Note to Admin: I see a thread on monitoring communists only. We need a broader thread to catalog the activities against India in general and Hindus in particular. This will help as a reference to identify the anti-India people and entities. We should keep the discussion to minimum but only record the anti-India and anti-Hindu activities.
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Subject: ISLAM-INFONET: 'Hardball' Host Withdraws From Controversial FL Event
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
'HARDBALL' HOST WITHDRAWS FROM CONTROVERSIAL FL EVENT Convention will honor Indian official linked to Gujarat massacre
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 3/9/05) - A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today applauded MSNBC "Hardball" host Chris Matthews' decision not to speak at a Florida convention that will honor an Indian official accused of complicity in the massacre of Muslim civilians. SEE: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/
A representative for Matthews told the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) that a "scheduling conflict" will prevent him from attending the annual convention of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) later this month in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of the Indian state of Gujarat, is a keynote speaker at the convention...
http://imc-usa.org/cgi-bin/cfm/PressRele...m?PRID=105
Indian Muslim Council-USA is appalled by APPNA "Peace" Award to LK Advani
For Immediate Release
New York, NY; April 18th 2005: Indian Muslim Council-USA, a grassroots advocacy organization dedicated to the promotion of pluralism in India and the US, has expressed its shock and dismay over media reports that a delegation of Pakistani physicians has honored the Hindutva-fascist leader LK Advani with an award for "promoting peace and harmony". The delegation comprised of members of the Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America (APPNA).
Advani leads the hard-line wing of Hindutva, a supremacist movement founded on the model of Mussolini's Fascist party and many of its leaders and pioneers regard Hitler as one of their heroes.
Advani led the movement that demolished the famous Babri Mosque and was instrumental in creating conditions that caused wholesale massacres of Muslims all over India in 1992. Under Mr. Advani's tenure as a Home Minister, over 2,000 Muslims were massacred, hundreds of women were raped and more than 150,000 were ethnically cleansed in the Gujarat pogroms of 2002. Narendra Modi, a political protégé of Advani and Gujarat state Chief Minister is widely blamed for orchestrating this violence. Advani allowed these massacres to continue by refusing to dismiss the Gujarat state government during the violence despite calls from all quarters to do so and the constitutional provisions requiring such a measure. The pogroms lasted for over three months. To date, not a single person has been brought to justice. Indian Christians have also been targeted for murder, rapes and discrimination by the Hindutva parties.
On the India-Pakistan peace front, Advani repeatedly called for settling scores by waging a fourth war with Pakistan. He is on record stating "let us fight it out face to face. We have fought thrice, let there be a fourth war". Most hard-line Hindutva followers dream of annexing all the countries in South Asia and creating a greater India or "Akkhand Bharat."
Hindutva parties have infiltrated the US power centers and are in the forefront of anti-Islamic propaganda in the US, especially in Washington DC. Their websites such as http://www.hinduunity.org spew venom against Muslims, Christians and Hindus who do not agree with their Hindutva ideology.
A wide spectrum of rights organizations successfully campaigned against the visit of Narendra Modi to the US which led to the US State Department revoking his visas and imposing a ban on him for his role in the Gujarat genocide. Mr. Advani continued to defend Modi after his visa revocation and led a rally that denounced the United States. He is on record defending Modi as an "efficient" Chief Minister when controversy erupted on Modi's role in the Gujarat violence.
Media reports mention that the meeting to honor Advani was planned through the Pakistani wing of the family of Najma Heptullah a BJP leader. The pluralist-minded Indians consider Heptullah to be a political opportunist without any regard for the representation of India's Muslim community.
IMC-USA has been in the forefront of bringing different religious and ethnic groups together and in fostering religious tolerance. IMC-USA hopes and works for a peaceful India, peaceful South Asia and a peaceful world. Realization of this hope is only possible when pogrom mongers and supremacist leaders such as Advani and Modi are brought to justice and their ideology marginalized.
Contact:
Dr. M.K.Rahman
Tel: (516) 567-0783
media@imc-usa.org
Amnesty pats UPA initiatives on human rights
Wednesday, 25 May , 2005, 20:41
New Delhi: The Amnesty International on Wednesday said certain initiatives by the UPA government could improve the human rights situation in the country.
However, it slammed the BJP government in Gujarat for "failure" to bring to justice those responsible for post-Godhra riots.
The Amnesty Report-2005 on state of the worldâs human rights, released simultaneously across the world, said the Congress-led UPA governmentâs initiatives, if implemented, could improve the human rights situation in the country.
"The government is taking certain initiatives and we feel that if those were implemented, it could help in improving the human rights situation in the country," deputy director of the Amnesty International, Asia Pacific, Madhu Malhotra said releasing the Amnesty International Report 2005.
Malhotra said, "In Gujarat, victims of the 2002 riots are continuing their struggle for justice while those responsible for the crime are enjoying impunity."
Swaveda is back online along with Wendy Q A <!--emo&  --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Good article from Swaveda:
http://www.swaveda.com/articles.php?mnthyr...tion=show&id=60
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Biases in Hinduism Studies
By Abhijit Bagal
May 13, 2005
The purpose of this essay is to highlight the growing dissatisfaction on the part of the Indian American Hindu Diaspora with the way Hinduism, Hindus, and India have been depicted and mis-portrayed in the American education system, and about the urgency to engage the system along the same lines as is already being done by other American minorities, such as the Native-Americans, African-Americans, Hispanics, Jews, Muslims, Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans.
This article
<b>also explores how Hinduism and India studies directly or indirectly forms American perceptions of India and its culture, its products and services, and of the Indian American minority, and the need to bring objectivity and balance to these studies.</b>
I am writing this article in my individual capacity. I am not affiliated with any political or religious organization. I consider myself a part of the Indian American Hindu Diaspora; I was born and raised in India and came to the U. S. in the nineties to go to graduate school, and having successfully obtained a Master's Degree in Software Engineering from an American university, can claim to have some familiarity with the American educational system. I practice Sanatana Dharma (commonly referred to as Hinduism), one of the world's most ancient cultures and the religion of about one billion of the earth's inhabitants.
Sanatana Dharma is by its very essence a term which is devoid of sectarian leanings or ideological divisions. The two words, "Sanatana Dharma", come from the ancient Sanskrit language. "Sanatana" is a Sanskrit word which denotes that which does not cease to be, that which is eternal. The word "Dharma" is a term which is only properly rendered into the English language with difficulty. Its approximate meaning is "Natural Law," or those principles of reality which are inherent in the very nature and design of the universe. Thus the term Sanatana Dharma can be roughly translated to mean "Eternal Natural Law."
There are thousands of scholars in the U. S. specializing in some aspect of India and Hinduism. The India/Hinduism Studies industry consists of the development of knowledge about India and Hinduism, as well as, its distribution and retailing and includes academic research, and, school, college, and university education about India and its culture. The study of India and Hinduism in the U. S. is spread across several disciplines such as Anthropology, History, South Asian Studies, Religious Studies, Media and Journalism, and Literature and English.
As with any large academic field, Religious Studies in the U. S. is highly organized, with prestigious journals, chairs and programs of study. <b>To control and regulate the field pertaining to Indian religions, there is the association known as RISA (Religions in South Asia). RISA is a unit within The American Academy of Religion (AAR), which is the official organization of academic scholars of Religious Studies in the Western world. Around fifty years ago, there was a partition of the guild of scholars who studied religion, and two organizations were created: AAR and SBL (Society of Biblical Literature). </b>AAR and SBL maintain very close relations and influences, and hold their annual conferences jointly. While SBL members study and promote the insiders' view of Judeo-Christianity, AAR members are supposed to pursue the objective view from outside a given tradition and to not promote anything. With a membership of over 10,000 scholars -- and growing -- the AAR has enormous clout over the future direction of Religious Studies, and indirectly, over the humanities at large.Because the depictions of India in the West are inseparable from depictions of India's religions, the work done by RISA scholars has implications that go well beyond the discipline's boundaries. Religion is prominently featured in South Asian Studies, Asian Studies, International Studies, Women's Studies, Philosophy, Sociology, Anthropology, History, Literature, and Politics, and indirectly also influences Journalism, Film, and so forth.
Rajiv Malhotra, founder of the Infinity Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Princeton, New Jersey, engaged in making grants in the areas of compassion and wisdom, writes in an article dated December 25, 2000:
"Our US Congressman, who is a member of the India Caucus and will be part of the Congressional delegation visiting India in early January, spent considerable time with me today specifically on the Ramayana portrayal by Professor Susan Wadley. The Congressman said that he was appalled at the inflammatory approach in the Ramayana material, and was especially concerned that it was done under Federal grant money as that could give it the aura of governmental stamp of approval. <b>While there is the First Amendment of the Constitution giving freedom of speech, it is not the job of the Federal Government to spend the taxpayer's money in support of what is essentially hate speech. He also felt that the standard in case of school material should be at a higher level of sensitivity towards minority communities in America, of which the Hindus are one. </b>He promised to write to Washington supporting our position, and will also explore a way to get us in contact with the relevant authorities to participate in future grants of this kind. Let's keep our fingers crossed."
The above article by Rajiv Malhotra is with reference to Professor Susan Wadley's work emerging from two National Endowment for the Humanities grants (1994 and 1997) received by her to train high school teachers to teach the Indian epic Ramayana to American students. In an internet article dated September 7, 2000, Susan Wadley describes herself as the Director of South Asia Center and Ford Maxwell Professor of South Asian Studies, Syracuse University, and her work that led to the creation of the Ramayana course material and workbook as "A second WEB page project emerges from the two National Endowment for the Humanities institutes for high school teachers that I taught in 1994 and 1997. These four week institutes focused on the Ramayana and its history, its relationships to changing social and cultural norms, its presentation in art and drama. Teachers at the institutes created lesson plans and instructional materials that have been added to: these are found at http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/southasiacenter/ramayana/ ."
<b>Many have complained that the workbook developed by Susan Wadley depicts Lord Ram as an invading-outsider, imperialist, oppressor, misogynist, and a racist and that the workbook sounds more like the rant of a zealot than that of an 'objective' and 'neutral' scholar.</b>
A letter written by Dr. David Gray, protesting the biased portrayal of Ramayana by Susan Wadley, was sent on December 1, 2000, to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) with a copy to Richard W Riley, who was the Secretary of Education, U. S. Department of Education, at that time. Some excerpts from the Letter are presented here:
"While the project generated useful course material, it also included what are clearly partisan and political readings of the epic, as well as outright inflammatory 'cheap shots' at a sacred text. This complaint is on behalf of United States citizens and parents of school children. Hinduism and Sikhism (which also worships Rama) are no longer merely about a far away exotic land that Americans have little to do with. We have Hindus and Sikhs right here in our classrooms today, amongst our office co-workers and as our neighbors. It is irresponsible for any multicultural school to introduce a protest song against Hindus and Sikhs that includes hate speech alleging that "Muslims were targeted", or that certain people are "enslaved to form a monkey army" with the purported intention to "attack Muslims". What does this do to foster mutual respect and understanding among different ethnic and religious communities in America's sensitive tapestry, now represented in classrooms? Should Government funds be used to create such racially and religiously inflammatory teaching materials, denigrating to one's classmates' sensitivities, ironically in the name of multiculturalism? We understand that academic freedom, and the freedom of speech, allows us all in this country to espouse ideas that may be unpalatable to some. These ideas could be politically or culturally biased or even prejudiced. However, such bias about others' religions and religious ideals, others' sacred texts and spirituality, when it is presented to high school students by non-experts (high school teachers), would lead to a warped understanding of others' history and religions and to unintended consequences, including stereotyping and hatred of minority groups. The particular version of the Ramayana that Professor Wadley includes in the lesson plans, and that she says is her favorite version of the many songs on the God-king Rama and the Ramayana, was composed by an anti-Hindu activist. This particular "song" is included in the essay titled, "The Ramayana and the Study of South Asia" ("Education About Asia", volume 2, number 1, Spring 1997, page 36, by Susan S Wadley)."
Providing an analogy with other religions, the letter goes on to say:
"This same principle carries over to the study of other religions: for example, Christianity or Islam. Some of the scholars who have studied the Bible have read all or part of it as being patriarchal and oppressing women, Jews, homosexuals and blacks. There are others who criticize its violence and the way it is used to oppress the poor. Still others question the authenticity of the Bible and the real-life events of Jesus. Of course, most Christians see the Bible as containing God's words and would be horrified at the 'deconstruction' of their sacred text. Would we provide such portrayals of the Bible to our secondary school students, especially dramatized in performances of hate songs in the manner recommended by Professor Wadley? Christians would object vociferously at what they would call an unfair portrayal of their faith. Islamists and Muslims would similarly protest if one were to characterize Prophet Mohammed as a jihadist and an oppressor of women, even if that were supported by textual references. Scholars can debate controversial views on the Ramayana and the Bible all they want. We just don't find it necessary to import such debates into classrooms where children are beginning to understand the basic contours of each religion. The question that Professor Wadley should have addressed is this: if I were a Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Jew, or Moslem, how would I want my faith to be understood by those outside it? We believe she has not adequately understood this problem or has deliberately chosen to ignore it. Were this simply a scholarly interpretation, this would be an unfortunate, but not a public, issue."
The 'song' that the letter refers to is in worksheet 2 of the course material and instructs the students to "Read this song sung by an untouchable in north India." Some lines from the song have been reproduced below:
"Once the Aryans on their horses invaded this land.
Then we who are the natives became the displaced.
Oh Rama, Oh Rama, You became the God and we the demons.
You portrayed our Hanuman as a monkey,
Oh Rama, you representative of the Aryans.
Muslims were targeted and "taught a lesson".
To destroy Lanka, Oh Rama, you
Formed us into a monkey army.
And today you want us,
The working majority,
To form a new monkey army
And attack Muslims."
Lord Ram is thus depicted as an "Aryan Invader" in school textbooks for American kids. The Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) itself is highly controversial with some scholars suggesting that it is a colonial and racist construct of the 19th century. Some scholars have suggested that there was no invasion but a gradual migration leading to the Aryan Migration Theory (AMT). Some other scholars have suggested that there was no invasion or migration, that the Aryans were indigenous to India, and that the term Aryan does not refer to a caste or a race, rather it refers to one with a noble behavior. There is a fourth group of scholars who say that people from India migrated to other parts of the world such as Central Asia and Europe and spread the Vedic civilization there, and, not the other way round â this is known as the Out of India Theory (OIT). Unfortunately, many scholars such as Professor Wadley often fall into the trap of labeling all of India's problems as 'Hindu', whereas they would not label the very high incidence of child abuse, rape, massive prison population, school violence and shootings, drug and other addictions, and high incidence of clinical depression in the U. S. as 'Judeo-Christian' problems.
Hinduism courses are often taught in a way so as to create a revulsion against Hinduism in the minds of the students. In Fall 2001, an Indian American student took an introductory class in Hinduism at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and was shocked to hear the instructor describe the gory details of Asvamedha (Vedic horse sacrifice, also referred to as Rajasuya) in the first class. Thus, the students were told in the very first class that the chief queen grasped the penis of the dead horse and thrust it into her vulva and so on. The student was stunned and commented that this does not motivate him to take any class on Hinduism in the future, even though he was well aware that there are several beautiful things in Hinduism and that the Asvamedha rite was performed very rarely, with these gory details probably often left out. In the last 2000 years, there are perhaps no more than 6-7 recorded instances of the rite being performed.
The texts on Hinduism developed by Western scholars dwell lavishly upon a certain set of topics that are a big turn off to students interested in Hinduism â <b>These topics are Caste Discrimination, Tantric Sex, Animal Sacrifices, Dowry Deaths, Polytheism, Hindu Fascism, Cult of Kali, naked Naga Sadhus etc. -- which tend to give a biased view of Hinduism as a tribal, primitive, misogynist cult that has imprisoned millions of human beings. To add to this, many anti-Hindu texts are prescribed reading in introductory classes on Hinduism. A search on the Internet shows that there are some introductory Hinduism classes in American Universities where even books like "Why I am not a Hindu" by Kancha Illiah are prescribed reading! Will anyone recommend Ibn Warraq's "Why I am not a Muslim" in an introductory course on Islam? Or how about Bertrand Russel's "Why I am not a Christian" in an introductory course on Christianity?</b>
RISA scholars often hold the Hindu Diaspora in the United States in utter contempt. Whereas the achievements, the industriousness, the intelligence and capabilities of the Diaspora and their contributions to their adopted country is being recognized and praised, the writings of RISA specialists often hold their 'objects of study' as inferior beings. It appears that the Indologists and RISA scholars often have a problem relating to India and Hindus in general. They seem to suffer from some kind of bias or phobia that prevents them from portraying Hindus and Hinduism in a praiseworthy, sensitive or a sympathetic manner. There seems to be this fear that if Hindus or Hindu organizations are presented sympathetically, the author might be perceived as a New Ager, a closet supporter of Hindu Fascists and so on.
Another student who took a class in Stanford University in 2002Â comments:
"I took a class in Indian history at Stanford last year. After discussing the Ramayana, the instructor showed one film: "We are not your monkeys" by Anand Patwardhan. I found myself in the strange position of criticizing a film that I admire. I asked the instructor if he would consider showing the Mapplethorpe sculpture (the crucifix immersed in urine) in an introductory course on Christianity as the only example of Christian art. Needless to say, he dubbed me a BJP sympathizer."
The film mentioned above â "We Are Not Your Monkeys" is a short music video based on a song by the late Daya Pawar, a renowned poet and activist from the western Indian state of Maharashtra. The film has been made by one of India's leading documentary-makers, Anand Patwardhan and offers a critique of the Ramayana. BJP is an acronym for Bharatiya Janata Party, the political party that had formed the previous government in India. BJP has often been labeled as a "Hindu Nationalist Party" and along with its affiliate organizations â the VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) and the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) are routinely accused for fomenting Hindu Fascism in India.
It is not the quality of the film or the quality of the song that is being questioned here, rather the following two questions come to mind:
Why did the Professor at Stanford choose a film that depicts the Ramayana in a negative fashion? There are many other films that portray the Ramayana positively, such as "Warrior Prince, The Legend of Ramayana" which was awarded the "Best Animation film of the year" out of 60 competing entries at the Santa Clarita International festival -- 2000, in Santa Clarita, California. As an 'objective' and 'neutral' scholar, the Professor could (and should) have shown more than one version of the Ramayana and let the students decide for themselves what to infer.
When the student protested, why did the professor conclude that the student was a BJP sympathizer?
Amongst RISA studies and discussions, there is an overt emphasis on the so called Hindu 'F' word -- Hindu-Fundamentalism, Hindu-Fascism, and Hindu-Fanaticism. RISA scholars and other academics (turned into political commentators) read selective literature by Marxists, Liberals, Pseudo-Secularists, and other political commentators and churn out articles and books by hundreds every year on this phenomenon. The parties, organizations, and individuals criticized are obviously never given a fair portrayal, and their supposed misdeeds are described through critical secondary publications by committed Hindu bashers and scholars with their own political agendas. Any act of self assertion of Hinduism, or even a questioning of some paradigms of South Asian Studies or Indology is enough to draw the wrath of RISA scholars with epithets like 'Hindutva Oppressor', 'RSS supporter', 'Caste Exploiter', 'Hindu Nazi', 'Bride Burner' etc.
Hinduism scholars often excuse themselves from social responsibility by claiming that their works have very limited readership. But, over time, their ideas and images disperse into society at large, because of the legitimacy given to them by prestigious academic voices. For example, Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, one of the foremost art museums in the U. S., features some of the rarest and most precious art objects of Asia, and its coffee table book explains the large 11th century Ganesha carving in the collection, as follows: "Ganesa, is a son of the great god Siva, and many of his abilities are comic or absurd extensions of the lofty dichotomies of his father." And then goes on to say: "Ganesa's potbelly and his childlike love for sweets mock Siva's practice of austerities, and his limp trunk will forever be a poor match for Siva's erect phallus." Many school tours visit the museum, and through art the kids learn about other cultures. One can very well guess what the American school kids will learn about Lord Ganesha and Hinduism from the abovementioned example.
Writing about the displeasure expressed by the Indian American Community about the way Hinduism is being portrayed by scholars in the West, Rajiv Malhotra comments:
"The Diaspora is now highly aware of AAR/RISA, suspicious, and getting mobilized rapidly. They are challenging at fund raisers, and their kids are getting bolder about raising their hands to question the items selected for depiction in a one-sided manner...
If left to itself, things will deteriorate, and there may well be someone who will file a lawsuit on hate speech or something similar. This must be avoided by proactive positive thinking."
I urge the readers to examine the topics mentioned in this article, to investigate the nature of Hinduism/India studies, and, to determine ways to bring accountability, objectivity, fairness, and balance to these studies. I also request the readers to explore ways to enable members of the Indian American Hindu Diaspora to be equal participants at the discussion tables where Hindu/Indian traditions are the topics
-- including schools, colleges, universities, museums, media, political think-tanks, and corporate policy meetings.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
(fwd)
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The popular Indian TV Show "Darshan" operating on MHz (Channel 56) broadcast an interview on June 25, 2005, of Naffisa Ali, a Muslim activist in India. She initially spoke on the subject of aids. However, during the ensuing conversation, Ms. Ali made a statement highly objectionable to the Hindus of the Washington Metropolitan area, and to the Hindus in general. She brought up the issue of the Godhara incident and stated that it was a conspiracy by the Hindus against the minority, the Muslims. She called Mr. Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat in India, a Hitler of Gujarat. Such a statement on a Public TV channel is not only an irresponsible and infantile, patently anti- Hindu, slur, against a democratically elected and greatly respected leader of India, but also a gross and malicious distortion of widely known facts and historical perspective involved. Â
The Hindus must not silently tolerate such anti-Hindu statements on Public channels. The media is supposed to be neutral, and not biased against any community or religion. We, the Hindus of the DC Metropolitan area as well as of the USA as a whole must raise a voice to register our strong objection to such broadcasts on a Public channel.
The Indian organizations of the DC area, including the OFBJP, the VHPA and the Gujarati Samaj, request you to please sign a petition, to call on phone, or to write a letter to the Darshan TV, demonstrating and setting for the record your objection against the June 25, 2005 broadcast of Naffisa Ali's interview. Darshan's email address is darshan@darshantv.com, telephone number is 703-671-7777, and fax number 703-671-0931. Please express your opposition to the said broadcast in large numbers, demanding that the Darshan program management submit to the Hindu community a clarification and an apology for airing such a biased and inappropriate interview.
In this connection, needless to say, the Darshan TV, Ms. Naffisa Ali, and others making reference to the Gujarat communal riots conveniently forget just what led to the riots - the Godhra incident. A railway compartment carrying innocent Hindu devotees returning from a pilgrimage was purposely set on fire by Muslim mobs. A large number of men, women and children perished, charred to the bone. Many say perhaps this ghastly incident occurred under the instigation of the ISI of Pakistan, constantly following the tactics of spreading unrest and terror to build Hindu-Muslim communal tension in India, to their benefit. Innumerable such acts of terror engineered by Pakistan have taken place in India, including daily infiltration of terrorists, trained and equipped in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, into India to kill innocent men, women and children; attack on the Indian Parliament House in New Delhi; and on the Akshardham Temple in Gujarat, to mention just a few. The Indian Hindus have meekly tolerated these bloody incursions for years. For over a thousand years, the Indian history is replete with Muslim tyranny on the majority Hindus without any retaliation or reaction on part of the complacent and tolerant Hindus. If the Godhra incident incited a riot in Gujarat in which, by the very nature of riots, people of both the communities lost their lives, the cause-and-effect relationship of the riot should not be forgotten. One must heed to history to avoid its tragic repetition. A communal riot is no doubt a painful and tragic event for all. But pretending as if the Godhra incident did not take place, or was not the sole cause of the Gujarat riots that followed undoubtedly injuring both the communities, would be the height of folly. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Sarmila Bose has done the impossible <!--emo&:blink:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blink.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->New impartial evidence debunks 1971 rape allegations against Pakistan Army
<b>A study of the 1971 conflict by an Indian academic, Prof Sarmila Bose, says the Pakistan army personnel <span style='color:red'>did not rape Bengali women </span>as has been widely alleged </b>by Indian and Bangladeshi writers. While Prof Boseâs study focuses on certain specific cases, the finding is very interesting, based as it is on extensive interviews with eyewitnesses. The study also determines the pattern of conflict as three-layered: West Pakistan versus East Pakistan, East Pakistanis (pro-Independence) versus East Pakistanis (pro-Union) and the fateful war between India and Pakistan.
As Prof Bose has noted, no prior study of the conflict has been done. What we have are narratives that strengthen one point of view by rubbishing contending viewpoints. <b>The Bangladeshi meta-narrative, for instance, focuses on the rape issue and uses that not only to demonise the Pakistan army but also exploit it as a symbol of why it was important to break away from (West) Pakistan.</b> Indeed, the sheer number of Bangladeshi women raped is placed in the millions, a fact to which the Hamoodur Rehman Commission Report also referred and declared as absurd. <b>Even so, over the years the charge of rape has stuck to the Pakistan army and weighed it down in moral terms. </b> <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo--> <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'><b>Prof Bose, a Bengali herself and belonging to the family of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, </b></span>has done a remarkable job of investigating the charge and paving the way for independent scholars to probe the issue further.
Prof Bose, who unveiled her study at a US State Department conference convened to mark the release of declassified US government documents from that period, also spoke about the violence generated by all sides. <b>âThe civil war of 1971 was fought between those who believed they were fighting for a united Pakistan and those who believed their chance for justice and progress lay in an independent Bangladesh. Both were legitimate political positions.</b> All parties in this conflict embraced violence as a means to the end, all committed acts of brutality outside accepted norms of warfare, and all had their share of humanity. These attributes make the 1971 conflict particularly suitable for efforts towards reconciliation, rather than recrimination,â says Prof Bose.
<b>It goes to Prof Boseâs credit that while studying the conflict she retained her professionalism and integrity, two essential traits normally absent in studies done of that period by all sides. </b><span style='color:red'><b>Under the circumstances, if she wants to explore the issue further the Pakistan army should not hesitate to give her access to raw material in its archives so that she can expand her work.</b> </span>Indeed, hereâs the Pakistan armyâs chance to wash this stigma off it once and for all. We are reasonably sure that elements within Bangladesh â and even India â will criticise Boseâs study because it goes against the grain of Bangladeshi nationalism. But this will not take away from its impartialness and significance. *
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http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?p..._2-7-2005_pg3_1
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Under the circumstances, if she wants to explore the issue further the Pakistan army should not hesitate to give her access to raw material in its archives so that she can expand her work.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Oh please.. seems like the initial 'study' by Sarmila Bose was with the material provided by Paki army.
Atrocities against Bengali women
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->As was also the case in Armenia and Nanjing, Bengali women were targeted for gender-selective atrocities and abuses, notably gang sexual assault and rape/murder, from the earliest days of the Pakistani genocide. Indeed, despite (and in part because of) the overwhelming targeting of males for mass murder, it is for the systematic brutalization of women that the "Rape of Bangladesh" is best known to western observers.
In her ground-breaking book, <b>Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape, Susan Brownmiller</b> likened the 1971 events in Bangladesh to the Japanese rapes in Nanjing and German rapes in Russia during World War II. "... 200,000, 300,000 or possibly 400,000 women (three sets of statistics have been variously quoted) were raped. Eighty percent of the raped women were Moslems, reflecting the population of Bangladesh, but Hindu and Christian women were not exempt. ... Hit-and-run rape of large numbers of Bengali women was brutally simple in terms of logistics as the Pakistani regulars swept through and occupied the tiny, populous land ..." (p. 81).
Typical was the description offered by reporter Aubrey Menen of one such assault, which targeted a recently-married woman:
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->
Two [Pakistani soldiers] went into the room that had been built for the bridal couple. The others stayed behind with the family, one of them covering them with his gun. They heard a barked order, and the bridegroom's voice protesting. Then there was silence until the bride screamed. Then there was silence again, except for some muffled cries that soon subsided. In a few minutes one of the soldiers came out, his uniform in disarray. He grinned to his companions. Another soldier took his place in the extra room. And so on, until all the six had raped the belle of the village. Then all six left, hurriedly. The father found his daughter lying on the string cot unconscious and bleeding. Her husband was crouched on the floor, kneeling over his vomit. (Quoted in Brownmiller, Against Our Will, p. 82.)
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
"Rape in Bangladesh had hardly been restricted to beauty," Brownmiller writes. "Girls of eight and grandmothers of seventy-five had been sexually assaulted ... Pakistani soldiers had not only violated Bengali women on the spot; they abducted tens of hundreds and held them by force in their military barracks for nightly use." Some women may have been raped as many as eighty times in a night (Brownmiller, p. 83). How many died from this atrocious treatment, and how many more women were murdered as part of the generalized campaign of destruction and slaughter, can only be guessed at (see below).
Despite government efforts at amelioration, the torment and persecution of the survivors continued long after Bangladesh had won its independence:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Rape, abduction and forcible prostitution during the nine-month war proved to be only the first round of humiliation for the Bengali women. Prime Minister Mujibur Rahman's declaration that victims of rape were national heroines was the opening shot of an ill-starred campaign to reintegrate them into society -- by smoothing the way for a return to their husbands or by finding bridegrooms for the unmarried [or widowed] ones from among his Mukti Bahini freedom fighters. Imaginative in concept for a country in which female chastity and purdah isolation are cardinal principles, the "marry them off" campaign never got off the ground. Few prospective bridegrooms stepped forward, and those who did made it plain that they expected the government, as father figure, to present them with handsome dowries. (Brownmiller, Against Our Will, p. 84.)
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
To: Westin Hotel Patrons
We, patriotic citizens of America and friends of America, object to
Westin Hotel at Santa Clara in California hosting a sympathizer of a
known terrorist group on Oct 2, 2005 and will boycott Westin Hotel if
the event is not cancelled.
Sandeep Pandey, who is scheduled to be felicitated at the event, has
repeatedly called America "the biggest evil power on earth"[1] and
"the biggest terrorist state."[2] Sandeep Pandey is a sympathizer of
the violent Naxalite group, Communist Party of India
(Marxist-Leninist) Liberation (CPI-ML), which calls for an armed
revolution and for raising an army.[3] He has been a delegate at the
convention of this group honoring the "comrade martyrs", a euphemism
for terrorists killed by police when they attempted violent actions on
civilians.[4]
The US Department of State has listed certain Naxalite groups as
terror groups for their use of violence to achieve their ends.[5] All
Naxalite groups have the same root and are merely various factions of
the parent group. Most of the time, they break away and rename
themselves in order to evade the State Department's 'terrorist' tag.
CPI-ML has gratefully acknowledged the support of Sandeep Pandey.[6]
Sandeep Pandey has repeatedly expressed solidarity with violent
terrorists, who massacre civilians and law enforcement officials by
blowing them up with landmines.[7] Sandeep Pandey has stressed "the
need of unity of revolutionary Communist organizations like
CPI-ML."[8]
Patriotic Americans around the country and well-wishers of America
from other democracies object to Westin Hotel hosting a supporter of
violent Communist groups and demand that Westin Hotel immediately
withdraw permission to use its facilities. If Westin Hotel refuses to
withdraw permission, we will boycott Westin Hotel in future. We also
urge all those who care for America and our values to call
888-625-5144 and cancel your reservations at Westin if you have made
any plans to stay with them.
God Bless America! Land of the Free! Home of the Brave!
References:
[1]
http://www.milligazette.com/Archives/2004/...200434.ht\
m
[2] http://www.blonnet.com/bline/2002/09/05/st...90502790300.htm
[3] http://www.cpiml.org/pgs/partyprogram/prog.htm
[4] http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/nov/15naxal.htm
[5] http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/pgtrpt/2003/31759.htm
[6] http://www.cpiml.org/liberation/year_2003/...ary/feature.htm
[7] http://www.cpiml.org/liberation/year_200...ary/up.htm
[8] http://www.cpiml.org/liberation/year_2003/...ary/feature.htm
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
http://www.petitiononline.com/no2naxal/petition.html
Not sure if this is right thread, here it goes anyway:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> On 11/3/05, Isxxx@xxxxxxx <Isxxx@xxxxxx > wrote:
I have read many of your articles and you often talk about how Indian's
identities often get reprogrammed to 'South Asian'. Until reading your
articles I never really gave much thought to this 'South Asian' movement on
campuses. I am currently enrolled in college and I have personally seen many
of my own friends reprogram their identities to 'South Asian'. It is alarming to me how impressionable many Indian youth are while in college.
Nowadays most Indian kids are more concerned about being politically
correct and appearing "open minded". After reading your articles I have tried
to my best to convince people to assert an Indian-American identity however,
IÂ believe my efforts so far have been failures. You have written about
how Indian's identities are "South Asianized" but you have not written why
so many Indian youth have followed this path. I think one reason is that
this 'South Asian' movement has been successful is because Indian kids
often have strict upbringings and this creates a rebellious mentality in many
youth. IÂ believe that Indian girls are often the most susceptible to
brainwashing of "South Asianists" because they are often subject to stricter treatment from parents and the rest of the Indian community then boys. "South
Asianists" seem to exploit this and exaggerate it to the point where Indian/Hindu
culture is associated with social ills against women. These "South
Asianists" also exploit the way Indian parents push their kids to
enter wealth generating fields and denounce this as being materialistic and
superficial. Another trend I've also noticed is the way "South Asianists"
dismiss the success of Indians in America as not being the result of
hard work, intelligence and education but because of "immigration law" as
Mr. Vijay Prashad put it.
http://www.asiansinamerica.org/museum/comm_ind.html
Even my own sister constantly tries to propagate this to me. It amazes
me even more how almost all the people getting caught up in this 'South
Asian'Â movement are Indians. Pakistanis and Bangladeshis always join their
own or Muslim student organizations. Every time I point this out to fellow
Indians none of them can ever give a valid reason or beat me in a debate as to
why Indians should bother with the 'South Asian' tag. I grew up in a
mainly Bangladeshi and Pakistani part of Brooklyn. From when I was a little
kid IÂ understood how different and how little I have in common with
non-Indian South Asians. I believe Indians in Britain are much more aware of
their Indian identity because skirmishes and fights between the Indian and
Pakistani youth there are a common occurrence from what I have heard.
On top of that is the well documented gap in education and achievement
between the two communities with Indians rising to the top and Pakistanis confined to ghetto areas like the ones in Bradford and Birmingham. Because America is a big piece of land and also the fact that the more affluent areas where
Indians are more prominent and the working class neighborhoods/ghettos
of NYC where Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are more prominent, are so
geographically isolated, Indians living in places like Long Island and
Edison, NJ have no idea how different their ideal of South Asian unity
and how reality is. I commend you for what you are doing for the
Indian-American community. It is absolutely essential that we do whatever we can to make sure India is portrayed in positive light.
-- Swarup xxx
<b>Rajiv's comments in response:</b>
He correctly observes that while Pakistani and Bangladeshi organized
counterbalancing initiatives also exist on campuses, Indians have more
willingly internalized the British imperialist structures and now are
available for American institutionalized reprogramming. In some call
centers in India they are being "taught" to think, feel, dress, eat
and talk like Texans, New Yorkers, etc - some specific white identity
they can select from a catalog.
"South Asian" seems to be a temporary/unstable state pending further
engineering - it suggests, "I am ready to be tutored to become
whatever you want." Its significance is not based on what it is, but
based on what it leaves behind (by way of implied and polite
rejection) so as to clear the space for fresh programming.
The emerging global caste system has whites at the top, whiteness (as
cultural identity for people of color) as second, and South Asian just
below whiteness for those still unable/unwilling to claim full
whiteness. Those who remain behind as "native" Indians are seen as the
new outcasts; they are vulnerable to future genocides resulting from
overpopulation and civilizational clashes. Are we Indians turning into
global shudras-for-hire with no identity of our own other than
whatever the latest master assigns?
Postmodernism is an imperialist export - via co-opted (whitened) third
world intellectuals - to distribute "theories" that support this trend
as being desirable and/or inevitable. Whitened intermediaries like
Harvard's Homi Bhabha are rewarded with cushy Ivy League jobs and
turned into role models for facilitating the bandwagon effect among
Indian intellectuals who are anxious to escape the "problems of
Indianness." Meanwhile, the Harvard cabal under the choirship of
Sugata Bose dishes out demonology against Indian culture to make the
carrots more attractive for assuming new identities: hence the role of
Harvard as the epicenter for studying sati, dowry, incest, caste,
gender conflict as Indian "essences."
Indian culture which is deemed valuable is repackaged as "white" (such
as yoga/meditation these days...) and this appropriation is sold to
confused Indians as being a compliment by the whites. Whatever is left
behind after the scavenging is branded as backward/facsist Indianness.
Between these two extremes of whiteness and Indianness, the South
Asian labeling provides the safety of a middle ground with enough
ambiguity and wiggle room to customize and personalize. The student
who wrote the email rightfully blames orthodox parents. I would add to
his list the role of US based lazy and pompous Indian cultural leaders
who naively play into this phenomenon...<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
A blast from the past. This bunch is pretty quite when it comes to riots in Beligum or France and Germany. Hypocrites <!--emo&<_<--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dry.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='dry.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Will someone remind this Dr. Satinath Choudhary?
In entirety at : http://insaf.net/pipermail/insafny_insaf.n...rch/000176.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Quote:
Dear friends,
Please act urgently, within a week! Here is a copy of letter I have received from Mr. Gerard Oonk, coordinator, India Committee of the Netherlands, in response to my letter to him. He says,
"It would indeed be very important if you could write to e.g. the
Dutch government and the European Commission on the issue."
And adds,
"It would be useful if you could write within a week from now, as
they have to give answers to the parliamentary questions in about
two weeks. They might then take up your information."
For the addresses of the appropriate persons to write to, please see the letter. Thanks.
Regards,
Sati
============================
g.oonk@indianet.nl wrote:
Dear Dr. Choudhary,
Thank you for your support for the position we took on Gujarat. Attached you will find questions raised in the Dutch parliament on the issue by the Dutch Labour party. They are now forming a coalition government with the christian democrats, so this means they have to follow up on it when they are in government.
By the way: how did you come to know about our press release and which organisation are you related to?
It would indeed be very important if you could write to e.g. the Dutch government and the European Commission on the issue.
With regard to the Dutch government you could write to:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Mr. J. de Hoop Scheffer, Minister of Foreign Affairs and
Mrs. A. van Aardenne, Minister for Development Co-operation
Postbox 20061
2500 EB Den Haag
The Netherlands
An e-mail version of the letter could be send to:
Mr. Wilfred Mohr, Head Southern Asia Division Asia and Oceania
Department; e-mail: wt.mohr@minbuza.nl
But do address the letter officially to the Ministers. That obliges them to give a formal reply. It would be useful if you couid write within a week from now, as they have to give answers to the parliamentary questions in about two weeks. They might then take up your information.
With regard to the European Commission you could write to both:
European Commission
Mr. Chris Patten
Commissioner for External Relations
Rue de Loi
B-1049 Brussels
Belgium
Head of the Section for India, Bhutan and Nepal is Mrs. Laurence
Argimon-Pistre; e-mail: laurence.argimon-pistre@cec.eu.int
and to:
European Commission
Mr. Poul Nielson
European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid
G-12 8/48
Rue de Genève 12
1140 Brussels Belgium
tel. 32-2-2981000
E-mail: poul.nielson@cec.eu.int
( I still have to find out the India-in-charge in this Directorate)
I will be in touch on the issue with you.
Please also keep us informed about uyour activities in this regard.
Kind regards,
Gerard Oonk
Date sent: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 11:37:56 -0800 (PST)
From: Satinath Choudhary
Subject: Thanks to India Committee of the Netherlands
To: g.oonk@indianet.nl
Copies to: rkurian1@vsnl.com, india-unity@yahoogroups.com, bahujan@yahoogroups.com,
the_moderator2001@yahoo.com, dalit@yahoogroups.com, foil-l@insaf.net,
Insafny@insaf.net
>
> Mr. Gerard Oonk
> co-ordinator
> India Committee of the NetherlandsÂ
> g.oonk@indianet.nl
>
> Dear Mr. Oonk,
>
> Thank you very much for your Press Release of March 11, 2003,
> http://www.indianet.nl/pb030311.html
>
> copied below. I am writing on behalf of Indians concerned about human
> rights in India and the world, in general, and human rights in Gujarat in
> particular. We whole heartedly endorse the stand you have taken (in the
> excerpt below) with regard to cooperation between EU and the Government of
> Netherlands on one hand and the Governments of India and Gujarat on the
> other. <span style='color:red'><span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>We would like to join you in urging the Government of Netherlands
> and the EU to stop all cooperation with the Governments of India and
> Gujarat until their human rights records improve. We also join your call
> for public denunciation of the latter by the former. </span>
>
> We would like to request you to tell provide us with email addresses of
> appropriate officers of EU and various other governments where we could
> write urging them to do their utmost ,and anything else that we could do,
> to bring pressure upon the Governments of India and Gujarat.
>Â
> Excerpt from your letter, "Two questions seem to be crucial here: is the
> continued co-operation with the government of Gujarat not a justification
> of a government that is co-responsible for mass murder, does not punish
> those that are responsible, ignores the victims and discriminates the
> Muslim minority? are the programmes supported by The Netherlands and the
> EU being negatively effected by a government that
> discriminates Muslims?
>
> The India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN) is of the opinion that the
> official development co-operation with the government of Gujarat should be
> suspended until these questions are answered and until the recommendations
> of the National Human Rights Commission, Amnesty nternational and Human
> Rights Watch are satisfactorily implemented." >
>
> Thank you again for your compassionate and forthright Press Release and
> pressure upon the Government of Netherlands and EU.
>
> Sincerely yours,
> Dr. Satinath Choudhary
> </span>>
===================================
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Will someone remind this Dr. Satinath Choudhary?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
He is busy collecting earthquake money and every 10 mins Press release on donation and brotherhood with Pakistani Kashmiri. <!--emo& --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
This is happening all over Russia, and with Increasing regularity:
Hindus in Shock as Russian Bishop Calls Krishna âSatanâ
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Hindus have been shocked and outraged to read the views of the Russian Orthodox Church on Lord Krishna, who is revered by over one billion Hindus worldwide as their Supreme Lord, a press statement from the International Society For Krishna Consciousness was quoted by The Hindustan Times.
<b>In a letter to the mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, dated Nov. 29, 2005, Archbishop Nikon of Ufa and Sterlitamak from the Russian Orthodox Church called Lord Krishna âan evil demon, the personified power of hell opposing Godâ, and âa livid lascivious youthâ, the statement says.</b>
<b>The archbishop further requested that the mayor ban construction of a proposed Krishna temple in Moscow, saying it would otherwise become âan idolatrous disgrace erected for the glory of the wicked and malicious âgodâ Krishnaâ</b>.
<b>âConstruction of the temple (a satanic obscenity destined to be built right in the heart of the Orthodox Christian country of Russia) to Krishna offends our religious feelings and insults the thousand-year religious culture of Russia where the overwhelming majority of people, Christians and Muslims included, consider Krishna an evil demon, the personified power of hell opposing God,â said the archbishopâs letter</b>.
âThe shower of offences that Archbishop Nikon decided to publicly pour on Lord Krishna caused us intolerable pain and evoked bitterness and indignation in our hearts,â said Sanjeet K. Jha, the president of the Association of Indians in Russia.
Apart from displaying stunning ignorance of the worldâs oldest religion, it is also evident from the statement that the Russian Orthodox Church is still embedded in the dark ages of religious exclusivity, which has no place in todayâs increasingly pluralistic society, the paper added.
To call Lord Krishna âsatanicâ is not only sacrilegious in the eyes of Hindus; it is also patently ridiculous as any student of Hinduism knows; for Krishna is famous as the slayer of demons in the Bhagavad-Gita.
In contrast to the Russian Orthodox Churchâs stance, Hindus respect Jesus Christ, who is predicted in the Vedas, the ancient Hindu scriptures, as a specifically empowered personality.
âWe respect all religions,â said Bimal Krishna das, general secretary of the National Council of Hindu Temples (UK) and the Russian Orthodox Church has nothing to fear from Hindus. âWe think the archbishop may gain some fresh insights into his own Christian faith by reading Krishnaâs words in the Bhagavad-Gita,â he said.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Russia is taking baby steps towards facism, if one reads all the news these days.
<!--QuoteBegin-Manu+Dec 11 2005, 09:47 PM-->QUOTE(Manu @ Dec 11 2005, 09:47 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->This is happening all over Russia, and with Increasing regularity:
Hindus in Shock as Russian Bishop Calls Krishna âSatanâ
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Hindus have been shocked and outraged to read the views of the Russian Orthodox Church on Lord Krishna, who is revered by over one billion Hindus worldwide as their Supreme Lord, a press statement from the International Society For Krishna Consciousness was quoted by The Hindustan Times.
the glory of the wicked and malicious âgodâ Krishnaâ[/b].
[b]â
of the Association of Indians in Russia.
Apart from displaying stunning ignorance of the worldâs oldest religion, it is also ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;Church has nothing to fear from Hindus. âWe think the archbishop may gain some fresh insights into his own Christian faith by reading Krishnaâs words in the Bhagavad-Gita,â he said.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Russia is taking baby steps towards facism, if one reads all the news these days.
[right][snapback]42903[/snapback][/right]
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It is a paradox that a country wich was tormented by Germany during WWII having lost largest number of people now finds solace in erstwhile fascist ideology of the same tormentors.
This inspite of the fact that Indian and Russian friendship is time tested and stronger than ever.
I think the Russian society is going through a churning process. They still crave for glorious & heady superpower days and find it difficult to accept the present situation. All unemployed and other lower strata people are becoming sort of utopian.
Increasing attacks from Chechnya's rebels, disintegration of Soviet Union and ever rising Dragon at its border have effected the esteem of erstwhile superpower people.
Russia is also getting lot of immigrants from poorer country. Indians particulalry just like every where else are doing great and believe it or not they are directly or indirectly involved in all major businesses in Russia. Even the Russian stock maket have few Indians.
This creates resentment in a vulnerable society which finds in them an escape goat for their own difficulties. On the top, most of the Indians are Hindus, Muslims or Catholics but not Orthodox Christians and hence this resentment from them.
Iskcon has been fairly successful in whole of erstwhile Soviet Uniom by their fun filled, easy going, singing and dancing philosophy which finds many takers in a stressed society. This is a cause of concern for the Orthodox Church which is struggling to keep its hold on the Russian society. I doubt if any of them has even read about Hindu philosophy of 'vassudevam kautumban' (the world is your family).
Univ. of Chicago's Martha Nassbaum's blog claims Hindu Terror will cause democracy to collapse...
India: A Democracyâs Near Collapse into Religious Terror
http://uchicagolaw.typepad.com/faculty/dem...ndia/index.html
http://www.indiblog.com/63/us-professors-f...eligious-riots/
US Professorâs faulty logic blames Indian government for religious riots
Martha Nussbaum, a professor of Law in the University of Chicago and a romancer of Amartya Sen in an earlier life, is seriously prejudiced against the BJP in India. Her article that constantly rebukes Modi and the BJP and flowers immense praise on Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh raises serious questions about the professionalism and ethics of her writing. It is the numerous faults of the article, however, that has incensed me into writing this rebuttal.
Until the spring of 2004, its parliamentary government was increasingly controlled by right-wing Hindu extremists who condone and in some cases actively support violence against minorities, especially the Muslim minority.
In her first paragraph, she has criticized the BJP Govt. both at the centre and state of abetting with religious extremism in Gujarat State. Although there have been many wild allegations of this sort, none of them have any weight because the matter is currently sub-judice and so far there is not enough evidence to incriminate the Government. While she mentions the Godhra train burning incident, the lack of respect given to this stands starkly against her vivid descriptions of the aftermath. The Gujarat riots clearly have a religious premise and the Govt. is still not found guilty of any conspiracy charges. On the other hand, the Sikh riots of 1984 had a political premise based on the death of Indira Gandhi and the riots themselves were justified by Rajiv Gandhi in his irresponsible words, âWhenever a big tree falls, the earth is bound to shakeâ. Moreover, quite a few people in the Congress Govt. have been incriminated in participating in these riots. Therefore, her outspoken support in favour of Congress is tainted and clearly biased. I am not trying here to clear the BJP of any wrongdoing, but only pointing out that while there is evidence for Congressâ indulgence in religious riots, BJP has not been convicted of involvement in similar mischief. Consequently, her painting of Congress all rosy betrays her prejudice.
The fact that it has yet to make it onto the radar screen of most Americans is evidence of the way in which terrorism and the war on Iraq have distracted Americans from events and issues of fundamental significance.
It is grave of any academic from any part of the world, more so from the US, to indicate that terrorism and the unjust war on Iraq are trivial matters. Clearly, Martha has gross imbalance of faculties in suggesting that terrorism and Americaâs conquest of Iraq are not âissues of fundamental significanceâ in todayâs global scenario.
Amidst her rather graphic description of violence, which she wholly and unjustly blames on the Hindus, she alleges that two thousand Muslims were killed in the riots. The official death toll revealed by the Indian Govt. is: 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus. It is rather disconcerting that distinguished academics should make fantastic claims without due references.
But Gujarat also shows us something else: the resilience of pluralistic democracy, the ability of well-informed voters to turn against religious nationalism and to rally behind the values of pluralism and equality.
The state of the economy, however, was not the only major electoral issue. Prominent as well was a widespread popular rejection of religious extremism.
Martha goes on to tell us that it is the riots of 2002 that led to the fall of the BJP in 2004. For her kind information, in the elections in Gujarat state that were held after the riots, Narendra Modiâs BJP government came back with a resouding victory. My aim here is not to justify the riots, but to clear misinformation.
She would also have us believe that Congress was voted into power at the Centre partly because of the alleged religious extremism of the BJP. She may be naive in the political history of India, but that is no reason to concoct false relations between two incidents. The Muslims of India have always voted for Congress in the past. Suggesting that the Muslims switched to Congress from the BJP after the riots is an untruth. Therefore, the fall of the BJP was only because of the rural vote, which indicates that the reason was wholly economic, confirming and conforming with the opinions of numerous analysts.
Over the next few days, I want to blog about this story â- a story of democracyâs near-collapse into religious terror and of democracyâs survival (at least for the time being) â a story that has important lessons to offer to all nations struggling with problems of religious extremism. The posts are all drawn from a book manuscript I am now finishing up.
Martha tells us that she is writing a book on this. Having seen her standard of writing, I can only hope that her book is classified as âFictionâ rather than anything else!
http://www.indiblog.com/74/us-academic-thi...y-is-in-danger/
US Academic thinks Indian Democracy is in Danger
Martha Nussbaumâs third post is a continuation of her tirade against the âHindu Rightâ in India. She speaks eloquently against victimizing the Muslim community of being violent or waging a war, yet she contradicts her stance and accuses the Hindu (Right) community of the same actions.
It is a matter of great pride that, as she highlights, Indiaâs Muslims have no ties to terrorism. Indeed, President Bush recently introduced PM Manmohan Singh to his wife along these lines, âLaura, meet Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India. His country has over 200 million Muslims, yet none of them are part of Al Qaeda.â
However, sadly, I read recently of Indian Muslims being attracted by jihadi groups for recruitment. Marthaâs claim that there is no indigenous Muslim militancy in Bangladesh is utterly incorrect.
Bangladesh recently suffered from a horror when about 250 crude bombs were simultaneously set off all over the country to threaten the Govt. into making the country more Islamic (than it already is!). And, perhaps to Martha, cruelty to Hindus is perfectly alright, for torturing and terrorizing Hindus is not very uncommon in Bangladesh.
Martha accuses the RSS-BJP of romantic nationalism as espoused by Nazi Germany. While I agree that attacking lovers on Valentineâs Day is not nice, how is nationalism a bad quality? Being a developing country, I think that nationalism and pride in the country will help India a great deal. Why, being citizens of the most developed country, Americans still choose to be nationalistic!
Hindus in India have internalized a historical narrative according to which they are a pure and peaceful civilization who have been conquered again and again: in the Middle Ages by Muslim invaders, in recent times by the British.
While Martha concedes that this simple narrative contains some truth, she warns Westerners that
Instead of looking at a �clash of civilizations� here, Europeans and Americans, looking at India, should see the reflected face of their own ugly history, made the more malign by the anger that accompanies the repudiation of longstanding colonial domination.
How is the above simple narrative misleading in any way? Of course battles were fought even by Hindu rulers, but there was relatively much more peace and a lot more wealth in India before the plunder by the Mughals and the British. In what way is this romanticizing or oversimplifying any part of History that Europeans and Americans need to be warned about it?
Of course the Mughals and the British were attracted by the wealth of India and have, as the present evidently shows, drained it of all splendour that was Indiaâs during the preceding Hindu rule. While it is well known that the Mughals and the Europeans were attracted to India by its immense wealth, the impoverished country that India today is, clearly shows that the invaders have stolen all of it.
I should, however, thank Martha for conceding that the Western âcivilizationâ is a farce. But she disagrees that there is any non-West or Eastern civilization as a whole.
While this may sound true on circumstantial reasoning, on a deeper level most non-Western cultures have deep-running similarities in their value systems that when seen in the bigger picture, a ânon-Westernâ is quite self-evident. For example, while in the West, only Indians watch Bollywood movies, in the Middle-East, South and Southeast Asia, Japan etc. Bollywood has a substantial non-Indian following. Eqyptians are big-time fans of Amitabh Bacchan and Indonesians can sing Hindi songs!
This is because non-Western people can identify more with the culture and values portrayed in Bollywood movies, whereas Westerners trivialize the same. Hence my argument that a coherent non-West exists.
Martha appreciates the immense diversity in India and the appropriation of the English language by Indians. I agree with her that English should not be replaced and, moreover, think that English could replace Hindi to be Indiaâs national language.
Overall, I think that the article by Martha Nussbaum is insipid and has numerous contradictions to existing reality as do her previous articles, which I have critized here:
http://www.indiblog.com/78/hindu-right-err...islamic-terror/
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Hindu Right erroneously equated to Islamic Terror
</b>
Martha Nussbaumâs fantastic tales are only getting more tiring - now she compares the RSS-BJP Hindu âRightâ of India to Al Qaeda! This is the height of wrong analogies and misinformation - it has indeed turned into a slandering of the Sangh Parivar.
Iâm not involved with the Sangh, but I have no qualms in saying that Iâm a sympathiser partly because of all the bad publicity they get for no apparent mistake of theirs.
Such artificial ideas of purity and authenticity are not only misleading, they are also the very ideas that have been exploited politically by the Hindu right in trying to cast non-Hindus as alien polluters of the national fabric.
Here Martha is clearly getting confused and pulling words out of the RSSâ mouth. Hindu and India are two different things even though there is a significant overlap. The RSS has never accused non-Hindus of âpolluting the national fabricâ of India. All they have asked of the non-Hindus is to Indianize themselves; in other words, to integrate with the Indian society which is predominantly Hindu.
Now what is wrong in this? Has not and does not America encourage integration of its ethnic minorities by even requiring of them to learn English? UK thinks that its Muslim community is not integrated well enough after its July bombings. Integration is healthy and it is only this that RSS has asked of Muslims.
When a respected editor states that the main job of liberals in this era is to counteract the influence of Islamic totalitarianism (See Peter Beinert, âAn Argument for a New Liberalism: A Fighting Faith,â The New Republic, December 13, 2004), I feel alarmed.
Iâm alarmed at Marthaâs reaction to this editorâs statement. Islamic terror is indeed a global problem today leading to the loss of numerous innocent lives with startling regularity. Therefore, intellectual attack of Islamic totalitarianism by liberals is to be encouraged and not shunned.
She justifies her reaction by equating Islamic terror to the Gujarat riots. The two things are clearly different - while the former is planned attacks on civilians to cause maximum damage by a network of groups occurring regularly in the 21st Century, the latter was sporadic fighting by the civilians themselves, called riots, and occurred over a specific period in 2002 after a triggering incident (which was the Godhra incident where a Muslim mob burnt alive about 60 Hindus).
Equating Islamic terrorism and the Gujarat riots as Martha does is absolutely untenable and unacceptable.
Martha then goes on to describe the anti-Muslim feeling and alleges that it is increasing. Hindu-Muslim relationship has always been tense ever since the Mughal occupation of India. Even though there is peace and Hindu-Muslim brotherhood and innumerable examples of friendship, the overall atmosphere has never been perfect - so there is nothing new here. Consider the Partition of India, for instance.
Finally, Martha locates the Hindu Right in the peopleâs hearts - thereby, she calls the general population the Hindu Right itself. Not only is this allegation preposterous, but her deduction leaves much to be desired. After riots, it always takes some time to reach the pre-riots atmosphere.
If I were to use the same deduction, then I could blame the Americans for harbouring ill-will against Russians, against any Communist even to this day! Why are the villains in Hollywood movies Communists? Why does the invasion of North Korea in a Bond movie seem politically right in America?
Truly, studying Gujarat Riots is commendable for it will tell us how to avoid, prevent or curtail such explosive situations. But if the study is biased right from the outset, if it is based on misleading deductions and a false foundation, then the results are likely to be questionable, at the very least.
Excerpts from today's Boston Globe news item:
Saudi Donates $20m to Harvard
<b>Money will fund Islamic studies</b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> December 13, 2005
A Saudi Arabian prince who is one of the world's richest people is giving $20 million to Harvard to establish a university-wide program in Islamic studies, Harvard officials said yesterday.
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, whose net worth was estimated by Forbes magazine this year as $23.7 billion, is also donating $20 million to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., to promote Muslim-Christian dialogue and understanding.
The Harvard gift, which officials said was one of the 25 largest in the university's history, will pay for four new senior professors, one of whom will hold an endowed chair named for Prince Alwaleed. It will also provide start-up funding for a project to preserve and digitize significant Islamic documents that are in Harvard's possession and make them available on the Internet.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, in which 15 of the 19 attackers were Saudis, <b>Alwaleed tried to donate $10 million to the Twin Towers Fund for victims. Former New York City mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani rejected the gift </b>because of an accompanying press release in which Alwaleed urged the United States to reexamine its Middle East policies ''and adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause."
Gifts to Harvard from wealthy Arabs also have been controversial in the post-9/11 environment.
<b>Donations during the 1990s to the schools of law and design from relatives of Osama bin Laden were criticized after 9/11.</b> But the money had no known ties to bin Laden or terrorism, and Harvard kept the gifts. Last year, Harvard Divinity School returned a $2.5 million gift from the president of the United Arab Emirates because of the president's ties to an Arab League think tank with alleged anti-American and anti-Jewish leanings.
But problems with the Alwaleed donation do not seem probable. The prince, who is a nephew of Saudi King Abdullah, is widely known for his pro-American views and for his major investments in the United States.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Note that Harvard also has what many call as the one of most bigoted and anti-hindu Indology department .. accoding to renowed expert Prof. Komerath
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Harvard is a fine university, but not in teaching Hinduism or Indian History. Harvardâs Hinduism and Indology teaching appears to be comparable in intent and level of scholarship to the teaching of Christianity at the ârenowned scholarâ Sheikh Osama bin Ladenâs Binori Madarssa in Pakistan.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Husain's paintings to be showcased in US</span>
Indo-Asian News Service
New York, September 11, 2006
Renowned Indian painter MF Husain's 1971 Mahabharata series will be on show at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), Massachusetts, in November.
The paintings, inspired by the Hindu epic Mahabharata, were painted for the 1971 Sao Paolo Biennale. The exhibition will feature 19 works inspired by Husain's vision of Hindu mythology.
While orthodox Hindus have time and again questioned Husain's depiction of Hindu themes, the painter claims the entirety of the Indian tradition as his province.
For Husain, in this series, the central paradox of the epic and of human nature is the competition and jealousies that divide members of a family, forcing them to choose sides and moving them all inexorably towards an Armageddon.
The paintings in the forthcoming show, as also the current one of works by Nalini Malani, are drawn principally from the PEM's Chester and Davida Herwitz Collection, considered one of the most important collections of contemporary Indian art outside Asia.
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