<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Kho-Kho, here I come! <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo--><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

kabaddi-kabaddi-kabaddi - but wait i hear BD national game is kabaddi.. <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo-->

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Not only the indian batsmen, the indian bookies are also overrated. The best bookies on paper could not fix a match between two minnows<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

<!--emo&:roll--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ROTFL.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ROTFL.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:roll--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ROTFL.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ROTFL.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:roll--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ROTFL.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ROTFL.gif' /><!--endemo-->

Indology and Indologists,a study in motives and people
(under construction)

<b>This thread is for discussing and collecting information on <i>Indo-European Linguistics, IEL</i>, the root of all IE beliefs.</b>
<b>It's also for discussing the place of Indo-European Linguistics, IEL in the anti-AIT perspective.</b>

(Lots of the stuff - in my posts, leastways - will be a repeat of info from other threads in order to bring them together here.)

IE = Indo-European, also called 'Aryan'. These are terms that western scholarship uses to refer to a bunch of languages showing similarities which are therefore thought to be related. Western scholarship also applies these terms to the people who spoke/speak such languages.
IEL = Indo-European Linguistics, field of study of IE/Aryan languages
PIE = Proto-Indo-European, a hypothetical artificially constructed language thought to be the parent of all Indo-European/Aryan languages.

IEL is the root of all the following beliefs fundamental to the IE worldview:
(1) belief in interconnectedness of languages classified as IE through root-parent language PIE.
Remember that IE Studies does not submit just any connection between the languages, but states that they are connected in a particular manner: through PIE, the wholly <i>hypothetical</i> Proto-Indo-European language.
In other words, IEL states that all IE languages are genetically related through their common ancestral language PIE, making them a 'family' of languages.

(2) One of the implications of (1) is the belief in a bunch of ethnically homogeneous people who invented the PIE and spoke it originally: the Indo-Europeans, also called the Aryans

(3) From (2) follows the belief that these Aryans - thought of as being ethnically homogeneous and all - originally spoke their root language in a single stretch of land: their original homeland ('Urheimat')
It is not known where the Urheimat is. But don't worry. Various Indologists and other scholars of IE Studies regularly go off on flights of fancy to locate it in different locales in 'Eurasia' depending on their whims.

(4) One of the implications of (1), (2) and (3) is that presence of Samskritam in India - an IE language according to IEL - is to be explained by the hypothetical Indo-Europeans leaving their hypothetical Urheimat at some point and invading India (like they are also thought to have invaded Iran and other places where other 'IE' languages are found)

(In reality, the order was different: Samskritam 'discovered' by west -> similarity with Latin and Greek and other European languages -> 'IEL language family' -> India must have been invaded because Europe c/shouldn't have been: AIT -> Oryans did it -> definition of Oryans -> Oryans must have had a homeland <- AIT)

(5) Another implication of (1)-(3) is that the Oryans, being ethnically homogeneous, living together in a particular region and speaking the same PIE (thus all of them comprehending each other) must have had a single religious and mythological background
This is then the IE mythos/religio that indological scholars see everywhere in the religions and puranas of various 'IE' countries.

Hi,

I'm currently debating about charity work done by Hindus in ancient, medieval and preindependent India. These people are of opinion that Hindu organizations are doing charity only as as a reactionary measure to combat conversions. I find this statement very demeaning as it assumes Hindus don't do charity as a genuine effort to alleviate poverty.

Can someone please give me references to refute these claims? I would like links which give evidence of charity work done by Hindus in the 1800 to 1950 period.

If you think ‘COMA’ type stories are possible only in the Western world, think again. In Kerala, the church is involved in murders of the christian faithful, who come to their faith healing centre. Recently in Tamil Nadu, four bishops stole Rs 40 crore meant for the Tsunami victims and some of them are arrested under goondas act. Kidney sale is a fact in Tamil Nadu and some 500 poor persons were forced to sell their kidneys to the christian hospitals operating there.


On 10 March 2006, the Kerala High Court issued an order with an ultimatum to the government to make a thorough investigation on the public allegation against the Christian Divine Retreat Centre in Muringoor in Kerala state, India. Justice Padmananbhan Nair has ordered the government to make a thorough investigation about sexual abuse, homicide, foreign exchange violation, forceful conversion, abduction, intimidation and imprisonment of unwilling residents at the center. The court decided to conduct the inquiry after receiving a complaint from a former christian employee of the centre. Some of the inmates had made two video CDs and sent a letter to the court for necessary action against the christian faith racket that was going on in Kerala with political and police protection. Divine Retreat Centre, started in the eighties, is a christian mafia faith healing centre. For several years, the general public and civic leaders have complained against Muringoor Christian center about the foreign currency violation, sex abuse, misdemeanor, felony, forceful conversion, murder, rape and abduction and medical malpractice committed at the center. The Kerala christian Churches are organized on the lines of Italian mafia and have undue influence on the government and government officials have turned a deaf year to the public plea against the anti social activities at the Center. Reluctantly, government has appointed IG Winson M Paul to investigate the Muringoor Divine center. The Marxist communist government of Kerala ordered only a partial investigation for fear of Christian backlash.


One of the Muringoor Divine Center Director George Panackal filed a law suit demanding one crore rupees for the police investigation and the High Court had dismissed the frivolous law suit. Pinaroy Vijayan, General Secretary of the Marxist communist Party, who was recently caught with live cartridges at Chennai airport, paid a visit to the Center and praised and admired their activities in public thus endorsing their illegal activities.


Many inmates were murdered for their wealth and the centre used to secretly cremate murdered bodies at the corporation graveyard in Kalamassery. Divine Retreat Centre is involved in illegal foreign funding to criminal and other activities. Many inmates were gone missing from this christian mafia centre over the years. It has been stated that almost twenty bodies have been burnt in the last four years alone. Dasan, the watchman of the corporation graveyard in Kalamassery said that he used to get Rs 750 for burning each body and that it was the same person who used to bring the bodies from the divine centre always. A christian doctor, Dr Thankamma Francis of the divine centre was the doctor who always used to issue death certificate to all those bodies cremated secretly. It should be noted that christians are not cremated in Kerala and are buried. The police investigation was carried out in Divine Retreat Centre on 30 September and 1 October 2006.





Sonia Gandhi had put christians in many states as the Inspector General of Police and Kerala is also a christian by name Winson M. Paul. The Kerala government had put Winson M. Paul for enquiring the illegal activities in the Divine faith healing centre and constituted a police team under him based on the court directive. Several public servants such as Inspectors General of Police and the wife of a State Minister are closely associated with the functioning of the Divine Centre. They are also members of the Advisory Body of the centre. A group of senior IAS, IPS and other government officials of Kerala are working behind this 'underworld' operations of the faith healing centre. This centre receives huge funds from the Social Welfare Department of Kerala government. Some 9000 people are on the voters list of the christian faith healing centre.



The congress party in India is christian controlled. The Italian catholic christian, Antonia Maino alias Sonia Gandhi is the president of the congress party of India. The congress party of Kerala state is headed by a christian who is a front man of a Dubai based audio video piracy firm that operates on a much bigger scale worldwide than that of Dawood Ibrahim’s set up in Dubai. Christian politicians of Kerala like Umman Chandi and K.M.Mani were funded by this centre. Congress party members boycotted the Kerala assembly proceedings when police raided the christian faith healing centre in Muringoor, Kerala. The christian leaders like K M Mani tried to paint that police misbehaved towards christian patients including women at the centre to divert the public attention from the main issue of dozens of murders in the christian faith healing centre. The christian K.M. Mani was a former law minister and claimed that police violated norms in the Criminal Procedure Code and harassed HIV/AIDS patients who were being cured at the Divine faith healing centre. K. M. Mani, on 3 October 2006 at the Divine Retreat Centre stated that the faith healing centre has become an oasis for the poor, sick people abandoned by medical science and a home of refuge for the mentally challenged people. He said that he always visited the centre as he also felt mentally challenged at times.





After cornering the private education field in Kerala with the political clout, the Kerala christians are now concentrating on medical field to raise funds for the christian conversion work going on in India manned by the Kerala christians. With the advent of AIDS the christian church concentrated on faith healing to make money. The faith healing centers are a method to extract the last drop of blood from AIDS patients, drug addicts and the like. The christian priests and nuns, who form the slave labor force of the church runs educational institutions and medical centers. The christian priest Fr.Augustine Vallooran, a Director of Divine Retreat Centre was arrested by the police.





A Christian fanatic has issued a death threat to Justice Padmanabhan Nair for ordering the state government to probe the unlawful and anti social activities of the Muringoor Christian Divine Center. The Marxist endorsement reinforced the Center to continue illegal activities and motivated the Christian extremist to issue death threat against Justice Padmananbhan Nair. The death threat was sent to Justice Padmanabhan Nair from an Ernakulum Telephone Booth. The death threat was specifically made to Justice Padmanabhan Nair warning him that he will be murdered for ordering investigation against the illegal activities and forceful homicide at the Christian Divine Center. The death threat against Justice Padmanabhan Nair shows the danger to India from the radical Christianity of India and its unholy nexus between the Marxist Party.


The Kerala christians, who call themselves as Syrian christians and claim that they are decedents of Brahmin converts of St. Thomas, are the typical example of the christian frauds. The history of Christianity is crowded with crimes against humanity of the most horrendous kind. As many as 23,000 blatant forgeries and foisting of pious frauds were done by christians. Starting with Jesus Christ, the entire doctrinal and institutional edifice of Christianity rests on a series of staggering swindles and lies. The book ‘Native life of Travancore’ written by The Rev. Samuel Mateer F L S and published in 1883 have a chapter called Syrian Christians from page 158. Rev. Samuel Mateer while traveling throughout Kerala had stayed in many places and had talked with many of the Kerala Syrian christians. He found that none of the converts have heard of Jesus Christ and does not know why a cross was being worshiped. Kotarakara Syrian church doorway was sketched in his book and it shows a cock engraved along with the cross and armed figures. The book clearly indicates that the Syrian Christians of Kerala are the untouchable Hindu caste called ‘Paraya community’ converts. The marriageable ages of boys were 10 years, and that of the girls were 7 years. The married couple can enter the house only after ‘nellum niram’ and with the lamp in the hand of the girl. The women make ‘kurava’ a shrill cry during this time. Fasting for the dead are kept for a year by a relative in the family. Syrian Christians consult sorcerers and offerings are made to the demons (Hindu Gods). When the head of the untouchable Hindu Paraya community is dead, as per the customary caste law of Parayas, they bury the corpus of the deceased head Parayas or moopan in sitting posture instead of the usual practice of keeping the dead body in lying position. Primitive burial practices of Parayas are still being practiced by the Syrian christians in Kerala. The Syrian Christians of Kerala bury the corpse of their christian bishops in the same manner as the Hindu Parayas who bury their head Parayas or Moopan. The historical records and even the burial patterns show that Syrian christians of Kerala are Paraya converts. Syrian Christians of Kerala maintained the ritual of offering obsequies for the souls of the dead ancestors as that of the practice of Parayas. The obsequies for the dead ancestors contained blood, flesh and intoxicating drinks. These are all typical local Kerala customs of Paraya community. Pope Benedict XVI in 2006 said that St Thomas had preached Christianity in "western" India and did not visit Kerala. The Kerala Paraya christian converts created two conflicting stories to show that they are of higher Hindu caste converts to Christianity. One group of Paraya christians, created a story that they were converts of Brahmins, by St. Thomas who had arrived in Kerala in 52AD. This fake St. Thomas story is proved to be a fraud after the present Nazi Pope Joseph Ratzinger, who was a Hitler Youth and head of Opus Dei, told that St. Thomas visited the present Pakistan and never went to Kerala. This crooked Paraya christians of Kerala operating from Tamil Nadu even created martyrdom for St. Thomas in Chennai, in a fake story in which st. Thomas was killed by a Brahmin. They destroyed the Kapileswara temple near the seashore with the help of Europeans and constructed a St. Thomas church using some of the temple stones. These Paraya christians of Kerala created a St. Thomas mount in Chennai from where they are now selling sacred Thomas sand by the kilos, claiming that Thomas walked all over that area. Another group of Paraya christian converts of Kerala claims that they are refugees from Syria in AD 352, and created fake copper agreements in Portuguese language from Kerala Kings to prove their arrival etc. The Paraya christians of Kerala, and the terrorist muslims of Kerala migrated to Tamil Nadu to further their activities. Christians along with the British created and propagated the Aryan invasion theory which convinced the black Tamils that they are an inferior community different from the fair Brahmins. This propaganda has created a Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu and created Tamil Terrorists like E.V. Ramasami Naicker also known as Periyar or EVR. In Tamil Nadu and Kerala many dirty criminal Christian frauds happened. The International Institute of Tamil Studies, sponsored and funded by the Government of Tamil Nadu, had published in 1985-86 a book titled Viviliyam, Tirukkural, Shaiva Siddhantam Oppu Ayu. The writer of the book was a Christian by name M. Deivanayakam. The University of Madras had conferred a doctor’s degree on the author for writing this dissertation. The thesis propounded by him was that the ancient Tamil saint, Tiruvalluvar, had become a disciple of St. Thomas and converted to Christianity. N. Krishnaswami Reddiar, a retired judge’ of the high court denounced Deivanayakam’s book as “trash in the name of research.” The visit of St. Thomas to India was a myth, and wondered how a book like that by Deivanayakam could be published by an institute set up by the Government and honored by the University of Madras with a doctorate. Dr. R. Nagaswami, eminent archaeologist, also censored the institute and the university for sponsoring a spurious thesis, and said that the St. Thomas story “was a ruse to spread Christianity in India which is now confirmed by the Pope himself. Deivanayakam had collaborated with Dr. R. Arulappa, the Catholic Archbishop of Madras, in writing another but similar book, Perinbu Villakku, published in 1975. The Archbishop had also tried to prove that Tiruvalluvar had come in contact with St. Thomas during the latter’s travels in South India, and converted to Christianity. But he had gone much further, and forged ‘evidence’ on palm-leaf scrolls in support of his thesis. He had employed a Hindu scholar of Christianity, Ganesh Iyer, for this purpose, and paid him to the tune of 15 lakh rupees. The fraud had been exposed when someone put the police on the trail of Ganesh Iyer. The case had dragged on in the Madras metropolitan court from 1980 to 1986 when Ganesh Iyer was sentenced to ten months’ imprisonment on various counts. But Dr. Arulappa had got him acquitted by means of a civil suit for compromise filed in the Madras High Court at the same time that the criminal case was going on. Ganesh Iyer had spilled the beans soon after.


Christian Slave traders of yesterday are the human rights activists of today. Christianity a trillion dollar business built on fraud and Greatest Cover Up in History. Christians are a fifth column community in India. Kerala Paraya Christians moved in to Tamil Nadu to create fake histories because they found that Tamilians left in Tamil Nadu have low IQ or no IQ at all. Nehru’s illegitimate child was growing up in a christian orphanage in Bangalore, and this enabled them to blackmail Nehru to allow the missionaries to have conversion by gun, in the North East states of India. Antonia Maino coming from the lowest strata of Italy and an illiterate girl, working as a barmaid in UK was presented by Opus Dei and KGB in front of Rajiv Gandhi to continue the hold of christians in India. Christians who worked as the agents of the British were en masse killed in Delhi, during the first war of Independence in 1857. Recently christian members of Indian Parliament elected from all states had attended a meeting of a christian terrorist group of North Eastern states. This christian terrorist group of North East calls for the creation of christian nations out of North East India and the christian MPs promised them help. Recently Manipur’s congress party chief minister Ibobi Singh donated Rs 1.5 Crore to christian separatists. US Senator Barbara Boxer and ex President Jimmy Carter calls for Nagaland to secede from India. You have to understand that the Christian missionaries and militants have been working for years to bring most of the states of the northeast to secede from India to become a separate Christian country, even if it means by force and brutality. For example, few people seem to be aware that in the small state of Tripura alone, over 10,000 people have been killed in the past 20 years by Christian militants through what you could call ethnic cleansing. The killing is done to instill fear in those who are not Christian, or who do not want to separate from India. And these militants are often supported by the Christian groups who provide money and reasoning for what they do. Southern Baptist Church forcing conversions at gun point. The Baptist Church in southern USA and the Presbyterian Church of the UK fund the Baptist Christian terrorists that are active in India's North-East. Ex-Chief Election Commissioner, T.N. Seshan, told this in a discussion in 1993. the terrorist groups like NLFT. The Christian Groups in America that fund armed insurgents in north east India to carry out ethnic cleansing and killing in India should be declared as terrorist organizations by the Indian government. Billy Graham well known Baptist leader openly praised the christian naga terrorists who had killed some 300,000 Hindus in North East. The Nagas, The NLFT, The NDFB are all Baptists are christian terrorists and interestingly they all share terrorist camps with islamists of Al-Quaida. Christianity is the result of a huge conspiracy and is the single most dangerous organization on earth that caused the death of half a billion humans in the name of religion. Islam pales in to insignificance as a terror organization in front of Christianity with only seventy five million human beheadings to its credit.







http://www.kaumudi.com/news/101806/kerala.stm

http://www.haindava keralam.org/ PageModule. aspx?PageID= 2885&SKIN=C
http://www.malayalavedhi.com/wbboard/threa...3&threadid=4689
Pope pops St Thomas bubble in Kerala, November 24, 2006 http://www.cybernoon.com/DisplayArticle.as...y_standard11461
http://ia.rediff.com/news/2006/nov/22pope.htm
http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=b...40ed937db04195e
Indians demand answers from Sonia Gandhi on her links
http://arizona.indymedia.org/news/2005/0...omment.php
Terrorists in North-East India get support from America

http://www.freeindiamedia.com/current_affa...ent_affairs.htm
http://tripurainfo.com/insurgency/sekhar3.shtml
church backing Tripura rebels
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/717775.stm

NOW A CHRISTIAN-HINDU DIVIDE IN TRIPURA VILLAGES

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_129174,0009.htm

Here is a Baptist website
http://www.srt.com/baptist/missions21.html
Exodus from Manipur continues

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?...sess=1&id=10546

Dutch support revealed for rebels", www.tehelka.com/channels/investigations/2000/oct/9/in100900dutch.htm .
Terror in Tripura etc
www.flonnet.com/fl1712/17120410.htm.
www.himalmag.com/december2001/essay.htm.
www.rediff.com/news/2001/aug/06naga.htm.
www.satp.org.
www.nenanews.com/OT%20Dec.22-%20Jan.6,%2001/oh4.htm.
www.rediff.com/news/2001/aug/08nscn.htm.
http://www.northeastvigil.com/newsarch/1...0i.htm#i01.
http://www.northeastvigil.com/newsarch/0...0i.htm#i24.
NSCN's dinner diplomacy with Christian MPs
http://www.keralanext.com/news/index.asp?id=142486

Can we sort the facts from the myths on this "Sethusamudram Project" and the opposition to it?

Consider the following article:

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->March 18, 2007
Stop Setu Project, save South India

Setusamudram Project and impending tsunami devastation


Ramar bridge (Ram Setu) had saved the coastline during tsunami 2004; so stop Setu Project. Breaking the bridge with a 300-meter wide canal will suck the next, impending, tsunami directly into the Indian coastline. Devastation will be incalculable, particularly in southern India. Government of India should stop further work on Setusamudram Project and stop meddling with the natural protective structure of Ram Setu.

By Dr. S. Kalyanaraman

The Ramar bridge (at a high elevation) from the rest of the shoal accumulations acted as a natural barrier preventing the direct devastation of the entire Indian coastline south and southwest of Nagapattinam.

Setusamudram Project has been put on fast track, with little concern for detailed impact analyses on lives of coastal people and the imperative of continuous dredging operations to operate the channel.

The most devastating comment on the project comes from Dr. Tad S. Murthy: "I like this (Setusamudram) project but there is a flaw. The entrance to the channel should be re-oriented towards the eastern side. Otherwise, there is a chance that it may create a deepwater route for another devastating tsunami. This may cause huge destruction in Kerala." Let me explain why the warning should be taken seriously.

During the last tsunami, the Ramar bridge (at a high elevation) from the rest of the shoal accumulations acted as a natural barrier preventing the direct devastation of the entire Indian coastline south and southwest of Nagapattinam.

This shows the spread of the massive displacement of waters displaced by the plate tectonic event at Aceh. The spread was dosing the southern Tamil Nadu coastline, circled the entire Sri Lanka island and moved partially into Kerala and towards the Ramar bridge. This circling around Sri Lanka occurred because the Ramar bridge acted as a natural shoal barrier preventing the inflow of waters.

If a Setusamudram channel is dug through the bridge, it will act as a channel for the waters to flow directly into the entire southern Indian coastline beyond Dhanush-kodi and into the coastline of Kerala right into the Konkan region. The devastation will be incalculable.

This clearly shows how Ramar bridge (Ram Setu) had acted as 'a high wall' and, in fact, saved most of the coastline west and northwest of Dhanushkodi from devastation.

There are clear indications that the environmental clearance was done without taking into account fundamental engineering and cost-benefit factors:
1.      Effect of a tsunami-type of event on the project (all scientists are unanimous that a recurrence of tsunamis cannot be ruled out).
2.      Locations for dumping the dredged sand
3.      Costs of continuous dredging given the continuous sea currents, which tend to create the shoals and again rebuild the Ramar bridge making the project inoperable for most of the time.
4.      The types of naval craft which can navigate through the project channel (apparently, the heavy oil tankers cannot go through this channel and will continue to circumnavigate around Sri Lanka and through Straits of Malacca to reach the markets of South- East and East Asia. There has been no market study of the numbers and types of vessels that will navigate through the channel and the freight rates expected to be paid by these vessels for being tugged through the channel.

In the interests of safety of the lives of the coastal people, it is prudent to stop the project work until the fundamental factors are re-studied and re-evaluated. It is also essential to involve NIOT and create a Marine Archaeological Unit to study the archaeology of the Ramar bridge and Kizhakkarai (Tiruchendur) where a s'ankha industry flourishes. It will be a tragedy of incalculable proportion to the cultural traditions of India, if this industry were to be devastated by the project.

It will be prudent to study the impact of the project on the cultural aspirations of the people and industries such as the ones that support livelihood of s'ankha divers. Impact on fisheries and future projects for desalination of seawater to provide drinking water to coastal towns should also be evaluated. The possibility of choosing an alternative route for the channel with little impact on the Ramar bridge should also be re-studied, taking into account the satellite image analyses which show that the secular historical trend of incursions and recessions of seawaters from almost the entire Indian coastline from Dwaraka through Gulf of Khambat, through Gulf of Mannar up to Ganga Sagar (West Bengal) are caused by a number of factors not excluding plate tectonics and global warming cycles.

The received narratives of the submergence of Kumarikandam should be a pointer to the imperative of careful studies before embarking on projects which hurt the cultural sentiments of the people who are inheritors of a glorious sea-faring, maritime, riverine civilization continuum.

(The writer is heading Sarasvati Research Centre and he is a former Sr. Exec., Asian Development Bank. He can be contacted at kalyan97@yahoo.com)
http://tinyurl.com/2fj7rz <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

http://www.punjabnewsline.com/content/view/3183/70/

Capt Amarinder marries Pak Journalist, claims Pak paper
Punjab Newsline Network
Saturday, 03 March 2007
CHANDIGARH: A Pakistani Urdu daily has recently flashed news about Punjab’s former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s alleged affair and marriage with a Pakistani journalist Aroosa Alam.




It may be mentioned here that Arrosa was honoured by Capt Amarinder Singh last year on June 3, 2006 during a function of Press Club, Jalandhar in presence of Punjabi Daily ‘Ajit’ editor Barjinder Singh Hamdard .

As per information received, Pakistani Urdu Daily ‘Jinnah’ had recently carried a report about Capt Amarinder Singh’s alleged relations with Aroosa. As per reports, the paper also carried some photographs. It is learnt that Aroosa, who is currently in Dubai, is daughter of an influential Pakistani lady Akleem Akhtar General Rani and has been a defence

journalist for a Pakistani newspaper. Aroosa is also the president of Islamabad chapter of South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA).

Daily ‘Jinnah’ is a leading National Urdu Daily being simultaneously published from Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. Capt Amarinder Singh’s wife Praneet Kaur is Member Parliament from Patiala. His party was defeated during the recent held Punjab assembly elections.

Admins permitting, I would like to start a thread on CAPEEM case since this is important. Please make this thread sticky.

Distortion of Hinduism irks US Indians
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->New York: The latest review of social studies textbooks for middle schools in California has upset the Indian community, which has accused the board of education of spreading misleading information about Hinduism.


A group of parents, under the umbrella of the California Parents for the Equalization of Educational Material (CAPEEM), had filed a lawsuit in the US District Court in California against the California State Board of Education (CBE) last year.


The CBE reviews and adopts new textbooks every six years. The current review/adoption process for the sixth grade social studies textbooks started in 2005 and concluded in March 2006.


CAPEEM alleged that for decades the California public school system has presented "insufficient, inaccurate and misleading information" about Hinduism and India's history that has prejudiced the minds of young Americans. It sought that these issues must be addressed urgently.


Hindu parents in California say the proposed textbooks contain factually incorrect information about ancient India and Hinduism while repeating "derogatory, colonial-era clichés and perpetuating Euro-centric and Biblical views".


Rather than considering their viewpoints, the CBE solicited the advice of hostile academics "who carry political and ideological baggage against Hinduism and India and whose knowledge of ancient Indian history and Hinduism is both limited and prejudiced", according to information posted on CAPEEM's website.


CAPEEM scored a legal victory last year when a US states district court ruled that CAPEEM's lawsuit on the textbook adoption process can proceed and rejected the CBE's arguments that CAPEEM lacked standing to bring the lawsuit.


To take the case further and meet the legal expenses, CAPEEM is asking ethnic Indians here, particularly Hindus, to donate generously for the cause.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

<b>Samjhauta Express catches fire, 42 killed</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->At least 42 people were feared killed in a suspected IED blast in the Delhi-Attari Special train near Deewana in Panipat, about 80 kms from Chandigarh, around midnight.

<b>The dead included some Pakistanis, top police officials in Chandigarh said. Two CRPF jawans were also said to be missing.</b>

The train to Attari carries passengers to Pakistan for cross over at Wagah border.

<b>Several people were injured in the suspected blast which occured at around 11.55 pm on Sunday night</b>. Two bogies of he train caught fire in the explosion and the toll could go up.

The injured include a constable from Amritsar and at least eight Pakistanis, railway sources said.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
So they are using train to bring bomb/explosives in India.

Moderators, if you think there is a better thread where we can collect and discuss everything focusing on Mughal period of Indian history, please merge it there. Otherwise, let us keep it as a new topic.

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><span style='color:red'>The truth about Aurangzeb</span>
Francois Gautier
February 16, 2007

FACT, the Trust which I head, is holding an exhibition on 'Aurangzeb as he was according to Mughal documents', from February 16 to 20 at New Delhi's Habitat Center, the Palm Court Gallery, from 10 am to 9 pm.

Why an exhibition on Aurangzeb, some may ask. Firstly, I have been a close student of Indian history, and one of its most controversial figures has been Aurangzeb (1658-1707). It is true that under him the Mughal empire reached its zenith, but Aurangzeb was also a very cruel ruler some might even say monstrous.

What are the facts? Aurangzeb did not just build an isolated mosque on a destroyed temple, he ordered all temples destroyed, among them the Kashi Vishwanath temple, one of the most sacred places of Hinduism, and had mosques built on a number of cleared temple sites. Other Hindu sacred places within his reach equally suffered destruction, with mosques built on them. A few examples: Krishna's birth temple in Mathura; the rebuilt Somnath temple on the coast of Gujarat; the Vishnu temple replaced with the Alamgir mosque now overlooking Benares; and the Treta-ka-Thakur temple in Ayodhya. The number of temples destroyed by Aurangzeb is counted in four, if not five figures. Aurangzeb did not stop at destroying temples, their users were also wiped out; even his own brother Dara Shikoh was executed for taking an interest in Hindu religion; Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur was beheaded because he objected to Aurangzeb's forced conversions.

Yet, Percival Spear, co-author with Romila Thapar of the prestigious A History of India (Penguin), writes: 'Aurangzeb's supposed intolerance is little more than a hostile legend based on isolated acts such as the erection of a mosque on a temple site in Benares.' L'histoire de l'Inde moderne (Fayard), the French equivalent of Percival Spear's history of India, praises Aurangzeb and says, 'He has been maligned by Hindu fundamentalists'. Even Indian politicians are ignorant of Aurangzeb's evil deeds. Nehru might have known about them, but for his own reasons he chose to keep quiet and instructed his historians to downplay Aurangzeb's destructive drive and instead praise him as a benefactor of arts.

Since then six generations of Marxist historians have done the same and betrayed their allegiance to truth. Very few people know for instance that Aurangzeb banned any kind of music and that painters had to flee his wrath and take refuge with some of Rajasthan's friendly maharajahs.

Thus, we thought we should get at the root of the matter. History (like journalism) is about documentation and first-hand experience. We decided to show Aurangzeb according to his own documents. There are an incredible number of farhans, original edicts of Aurangzeb hand-written in Persian, in India's museums, particularly in Rajasthan, such as the Bikaner archives. It was not always easy to scan them, we encountered resistance, sometimes downright hostility and we had to go once to the chief minister to get permission. Indeed, the director of Bikaner archives told us that in 50 years we were the first ones asking for the farhans dealing with Aurangzeb's destructive deeds. Then we asked painters from Rajasthan to reproduce in the ancient Mughal style some of the edicts: the destruction of Somnath temple; the trampling of Hindus protesting jaziya tax by Aurangzeb's elephants; or the order from Aurangzeb prohibiting Hindus to ride horses and palanquins; or the beheading of Teg Bahadur and Dara Shikoh.

People might say: 'OK, this is all true, Aurangzeb was indeed a monster, but why rake up the past, when we have tensions between Muslims and Hindus today?' There are two reasons for this exhibition. The first is that no nation can move forward unless its children are taught to look squarely at their own history, the good and the bad, the evil and the pure. The French, for instance, have many dark periods in their history, more recently some of the deeds they did during colonisation in North Africa or how they collaborated with the Nazis during the Second World War and handed over French Jews who died in concentration camps (the French are only now coming to terms with it).

The argument that looking at one's history will pit a community against the other does not hold either: French Catholics and Protestants, who share a very similar religion, fought each other bitterly. Catholics brutally murdered thousands of Protestants in the 18th century; yet today they live peacefully next to each other. France fought three wars with Germany in the last 150 years, yet they are great friends today.

Let Hindus and Muslims then come to terms with what happened under Aurangzeb, because Muslims suffered as much as Hindus. It was not only Shah Jahan or Dara Shikoh who were murdered, but also the forefathers of today's Indian Muslims who have been converted at 90 per cent. Aurangzeb was the Hitler, the asura of medieval India. No street is named after Hitler in the West, yet in New Delhi we have Aurangzeb Road, a constant reminder of the horrors Aurangzeb perpetrated against Indians, including his own people.

Finally, Aurangzeb is very relevant today because he thought that Sunni Islam was the purest form of his religion and he sought to impose it with ruthless efficiency -- even against those of his own faith, such as his brother. Aurangzeb clamped down on the more syncretic, more tolerant Islam, of the Sufi kind, which then existed in India. But he did not fully succeed. Four centuries later, is he going to have the last word? I remember, when I started covering Kashmir in the late '70s, that Islam had a much more open face. The Kashmir Muslim, who is also a descendant of converted Hindus, might have thought that Allah was the only true God, but he accepted his Kashmiri Pandit neighbour, went to his or her marriage, ate in his or her house and the Hindu in turn went to the mosque. Women used to walk with open faces, watch TV, films.

Then the shadow of Aurangzeb fell on Kashmir and the hardline Sunnis came from Pakistan and Afghanistan: cinemas were banned, the burqa imposed, 400,000 Kashmiri Pandits were chased out of Kashmir through violence and became refugees in their own land and the last Sufi shrine of Sharar-e-Sharif was burnt to the ground (I was there). Today the Shariat has been voted in Kashmir, a state of democratic, secular India, UP's Muslims have applauded, and the entire Indian media which went up in flames when the government wanted Vande Mataram to be sung, kept quiet. The spirit of Aurangzeb seems to triumph.

But what we need today in India -- and indeed in the world -- is a Dara Shikoh, who reintroduces an Islam which, while believing in the supremacy of its Prophet, not only accepts other faiths, but is also able to see the good in each religion, study them, maybe create a synthesis. Islam needs to adapt its scriptures which were created nearly 15 centuries ago for the people and customs of these times, but which are not necessarily relevant in some of their injunctions today. Kabir, Dara Shikoh and some of the Sufi saints attempted this task, but failed. Aurangzeb knew what he was doing when he had his own brother beheaded. And we know what we are saying when we say that this exhibition is very relevant to today's India.

May the Spirit of Dara Shikoh come back to India and bring back Islam to a more tolerant human face.
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