<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->It is an issue of Hindu dignity and civil rights everywhere in the world; hence the decision of the California Parents for the Equalisation of Educational Materials (CAPEEM) to file a Federal lawsuit is remarkably bold and correct.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
CAPEEMs website..
http://capeem.org/
Become a member and donate money. Hindus are the second (?) richest minority in the US and perhaps the most shabbily treated in such matters. Its the way of the US - you have to duke it out in courts and that requires money. So do your part.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Looks like this dude is just a plain vanilla racist. He just hates all Indians and not just Hindu Nationalists. These people help our cause more than anyone else, they add fuel to the fire from the other side. We need more racists like him.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Thats right in one way..and a clever strategy.
Our aim should not be, to finish these Witzels and Farmers once in for all. Our aim should be, we should use these racists to project our cause to the rest of the 'thinking' world.
bengurion.
After going through the thread and the associated websites i have come to th following conclusion for what is RISA Bleating about?
The California text book revision is much greater than just California schools or even US schools. It goes to the very heart of the positioning of India in the mind of the world. The Ca text book revison is the first shot in taking back Indian history from the Western 'scholars' and Leftist social engineering 'experts'. It is a begining step in reversing the Macaulization of the Indian mind. Its impact will be felt not only in the US but in INDIA. It is a delayed response to G.F. Hegel's views about India in his 'Philosphy of History'.
This is the reason why I wish to support the Ca textbook revison campaign - to own my own history and not let others define who I am.
Ramana garu,
Absolutely !
Not just history - its one of the several fronts opened by the ugly heathens to take back what is their own - and that is what this is all about - and that is why them blind heathens need to be shown the 'light'.
Prob. should go in Harvard thread but I did not know that:
M. Witzel has been one of the key organizers of the annual "The International Conference on Dowry and Bride-Burning in India" started in 1995.
Kid you not, but why would Harvard Law school would sponsor this conference?
see:
http://www.asiatica.org/jsaws/vol2_no2/ednote.php
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In this issue we will publish three papers: Sati was not Enforced in Ancient Nepal, by Jayaraj Acharya; The Daughters and Hindu Rites, by Bandita Phukan; Practical Steps Towards Saving the Lives of 25,000 Potential Victims of Dowry and Bride-Burning in India in the Next Four Years, by Himendra B. Thakur.
<b>
These papers have been written for the International Conference on Dowry and Bride-Burning in India held at the Harvard Law School, Sept. 30 - Oct. 2, 1995. It was organized by Mr. H. Thakur (ISADBBI) and Prof. M. Witzel (Harvard University, USA). </b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Center for Indic Studies
July 3, 2006
Press Release
<b>Scientists Collide with Linguists to Assert Indigenous origin of Indian Civilization</b>
Comprehensive population genetics data along with archeological and astronomical evidence presented at June 23-25, 2006 conference in Dartmouth, MA, overwhelmingly concluded that Indian civilization and its human population is indigenous.
<b>In fact, the original people and culture within the Indian Subcontinent may even be a likely pool for the genetic, linguistic, and cultural origin of the most rest of the world, particularly Europe and Asia</b>.
Leading evidences come from population genetics, which were presented by two leading researchers in the field, Dr. V. K. Kashyap, National Institute of Biologicals, India, and Dr. Peter Underhill of Stanford University in California. Their results generally contradict the notion Aryan invasion/migration theory for the origin of Indian civilization.
Underhill concluded "the spatial frequency distributions of both L1 frequency and variance levels show a spreading pattern emanating from India", referring to a Y chromosome marker. He, however, put several caveats before interpreting genetic data, including "Y-ancestry may not always reflect the ancestry of the rest of the genome"
Dr. Kashyap, on the other hand, with the most comprehensive set of genetic data was quite emphatic in his assertion that there is "no clear genetic evidence for an intrusion of Indo-Aryan people into India, [and] establishment of caste system and gene flow."
Michael Witzel, a Harvard linguist, who is known to lead the idea of Aryan invasion/migration/influx theory in more recent times, continued to question genetic evidence on the basis that it does not provide the time resolution to explain events that may have been involved in Aryan presence in India.
Dr. Kashyap's reply was that even though the time resolution needs further work, the fact that there are clear and <b>distinct differences in the gene pools of Indian population and those of Central Asian and European groups, the evidence nevertheless negates any Aryan invasion or migration into Indian Subcontinent.</b>
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Witzel though refused to present his own data and evidence for his theories despite being invited to do so was nevertheless present in the conference and raised many questions.</span>Â <!--emo&  --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->Â <!--emo& --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->Â <!--emo& --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> Some of his commentaries questioning the credibility of scholars evoked sharp responses from other participants.
<b>Rig Veda has been dated to 1,500 BC by those who use linguistics to claim its origin Aryans coming out of Central Asia and Europe</b>. Archaeologist B.B. Lal and scientist and historian N.S. Rajaram disagreed with the position of linguists, in particular Witzel who claimed literary and linguistic evidence for the non-Indian origin of the Vedic civilization.
Dr. Narahari Achar, a physicist from University of Memphis clearly showed with <b>astronomical analysis that the Mahabharata war in 3,067 BC, thus poking a major hole in the outside Aryan origin of Vedic people</b>.
Interestingly, <b>Witzel stated, for the first time to many in the audience, that he and his colleagues no longer subscribe to Aryan invasion theory.</b>
<b>Dr. Bal Ram Singh, Director, Center for Indic Studies at UMass Dartmouth, which organized the conference was appalled at the level of visceral feelings Witzel holds against some of the scholars in the field</b>, but felt satisfied with the overall outcome of the conference.
"I am glad to see people who have been scholarly shooting at each other for about a decade are finally in one room, this is a progress", said Singh.
The conference was able to bring together in one room for the first time experts from genetics, archeology, physics, linguistics, anthropology, history, and philosophy. A proceedings of the conference is expected to come out soon, detailing various arguments on the origin of Indian civilization.
Bal Ram Singh, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Indic Studies
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
285 Old Westport Road
Dartmouth, MA 02747<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This was emailed to our Editorial board:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Dear friend,
This survey was emailed to all academics who signed the famous Witzel petition. Any help on follow-up via the Indian (or Hindu) NRI community on this will be highly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
- Indology Fan Club
====================================================================
Dear Sir/Madam,
You are one of a group of people who have been listed as scholars of international repute in petition filed with California Board of Education.
I am compiling and publishing the facts surrounding the California middle school textbook corrections which you opposed. As you may recall, you signed your name, and your institutional affiliation, to lend credibility to a letter written by the Friends of South Asia / Mr. Michael Witzel addressed to the California State Board of Education (See http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/%7Ewit...letter.pdf ), alleging various intents and ascribing various motives to the parents who were trying to get the texts corrected.
I would like to try to be accurate in describing your actions. So please provide answers to the following questions.
1. Before you signed that letter, did you read the complete set of edits approved by the Ad Hoc Content Review Panel appointed by the CSBE, on Hinduism and India?
2. If you answered Yes to #1, please attach a copy of an email that you wrote after reading them, but before you signed that letter, indicating that you had read them. Obviously this is a critical issue, since you signed to the effect that you had familiarized yourself with the edits - and were described as a "world expert" on the matters where the letter claimed competence.
3. If you answered Yes to #1, did you compare the scope, extent, and sources of the edits proposed on Hinduism and India, to those on Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and Christianity? Please provide evidence of this comparison done before you endorsed the letter.
In the following, please describe your expertise in the matter of middle-school textbook content on India, Hinduism, and ancient Indian civilization. Please list subject areas, year and institution where you achieved degrees in related subject areas, and your work since then which supports the claim of expertise.
4. Have you been outside an airplane/airport in India in the past 10 years? (Please note: Nepal is NOT in India)
5. Please list the Indian languages you can read/write at least at a tenth-grade Indian state curriculum level.
6. Have you actually passed Sanskrit at the 6th-grade Indian Central Schools Curriculum (or equivalent, please specify) level?
7. Have you read any of Kalidasa's major works (can you name 4?)in the following in the original Sanskit?
8. Have you read the textbooks used in California's middle schools today, including the parts discussing India? Please name the books with which you are familiar.
9. Do you endorse Mr. Witzel's assertion that the Mahabharatha was written before the Ramayana?
10. Do you believe U. Chicago Pornographer Wendy Doniger's assertion that the Mahabharatha was written by Vyasa per dictation from Shri Ganesha?
11. If "no" to the above, do you believe the Mahabharatha was written by
a) Valmiki per dictation from Krishna
b) no one, since Dr. S.A. Farmer claims that the early Indians did not have any written script until they were educated by Alexander the Great, who learned Sanskrit from the 900 Theses of Pico in Rome.
The next questions relate to the logic you used.
12. What was Valmiki's caste?
13. How did Valmiki learn to write, given that you believe that several castes were kept illiterate in ancient India?
14. What was the caste of Thunjath Ezhuttassan (what work is he famous for?) What does the "caste" name "Ezhuthassan" mean?
15. In the Ramayana, who was Mr. Seeth to Ms. Rama?
16. What is "Marumakattaayam"?
a. A South Indian dessert
b. A system of inheritance
c. A form of gay marriage among the fascist right-wing Hindutva
17. Please describe your acquaintance / working relationship with Mr. Witzel, Mr. S. Farmer, and other entities involved in this matter. Specify how Mr. Witzel is acquainted with your expertise in order to have described it in the letter.
18. Do you deny that you are a member of the Yahoo Group, "IndoEurasian Research", run by Mr. Witzel from Harvard, and Mr. Farmer, that has been widely and repeatedly quoted as making racist hate speech ?
19. Do you deny that you are a member of the Friends of South Asia (a.ka. Pakistan-American Alliance, a.k.a. Inter Services Intelligence, a.k.a. Lashkar-e-Toiba)? The Forum of Inquilabi/ Indian Leftists, a.k.a. Communist Party of India (Marxist - Liberation)? Babbar Khalsa a.k.a. Khalistan? Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam, a.k.a. Federation of Tamils in America?
20. Are you acquainted with Mr. Arun B. Vajpayee, the brave graduate student in California whom Mr. Witzel described as having alerted him to the impending dangers of the textbooks being corrected? If so, please state how you are acquainted with him.
The following relate to your positions on the textbooks:
21. Are you a practising believer in the Hindu faith?
22. Do you agree with the Harvard PhD and UC Berkeley faculty member who claims that one has to be born a Hindu to be a practising Hindu?
23. Can you name 5 Hindu religious holidays?
24. Do you agree that these holidays should be given equal importance to Jewish, Christian and Islamic holidays?
25. Your letter specifically threatened CSBE's Ruth Green with an "international scandal" unless she stopped the textbook process and inserted Mr. Witzel and his consulting pals into the process. Could you explain this threat?
26. Were you perhaps threatening to expose Commissioner Alan Bersin's financial dealings in his former job, or his current conflict of interest?
27. Do you deny knowing that Mr. Bersin is a Harvard Overseer / Trustee charged with fundraising for Harvard, while hiring a Harvard professor as a consultant to a position where he can direct the multi-hundred-million-dollar California textbook budget to Harvard?
28. Did you disagree with Mr. Witzel's and Mr. Farmer's attempts to put pictures of latrine-cleaning in middle school textbooks to humiliate Indian-American children?
29. Did you object to Mr. Witzel's declaration that Indian-American Hindus are "HIINAs" and that their daughters study Indian dance because of poor morals?
30. Do you think it is uacceptable ethics at your university for a professor to go and change his /her teaching evaluations on a website to read all glowing and identical?
Thank you for your answers in advance.
Yours truly,
- Indology Club<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->
Archive of a message on racists IER yahoogroup:
http://www.sabha.info/misc/violentconv.txt
----- Original Message -----
From: Benjamin Marsh
To: Indo-Eurasian_research@yahoogroups.com
Sent: 17 July 2006 Monday 05:28
Subject: [Indo-Eurasia] Dalit Freedom Network Petition on Anti-Conversion Laws
[Mod. note. Please see the note and petition below, directed at
India's Prime Minister Singh, President Bush, and other officials,
from Ben Marsh, the Washington, D.C. lobbyist for the Dalit Freedom
Network. If you don't know about India's anti-conversion laws, please
see the links in Ben's note. Anti-conversion laws, masked as "Freedom
of Religion" laws, are supposedly aimed against "forceful" or
"fraudulent" conversion of Hindus by Christians or Muslims. But their
real object, promoted by high-caste groups in the Hindu right, is to
uphold the caste status quo: historically, most Indian Christians and
Muslims too have come from the most oppressed levels of Indian
society. The laws have often been tied to anti-minority violence, as
noted in the U.S. State Department report linked below, which among
much else relates how in 2003 Karsan Patel, the "Minister for Social
Justice and Empowerment" in Gujarat, "publicly told tribal school
children in a Christian-run school 'to decide whether they want to
live as Hindus or die as Christians.'" I plan on emailing Ben and
asking him to add my name. If you do too, please add your academic
title or affiliation, if you have one; feel free too to post his note
elsewhere. - saf.]
Dear List Members,
At the end of this post you'll find a letter addressed to the Prime Minister
of India that will be copied to India's Chief Ministers, the U.S. State
Department, the White House, and several Members of Congress dealing with
"Freedom of Religion" legislation present in six Indian states. Please email
me if you are willing to sign it or if you want a pdf copy. Please also feel
free to circulate it to other Lists. At the end you will find a list of
current signatories.
India's so-called "Anti-Conversion Laws", ostensibly written to protect
uneducated low-caste people from being tricked into converting by
evangelical Christians and Muslims, instead serve to restrict public
services like healthcare and economic development being pursued by minority
religions. More troublesome is the fact that these laws have been used by
persecutors to give excuse to their violent crimes in the name of vigilante
justice.
My organization and our partners will be the first to discredit Christian
organizations that forcibly allure low-caste people or pay for converts, but
the reality is that no documented instances of forced conversion have
ever taken place. These laws are truly a reactionary measure to stem
the tide of
low-caste people and untouchables away from
Hinduism into what they consider to be more "spiritually democratic"
religions.
To give you some background on these laws, let me point you to the U.S.
State Department's most recent Religious Freedom Department report:
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2005/51618.htm
The State Department officially opposes the laws.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide UK has also written an excellent report
highlighting the problems with these laws: problems including vague
language, unequal enforcement, and disproportionate punishment for different
castes and religions. Moreover, the report highlights the international
obligations to which India has agreed and the sections of the Indian
constitution that deal with religious freedom which these laws violate.
http://tinyurl.com/jslr6
The Dalit Freedom Network and CSW UK are partnering to bring a week of
attention to these laws. I have letters circulating in the US House and
Senate and CSW has a letter circulating in Parliament. Additionally, the
Congressional Human Right Caucus is hosting a staff briefing next Friday on
the issue. This letter is an important part of the effort to encourage the
government of India to change their laws.
While written from a US perspective, I think the letter is general enough
that any who oppose these laws can add their name. Please send me an email
if you would like to add your name.
The letter:
**************
Dear Prime Minister Singh,
As academics, activists, and religious leaders we look forward to growing
economic, social, and political ties between the United States and India. We
are concerned, however, by the enactment of anti-conversion legislation in
several Indian states. These laws seriously limit the right of Indian
citizens to freely practice their chosen faiths and cause us to question
your government's commitment to religious freedom.
Six Indian states have already enacted legislation which restricts the right
of citizens to convert from one faith to another. These laws clearly
contradict Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and of
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. We urge the
Governments of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Arunachal Pradesh,
Gujarat and Rajasthan to repeal these unjust laws.
The United States and India are entering into an unprecedented partnership.
It is within the context of friendship and with hope that we ask the
Government of India and the Indian States to defend and uphold the freedoms
and rights that your forefathers sacrificed to protect. As the world's
largest democracy and an emerging economic power, India is a role model to
nascent democracies and developing nations across the globe. By repealing
these laws and ensuring the future protection of religious minorities, India
would set a powerful example to other nations dealing with inter-religious
strife and would advance our mutual interests of protecting global human
rights and advancing democracy.
Centuries of human experience show that the law cannot constrain the
conscience for long. Freedom of religion-including the freedom to
convert-is the most fundamental of human liberties. We hope you will agree
with us that anti-conversion laws are unacceptable and have no place in a
free democracy. We await your response.
Sincerely,
Nanci Ricks
Executive Director
Dalit Freedom Network
Peggy Birchfield
Executive Director
Religious Freedom Coalition
Richard Cizik
Vice President for Government Affairs
National Association of Evangelicals
Barrett Duke, Ph.D.
Vice President for Public Policy and Research
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
Southern Baptist Convention
William Greene
President
RightMarch.com
Arie de Pater
Advocacy Director
Open Doors International
Bill Saunders
Human Rights Counsel
Family Research Council
Andrea Lafferty
Executive Director
Traditional Values Coalition
Lindsay Vessey
Advocacy Coordinator
Open Doors USA
Kristin Wright
Executive Director
Stand Today
Wendy Wright
President
Concerned Women for America
Angela C. Wu
Director of International Advocacy
The Becket Fund for Religious Libert
Benjamin Marsh
Washington, DC Coordinator
Dalit Freedom Network
(703) 973-1243<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Why do all these Dalits President, Coordinator, Director have Christian sounding names? That too American ones?
from sabha.info:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Support conversion to Christianity using violence! </b>
Remember "Asst. to the Professor" Steve Farmer, the Christian who claims that two is a malevolent number and that the calculation of the date of the end of the world (according to the Bible) is an "involved question?"
Farmer is now actively collaborating with those involved in spreading the word of Jesus Christ. The message he sent to his mailing list was later doctored, but we have saved a copy of the original message here. The original message was sent on behalf of several Christian groups.
In the doctored post, the "Asst. to the Professor" comes out in support of converting people to Christianity using violence. To buttress his arguments, he uses the report created by the Republican Party government in the United States. He calls opposition to the laws banning violence-based conversions an "important cause."
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>CA Textbook Battle Update:Judge Allows CAPEEM'S Lawsuit </b>
[SUMMARY: CA State Board of Education wanted the Federal courts to dismiss the CAPEEM lawsuit, and the 9th circuit Federal court in San Francisco judge has ruled against them in his written communication to te two parties].
For Immediate Release
<b>JUDGE ALLOWS CAPEEMâS TEXTBOOK LAWSUIT TO GO FORWARD</b>
Los Angeles, August 11, 2006
California Parents for the Equalization of Educational Materials (CAPEEM) scored a victory on Friday when United States District Court Judge, Frank C. Damrell, Jr. ruled that CAPEEM's lawsuit on the textbook adoption process can proceed.
Judge Damrell rejected the defendants' arguments that CAPEEM lacked standing to bring the lawsuit. The Court ruled that CAPEEM had sufficiently alleged that "[the] parent members of CAPEEM and their children would suffer an injury in fact that is concrete, particularized and imminent."
In addition to challenging CAPEEM's standing, the defendants attacked the substance of CAPEEM's Equal Protection Clause claims.
The Court rejected these arguments, ruling that allegations of "repeated scrutiny of proposed edits; secretive processes in making final decisions; and, hostile academic advisors . . . if true, could establish grounds for relief under an Equal Protection claim."
Finally, Judge Damrell ruled that the claims of the CDE/SBE members "acting in their official capacities [are] not barred by the Eleventh Amendment".
Reacting to the judgment Rajesh Goswami, a director of CAPEEM, said, âJudge Damrell's ruling recognizes the gravity of harm resulting from an unequal process as applied to minority religious and ethnic groups and the harm from educational materials which denigrate those groups. CAPEEM is extremely enthusiastic about the courtâs ruling that its lawsuit can proceed.â
Venkat Balasubramani, CAPEEM's lawyer, likewise expressed satisfaction with the ruling.
Donations:
Your donation is going to be tax-exempt. CAPEEM is in the process of getting
the non-profit status. It may take several months before we get the official
approval. If you are concerned about it please donate to HICAD (Hindu
International Council against Defamation), who is going to give the funds to
CAPEEM. HICAD Tax-ID: 22-3810334.
You can send a check directly to CAPEEM (payable to CAPEEM).
P.O.Box 280442, Northridge, CA 91328
You can send a check to HICAD (Payable to HICAD, in the memo write: âCAPEEMâ
or âCalifornia parentsâ). HICAD address: 22 Jackie Drive   Â
Morganville, NJ 07751
www.capeem.org/index_files/Page451.htm <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Google News Arnold Schwarznegger to visit India
Might be good idea to lobby him on this issue of text book reform?
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Might be good idea to lobby him on this issue of text book reform?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Will not work. Not a good idea.
<img src='http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/3127/img2841wf4.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->www.indiacause.com/columns/OL_060805.htm
Demythifying Reality
By: Adity Sharma
In academia, when a myth is punctured through empirical analysis, credited scholars are allowed to come on stage to propound their contradiction and alternatives to the evidence that has been disproved. Well, not according to the Indian secularists and apologists for Christian missionaries and the quotidian disquisitions dished out as absolute truth even though it has been confounded again and again. The scholars propounding alternatives to a popular myth or theory are quickly dubbed as Hindu fanatics. These apologists are not just unwittingly supporting the anti-Indian cabal, but they have a long standing agenda, i.e. to malign anything Hindu or concerning India"s true history.
From time immemorial, the Christian missionaries in cahoots with colonialists have devised maleficent designs to discredit the hi story of Sanatan Dharm, falsely plant Christianity in Bharat, and aggrandize so-called Saints for their charity which had an ulterior plan of its own. These designs have become more pernicious and pronounced, because they now not only exist in India to poison people"s mind but have transgressed beyond its borders.
Origins of Sanatan Dharm
A very good transnational example of this venom masquerading as history is the recent furor over the proposed edits by the Hindu Education Foundation (HEF) and Vedic Foundation (VF) to the California school Board of Education concerning the prejudicial portrayal of Hinduism in school history textbooks.
Here Michael Witzel and Steve Farmer tried to argue that the Aryan invasion theory is indeed veritable, why? By claiming that the Aryans brought Hinduism, wrote the Vedas, and subsequently ruled by force. This is not only denying Sanatan Dharm its rightful place in shaping the history of Bharat, butt it is also with all intent and purpose gratuitously pitting the putative indigenous Dravidians of the southern part of India against the supposed foreign Aryans.
The theory posits that Hinduism was really imported from central Asia by nomadic Indo-Aryan tribes that conquered the Dravidians an advanced society around 1500-100BC. It goes on to claim that the Dravidian people were defeated, subjugated and pushed to the south by the light-skinned Aryans. This noxious theory was engineered by a Christian chauvinist named Friedrich Max Muller during British rule in the early nineteenth century. It is ironic that texts such as the Bible and the Quran that have no standing in the scientific world are not refuted, but a religion that has produced a large corpus of not only literary and Dharmic ideals, but has also provided us with sufficient proof that a civilization"s existence in the particular places that are being haughtily disputed today were indeed its homeland is not taken seriously.
Now, anyone even remotely familiar with the Aryan migration premise, knows that it is spurious. there is ample archeological, linguistic, anthropological, literary, astronomical, and historical evidence that turns this theory on its head. For instance, Vedic scholar Dr. David Frawley in his article titled âSolid Evidence Debunking Aryan Invasionâ, summarizes that this couldn"t possibly be true for the following reasons: first, according to Dr. Frawley, many propagators of the Aryan migration premise have claimed that the Aryans used Horse-drawn chariots and had sophisticated weaponry like iron that the Dravidians eventually succumbed to. The refutation is that there was no evidence of iron in the excavation of the Indus Valley sites. However, horses were discovered not only in the Indus valley sites, but also in the pre-Indus sites, this according to Dr. Frawley means that horses were very much a part of ancient Indian economic life.
Furthermore, chariots can not travel over mountains and deserts, they are more suited for flat lands. Second, the claim is that there is a prevalent and sustained conflict between the light-skinned Aryans against the dark-skinned Dravidians. Some fatuous secularists have even gone as far as to claim that the Dravidians are the modern day untouchables. They have gone on to say that the attempt to dispute the Aryan Migration Premise stems from a desire by Hindutva proponents to make an Aryan nation modeled on the hitlerian concept of a supremacist Aryan race fashioned in the 1930s by the Nazis. The first claim is false because there is a constant theme of light and dark in the Vedas. But this has nothing to do with Aryan racism; it simply means a struggle between good and evil. The Sanskrit word Arya did not even explicitly or implicitly suggest race or ethnicity, but the word Aryan of the Nordic concept had nothing but race in mind. It is probably made to look like a race struggle because many Westerners upon seeing the words light-skinned versus dark-skinned immediately shun Hinduism, and all intellectual gumption is quickly jettisoned, and hence this ploy was an excellent conversion tool for the Christian missionaries. Racism is an ethnocentric concept that only the Europeans can claim credit to. We usually are weary of anyone tagging us as racists, obscurantist, or fanatics, so, this was a clever trick on the part of Muller and today"s propagators of this vicious lie and it puts many Hindus on the defensive. Therefore, it becomes facile to alienate the Hindus from the cradle of their civilization by telling them that Bharat was never their true homeland to begin with.
It is likely that the Indus valley civilization was destroyed by floods as discovered in the excavation by the (National Institute of Oceanography in India). Dr. Frawley also states that the inhabitants of Gujarat and Punjab are more or less the same ethnically and linguistically as they were before the so-called Aryan invasion.
Still, anti-Hindu academics whearring the garb of scholarly research like Ramila Thapar, Michael Witzel, Steve Farmer, and Wendy Doniger continue to float lies as truths. In the face of more than sufficient evidence, they keep repeating that there is not enough evidence that shows Hinduism was indeed an indigenous religion to India; it seems that these "scholars are suffering from what is known in psychology as confirmation bias. This is when the victim ignores all the proof that he/she finds in conflict to their point.
When elementary school children learn about the Aryan migration premise and other malicious concoctions, they only have one thing in mind i.e. Hinduism is a foreign and intolerant religion imposed forcibly on a people, that were coerced in to the rigid fold of a discrimination oriented creed.
The book titled "Update on the Aryan Invasion Debate" by European historian Dr. Koenraad Elst offers contradiction to the Aryan migration premise and discusses just why such a theory was floated by the British, present day Western Indologists, and Indian "secularists" in full cooperation with Muslim and Christian theologians.
The reason given by Dr. Elst for the expeditious acceptance of the theory is that at the time of its concoction there was no disputation proffered by anyone, it seemed like the right thing to do. Another more sinister aspect according to the author is the abrogation of Sanskrit as an Indian language by Indian politicians to be taught as school subjects under the pretext that it is a foreign language brought by foreign peoples (Elst, 33). The second reason is, to mobilize the Dravidians to hate everything that represents traditional Brahmanism (46). An example sited by Dr. Elst is that many Dalit organizations have published vitriolic writings on the so-called blatant arrogance and opulence of Brahmans; it is wholly specious and propagandistic to say that the Brahmans are the only wealthy class in India (50). The author states, "It is legitimate to criticize caste; but it is perverse to do so on the basis of false history (64)."
The astronomical evidence presented in Dr. Elst"s book explains how the Rg Veda described the exact location of the Indus valley civilization. It also says that the dates propounded by the Hindu astronomers during the Vedic age were more or less correct (89). When John Playfair, a European historian put forth the supposition that the Rg-Veda was as old as 4300 B.C., it was considered to be inordinately insane. But it was not disputed by any scientists of the day, and presently, it is a powerful counterpoint to the Aryan migration premise.
Saint Thomas in India?
Just as the Aryan invasion theory has done its damage in history, so has another myth decorated with variegated frosting of clever ploys with an obvious purpose. This particular creativity comes from the Christian Theologians/missionaries in India, and it is the myth of St. Thomas. This so-called apostle St. Thomas, according to popularized missionary propaganda, came to India around 52 A.D., he founded the Syrian Christian community, and was murdered by" fanatical" Hindu Brahmans in 73 A.D. This not only served to vilify the Brahmans but it is also used to play the lower Christianized castes against the upper castes. Christianity"s history abounds with self-victimization and self-imposed and most of the time false martyrdom. I was shocked to learn
from a peer belonging to the (Bible Society) on campus who told me that, "The only way to discover Christ, was from suffering, and that it was good that people were suffering." "That way they will discover Christ"s love." How can a faith that supposedly inculcates fear and a fervent desire to suffer, uplift the so-called uncivilized peoples of the world? Christianity"s flocks, it seems have stuck to its dogmatic doctrine not out of devotion, but from fear.
The Saint Thomas story is not a novelty at all; in fact it is a long running exercise to indigenous and sanitize the fanaticism of Christianity more specifically Roman-Catholicism in India. This most likely is a sustained effort to efface the outrageous enormities perpetrated by the Portuguese
in the 16th and 17th centuries in places such as Goa and the Malabar coast. In his piece "In Memory of a Slain Saint", which appeared in the Indian Express in December 1989, C.A. Simon emphatically contended that Saint Thomas really did exist and his visit to India was a blessing to the downtrodden and oppressed classes. He further aggrandizes St. Thomas by claiming that there were miracles performed everywhere, and sure enough many converted. Does this line of
reasoning sound all too familiar? Of course, the downtrodden were just waiting for a cultured and "egalitarian" faith like Christianity to rescue them from the evils of Hinduism. This reasoning is as old as Christianity"s exclusivist existence is.
In a rejoinder to C.A. Simon, titled "The Legend of a Slain Saint to Stain Hinduism", by Swami Tapasyananda states that this pernicious legend was contrived by the Portuguese to hide their glaring fanaticism, because they occupied Mylapore from 1522-1697. It was in the 16th century when the decimation of the Kapaleeswara temple occurred. The Santhome church was built and was often repaired. It also challenges the very existence of such a saint and whether he came to India or not. Furthermore, Catholicism and Christianity in general has always claimed full rights where ever it has ventured, and this myth fits perfectly in that mold of claiming land and more land for Christ.
Mother Teresa"s "altruism"
It is unfortunately a sad fact that many Hindus have forgotten Seva or selfless service to society, that is perspicuously prescribed in the Bhagavad-Gita by ShriKrishn. But, it would also be a lie to sublime those who have only by clever publicity stunts managed to give the misleading impression of altruism. On October 19th 1999, a much popularized and overrated woman was beatified as a saint by the late Pope, and this "saint" was mother Teresa.
Mother Teresa came to India to administer to the poor and ill, however, her actions are indicatory of anything but selfless service to the poor and ill. She was, like many of her critics have pointed out, a friend of the wealthy; her extreme opposition to abortion does not help her image much either. Ensuing the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal in 1984, mother Teresa rushed to the scene and said, "Forgive, forgive, forgive." Forgive? After investigations, it was amply clear that the corporation had pre-warnings about the disaster, so why should the victims forgive? Another unduly foolish answer to a question of what she was planning to do in regard to housing and jobs for the victims by a Bhopal resident, was "First, we must learn to love one another."
It is excruciatingly painful to believe that such a willfully ignorant person was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. It is even more astonishing that no "savant" found it worth their time to criticize such an asinine and unwholesome decision made by the committee. Mother Teresa did not treat poverty as a disease that needs to be eradicated but as a blessing. She blamed Colcata"s poverty on the people"s refusal to accept Christ. Again, we see that Christ comes to those who are hopelessly suffering, sort of like a drug that only induces a desperate person, not a healthy one.
However, not everyone has been hypnotized by an overdose of falsities, Christopher Hitchons in his book titled "The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice, through thorough investigation evinces a completely different and less flattering side of the putative saint. In the book Hitchons meticulously expatiates about the total and complete lack of proof of Mother Teresa"s charity to the poor. For instance, although Mother got the finest medical treatment for herself in the West, there isn"t any substantial proof of any hospitals or orphanages that were indeed built by Mother Teresa (Hitchons 37). Of course, she received millions, but what happened to them, is the question. The author also denounces her as a right-wing Christian fundamentalist, who went out of her way to varnish the atrocious actions of the Contras and death squads in Nicaragua, endorsed the Duvalier in Haiti the cause of much poverty in that country, and her extreme opposition to abortion under any circumstance.
We must realize that these myths are making us forget the greatness of our culture, and the people who have rendered selfless service to the nation which, incidentally do not ask nor get any attention from any media outlet. If some of these myths and other such falsehoods can be corrected, then there can be a greater focus on issues more concern. Actively challenging these myths is also intellectual and it silences the "secularists" who are only apt at hurling invectives and nothing else. One can ignorantly argue that what"s done is done, but unless we make a concerted effort to erase these lies they will grow like bacteria, and become clogged and solidify in the arteries of history.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b>Textbook Riots</b>
<i><b>By J S Rajput </b></i>
retd. Director NCERT.
Remember FeTNA, the group that supported Michael Witzel in his racist
crusade against Hindus? A person who was its director has now been
arrested for supporting the terrorist group LTTE. http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/1707
Witzel & Farmer friends FETNA are connected to Terrorists groups on State Department watch list
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->LTTE funded U.S. Congressmanâs 2005 trip to Vanni in Sri Lanka: A sequel to Asian Tribune report
Thu, 2006-08-24 17:45
Daya Gamage â US National Correspondent for Asian Tribune
Washington, D.C. 24 August (Asian Tribune.com): United States Congressman Danny Davisâ trip to Sri Lanka from March 30 to April 5, 2005, spending most of his time in the regions of the Vanni and Kilinochchi Districts, controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, was in fact funded by the Liberation Tigers, it was revealed by federal authorities, according to an August 23 datelined report in Chicago Tribune.
The Democratic Congressman from Illinois says that he was unaware that the Tamil Tigers paid for the trip and on his required congressional disclosure form has reported that the trip was paid for by a Hickory Hills, Illinois-based Tamil cultural organization, the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America.
According to the Chicago Tribune report Davis had believed that the trip was paid for by the Tamil federation, which in accordance with congressional ethics rules sent to him a written statement of travel expenses, more than US $7,000 each for Davis and his aide, Daniel Cantrell. Congressman Danny Davis said he knew that the group was "associated" with the Tamil Tigers but did not realize that the tripâs costs were covered with the funds controlled by the (Sri Lanka) rebel group.
Davisâ seven day trip to Sri Lankaâs Tamil Tiger territory came under scrutiny this week following the arrests of 11 supporters of the Tamil Tigers in New York on charges of participating in a broad conspiracy to support the terrorist group through money laundering, arms procurement and bribery of U.S. officials, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Asian Tribune on 15 April (2005) under the caption "Tamils Want Peace With Dignity and Justice, says U.S. Congressman who toured Sri Lanka" carried an exclusive interview in which this Online Daily said that the trip was organized by Tamil expatriates who have links to the Tamil Tiger outfit.
This week, the Asian Tribune report became the catalyst for one of the authors of the Chicago Tribune report Mike Dorning to scrutinize Congressman Davisâ exclusive visit to Sri Lankaâs Tiger territory.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or popularly known as Tamil Tigers is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization in the United States since 1997. The Tigers have been fighting the Government of Sri Lanka to win a separate independent state for the Tamil minority (12.5%) in this South Asian island-nationâs predominantly Tamil north and east districts since mid eighties. They accuse the government, which they say is largely controlled by the ethnic majority Sinhalese (74%), of discriminating against the Tamil minority which the government denies. A Norwegian-brokered ceasefire was signed between the two warring parties in 2002 but was mostly confined to the paper as Sri Lankaâs military stepped up its offensive against Tiger positions in early this month. The Sri Lanka government has repeatedly said that they were prepared to sit with the Tamil Tigers for a dialogue and that the government favors devolution of political and administrative powers to the periphery.
Congressman Danny Davis told last yearâs Asian Tribune interview that a group of Sri Lankan expatriates wanted him to visit their country to examine how tsunami disaster funds are being disbursed as a substantial amount has been collected in his congressional district to which he agreed.
The Asian Tribune, in an editorial comment, said in the body of the April 15, 2005 interview with Davis that "it was a strategic move on the part of the LTTE to get a United States Congressman to tour the areas they hold for a political lecture while completely blocking the dissenting opinion reaching the American lawmaker."
The Congressman told this correspondent during the interview that he was aware he was visiting only the LTTE controlled areas in Sri Lanka. As to why he did not make any effort to meet non-LTTE officials or Sri Lanka Government officials, the Davis told Asian Tribune that it was not on his agenda.
Chicago Tribune report links Danny Davis to some of the activists of the Tamil Tigers who were taken into custody by the United States authorities on Monday allegedly conspiring to procure military hardware, surface-to-air missiles, AK 47s, communication equipment and attempt to bribe U.S. officials to remove LTTE from the State Department Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list.
Chicago Tribune says that "<b>Congressman Davis past Saturday (19) talked in Chicago with a supporter of the Tamil Tigers who was among 11 people arrested on charges of conspiring to aid the rebel group through money laundering, procurement of arms, including surface-to air missiles and bribery of public officials.</b>"
"That Tamil Tiger supporter", says Chicago Tribune, "<b>Murugesu Vinayagamoorthy, was described in a federal criminal complaint as a high-level operative who served as an intermediary between the Tigersâ leaders and foreign backers.</b>"
Davis said he first met Vinayagamoorthy, a 57-year-old London physician, at a Tamil cultural event in the Chicago suburbs at which both of them gave speeches "a few years ago." Vinayagamoorthy also participated in several of the meetings that Davis held while visiting Sri Lanka, the congressman said.
The criminal complaint against Vinayagamoorthy asserts that he had "direct and frequent contact" with leaders of the (Sri Lanka) rebel group and was "often dispatched" to facilitate Tamil Tiger projects around the world.
The Chicago Tribune continued to report in its August 23 edition that "without mentioning Davis or his aide by name, the complaint (before the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York) describes a series of transactions in which Vinayagamoorthy and others charged in the case allegedly laundered US $13,150 in Tamil Tiger funds at the direction of a top guerilla leader to pay for travel of "two individuals" to Tamil-controlled Sri Lanka."
"The two individuals were Davis and Cantrell, Law enforcement officials said," the Chicago Tribune says.
<b>Another person arrested in the case, Nachimuthu Socrates, was listed as a director in 2004 of the Tamil cultural organization, the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America, which Congressman Danny Davis listed in public disclosure forms (to Congress required by law) as tripâs sponsor</b>.
Davis told the Chicago Tribune that he always assumed that the organization had a connection with the Tamil Tigers.
Congressman Danny Davisâ visit to Sri Lankaâs Tamil Tiger controlled areas prompted Asian Tribune to unleash a scathing criticism of the Sri Lanka Embassy in Washington in its analysis of 18 April (2005) captioned "Sri Lankaâs Foreign Public Diplomacy in U.S. in Jeopardy."
In that analysis the Asian Tribune said âAsian Tribune in its month-long monitoring found that Sri Lanka mission has absolutely no idea of LTTE front organization operations even much closer to its own location in the eastern states of the United States.
"If the Tiger activities are on the downward trend, according to (Sri Lanka deputy chief of mission in Washington) Mr. Bandaraâs understanding, Asian Tribune is at a loss to know a Tiger front organization, which the Sri Lanka embassy has no interest to find out, strategically organized Congressman Davisâ tour to the Tiger land. In fact, a senior State Department official told this correspondent that the Tiger activists in Chicago gave the United States Congressman the impression that he was touring the tsunami disaster region in the eastern Sri Lanka but was tricked to enter Vanni, the Tiger stronghold."
Asian Tribune, in conclusion, said in that analysis "So, this then is the plight of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, with a foreign office that does not know what direction it is going and reducing its Washington, D.C. sub office merely to a visa issuance agency while intense lobbying is undertaken by front organizations of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam."
<span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>It is reported that a location in Hickory Hills, Illinois which has connections to the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America was searched on Sunday in connection with the Tamil Tiger investigation.
As part of the investigation, F.B.I. agents searched the Cumberland, Maryland offices of a charity. The court papers filed at the U.S. District Court in New York identified it as a suspected front for a Tamil Tigers fund-raising organization. </span>
Asian Tribune
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