram, a renowned spiritual centre near Thiruvananthapuram.
The octogenarian diplomat-turned-president from Kerala had left a word with the Prime Minister's Office that his last rights be conducted by the Ashram, a spokesman of the centre said.
He said on PMO's special request, the Ashram is sending a group of sanyasis for the funeral ceremony.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Miscellaneous news and discussion - 2 - acharya - 11-14-2005
10 November, 2005
INDIA
Indian bishops mourn ex president Narayanan
The 85-year-old man died yesterday after some days in a coma. Of humble origin, he dedicated his life wholly to the service of the nation, to the point of becoming the first Dalit to be head of State.
New Dehli (AsiaNews/Agencies) â The Indian Bishopsâ Conference (CBCI) has joined in nationwide mourning for the death last night of the former president, Kocheril Raman Narayanan. Naranayan, 85 years, was the first Dalit to reach the Indian presidency. He fell into a coma last week after an acute arterial blockage and was kept alive by a ventilator.
The CBCI spokesman, Fr Joseph Babu, expressed the bishopsâ sentiments of mourning, joining with the rest of the nation in grieving Naranayanâs death. He said Naranayan âsymbolized the resurgent India in so many different ways. We have known him as a person who contributed to the nation in different areas of service and rose to the highest office of the country and gave a sterling leadership during his tenureâ.
Narayanan came from a poor family in a small village in Kottayam district in the southern State of Kerala. Each morning, he would walk 15km to go to school. Thanks to his determination and intelligence, he became the first Dalit to reach the nationâs highest ranking position. âDalitâ is the term used to describe those who do not belong to the four main castes.
He distinguished himself in his studies and overcame economic and social obstacles to go to the prestigious London School of Economics, where the legendary Harold Laski was one of his teachers.
âHis humble origins never deterred his progress and determination to excel in his life and service to the nation. He certainly gave hope to millions of people of our country who belonged to the disadvantaged sections of our society,â Fr Joseph said.
Naranayan returned from London with a letter of recommendation from Laski singing his praises, addressed to Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who introduced him to the Indian Foreign Affairs Office. As a diplomat, he represented India in the United States, at a time when ties between the two states were strained. He looked after Indian interests in diverse capitals of the world, and he was especially â and successfully â committed to mending diplomatic ties with China, disrupted by war in 1962.
He entered the political fray in 1984 on the invitation of Premier, Indira Gandhi. He was minister and in 1992 he became vice-president of India. On 27 July 1997, he became the eleventh president of the Indian nation.
âThe shining example of Mr. Narayanan will inspire generations to follow a path of development and social progress,â said Fr Joseph. Senior Church leaders in Delhi including Archbishop Vincent Michael Concessao, will pay their homage to the departed soul, representing all the Christian community.
Miscellaneous news and discussion - 2 - Guest - 11-15-2005
came via email
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->>
> âJana Sangh Todayâ (By G. C. Asnani)
>
> 1. I have received Volume 1, Number 1 issue of Monthly Magazine âJana
> Sangh Todayâ, dated 1st October 2005. Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukerjee
> started the post-Independence Political Wing of Hindu Dharma in 1951,
> called Bharatiya Jana Sangh. It was in response to the Partition of
> India in 1947, leaving the Hindus helpless in both the parts of
> Partitioned India, Pakistan and the rest of the country Hindustan
> called India or Bharat. The word Hindu became not only untouchable
> but even un-utterable. The word âHinduâ was regarded as
> âCommunalism, anti-nationalismâ. Those individuals and groups which
> brought about the breaking up of India, dis-integrating the country,
> called themselves âPatriotsâ, âNationalistsâ. Kali Yuga showed
> unmistakable signs of its intense form. Hindu Maha Sabha, RSS, etc.
> became untouchable while the breakers of the country came to the top
> of India, Bharat. Meanings of words like âSecularismâ were twisted
> to strictly mean âAnti-Hinduismâ.
>
> 2. This Anti-Hinduism has subsequently picked up so much strength at
> political level that a political-cum-criminal nexus threatens to
> remove Hindu Dharma from the surface of our Hindustan. This
> Political-cum-criminal nexus inside India is certainly a component of
> International anti-Hindu Alliance, of which the basic components are
> Jihadi Islam, Churchianity and Communism. Jihadi Islam is absolutely
> clear and vocal in its ideology and action, to remove all non-Islamic
> religions from the surface of the Earth and to establish
> âMohmmedanismâ also called âIslamâ on this Earth, which Earth belongs
> to Allah, who gave it to Prophet Mohammed and who again gave it to
> those believers who believe that Prophet Mohammed is the Last and
> ultimate Messenger of Allah, the Creator of the Universe. Every word
> of Prophet Mohammed compiled in the Book called Holy Quran and every
> movement of Prophet Mohammed, which is depicted in the Hadis, is the
> final illustration of the Will of Allah for all
> time to come, at all places on this Earth. No deviation from the
> sayings and actions of Prophet Mohammed is to be tolerated by true
> followers of Allah; the deviations are to be punished severely,
> including even death penalty. All other Rules of Society, all Laws
> enacted by different societies or countries are superceded by the
> Law communicated by Prophet Mohammed, known as âShariatâ. The whole
> Earth is to be set on Fire and obstinate non-Muslims who refuse to
> get converted to Mohammedanism deserve to be sent to Eternal Hell
> after getting murdered or burnt alive. 11th September 2001 murder
> through Fire in USA and the current episode of âParis On Fireâ are
> only reminders of what stands behind the history of Mohammedanism
> ever since it started in Mecca some 1400 years back. In a way, this
> Mohammedanism is also a later copy of âChurchianityâ started by the
> Church with the army of King Constantine in the year around 315 A.D.,
> and gave it the Name âChristianityâ, exploiting!
>Â the name of Jesus of Nazareth also called âChristâ. This is an
> exclusivist ideology;Â this Churchianity declared that Jesus was the
> only Son of God, the first and the last Saviour of the human Race on
> this Earth; whoever does not obey the command of the Church is
> condemned by God on this Earth and goes to Eternal hell of Fire after
> Death.
>
> 3. These two cruelly exclusive assertive religious ideologies of
> Churchianity and Mohammedanism have created so much havoc and
> suppression of free thinking in large sections of human race that
> opposition even to the word âReligionâ arose in the name of
> âCommunismâ. This ideology of âCommunismâ in effect declared that
> the words âreligionâ, âGodâ, âAllahâ, etc. are mere snares to catch
> the gullible human beings, bind them with the chains of economic
> exploitation, making many people labour and sweat for the benefit of
> a few selfish, cunning persons. âReligionâ was officially banned in
> 1917 from Russia and neighboring countries, forming Union of Soviet
> Socialist Republics (USSR). Promising Equality, Justice and Peace on
> this Earth, this Communism grew very strong externally; but inside
> USSR itself, there was lot of in-equality, injustice and turmoil
> which finally erupted around 1991; Communism was abolished in USSR;
> this Union of USSR broke down. Churches and Mosques came bac
> k with a vengeance.
>
> 4. These three exclusivist ideologies (Churchianity, Mohammedanism,
> and Communism) are  generous and peaceful in name but tyrannical in
> practice, have joined hands to remove âHinduismâ from the surface of
> the Earth. Our Hindu Dharma is under severe attack. Some Hindus had
> hoped that after Partition of India in 1947, religious atmosphere in
> truncated Hindustan called India or Bharat might be peaceful. But
> this hope proved to be a mirage, an illusion. In fact, the attack on
> Hindu Dharma became more severe after Partition. Not only
> Mohammedanism and, Churchianity and Communism, but also anti-Hinduism
> under the concealing and deceiving name âsecularismâ became a mighty
> force to remove Hindu Dharma from India, Bharat. This secularism
> joined hands with Mohammedanism, Churchianity and Communism, with the
> main objective of removing Hinduism from the surface of India,
> Bharat. In a democratic system, press becomes an important vehicle.
> Large sections of Press were soon purchas
> ed by a combine of Mohammedanism, Churchianity, Communism and
> Secularism and has become a strong vehicle of anti-Hinduism. A very
> strong movement called âMinorityismâ has been started by all
> anti-Hindu organizations to split Hindu society in India to become a
> hotch-potch of minorities. If all are minorities, then who is the
> majority? The politician-cum-criminal nexus has politically and
> commercially joined hands with Mohammedanism, Churchianity,
> Communism, Secularism and âpurchased pressâ to bolster up Minorities,
> all anti-Hindu forces, confuse, harass and terrorise those that want
> to follow Hindu Dharma.
>
> 5. There are numerous groups, large and small, who wish to follow the
> Sanatana Vedic Hindu Dharma; but who hears their voice?Â
>
> In the midst of this loud noise of noisy anti-Hindu organizations,
> poor innocent Hindus are reminded of the quiet voice of Sri
> Ramakrishna: âThese so-called various religions that you see
> to-day, have all come by the Will of Bhagwan, Ishwar, God. They will
> disappear by the Will of God; Hindu Dharma is the only Sanatana
> (Eternal) Dharma; this Sanatana Hindu Dharma shall live eternally.â
> I have belief in this simple statement of this simple child of God.
> Perhaps, quiet Sri Ramakrishna and his simple statement would have
> remained unknown; but his Disciple Swami Vivekananda became a vehicle
> to spread the name of Sri Ramakrishna and his simple spiritual
> Message. In the tumult that I see around myself, these low-voice
> Message of Sri Ramakrishna becomes, for me, a source of solace,
> strength, hope, vigour and some action, in the worship of Hindu
> Dharma. Like the legendary squirrel, helping Sri Ramachandra to
> build the bridge of Rameshwaram, to attack Ravana and recover Mata
> Sit
> a from the clutches of mighty Ruler Ravana, I also hope to
> participate in the taking of Hindu Dharma and Hindustan to the top of
> the world. To some, it may appear as madness. But I remember the
> story of squirrel participating in building the bridge from
> Ramaeshwaram to Lanka, the abode of Ravana where Mata Sita lived in
> captivity, hoping but feeling frustrated, how her supporter of life,
> Sri Rama, can reach and fight his enemy Ravana. But it happened.
>
> 6. I started this article with the Magazine âJana Sangh Todayâ; what
> has it to do with all these diversions in the preceding Paragraphs?
> A very relevant question; Jana Sangh was started in 1951, soon after
> the Partition of India and migration of Hindus including myself, from
> my ancestral Home Sindh. Hindu Maha Sabha was there even during
> elections of 1937, much earlier than the birth of Jana Sangh. As a
> Hindu, I am certainly attached to Hindu Maha Sabha, associated with
> the great name of Veer Savarkar. Shri Gandhiji eclipsed Veer
> Savarkar. After Shri Gandhijiâs assassination in 1948, Hindu Maha
> Sabha was something like banned by Shri Gandhijiâs nominee Shri
> Jawaharlal Nehru. He was dead against any Hindu political Movement!
> Even Muslim League was welcomed by him, but not anything bearing
> relationship with Hinduism. Like to a Maulvi and a Maulana, Hinduism
> was something contemptible to Shri Jawaharlal Nehru, who did his
> best to eliminate Hinduism from social and politic
> al fields. Hindu Maha Sabha was also a casualty. RSS was banned.
> In this anti-Hindu political Rule, Jana Sangh sprang up. I have some
> respect for this political Organization for protection of Hindu
> Dharma. Presently, there are political organizations like BJP which
> was and is expected to look after Hindu Dharma; there are important
> Hindu leaders to support BJP. I am a much smaller man; I wish to
> stitch a small part of the Umbrella which will ultimately bring all
> Hindu-minded people under a common large umbrella which will inspire
> our politicians to work for the Hindu Sanatana Dharma, keeping their
> personal interests at lower levels. Dharma is our primary duty. If
> we worship Dharma, the Lord of Dharma will take care of everything we
> really need.
>
> 7. According to local needs and problems, let different Hindu
> Organisations maintain their individual identities, but they should
> not fight, one Hindu against another, and kiss the feet of our
> enemies to defeat another Hindu candidate in the political field.
>
> 8. This issue, Vol. 1, No.1 of Jana Sangh today is a monthly, priced
> at Rupees five per copy; annual subscription is Rs.50. Its address
> is: Editorial and Publishing Office: 203 A, Prakash House, Ansari
> Road, New Delhi â 110 002, Bharat. Editorial Board consists of Shri
> Prafull Goradia, Shri K. R. Phanda, and Shri Ram Gopal. Articles
> show scholarly disposition based on historical facts, along with
> logical conclusions. I congratulate the Editorial board on their
> excellent work. The Editorial Board invites Articles from its
> readers.
>
> Shri Prafull GoradiaÂ
> E-mails :
> indsch@ndb.vsnl.net.in  ; website : www.theindianschoolonline.com
>
>
> bgs@giasdl01.vsnl.net.in
>
> ctldel@vsnl.com ; website : www.ctl.co.in
>
> cticl@vsnl.net.in
>
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Miscellaneous news and discussion - 2 - Guest - 11-20-2005
<b>Shahabuddin's son found dead in US</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> New Delhi, November 19: The son of noted Muslim scholar Syed Shahabuddin, Nayyar Pervez, was found dead in mysterious conditions in a hotel room in the United States, where he was working as a professor in Columbia University.
Pervez, 44, one of the youngest professors of the prestigious university, was found dead in a hotel room in New York on Thursday evening, his family members said on Saturday.
The only son of Shahabuddin, he had been in the US for some years. He is married and has two children.
His family members here are desperately trying to gather more details about his mysterious death.
He had last called his wife on Wednesday evening and was found dead in the hotel room a day later, they said.
His body would be flown to India on Monday, they added. Syed Shahabuddin, a former MP, is the President of all India Muslim Majlis-Mushawarrat.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
US LINK
Miscellaneous news and discussion - 2 - Guest - 11-21-2005
<b>Perwez death murder or suicide? </b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->âIt appears that heâs been planning this (suicide) for a long time. There was stuff on his computer that would indicate that,â said a report in the Journal News, quoting Clarkstown Detective Lt Charles Delo.
A book called <b>Final Exit </b>that purportedly teaches people how to commit suicide was also recovered from his motel room. Lt Delo has been quoted as saying that he would look at the evidence, talk to family members on why they think itâs foul play and also to Perwezâs colleagues âto see what his mental state wasâ.
Speaking to the Hindustan Times on Sunday, Lt Michael Sullivan, also of the Clarkstown police department, said: âIt was probably suicide, but investigations are continuing. We need to talk to more people and examine medical records.â
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Miscellaneous news and discussion - 2 - Guest - 12-04-2005
<!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Screening of anti-Hindu / anti-India movies in US.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>List of Films for TFSA 2004</b>
<b>Godhra Tak: The Terror Trail (60 min)
Gujarat/India, 2003, dir-Shubradeep Chakravorty</b>
The film investigates the Godhra train burning and subsequent
rioting that killed 3,500 Muslims in Gujarat, India in February,
2002. It retraces the route of the first batch of karsevaks from
Gujarat to Ayodhya (where Hindu fundamentalists want to build a Ram
temple) and back, and documents the terror they unleashed en route,
and the incident at Godhra railway station.
<b>The 18th Elephantâ3 Monologues (62 min)
Kerala/India, 2003, dir-P. Balan</b>
Winner of Ram Bahadur Trophy for the Best Film at FSA '03
This film is a critique of modern man's mercenary attitude towards
nature and his anthropocentric conception of development. The sad
plight of the elephant in both its wild and domesticated states
exposes how such behaviour brings death and wreaks havoc on the
lives and habitats of other species.
<b>Bhedako Oon Jasto -In Search of a Song ... (55 min)
Nepal, 2003, dir - Kiran Krishna Shrestha</b>
Winner of the Special Mention at FSA '03
For eight years, a well-known Nepali journalist, would sing an
unknown folk song he'd heard in the highlands north of Kathmandu to
his friends and to strangers. Since no one had heard the song, he
travelled up the mountains north of Kathmandu with members of a
popular Nepali band and a friend, the filmmaker, in search of the
source of this song.
<b>Buru Sengal (The Fire Within) (57 min)
Jharkhand/India, 2002, dir-Shriprakash</b>
Winner of the Grand Jury Award at FSA '03
The land of the Tana Bhagats in Jharkhand, India, a peaceful sect
of the Oraon tribe who follow a Gandhian lifestyle and philosophy,
is today beseiged by Naxalite violence. The film touches upon
corruption, the mafia, energy politics and displacement of
villages, and tribal identity in an area where coal has been mined
for the last 150 years.
<b>The 18th Elephantâ3 Monologues (62 min)
Kerala/India, 2003, dir-P. Balan</b>
Winner of Ram Bahadur Trophy for the Best Film at FSA '03
This film is a critique of modern man's mercenary attitude towards
nature and his anthropocentric conception of development. The sad
plight of the elephant in both its wild and domesticated states
exposes how such behaviour brings death and wreaks havoc on the
lives and habitats of other species.
<b>Hunting Down Water (32 min)
India, 2003, dir - Sanjaya Barnela and Vasant Saberwal</b>
India's present water crisis is of its own making. The patterns of
water use are changing, with increased cultivation of
water-intensive cash crops. But there are other changes that defy
logic, such as the growing number of private swimming pools in
cities, rain dances and water amusement parks. As a consequence
more and more of the rural poor are now forced to migrate.
<b>Itihaas Jitneharuka Laagi (History for Winners) (55 min)
Nepal, 2003, dir - Pranay Limbu</b>
An award-winning singer makes a desperate but unsuccessful attempt
to make a comeback after being in musical hibernation for seven
years. Itihaas Jitneharuka Laagi portrays the changes in the Nepali
music scene, as represented by Kuber Rai and Dhiraj Rai. The two
singers are a study in contrasts, with their diametrically opposing
personalities and attitude towards music.
<b>Made in India (39 min)
India, 2002, dir - Madhusree Dutta</b>
A rural artist paints her autobiography, images of Bollywood movie
icons are erased after a week-long run of their films, the national
flag flutters on 150 kites, installation artists paint pop icons on
the rolling shutters of shops. Symbols of nationalism become a
fashionable commodity. Made in India is about contemporary visual
cultures in India.
<b>Naata (The Bond) (45 min)
Bombay/India, 2003, dir - K P Jayasankar and A Monteiro</b>
Naata is about Bhau Korde and Waqar Khan, two friends who work on
conflict resolution and communal amity initiatives between the
different communities in Dharavi, reputedly, the largest "slum" in
Asia. Naata is the second in a series of films on the people and
city of Mumbai, and is a sequel to Saacha (The Loom), 2001.
<b>A Night of Prophecy (77 min)
India, 2002, dir-Amar Kanwar</b>
The film travels in the states of Maharashta, Andhra Pradesh,
Nagaland, and Kashmir. Through poetry you see where all the
territories are heading towards, where you belong, and where to
intervene, if you want to. The narratives merge, allowing us to see
a more universal language of symbols and meanings. This moment of
merger is the simple moment of prophecy.
<b>Resilient Rhythms (64 min)
India, 2002, dir - Gopal Menon</b>
India's caste system places nearly 160 million people, the dalits,
at the outskirts of society. It exploits their services but at the
same time denies them acceptance as human beings. Resilient Rhythms
deals with a range of dalit responses to their marginalisation,
from armed struggle to electoral politics.
<b>Sand and Water (105 min)
Bangladesh, 2002, dir - Shaheen Dill-Riaz</b>
Winner of the Third best film award at FSA `03
The middle section of the Jamuna, one of the three main rivers in
Bangladesh, is called "the deadly paradise". Sand and Water shows
how the people of the islands here live in the most extreme natural
conditions and cope with the "moods" of Jamuna, which also provides
them with their livelihood and fertile islands.
<b>Shei Rater Kotha Bolte Eshechi (Tale of the Darkest Night) (43 min)
Bangladesh, 2001, dir - Kawsar Chowdhury</b>
Winner of the Second Best Film Award at FSA `03
The film tells the story of the killings by the Pakistani army in
Dhaka University. Surviving members and witnesses speak, and bring
alive the havoc of that night. The documentary also includes the
wireless messages the Pakistani army exchanged that night.
<b>Swara - A Bridge over Troubled Water (40 min)
Pakistan, 2003, dir- Samar Minallah</b>
Swara examines and comments on the Pakhtun practice, in northwest
Pakistan, of giving minor girls in marriage as reparation for
serious crimes such as murder committed by their fathers, brother,
or uncles.
<b>The Unconscious (19 min)
Maharastra/India 2003, dir - Manisha Dwivedi</b>
This film is a journey with men who call themselves kothi. They are
men for their families and society, but for themselves they are
women, and wives of other "macho" men. They walk two tightropes,
both of fear and disgrace of and for their families and `husbands'.
And yet, they celebrate womanhood in their world of disguises.
<b>Vikas Bandook Ki Naal Se (Development Flows from the Barrel of the
Gun) (54 min)
India, 2003, dir-Biju Toppo and Meghnath
</b>
The film gives voice to people affected by development projectsâand
repressed by the state for speaking out. The film asks why most of
these incidents have taken place in areas where indigenous Adivasi
people are majorities, and leaves us to ask why, in the age of
globalisation, the state has turned from protector to predator.
<b>Victoria A. McGillin, Ph.D.
Associate Provost
Texas Woman's University
P.O. Box 425707
Denton, Texas 76204-5707
PH: 940.898.3350
FAX: 940.898.3386
E-mail: vmcgillin@twu.edu
</b>
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Miscellaneous news and discussion - 2 - Bharatvarsh - 01-06-2006
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Gudiya died as we sat glued to our TV
Our 24 hour news channels dished out some mixed stuff for their viewers on New Yearâs Eve. Sonia Gandhi was âelectedâ Person of the Year by NDTV. This news channel also carried an interview with the lady, by who else, but Barkha Dutt, Madameâs Lady-in-Waiting. Picking Sonia Gandhi as Person of the Year was a foregone conclusion and akin to Jaya TV crowning Jayalalithaa Miss Universe and about as credible and earth-shaking.
âHeadlines Todayâ conducted a poll to choose the sexiest man and woman while CNN-IBN, zestfully entering into the game of competing sycophancy with NDTV, had Rajdeep Sardesai also interviewing Saint Sonia. If I remember right these were the same two individuals who when they were working together for the same news channel, sobbed their hearts out and with red-rimmed eyes announced to the world that history was in the making and Saint Sonia had made the biggest sacrifice in human history when she declined to become the Prime Minister.
But these were the comic interludes. The same news channels were also showing us late-night horror movies, real nail biting stuff â Lady Teesta Macbeth Setalvad and her terror gang digging up graves in Gujarat, hatchets and pickaxes in hand, with a panting media in tow salivating at the thought of lynching Narendra Modi against the backdrop of skeletons dug up from their graves.
And as we all sat glued to our TV sets waiting to ring in the New Year watching Barkha Dutt, Lady Macbeth and Saint Sonia, a young woman was dying a painful and prolonged death. She finally died on New Yearâs Day, news of her death meriting no more than a runner below our TV screens. And no one seemed to care; at least not the TV channels, not those bleeding heart human rights activists, not the NGO industry, not the National Commission for Women or the National Commission for Minorities and not Teesta Setalvadâs Citizens for Peace and Justice. Justice Anand, the Chairperson of the NHRC who wastes no time rushing to do Teestaâs bidding when it comes to lynching Narendra Modi, the Gujarat High Court or the Gujarat or Delhi police force, also did not care to know why and how the young woman died.
Remember this young woman Gudiya any of you?
Gudiya married Arif, a soldier in the Indian army
Within ten days of the marriage Arif is called away on duty because of Pakistanâs invasion in Kargil
Arif doesnât come back home even after the war has ended; he is presumed dead by the family while the army thinks he deserted. He was in fact a Prisoner of War held captive in Pakistan
Gudiyaâs family married her off to a distant relative Taufeeq. We do not know if Gudiyaâs family asked her if she wished to marry again
Gudiya was carrying her first child, fathered by Taufeeq and was eight months pregnant in August 2004 when her first husband Arif after being released by the Pakistanis, returned home
Because Arif was presumed dead and because widow remarriage is accepted by Shariat, Gudiya was remarried to Taufeeq
But she was remarried to Taufeeq without dissolving her first marriage because Arif was supposed to be dead. You needed to dissolve a marriage only if the husband is alive and you wanted to end the marriage
Gudiya now had two husbands and was carrying her first child fathered by the second husband
This was a tragedy and a life-threatening dilemma that should not happen to any Muslim woman. I say Muslim woman because what killed Gudiya was Muslim society whose antediluvian attitudes towards women in this instance was fanned and fuelled by an insensitive and news-greedy media. Islamic law and the predatory media killed Gudiya. In the final trimester of her pregnancy, when what Gudiya needed most was physical rest and mental repose for the well being of both mother and child during delivery, her own family, Arifâs family, Muslim clerics and media attention subjected her to the most grueling physical and mental stress. Gudiyaâs health began to suffer seriously from then on. http://www.rediff.com/news/2004/sep/23spec.htm
In September 2004, one month after Arifâs dramatic and unfortunate return from the dead, ZEE TV held a kangaroo court with so-called Muslim scholars and elders who sat around solemnly in the TV studio to decide Gudiyaâs fate â with which husband should she be allowed to live. Two points here â Gudiyaâs predicament was her private business and her personal tragedy but for ZEE TV the public humiliation of Gudiya and Taufeeq in their studio was just so much TRP and viewer numbers. And a TV news channel arrogated to itself the right to seal an individualâs life and fate.
The second and more important point is the devaluing of individual entities by global ideas and structures. Globalised religions like Islam and Christianity, globalised economic ideas and structures like communist imperialism of yore or the capitalist/imperialist WTO have no sense of sanctity or the dignity of life of individual persons, societies or nations. Globalizing agendas whether religious or economic are essentially about conquest and control. Their lust for power uses individual entities as so much fodder for self-perpetuation. Islam used Gudiya as fodder to perpetuate the inviolability of the Shariat and the authority of the Mullahs.
The Mullahs in the Zee TV kangaroo court pronounced the verdict that Gudiya must return to her first husband and also pronounced that the child in her womb would otherwise be considered illegitimate. How could a young Muslim woman take on the entire Muslim society alone? The despicable and shameful silence of the human rights and NGO industry was not lost on those who have been watching them closely for some time now. Where was Teesta Setalvad, Shabana Azmi, SAHMAT, Sandeep Pandey, Kathy Sreedhar, Gabriele D, Kuldip Nayyar all bleeding heart activists who have made a career out of human rights and womenâs rights as human rights? Where were they all? Where was the American-based Indian Muslim Council? Where were our dear padres Cedric Prakash and Valson Thampu and where was the ubiquitous Swami Agnivesh? They had all crawled into a hole and pulled the hole behind them. They did not want to confront Islam or the Shariat. They did not want to take on the Muslim community.
No NGO, no human rights activist, no Muslim womenâs organization, no national commission came forward to fight for Gudiyaâs right to determine her life, to encourage her to revolt against this shameful verdict. And so poor Gudiya, in the eighth month of her pregnancy was torn apart from the father of the child she was carrying in her womb, and forced to live with the husband she hardly knew. And that was the last the world saw and heard of Gudiya. No activist followed up on the issue, no TV news channel went to meet her to find out if she had delivered the child, if Arif had accepted the child as his own, if Gudiya was happy, or what happened to Taufeeq, the father of Gudiyaâs child. The 24 hour news channels which ran their industry on Gudiyaâs misery for days together, forgot her. She and her tragic life were not news-worthy anymore. They had milked her tragedy dry.
What happened to Gudiya? I can only presume the following. Gudiya must have delivered Taufeeqâs child soon after she was forced to rejoin her first husband, which must have been sometime in October or early November, 2004. A husband and his family who considered the issue of her return to Arif as a matter of honour and prestige with no thought to her wishes or feelings would have had little respect for her body or mind. Muslim society had tossed her about like a commodity and her first husband probably thought she had to be made to carry his child at the earliest as a matter of honour. The child would be his proud trophy of his right to possess Gudiya.
And so poor Gudiya immediately after having delivered her first child, was made pregnant with her second child by her first husband. Having been subjected to severe trauma during her first pregnancy, Gudiya was neither physically nor mentally fit to conceive again besides having to care for her new-born infant without the physical and mental support of the father of the child. Not surprisingly, the child was delivered premature and stillborn in Meerut in October 2005.
Gudiyaâs health deteriorated rapidly thereafter and she was moved to the army referral hospital in Delhi in December 2005 from where she has been battling for life. She died on New Years Day, 2006 after a prolonged battle, of multiple organ failure. But the world never knew the horror story of Gudiyaâs life after she was forced to return against her wishes to her first husband. Gudiya is dead and she is already forgotten. But these questions remain:
What does a Muslim woman in Gudiyaâs position do?
What do we do to human rights activists and the NGO industry which let her down shamefully and who have shown themselves to be abject cowards when they have to confront Islam and its Mullahs.
Why was the NHRC which takes suo moto notice of human rights violations against Muslim men at the say so of activists like Teesta Setalvad and Praful Bidwai, remain silent when the human rights of a Muslim woman was so grossly and publicly violated?
Why was the National Commission for Women silent?
Above all, why didnât any of them try to keep track of Gudiya after she returned to Arif and offer her the necessary counseling, mental support and advice which would have helped her to cope with the situation?
Who is to blame for Gudiyaâs death? Muslim society for its stubborn refusal to reform; Muslim activists like Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand, Shabana Azmi and Asghar Ali Enginner for not coming forward to take on the Mullahs of their community; the NGO human rights industry which refuses to work without media attendance and publicity and which while it attacks soft Hindu targets ferociously, is forced into silence and hiding when they have to confront Muslim society; all our national commissions which think that confronting the Muslims is anti-secular and the 24 hour news channels which have reduced human dignity and privacy into dispensable commodities. Had Gudiya been a dalit or a Hindu tribal girl and had ZEE TV organized the kangaroo court with Hindu village priests and elders, how do you think all these worthies would have responded?
Gudiyaâs tragic life and even more tragic death should open our eyes to the duplicity and abject cowardice of all important national government and non-government organizations on issues concerning the two most organized and vociferous minority communities in the country.
Radha Rajan, 4th January, 2006
http://www.vigilonline.com/news/plain_spea...plainSpeakId=99<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Miscellaneous news and discussion - 2 - acharya - 01-13-2006
<b>John Kerry lauds free power for farmers</b>
Special Correspondent
Former US presidential candidate meets Chief Minister
IN FULL FLOW: Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy showing a picture of Nagarjunasagar dam to John Kerry, US Senator, in Hyderabad on Thursday. - Photo: Satish H .
HYDERABAD: US Senator and former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry called on Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and Telugu Desam leader N. Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday.
During his interaction with the Chief Minister, Mr. Kerry praised the Government's innovative initiatives in providing free power to farmers, besides creating infrastructure and irrigation facilities. He lauded the programmes to promote health and education and enquired about the disabled and old-age pension.
Meet Naidu too
Later, he met Mr. Naidu and sought to know the reasons for TDP electoral debacle in spite of pursuing a development agenda. Mr. Naidu cited consecutive drought for four to five years, anti-incumbency factor, tie-ups forged by the Congress with other parties and "some manipulation" of electronic voting machines as the factors for the defeat, according to TDP sources.
When the TDP leader referred to the EVMs' manipulation, the former presidential candidate reportedly remarked " It is our common experience".
Mr. Naidu told him that TDP had acted impartially and curbed communal riots when it was in power, after Mr. Kerry enquired about it.
`Misrepresented'
Talking to reporters, Mr. Kerry said that his suggestions on business process outsourcing were misrepresented in the Presidential campaign.
"I had campaigned against threat to corporate citizenship by IT companies shifting business and work to non-economic choices. I had tried to create an awareness on issues of loss of pensions, wealth and jobs due to such non-economic choices", the senator added, while fielding questions about reports that global IT companies had boycotted him during his visit to India.
He was visiting India to see the academic transformation caused by BPO operations in the country, particularly Hyderabad and South. They made a significant contribution to the technical revolution in the country.
He visited the Care and Support Centre for People Living with HIV/AIDS at the Government Chest hospital. Health Minister K. Rosaiah, US and State Government officials accompanied him.
Miscellaneous news and discussion - 2 - acharya - 01-14-2006
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CPI (M) alleges victimisation in NDA-ruled States
Special Correspondent
Says fundamentalist organisations like RSS dictating NDA agenda
Kolkata: West Bengal CPI (M) secretary Anil Biswas alleged on Friday that the weaker sections in the National Democratic Alliance-ruled States were being victimised at the behest of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Speaking at a party rally to protestagainstthe killing of Kalinga Nagar tribals, Mr. Biswas charged that "wherever the NDA is in power, tribals, peasantry and workers are being attacked with impunity, irrespective of which constituent is leading the NDA in the respective States."
He said that "fundamentalist organisations like the RSS were actually dictating the agenda of the NDA," adding that political forces should rally together "to defeat such designs."
Attacks on farmers
There have been attacks on farmers in Rajasthan agitating under the Left leadership for what was rightfully theirs. The NDA had only recently assumed power in Bihar but the situation therehad worsened.
Tribals were being attacked in Jharkhand and their land usurped by the Maoists for setting up bases.
The weaker sections were being victimised in Chhattisgarh and there was Gujarat with its "notorious record" of the Godhra riots, Mr. Biswas alleged.
Biman Bose, CPI (M) Polit Bureau member, said that besides places like Kalinga Nagar, tribals in other parts of Orissa were also being displaced.
Orissa CPI (M) secretary Janardhan Pati regretted that the tribals in his State had not benefited from initiatives taken for industrialisation.
Companies were being allowed to exploit the State's rich mineral reserves against low royalty payments, he charged.
Miscellaneous news and discussion - 2 - acharya - 01-18-2006
Dear all,
I am a student at the University of Oxford pursuing a Masters in Forced
Migration at the Refugee Studies center. Lately I have been working on a
research project that concerns the instances of discrimination against
displaced dalits in aid assistance programs during emergency crisis relief.
The area of focus of the project is that of the Kutch earthquake and the
Tsunami disaster in particular. As I reckon, a lot of articles and postings
had been made on the indiathinkers website concerning this issue both in
2001(Kutch) and 2004 (Tsunami). I would greatly appreciate it if anyone
could provide me help in the following areas
- any publications or books I could refer to (this would also include the
dalit identity issue itself)
- any interviews with officials/ people concerned/NGO delegates
- Reports/finding/concrete empirical evidence
- Articles/journals which anyone might have come across/brought out by your
organization
- Website links that pertain to this issue.
I also need some information regarding the recent allegations made in terms
of the discrimination in relief aid towards muslims in the south asian
earthquake (relief aid) and also during the 2002 gujarat pogrom. Since the
disasters are fairly recent, a lot of information in this regard is scarce
and not documented as yet. Therefore the views/information shared by the
indiathinkers would be of tremendous importance. I would especially like to
ask both the Dalit Monitor Forum and Mr.Yogi Sikand for help in this matter
as their articles/postings have constantly thrown light on this subject.
However, I hope that I shall get an active response from all who read this
and have an opinion on the issue. All help in this matter would be greatly
appreciated and well acknowledged. Thanking you
Best Regards,
Jennifer Kishan
Miscellaneous news and discussion - 2 - Guest - 01-19-2006
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>136 Christian tribals reconverted to Hinduism in Orissa</b>
http://www.christianaggression.org/item_di...10718&type=news
Rourkela, Orissa
newkerala.com
17 Jan 2006
Nearly 136 tribals who were converted to Christians were reconverted to Hinduism at a function organised by the local unit of the Viswha Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajarang Dal.
The reconversion ceremony was held at a remote village in Tumbei under Gurundia police station, about 40 kms from here.
<b>Those reconverted to Hinduism included 61 male and 75 female from as many as 25 tribal families belonging to Kodaligochha, Pankadihi and Tumbei villages.</b>
Rourkela VHP unit Prsident Mitrabhanu Panda and several other Bajarang Dal and VHP leaders were present at the reconversion ceremony.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Miscellaneous news and discussion - 2 - acharya - 01-24-2006
ABVP campaign against Bangladeshi infiltration begins
Staff Correspondent
50 representatives from Assam to tour country
# Campaign to cover 10 major centres across the country
# ABVP opposes legislation aimed at protecting immigrants
# `Infiltration has ruined socio-political and cultural fabric of Assam'
MANGALORE: Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarti Parishad (ABVP) launched a nationwide campaign against infiltration by Bangladeshis into the country in general and Assam in particular, in 10 major centres across the country on Monday. Over 50 representatives from Assam, including ABVP office-bearers, will tour various parts of the country as part of the campaign.
Sunita Agarwal, vice-president of the ABVP Guwahati unit, told presspersons here on Monday that the problem of infiltration has gained serious proportions in the northeast, especially Assam. People in Assam are grappling with the problem on a daily basis. The day is not far when other States in the country will also begin to feel the pinch of this development.
While Assam has been facing the problem of infiltration ever since Independence, it has worsened since the Seventies, she said. Although there is a movement against infiltration, political parties such as the Congress and its allies have overlooked the national interests to strengthen their vote banks, she alleged.
Legislation
Welcoming the move by the Supreme Court in striking down the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act in July, she said it is sad that the United Progressive Alliance Government is trying to bring in similar legislation.
ABVP and other like-minded organisations will oppose such an attempt, she warned.
Infiltration has ruined the socio-political and cultural fabric of Assam.
Infiltrators have encroached upon revenue, public and private land, national park areas and even birthplaces of prominent leaders of the State, Ms. Agarwal said.
On the nature of the 14-day campaign, she said national and State-level office-bearers of the ABVP will visit district headquarters to create awareness among the people about the problem.
Public meetings, distribution of pamphlets and submitting memorandums to the President will also be taken up as part of the campaign. ]
Miscellaneous news and discussion - 2 - Guest - 01-24-2006
IIT geeks form political party
Pooja Virendra Kumar
[ Tuesday, January 24, 2006 12:47:46 pmTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
BANGALORE: Seems like Mani Rathnamâs Yuva is getting off the reels. Five IITians, all in their 20s, have decided to take up mainstream politics. The youths, based in Jodhpur, will be in the city to campaign for their national party, â Paritranaââ , which was launched in Jodhpur on Friday.
âGiving up handsome pay packages, comfort of family and support of friends wasnât that easy,ââ says Tanmay Rajpurohit, the national president of the party and B Tech in aerospace from IIT Bombay followed by an MS from GeorgiaTech and double masters in arts.
âBut my inner voice told me that I should invest my efforts in my country rather than making my pockets heavier,ââ said Ajit Ashwalayan Shukla, vice president of the party. âPeople think we are crazy so much so that our families have also failed to understand our motto, but we wonât give up,ââ he added.
The core team of âParitranaâ â comprises Rajpurohit , Shukla, Amit Beesen, also the vice president and a B Tech (Mechanical) from IIT Bombay and a LLB graduate, Chandrashekhar (national treasurer), B Tech (computer science) from IIT Kanpur, Bharat Sundaram, the PRO of the party and B Tech from IIT Kanpur and PhD in electronics from Melbourne.
âParitrana means complete relief from the various causes of distress, and that is what we want to do for our people,ââ added Chandrashekhar. Low funds have not discouraged them in their efforts of holding door-to-door campaigns in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and parts of Maharashtra.
âWe strongly feel that the politicians of today are no longer the voice of the common man but instead they voice their own personal agendas through which they can fetch maximum votes,ââ said Shukla.
âWe are not here for the power game. We are here to deal with the grassroots issues of each and every small village that we come across,ââ added Shukla.The zeal and burning desire of the five youngsters sounds sincere. âI believe that we are just five ordinary boys from the middle class family with no godfathers in politics but have dared to come forward and fight for our rights,ââ said Chandrashekhar. âAnd we will succeed in it,ââ he added.
After the launch of the party at the Suchana Kendra in Jodhpur, the party members, as a part of their promotional campaign will tour Jodhpur, Udaipur, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Chennai.
http://www.samachar.com/showurl.htm?rurl=h...political~party
http://paritrana.org/index.html
Miscellaneous news and discussion - 2 - Guest - 01-24-2006
Let us wish them good luck!
Miscellaneous news and discussion - 2 - Guest - 01-30-2006
can we have a thread that collects material about all the anti-non-white types.
from david dukes, to ian stuart donaldsons, to national alliance to NSBM to Prussian Blue to combat 18 etc.
we need to keep an eye on these lunatics. we need to keep an eye on all racial crimes like painting jewish graveyards with swastikas. they are all over the place, especially in the germanic countries and the economically neutered ex-commie countries. maybe our NRI members could give us first hand reports.
<b>cos we may be next.</b>
though from what i know their hitlist goes thus -
jews
negros
muslims esp pakis
hispanics (only americans hate them)
indians and east asians
as also their own liberal politicians, media, authors etc
we should be careful to ensore that they dont play the muslims against us - cos they would do anything to see the fall of china and india.
and we shoudl do our bitto play the muslims against them - nothing could help us more than them getting bothered about all the muslims that land on their plate.
here are two sites that could give you a sense of what sort of antics they are up to -
http://www.bloodandhonour.com/index.php
http://www.adl.org/hate_symbols/default.asp
Miscellaneous news and discussion - 2 - Guest - 01-30-2006
ben_ami, there's a lot of garbage on the internet. No need to send it any traffic from this site.
Miscellaneous news and discussion - 2 - dhu - 02-01-2006
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Terrorism emanates from certain long-standing issues: Kalam</b>
Jan 31 (PTI) President A P J Abdul Kalam today said terrorism emanated from certain long-standing issues, including poverty, and suggested a three-point global plan to tackle the menace.
"<b>I believe terrorism is a phenomenon which comes out of certain long-standing historical issues," </b>he told journalists accompanying him to a three-nation tour to Singapore, Philippines and South Korea.
To tackle the problem he outlined a three-dimensional model - (i) educational value system, (ii) transforming religion into a spiritual force and (iii) poverty eradication.
"<b>As long as poverty is there, there will be some element of terrorism," Kalam said.</b>
"We need an integrated solution encompassing the entire world," he said.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Miscellaneous news and discussion - 2 - Guest - 02-01-2006
<!--QuoteBegin-Viren+Jan 30 2006, 05:00 AM-->QUOTE(Viren @ Jan 30 2006, 05:00 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->ben_ami, there's a lot of garbage on the internet. No need to send it any traffic from this site.
[right][snapback]45929[/snapback][/right]
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
some garbage are dangerous.
we should be aware of garbage that could damage us.
the ADL is as aware as anybody about just how much garbage those neo nazis spew - yet they take stock of them and keep an eye on them...
Miscellaneous news and discussion - 2 - Guest - 02-01-2006
for the uninitiated, here's Dr Elst's opinions on david duke ad his racist book.
http://koenraadelst.voiceofdharma.com/arti.../davidduke.html
Aryan Invasion Theory and Politics: the Case of David Duke
Koenraad Elst
There are, broadly speaking, three political movements which have taken an interest in the Aryan invasion debate. The first consists of European colonialists and racists, very active before 1945, as in the Nazi schoolbooks where the Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) was used as the perfect illustration of white dynamism and military superiority (whites entered the dark-skinned peopleâs country, not the reverse), white racism (Aryan invaders devised and imposed the caste system to prevent miscegenation), the perennial threat of racial mixing (the upper castes are visibly non-white, proving that their ancestors succumbed to the seduction of dark-skinned beauties), and the destructive results of such racial mixing (Indians have not contributed to scientific progress for centuries, unlike their whiter ancestors, and they were no match for a small number of white British invaders). Likewise, in 1935 Winston Churchill declared that the British had as much right to be in India as anyone else there, except perhaps âthe Depressed Classes, who are the native stockâ, meaning that most Indians were the progeny of invaders equally foreign in origin as the British.
The second group is the anti-Hindu front in India, including Christian missionaries, so-called Ambedkarites, Dravidian separatists, Marxists and, just now joining the AIT bandwagon, militant Muslims. All of these proclaim to be concerned with -- or just to be -- the natives of India, dispossessed by the Aryan invaders who brought Hinduism from outside. While the political animus of this group entirely stems from Indian conditions, viz. the anti-Hindu struggle, their intellectual source of inspiration, mainly through Christianity and Marxism, is largely Western.
The third group is lined up against the first two, in that it opposes the AIT: the Hindu nationalists. Seeing the disruptive and separatist uses to which the AIT has been and is being put, they feel they need to support the refutation of the AIT.
In Western academic accounts of the political aspects of the AIT, attention is mostly directed at the third group, and this in a uniformly negative and demonizing sense. The second group is practically ignored (though the academics concerned function willy-nilly as its intellectual support base), and the first group is relegated to the past. Contemporary AIT theorists are convinced that they themselves are entirely free from Aryanist fantasies and from colonial or missionary ulterior motives; and that no such pressure is exerted upon them by politicians or public opinion in the West, which after 1945 has completely lost interest in the âAryanâ question. They are indignated that Indian critics dare to even mention racism among the ideological motives behind the defence of the AIT.
This perception and self-perception among Western AIT scholars is worth a closer analysis, but in the present article I want to focus in particular on the assumption that for Western public opinion, the Aryan question is a dead issue. I will draw the readersâ attention to a revival of the racist use of the AIT as the prime illustration of the racist worldview.
Revival of racism
David Duke holds a minor elected office in the Republican Party in Louisiana, where he served a term as state representative and narrowly missed being elected as governor. On the latter occasion he got 60% of the White vote in spite of being financially dwarfed by his opponent, so he clearly resonates with a sizable section of public opinion. As founder of the National Association for the Advancement of White People, he is now the undisputed leader of a reviving White racialism, keeping to a middle course between those who have only an occasional relation with race issues, like Pat Buchanan or Joseph Sobran, and those who have completely reduced their political action to race issues, often also overstepping legal boundaries, such as the Ku Klux Klan (of which Duke used to be a member until he got frustrated with its counterproductive extremism and bad image) and the Aryan Nation.
David Dukeâs recent book, My Awakening (Free Speech Press, Mandeville LA 1999) is undoubtedly a testimony to his competence as a political activist and influencer of public opinion. It is much better written than Hitlerâs Mein Kampf, with which it shares a semi-autobiographical format and a number of ideas, esp. on the alleged Jewish world conspiracy. One cannot deny Duke a certain erudition, quoting as he does from a wide range of prestigious publications somehow useful to his message, such as Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murrayâs The Bell Curve (1994). He appeals to the fear of American Whites for the prospect of being numerically overwhelmed by Third World immigration, and seems himself to be the perfect illustration of a tendency to shed existing inhibitions about racism in proportion with the gradual sliding of the White majority into minority status. Indeed, the very name of his organization NAAWP, a pun on the NAACP (C for Colored), sends the message that Whites can claim the same identity-based rights which Blacks have recent claimed, from separate holidays (Kwanzaa, Martin Luther King day) to separate dormitories in college.
Though I am not closely familiar with the American situation, I think it is safe to predict that this book will soon be the Bible of the growing circles of Whites who, uncomfortable with actual or looming minority status, will seek stronger assertion of their racial identity. Consequently, I expect political scientists to analyze this book inside out, and I will presently confine myself to Dukeâs remarkable chapter on India.
Encounter with India
Like many Western tourists, the 21-year-old David Duke who spent a few weeks in India in 1971 was overwhelmed by the conspicuous poverty of the people:
âMillions in India live out their lives on the public streets in the dried mud. There they are born, and there they bathe, eat, sleep, excrete and copulate. As attested by the teeming population, the one thing they seem to do best is breed.â (p.515)
This teeming population worries him, and he mentions with approval that a lady he knows always gives condoms and only condoms when someone comes by to collect money for some Third World project. What makes matters worse for Duke is that it is precisely the lower and âinferiorâ castes which have sex and procreation as their only pastime, so that the average genetic quality of the Indian population diminishes with every generation.
His explanation for the squalor he witnessed and for its contrast with occasional impressive monuments of ancient civilization is simple: it is ¾ what else? ¾ the Aryan Invasion Theory. After all:
âAryans, or Indo-Europeans (Caucasians) created the great Indian, or Hindu civilization. Aryans swept over the Himalayas to the Indian subcontinent and conquered the aboriginal people. (...) The word Aryan has an etymological origin in the word Arya from Sanskrit, meaning noble. The word also has been associated with gold, the noble metal, and denoted the golden-skinned invaders (as compared to the brown-skinned aboriginals) from the West. (...) The conquering race initiated a caste system to preserve their status and their racial identity. The Hindu word for caste is Varna, which directly translated into English means color.â (p.517-518)
So there you have it: Hindus have the longest-lasting racial Apartheid system in the world. Unfortunately they squandered the genetic treasure they brought with them from the far north by mixing with the darker natives: Hindu art testifies to the ancient Hindusâ unabashed fondness for sex, and âit was not preoccupation with sex that brought down the high culture as much as it was the racial impact of that obsession. In spite of strict religious and civil taboos, the ancient Aryans crossed the color line. (...) Only a small percentage of each generation had sexual liaisons with the lower castes, but over dozens of generations a gradual change in the racial composition occurred.â (p.518) So that is why the Indians havenât invented the automobile, why they were no match for the British or even the Chinese, why their streets are dirty, why their bureaucrats are corrupt: they lost their racial purity.
All this and the facts
David Dukeâs brief analysis of Indian society is a shorthand version of the most widespread theory of the Aryan invasion and the caste system. He has not distorted it to suit his own purposes; you can find it like that in many history books (e.g. the late Alain Daniélouâs Histoire de lâInde, and publications by leading scholars like Jan Gonda, SK Chatterjee, Gordon Childe, FBJ Kuiper, the early Asko Parpola, H Kulke & D Rothermund). You also find it in the missionary-supported pseudo-Ambedkarite movement which, unlike Dr. Ambedkar himself, fervently believes in and propagates this racial version of the AIT, the only difference being the respective evaluations of the contending races: pseudo-Ambedkarites and Dravidian separatists consider the dark-skinned natives the good guys. Yet, the world of scholarship is beginning to take its distance from this âAryan apartheidâ theory.
At this point I might quote some Hindu nationalist historians who question the AIT and especially its racial version, but such brown-skinned people would not carry conviction with the Duke school; so let me quote some German-originated White professors instead. In a very recent book, Aryan and Non-Aryan in South Asia (edited by Johannes Bronkhorst and Madhav M. Deshpande, Harvard 1999) Hans Heinrich Hock and Thomas Trautmann have, so to speak, replicated the Hindu nationalist questioning of the racial interpretation of certain Vedic allusions to ethnic conflict. Both conclude, after surveying all the passages formerly quoted in support of the racial interpretation, that there is little reason to interpret terms like varna, âcolorâ, in terms of skin color, and that reference to blackness in enemies has the well-known metaphorical meaning of secrecy or evil. Prof. Hock also points out that many leading Aryans are explicitly described as dark-skinned: Krishna, Draupadi, Arjuna (in spite of his name, âpaleâ), Nakula and Damayanti (p.154), and he might have added Rama and some of the Vedic seers.
The struggle between Rama and Ravana was not one between a white Aryan and a black Dravidian, as Tamil separatists claim: Ravana was dark-skinned, alright, but also a descendent of the Vedic Pulastya clan and competent to perform Vedic ritual, while the Aryan Rama was equally dark-skinned. Other scholars including Asko Parpola had earlier shown that the traditional enemies of the Vedic Aryans, viz. the Dasas, Dasyus and Panis, were principally the Iranian cousins of the Vedic Aryans (all three ethnonyms exist in Iranian, not in the supposedly aboriginal Indian languages like Dravidian and Munda), who on average were at least as white as the latter. While one can never exclude that in such a racially diverse country like India, opposing armies were sometimes markedly different in skin colour, there is simply no testimony in the copious native literature to the kind of grand racial apartheid design imagined by David Duke and like-minded people.
As for the present, not too much should be made of the appreciation of fair skin color in marriage advertisements: the aura which blondes or otherwise whitish women carry is pretty universal and doesnât require an Aryan Invasion scenario as explanation. If an explanation is needed, it is more likely the influence of white foreign rulers: Aghans and Turks in the past, British more recently. In religion, a North-Indian Jat or Yadav (intermediate castes) will respect a Tamil Brahmin for his Vedic learning eventhough the latter is usually darker than the former.
Finally, what are the facts concerning the âinferiorityâ of dark-skinned Hindus as compared with their supposedly white ancestors of the Vedic age and the latterâs white nephews, the Europeans? It is true that in the past thousand years, India has suffered stagnation and decline, but this was largely due to political circumstances: the Muslim conquest and occupation (cfr. the decline of Chinese science under the Mongol occupation in the 13th century). Note that the Muslim invaders were much whiter than most Hindu natives, yet they destroyed all native universities without building a single new one. While the muchâtouted science of the medieval Muslim empire was mostly borrowed, Indian science was mostly creative and innovative, witness the Arab name for the âArabâ number system: Rakmuâl Hindi, âIndian numeralsâ.
Coming to the present, it cannot have escaped Mr. Dukeâs notice that most Indian immigrants in the US, already over a million, are mostly of the brainy type. In mathematics, the natural sciences, medicine and computer science, Indians are greatly âoverârepresentedâ in the leading institutes in the West. In India itself, the recovery of Indiaâs greatness in scientific achievement has been slowed down for fifty years by Nehruâs imposition of models he borrowed from White ideologues in Cambridge and Moscow, but lately Indiaâs breakthrough in these fields has undeniably been spectacular. If this is what a genetically degenerate people can achieve, perhaps the Duke clan should emulate their example.
How India woke David Duke up
So, David Duke, like many old-school Western scholars and like Hitler before him, sees in the Aryan invasion scenario a perfect illustration of his racialist world view. But it gets even better. Duke did not merely add the AIT to an arsenal of arguments which he was already building up in support of his racial politics, as just one more illustration. The AIT, in its racial version, played a completely pivotal role in his decision to devote his life to the cause of the White race.
In the countryside around Delhi, Duke visited a temple, and next to it,
âI saw something that will forever remain in my memory. In the shade sat a little, brown, half-caste Indian girl. She was thoroughly emaciated and resembled some sort of hideous doll except that she moved slightly, and her animated bones and skin had a terrifying effect. (...) On one cheek was an open sore the size of a quarter. More sores covered her arms, chest and legs. Dozens of flies covered each sore, jockeying with each other to feast on her flesh. (...) The child held her hand out to me, begging for a few rupees. I dug my hand deep into my pocket, pulled out all the Indian coins I had, and carefully tipped them into her dark, skeletal hand. I turned and stumbled back out into the hot Indian sun, my eyes blinded by tears.â (p.523)
Yes, tears for so much human misery, i.e. for a victim of Nehruâs counterproductive Soviet-oriented economic policies, just human fellow-feeling for a suffering child? That is what you would expect in this situation, and it may have been there in young Davidâs mind, of course. But his belief in the AIT put a most peculiar spin on this experience:
âOn the way back to my room I wondered if, in a few hundred years, some half-black descendant of mine would be sitting among the ruins of our civilization, brushing away the flies, waiting to die. Every day our nation grows a little darker from the torrential immigration of non-Whites, high non-White birthrates and increasing racial miscegenation (...) To the plaudits of the media, the Pariahs -- the Untouchables -- are slowly replacing the Brahmin of America and the entire Western world. The hideous skeletal girl in the prophetic setting of that Indian temple was my glimpse of the future of the Western world. (...) The huge populace of modern India cannot sustain the level of culture and economic well-being that its high-caste forebears created. (...) Our raceâs struggle for survival and evolutionary advancement became the meaning of my life when I looked into that little Indian girlâs forlorn face (...) I determined that my life would be about awakening the Aryan within every person of European descent. When I grow weary in this battle and I find my character smeared or my personal life attacked, that girlâs gaunt face is there to haunt me, to drive me onward. (...) that girlâs countenance is there to remind me, in the most graphic terms, what failure would mean for our progeny.â (p.523-524)
On seeing this pitiable girl outside a Hindu temple, Duke might have resolved to do something about poverty, unjust international trade relations, foolish economic policies, the starving of Hindu temple personnel and their families by Nehruvian secularism, or any other worthy cause somehow related to this poor girl. But because he believed in the invasion of white Aryans in India and their subsequent degeneration due to their biological Indianization, he resolved to do something entirely different: to blow new life into White racism. Who says that the racist understanding of the Aryan invasion scenario has become irrelevant in the West? It is the Aryan Invasion Theory that gave America the racialist politician David Duke:
âBefore my journey to India, the racial ideals that I believed in were abstract concepts and principles. In the moment I saw that emaciated child in the ruins, all my ideas were dramatically transformed into the reality of flesh and blood. (...) Seeing the child in the temple changed an intellectual commitment into a holy obligation. (...) I realized that day, in the scorching Indian sun outside that temple, that I had to adopt the spirit of an Aryan warrior who understood that the current struggle of our race transcends the centuries. (...) The flame that ignited in me on that hot August day in India in 1971 is still white hot and imperishable.â (p.525)
If the Aryan Invasion Theory is refuted, or alternatively, if its holds out against the present wave of criticism and gets confirmed and stronger than before, it will have consequences not only in the Indian power equation between Hindus and their enemies, but also in American politics.
© Dr. Koenraad Elst, 2002.
Miscellaneous news and discussion - 2 - Guest - 02-01-2006
as an aside, note how Elst hits the nail on the head in so far as nehru's lobotomised policies are concerned.