The United Nations Charter of 1945 and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 set standards for measuring accepted norms of human rights, securing the dignity of the individual, and advancing humanity and mutual tolerance. Since that date, other similar conventions have been drafted, at international level, and regionally, such as the European Community, Organization of African Unity, and the Organization of American States. Domestic jurisdictions have applied the principles of international law, via interpretation through their own systems of justice. However all these laws follow a subjective pattern, and accord respect to Abrahamic faiths while paying lip service to non-Abrahamic faiths and to the rights of the followers of non-Abrahamic faiths.
There are many situations where individuals have lesser or even an absence of human rights just because they are Hindus. Their rights are infringed upon or abrogated because they are Hindus. Their inalienable human rights are ignored, making the Hindus very much alienated. This can even take more subtle forms, such as assaults in the print and electronic media. While this may not seem serious at the outset, it does provide the theoretical foundation which can, and in most cases has, precipitate acts of severe hatred, with all the human rights abuses that it brings. This includes persecution on a racial basis, or denial of freedom of conscience because the victim concerned, is a Hindu. It is this unfounded and irrational fear of Hindus and Hinduism has culminated in acts that include physical, psychological or other attacks. Hindu Human Rights (HHR) was formed because of the lack of an organization to secure and protect the legitimate human rights of Hindus, both under international and national law. Irrational fear of Hindus has been, and continues to be, an ignored problem. Unfortunately, even in this age of fast communication, cosmopolitanism, globalization, and increasing international awareness and understanding, this phobia has only increased.
Apart from basic human rights, any attack on Hinduism is also an attack on environmentalism. The ancient vedic and Hindu heritage has provided a spacious spiritual home for the environmental ethos, long before environmentalism entered the public consciousness in the west. India has, with its Hindu and vedic ethos and culture, throughout trackless centuries, provided an ample expanse of friendly space for an open and ongoing discourse of ideas. Hindu traditions have long ago established the principles of ecological harmony through its quest for spiritual and physical symbiosis, synthesized in a system of ethical awareness and moral responsibility. This is reflected in all Hindu beliefs, customs, practices, and rituals. Thus any attack to Hindus and hindu institutions is also an attack on environment as ârespect for environment and Hinduism/Hindu Human Rightsâ cannot be viewed in isolation unlike in other faiths.
It is precisely for the aforementioned reasons, Hindu Human Rights (HHR) was formed and it holds activities and publishes articles that highlight the forgotten human rights of Hindus all around the globe. HHR marks September 28th, as âright to knowâ day along with various organizations. HHR consolidates all the information on http://www.hinduhumanrights.org for all our activists and well wishers.
At the same time HHR believes in the fundamental principles of international human rights as applied to all. It is in the spirit of Hindu Dharma, Hindu belief and action that all are accorded with equity and respect, and that rights are not infringed. Indeed Hindus go further and accord respect to all forms of life. HHR therefore sees present standards of international human rights as a medium which can constantly be improved upon, modernized and reinterpreted. It is an area where largely untapped the repository of knowledge known as Hindu Dharma, can be utilized in working towards global and cultural understanding.
Hindus have hitherto lacked an international body to secure and protect their inalienable human rights, as Hindus, under both international law and respective national jurisdiction. HHR, in an identical stand with other international human right organizations, stands for the following:
1. All humans are born free and equal. This is accordance with international law and Dharma. They constitute a community, the society. As part of the international community of peoples and nations, Hindus have been conferred with equal rights, and simultaneously have the duty to respect corresponding rights of others.
2. The Hindu society has suffered abrogation of human rights in many spheres. This has taken both individual and collective forms.
3. Hindus should benefit from equal human rights as other citizens in their respective domiciles. In turn, they should respect the rights of others, as well as contribute fully, effectively and constructively to the societies in which they reside, in a positive manner.
4. Hindus have the right to practice, observe, and otherwise manifest the Dharma in which they believe.
5. Where Hindu human rights suffer neglect, marginalization, or outright abrogation, recourse to justice under national and international legal procedures should be available to them.
6. Dharma is natural law. It enhances the standards of international law and human rights. Adharma is opposed to these norms.
7. As with any crimes of war, inhumanity, and genocide, and against any particular community or ethnic group, criminals guilty of human rights breaches against Hindus and wanton acts of Adharma, be brought to justice.
8. If recourse through national organs of justice is unavailable, then redress is to be sought at international level.
9. India is the spiritual land of Hindus. As such Hindus should work effectively for understanding and partnership with India and other members of the international community, especially in furthering international respect for human rights.
10. That education, information dissemination and similar means are necessary to bring understanding of Hindu human rights at international and national level.
HHR believes that in order to protect the basic rights of Hindus worldwide, the public must be involved and made aware of. HHR seeks to insure that individuals' rights to speak out on behalf of Hindus are recognized and respected, and to help activists and advocates to organize in an effective manner to petition their respective governments.
We want to achieve the goal in two ways: by educating global citizens about the hitherto ignored and forgotten link between human rights and hindus and by assisting citizens of other nations to protect the fundamental rights of hindus for the benefit of everyone.
HHRâs strategy is to focus on nations where human rights abuses are being committed against activists and to inform the public about these abuses in order to expose the guilty parties. Human rights violations are less likely to occur in the broad daylight of international attention.
In that spirit, HHR in particular wants to know and disseminate the following information
⢠⢠Which NGO, Corporation and/or Media outlets are involved in slandering Hindusâ Human rights?
⢠Incidents of animal cruelty and cow slaughter
⢠Incidents of pillage of environment that upsets the delicate balance between nature and human kind
⢠Were Hindu communities forcibly relocated to accommodate the globalization agenda of Islamists and Missionaries?
⢠Has there been sexual, verbal, physical harassment or discrimination in the work place or otherwise anywhere, just because they happen to be Hindus?
⢠In which countries Hindu temples those are being desecrated?
⢠In which countries Hindus are not being allowed to practice their faith and participate in cultural rituals, festivals etc?
⢠Do any of these entities have secret agreements and collusion with international security forces such as foreign militaries?
⢠Have there been any serious emergencies caused by such collusion?
⢠Have there been any massive and blatant cover-ups to hide suffering of Hindus?
Typically media, NGOs and various corporations operating in India and elsewhere are not required to disclose information relating to their financial sources and operations on the ground. This lack of disclosure has allowed these entities to conceal irresponsible or disgraceful behavior, such as cultural genocide, stealth proselytization, and destroying the Hindu ethos and culture.
We believe that Hinduism is a leading and living illustration of the natural religious traditions that evolved and thrived throughout the world at one time. This last surviving spiritual philosophy is under great threat from globalization, mono âculture, materialism and sustained assaults from organized religions. Until Hindus themselves realise that their religion and culture is precious and has much to offer the world, the attempted destruction of Hinduism will continue unabated in the West and in India also.
The Hinduism Awareness Tour 2004 has been organized to help to understand the real meanings behind the practices of Hinduism in the UK. We aim to do this by Setting up public talks in the mandirs of all the regional communities(Gujerati, Punjabi,Tamil, Caribbean to name but a few). This is to serve our objective of building a global mainstream Hindu identity as opposed to a regional or sectarian one.
More importantly alongside Swamini Atmaprakashananda we are organizing Hindu family gatherings where pujas will be performed coupled with teachings of Vedanta through which informal discussions around the social and cultural context of the practice Of Hindu Dharma can occur.
Swamini Atmaprakashananda,(disciple of Swami Dayanand Saraswati,founder of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam in Coimbatore,India and USA) is leading this Hinduism Awareness Tour 2004 Swamini is an able scholar of Vedanta and the Shastras. She is skilled in Transmitting Vedic knowledge in easily understood and assimilated Language-accessible to the modern mind. The jewels of the Upanishads and other Shastras are revealed to the listener in great clarity. Her spirituality combined with simplicity of approach and sense of humour Immediately touches the heart of the listener.
At this point it is necessary to clarify the pedigree of Swaminiâs Guru-Swami Dayanand Saraswati. He is a traditional teacher of Vedanta and an eminent scholar of Sanskrit. His Gurus were Swamis ChinmayanandaAnd Pranavanda of Gudivada. He is the architect of the teaching of the Vedanta in a more contemporary form without distorting its true message. He is the founder of the âAll India Movement for Sewaâ (AIMS) Which aims to bridge the gap between urban and rural India. He is the head of four institutions of learning and culture-three in India and one in the USA-the Arsha Vidya Gurukulams. In 2003 he convened the first ever Acharya Sabha-a gathering of all the Heads of the Sampradhayas to determine a common approach to the challenges facing Hinduism-no mean feat.
For regular updates on the HHR Hindu Awareness Tour 2004 in the UK please check Hindu Human Rights for dates, timings and venues. For more information please email us at hinduhumanrights@yahoo.com
>Hi HHR
>
>I've prepared an article on the Aryan Invasion theory for the BBC
>website and would value your comments.
>
>The text is below.
>
>Best wishes
>
>David
>
>-------------------
>
Hindu history
The Aryan Invasion Theory
One of the most controversial ideas about Hindu history is the Aryan invasion theory.
This theory, originally devised by F. Max Muller in 1848, traces the history of Hinduism to the invasion of India's indigenous people by lighter skinned Aryans around 1500 BCE.
The theory was reinforced by other research over the next 120 years, and became the accepted history of Hinduism, not only in the West but in India.
There is now ample evidence to show that Muller, and those who followed him, were wrong.
Why is the theory no longer accepted?
The Aryan invasion theory was based on archaeological, linguistic and ethnological evidence.
Later research has either discredited this evidence, or provided new evidence that combined with the earlier evidence makes other explanations more likely.
Modern historians of the area no longer believe that such invasions had such great influence on Indian history. It's now generally accepted that Indian history shows a continuity of progress from the earliest times to today.
The changes brought to India by other cultures are not denied by modern historians, but they are no longer thought to be a major ingredient in the development of Hinduism.
Dangers of the theory
The Aryan invasion theory denies the Indian origin of India's predominant culture, but gives the credit for Indian culture to invaders from elsewhere.
It even teaches that some of the most revered books of Hindu scripture are not actually Indian, and it devalues India's culture by portraying it as less ancient than it actually is.
The theory was not just wrong, it included unacceptably racist ideas:
* it suggested that Indian culture was not a culture in its own right, but a synthesis of elements from other cultures
* it implied that Hinduism was not an authentically Indian religion but the result of cultural imperialism
* it suggested that Indian culture was static, and only changed under outside influences
* it suggested that the dark-skinned Dravidian people of the South of India had got their faith from light-skinned Aryan invaders
* it implied that indigenous people were incapable of creatively developing their faith
* it suggested that indigenous peoples could only acquire new religious and cultural ideas from other races, by invasion or other processes
* it accepted that race was a biologically based concept (rather than, at least in part, a social construct) that provided a sensible way of ranking people in a hierarchy, which provided a partial basis for the caste system
* it provided a basis for racism in the Imperial context by suggesting that the peoples of Northern India were descended from invaders from Europe and so racially closer to the British Raj
* it gave a historical precedent to justify the role and status of the British Raj, who could argue that they were transforming India for the better in the same way that the Aryans had done thousands of years earlier
* it downgraded the intellectual status of India and its people by giving a falsely late date to elements of Indian science and culture
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Rcvd by email to HHR : BBC throws out AIT?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Romila Thappar and clown like her were spreading Aryan Invasion theory for long period. But even now they say they were forced to change AIT by Hindutava force. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='rolleyes.gif' /><!--endemo-->
It has recently come to our attention that the RampArt Creative Centre and Social Space, Whitechapel, London is hosting an "Indian film festival" from the week starting Sunday 10 January 2005. A perusal of the list of films to be showcased however shows that this is yet another exhibition of anti-Hindu propaganda aimed at showing Hinduism as some kind of foreign colonial ideology in India and Hindus as oppressors of other religious groups. We urge all Hindus to attend the festival and where possible to lodge an appropriate complaint with the centre. We also urge the centre to afford the same resources to Hindu film and documentary makers to outline the many genocides and persecutions Hindu society faces today. We would also like this opportunity to provide a more detailed account and background to our position in this debate.
In a multi-racial, multi-religious, globalised village, the expectations upon any citizen is to promote peace and harmony. Hindu Human Rights group (HHR) actively and passionately stands behind this principle. However, if art is closely equated as means of access to truth, the so-called liberals and leftists have turned to using art into a craft of besmirching Hindus and Hinduism.
In the political realm, Leftists and Liberals generally view Hindus and Hinduism as deserving of attack and denigration for any number of alleged practices and social evils, depending on which particular cause that has become the latest fashion. They shout down as "aggressive" or "fundamentalist" any sign of assertiveness on the part of rank-and-file Hindus. Meanwhile the Rightists view us as "The Hindoo", the dark-skinned "Other", idol-worshipers and followers of allegedly superstitious practices â as if this makes us primitive and inferior, therefore deserving of conversion, conquer ring and cleansing by any means as they have done to other Pagans. To be assertive of our Hinduness is perceived by the Rightist as a threat to his worldview and way of life â deserving to be put in our place by covert and overt intimidation or even repatriation. Left or Right, both are open ill-wishers to the Hindus.
Art in proper visual form has always had the power to heal and sooth the soul. Of course, Hinduism has always recognized this and contains a wealth of artistic works and styles. It would be difficult for us to do justice to this artistic heritage but we certainly honour it and have no qualms in stating that we, Hindu Human Rights, are pro-Art and give all due respect to this important aspect of human existence and endeavour. However, as with all powerful forces, Art can also be harnessed for more malicious purposes.
Perhaps, artists should identify themselves, as just artists and not as journalists, not as "documentarians," nor as propagandists. Art, as much as activism, is about articulating visions: the discovery of one's own voice through innovations that are inextricably linked with tradition and culture. There is nothing inherently mystical or romantic about this process: we locate ourselves in sympathetic social scenes, articulate our ideas among ourselves, and then (hopefully) test and refine these ideas in the world of actual practice to bring in peace and harmony by sharing ennobling ideas and elevated thoughts.
However, if art is used a vehicle for ideology, a tool for the construction of consensus and hence of a community peppered with "anti-a-particular-community-feeling", it can become an activist documentary and a marketing tool to arouse violent passions in a naive and malleable audience (sometimes called "brainwashing"). Hence, the audience then becomes an unwitting pawn in supporting an unspoken, but identifiable, agenda of such activists. Activist documentary, the overwhelmingly dominant mode in socially-committed video today, has a troubling tendency first to proceed to produce documentaries which propagate these unexamined values and then overlook the insidious consequences in society.
History has witnessed numerous genocides which have been preceded by the denigration of the victims often portraying them as irrational, immoral, lacking a legitimate religion, lacking in compassion towards others and thereby not deserving of the same human rights extended to other people. Hindu Human Rights is acutely aware of the abuse of such practices and painfully cognizant of its consequence (please visit our website http://www.hinduhumanrights.org for more details). Demonising a culture and community is the first step towards a successful genocide, as we have witnessed in the cleansing of Hindus in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Jammu and Kashmir, etc.
Thus, Hindu Human Rights steadfastly criticizes the "RampArt" film festival organizers for peddling propaganda and parading it as a contribution to multiculturalism by hosting highly questionable documentaries which construct misrepresentations and distortions of certain communities (Hindus being the main targets in this area). The same deliberately one sided "films of lies" are being used as a marketing tool by self-parading, self-appointed "liberals", and is overtly insensitive as it promotes and justifies violence against and negative stereotypes of Hindus and Hinduism. Less noticeably, but just as importantly, it also creates exactly the apathetic and indifferent attitudes necessary in the West to allow Western governments to ignore and negate huge massacres of Hindus. Indeed, as Hindus, we are deeply aware of the richness of Art in our traditions and yet this never seems to be portrayed accurately to Western audiences. When Hindu spiritual ideas are used, it is done either without credit or in an offensive or insensitive manner displaying the wide ignorance that exists. Thus it is highly unfortunate and tragic that ordinary people in the West do not get the opportunity to experience and understand to richness of Hinduism in an appropriate context (a prime example being the popularity of physical yoga exercises and the corresponding ignorance of the other 98% of yogic spiritual teachings).
This genre of films and "documentaries" are generally first thought up by Indians with Hindu sounding names but anti-Hindu agendas (the products of secular western based schooling system with the finishing touches of Marxism and Leftism). Such people, full of self loathing and hatred of their Hindu spiritual and cultural heritage, realistically anticipate financial and intellectual support from their Western counterparts. The latter's appetite for more and more bizarre and contentious analyses (reticent and hesitant to scrutinize more deadly and dangerous scenarios) is fed by such propaganda against what is viewed as an easier target to vilify without any fear of retaliation â Hinduism and Hindu culture. Furthermore it ensures that their Indian colleagues are supported by fat salaries and huge grants so as to enable them to serve up such distasteful and, even worse, such dangerous fare. The naive audience in the West will swallow the negative images and the ideas perpetuated by the disputed documentaries without being made aware of India's wounded history of Imperialistic and Colonial invasions and misrule.
It is ironic that as these Leftists and Liberals here in the West encourage, fund and provoke films/documentaries which seek to attack and destroy Hinduism, Hindus and Hindu culture while at the same time the same society enjoys benefits such as meditation, yoga, Ayurvedic medicine, Hindu cuisine, Chakra/Tantra philosophy, Environmentalism, vegetarianism, Art, Dance, Music, architecture, to name but a few of the cultural treasures of Hinduism. It would not surprise us either to discover that such people who fund, promote and screen such anti-Hindu propaganda also claim to be staunch defenders of the rights of endangered and persecuted peoples. Rightists of course are just as happy with this maligning of Hindus since it fits their agenda of showing their own cultural and racial superiority and provides support to their objective of intervention in these "unfortunate" societies, even if it means using war.
Hindus and Hindu civilization has endured horrendous genocide and enslavement. Hindus have seen their culture and social fabric, educational system and economy denigrated and brought to the verge of destruction. Other mighty civilizations have significantly failed to survive such brutal depredations â their true culture and traditions a very dim and distant memory. In contrast, Hindus have survived and their spiritual and cultural heritage, although wounded, survives in every part of the globe to this day. However the defence of Hindu society, Hindu civilization, Hindu culture and Hinduism does not figure in the consciousness of these Westerners which instead seems to have the destruction of Hinduism and Hindus at their very epicentre. Will they not be satisfied until all of Hinduism that is priceless, energising and life giving has been hacked from its very land and home and its Hindu peoples reduced to a few hundred? Will they then feel less threatened and more able to champion the Hindu cause as an endangered people? Will they begin to write about the fantastic achievements and contributions of Hindu civilisation from the comfort of the Museum or while on safari in the reservation, having succeeded in destroying the Hindu society which nourished and preserved this sacred tradition?
As assertive Hindus, challenging the current distortions that pass for independent and impartial consideration of our culture, norms, practices and values we neither belong to the Left nor the Right â instead we are struggling to have an authentic Hindu voice heard in the world arena. Whenever such one-sidedly anti-Hindu festivals about India are screened in the West we appeal to both Hindus and non-Hindus sympathetic to Hinduism to attend and to raise their voices in a challenge to the prevailing stereotypes inimical to Hinduism peddled in the global forum. We urge people to raise their voices in protest against those willing to hijack Art to pursue their own political agenda. Above all, we ask for a sense of balance in all such festivals and events. Otherwise the millions of Hindus who have lost their lives, the millions of Hindu women and girls abducted and rape, their suffering ⦠will not only be forgotten, but will persist into many future generations.
Following the outrage caused by the bad taste in outfit at a fancy dress party by British royal, Prince Harry, the Liberal group in the European Parliament have argued that, since all of Europe suffered because of the Nazis' crimes, there should be a continent-wide ban of Nazi symbols. Unfortunately this has coincided with the long overdue campaign to reclaim the swastika by Hindus. Due to the ideological associations which this most ancient of religious symbol has accrued via still comparatively recent crimes against humanity, it may be worth mentioning some related issues which have so far been allayed. Certain groups, notably the Jews, who suffered under the Nazis, and were its explicit targets for extermination, may be apprehensive at the use of this symbol under which so many were annihilated on the basis that they were subhumans. This is something that should create equal apprehension among Hindus, as they also have been victims of the same ideology. Reference here is not only to the more well known cases of the attacks and insults which "Asian" immigrants suffered on an almost daily basis in the UK, but to the conveniently forgotten Holocaust of the Roma or "Gypsies" (who are descendants of Indian Hindus) under the same Third Reich that carried out the "Final Solution" to what it saw as the "Jewish Problem". Hindu organisations should therefore be commended and supported in their efforts to reclaim the ancient symbol of the swastika, but need to ensure that it is firmly differentiated from the design and symbolism of the Nazi swastika, and anything associated with it.
The swastika is an ancient symbol associated with good luck, used regularly in places such as Hindu weddings, Jain iconography, and Buddhist temples. It is associated as a symbol of good luck and with the solar deity Surya. Hindus cannot be blamed that Hitler, who had no respect neither for Hindus nor Hindu culture, decided to steal their symbol for the visual manifestation and to give vent to his own nauseating ideas. If Hindus are to be blamed for the use of something like this, then are they to be blamed for the false use of the term "Aryan" to mean race? In fact the Sanskrit word "Arya" means person of noble quality, and does not connote race, nor even linguistics. So how did this ancient symbol of Hindu culture become associated with Nazi ideology?
The British Imperialist rulers of India began an earnest interest and research into the ancient civilisation of which they were now the colonial masters. One of the earliest was Sir William Jones (1746-94) who established the Royal Asiatic Society. A gifted linguist who studied Sanskrit, Jones is widely regarded as the father of "Indology". Knowledge of this ancient and sacred Hindu language made many scholars realise not only its great antiquity, but also its affinity to most of the languages spoken in the West, an interest that was taken up most stridently by the Germans. A weak and divided people at the time suffering the threat of domination by either France or Austria, the Germans were split into various states and dukedoms, the largest of which was Prussia. This period of alienation, accentuated by events such as the fall of the Holy Roman Empire due to Napoleon's conquest, led many German thinkers of the early nineteenth century to look for inspiration to India. These included Frederick von Schlegel, his brother Augustus Wilhelm, Wilhelm von Humbolt, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Hegel. There was also the rise of romanticism in Germany, a reaction to the industrialisation of European society that was fast gathering pace. An idealisation of the past before industrialisation could manifest itself in the poetry of Wordsworth, in Britain (the first nation to embark on what became known as the Industrial revolution) by which a rurally based society was replaced by one that was increasingly urbanised, technologically driven and found its output in factories rather than subsistence agriculture. But in continental Europe, romanticism meant something else. As well as idealising the pre-industrial "purity" of humans living in harmony with nature, the German romanticists also talked of the pagan heroes before the time of Christianity, in their view, brave warriors who held off the Romans in the almost impenetrable forests of central Europe. This however also had a more sinister side. Some romanticists wanted to free themselves of the "alien" Jewish contamination brought into German society by Christianity, as well as by the Jews themselves. This anti-Semitism is most obvious in the operas of Wagner, where Siegfried is elevated to the status of Teutonic messiah, almost Christ-like. In fact this renewed interest in the pre-Christian German pagan past bore more resemblance in its nineteenth century version to the inflexible dogma of the Church as it existed then, than it did to anything remotely resembling the ancient Germanic folk beliefs. Slavophilism in Russia with its idealisation of the peasant and village, even more virulent anti-Semitism, and deep suspicion of all things Western, including the much needed industrialisation (which could in fact have saved the Czarist Empire from falling to the vice of Communism) was another manifestation of this extreme romanticist trend.
As Prussia emerged as a military power and German unification was achieved in 1871, the British looked on with alarm. Indeed Sir Henry Maine, former Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University said:
"..a nation has been borne out of Sanskrit."
The idea, especially after the 1857 Rebellion, that Indians might unite like the Germans or French, under the power of the "Brahmans", and this would seriously undermine the divide and rule policy which colonialism had engineered. This accentuated a process that had begun much earlier by a British educationalist in India, Thomas Babbington Macaulay (1800-1859), who wanted to create a class of Indians educated in the English language and way of thinking so as to uphold colonial rule, a self-alienated group which would act as intermediary between the "white masters" and the "dark subjects". To this day, the term "Macaulayite" is used as the best term to describe a self-alienated Indian who feels closer to non-Hindu models to look at Hinduism, notably Marxism.
As Indians and especially Hindus took enthusiastically to the new schools and colleges which imparted western education, Macaulay saw this as a means of achieving another one of his goals, the mass conversion of Hindu society, especially its upper echelons to Christianity. He made this candidly obvious in 1836:
"Our English schools are flourishing wonderfully. The effect of this education on the Hindus is prodigious â¦â¦ It is our belief that if our plans of education are followed up, there will not be a single idolator among the respectable classes in Bengal thirty years hence. And this will be effected without any effort to proselytise, without the smallest interference with religious liberty, by natural operation of knowledge and reflection. I heartily rejoice in the project."
To help in this he needed a scholar who would help turn the Brahmans as the priestly caste among Hindus, against their own sacred writings, but in a scholarly way, that could be deemed as being "progressive". They would then reject the Vedas for the New Testament followed by the rest of Hindu society en masse. Through Professor Horace Wilson, Boden professor of Sanskrit at Oxford, Macaulay found the devout Protestant and gifted Vedic scholar. This was the German Sanskritologist, Friedrich Max Muller. An ardent German nationalist, Muller was nevertheless a devout Christian, and for the sum of £10,000 was persuaded to work for the British East India Company by Macaulay, to translate the Rig Veda in such a way that it would destroy the Hindu belief in the Vedas. He made this plain in 1866, when writing to his wife about his translation of the Veda:
"â¦this edition of mine and the translation of the Veda, will hereafter tell to a great extent on the fate of India and on the growth of millions of souls in that country. It is the root of their religion and to show them what the root it, I feel sure, is the only way of uprooting all that has sprung from it during the last three thousand years."
Though one cannot cast doubt on his intelligence and talent, Muller's scholarship is nevertheless marred by this ulterior motive. This was only the beginning. It was Max Muller who gave "Aryan" a racial meaning, knowing full well as a scholar well versed in that ancient language, that Sanskrit "Arya" does not mean race.
The idea of Aryan race could not be contained. From this time forward the idea was advanced of an Aryan invasion by Indo-European, and obviously white-skinned European looking, tribes from Central Asia, which founded Hindu civilisation and authored the Vedas, and came to be widely accepted, even though it had absolutely no basis in any indigenous tradition of India, until Muller invented it as an ideological mechanism for colonial domination for his British masters. It was enhanced by those same romanticist intellectuals who wanted to free themselves of all Judaic influence brought upon them by Christianity, and saw this Aryan racial theory as another string to their bow. Like the artificial dating of the Vedas to 1400BCE, so as to be more recent than the books of the Bible, it had absolutely nothing to do with India itself, and the people of India as well as ancient Hindu civilisation had no part to play in it, had no say in the matter, but instead saw its rich spiritual treasures plundered to be used for the most materialistic and debased of motives. The swastika, symbol of ancient cultures par excellence, was an ideal mechanism with which to manufacture a mythical past, which never existed and which was produced by the national frustration of European power politics, the formation of nation states, competing aspirations of multi-ethnic self-determination, anti-Semitism, and the racist ideas of what was then scientifically acceptable Social Darwinism and eugenics, rather than any historical reality of Celtic and Germanic ancient Europe. Runic symbols, Norse gods such as Odin, and even the ancient Greek myth of Atlantis, all were exploited along with the swastika and idea of the Aryan race to bolster Nazi theory and ideology.
The use of the swastika then by Hitler for political reasons to manufacture the racial mythology that is National Socialism, must therefore be seen in its proper context. Now, in all the excitement that this debate will generate, not only have the protagonists ignored how Hindu symbolism such as the swastika and sacred Sanskrit terminology such as "Arya" have been abused and plundered for use by people who have absolutely no respect for Hindu culture, but are by their own admission its most implacable opponents, and stand on the diametric opposite side to all its values. What did Hitler himself have to say regarding the people who the first to use the swastika thousands of years ago? Well in Mein Kampf he wrote the following:
"â¦..I, as a man of Germanic blood, would, in spite of everything, rather see India under English rule than under any other"
and,
"England will never lose India unless she admits racial disruption in the machinery of her administration or unless she is overcome by the sword of some powerful enemy ⦠[and] Indian risings will never bring this about."
And later in March 1945 on using Indian prisoners-of-war to fight for the Axis:
"The Indian legion is a joke. I believe that if Indians could be used to turn prayer-wheels they would be the most indefatigable soldiers in the world. But using them in a life-and-death war is pure madness. They cannot even kill an Englishman."
The National Socialist fixation with a degenerate India and its indigenous Hindu inhabitants is retained to this very day. In 1999, American "designer" Nazi David Duke updated many of the ideas of Mein Kampf in his My Awakening where he reiterates the same false ideas of an Aryan race.
The use of the swastika should then be seen in the context of the aforementioned factors. The use of the Nazi swastika should be resisted. But that was never the swastika of Hindu civilisation, just as the racial term "Aryan" had never been the meaning of "Arya" in Sanskrit of the Vedas. The Hindu move to reclaim the swastika should be seen as apart of the wider aim to salvage Hindu culture and civilisation from the assault it has received from many sources. It should also lead academics and others to seriously ask other questions that have been conveniently ignored. Should the Aryan Invasion Theory, which forms the basis of the Master Race Ideology, be continued to be taught as fact despite its nineteenth century racist and proto-Nazi origins, as well as having no historical basis? Should the forgotten racial victims of the Nazi genocide, the Roma, be awarded compensation? Does the Roma presence in Europe have its origins in a genocide and imperialism in India which mainstream scholars conveniently ignore? Uncomfortable issues perhaps, but we should be able to at last face these long overdue facts. A public debate about the swastika and Aryan master race myth would be a good start that Hindu Human Rights fully supports. Indeed part of our work is to educate and stop the continuing abuse of Hindu symbols and traditions which go on to this day. Hopefully this continuing effort may stop the Nazis of the future.
Despite our campaign last year against the use of images of Hindu deities on underwear garments, it has come to our attention that once again another company here in the West is producing and marketing similar products which are both degrading and offensive to Hindus. 'CafePress.com' has chosen to use sacred Om symbol and that of Lord Shiva, venerated by millions of Hindus the world over, to sell its sensuous garments. This is in spite of our well known campaign to highlight how such trivialisation of Hinduism leads directly and indirectly to the abuse of Hindus the world over. Such ignorance leads us to believe that this same organisation is probably both indifferent and apathetic to the immense suffering of Hindus: the ethnic cleansing they have suffered in Pakistan, Kashmir and Bangladesh, and the discrimination they suffer at the hands of Cafe Press' very own fellow Americans. Indeed sometimes Western firms seem totally devoid of all understanding when it comes to the oldest civilisation on the planet.
For this reason we ask Cafe Press to respectfully withdraw the offending products and issue an immediate apology.
HHR also requests all Hindus to contact Cafe Press to make their feelings known on this subject.
<b>HHR membershipof Hindu Charter Taskforce-Notice of Resignation </b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Namaskar brothers and sisters,
It is with regret that on behalf of Hindu Human Rights I withdraw from the Hindu Charter Taskforce.
Although HHR unreservedly supports the idea of the Hindu Charter itself as long overdue, we have grown concerned at the increasing influence of the organization ISKCON within the the Hindu Charter Taskforce itself.
We have at least four out of the eight members of the Task Force with authoritative/overt/covert links with ISKCON.We have two out the five meetings already scheduled being held at the ISKCONÂ British headquarters of BhaktiVedanta Manor in Hertfordshire- the latest will be held at 8 in the morning of Friday February 11th.
The timing and setting of this planning meeting of the Charter Task Force will have the effect of excluding those who do not live in or close to the Manor itself. The tiiming and setting of this meeting where the content of the Charter will be finalised will have limited input from those who unable to be fully present . In fact already the Balaji temple have only been able to attend one of the meetings so far,whilst the Hindu Council UK have only attended two.
If we look at the pedigee of ISKCON we note that they specifically and openly do not identify themselves as Hindu or with the Hindu cause (see links attached).We wonder, therefore as to what might be ISKCON"s gain in being so intimately involved in the making and dissemination of this Hindu Charter.
We know that many rank and file Hindus are increasingly growing aware of the stance of ISKCON vis-a-vis Hinduism and are also dissatisfied at the ISKCON seduction of their children away from Hinduism itself.
We at Hindu Human Rights call upon the VISHWA HINDU PARISHAD(amongst whose most Senior members are those who apparently support the ideology of ISKCON and to them we most specifically request they read the links attached) to take preemptive action to circumvent the Hindu Charter becoming a vehicle for ISKCON Agenda so that all the plurality of mainstream British Hindus are afforded a genuine voice in Britsh national life which is so desperately needed.
HHR will continue to work at the grass roots level breaking new ground,creating a relevant vision for the mainstream Hindu community and not as Mr xxx yyy [snip]
Time now, once and for all, to debunk Islam religion of peace crap! Oh! now it is the few misguided muslims (religious police) who are distorting Islam? Islam is for equality for all..! Cut the crap!
******************
Religious police destroy temple
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (Agence France-Presse) -- Saudi religious police have destroyed a clandestine makeshift Hindu temple in an old district of Riyadh and deported three worshippers found there, a newspaper reported yesterday.
Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or religious police, on Thursday stumbled across a room converted into a temple while raiding a number of apartments suspected of being used to manufacture alcohol and distribute pornographic videos, pan-Arab Al-Hayat said.
The State Department sent the report to Congress on Sept. 15. Under the International Religious Freedom Act, Congress could impose sanctions on the countries on the list if no remedial action is taken by them within six months. On March 15, the State Department asked Congress to extend the deadline for action on Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Eritrea, saying the administration was close to reaching agreements that would improve the state of religious freedom in the three countries.
ALL! Please help spread this message to global media, Indian commies, Hindu-hating Indian bastards (the anti-Modi scums), GOI, GOTUS and others???
Can we expect OUR Indian MUSLIM brothers and sisters to protect the religious rights of thier HINDU brothers and sisters to worship freely in Saudi Arabia?
What about CAIR, Kawaja, Anganas, Roys, Bijus etc. rallying against Islamic fascists in KSA?
I am writing letters to the President Bush, Condeeleza Rice, Dr. MM Sigh, and (thanks to Angana' pointers) to the people she claims she wrote to bear upon to ban Modi's visit to the USA.
Each member MUST do their best to write and create a BIG STINK
03-27-2005, 08:05 PM (This post was last modified: 03-27-2005, 08:06 PM by SSridhar.)
<b>Reggie</b>,
The GOTUS and POTUS have always known how intolerant Islam is, especially the Wahabbi salafist variety practised in Saudi Arabia. Even Western Christians have been deported (in one well-publicised case, the "accused" was tonsured and shackled before being put on board a plane). One "excuse" that fundamentalist Islamists there have always offered is that The Prophet (PBUH) had said on his death-bed that there should not be two religions in that land and hence the entire Saudi Arabia is one holy place where nobody can practise any other religion !
I remember one US report which said that there was enough religious freedom within KSA as people are allowed to pray to their own God within their houses !! And then, the US report went ahead to "indict" India on its religious intolerance. Serious, I am not joking.
The biggest threat to the world is not KSA, not TSP, not Islam. It is the USA.
Recent reports indicate that suicide rate in Kerala is the highest in Asia. Out of the total suicide, 96 % was from Hindu families. Suicide of Hindus in Kerala is one of the most disturbing phenomenon on the indian scene. It is a dangerous scene.
Hindu families in kerala are under ruthless attack. The attack comes from several foes-the atheist communists, Muslim muscle men, and the Christian loan sharks. In the face of this many pronged assault on Hindu families-is there any hope for the future? It is not too late to save hindu family from its enemies, but we must act now.
Hindus are being fed a confusing hodge-podge of advise from different sources: pseudo secularists, atheist communists, missionaries, christian, muslim media pundits and westernized anti-national professionals. Hindus are constantly bombarded with discarded, failed ideology and destructive material value system deliberately designed to destroy Hindu institutions and the traditional social structure. They deliberately seek to destroy Hindu spiritual life style and supplant with dangerous, imported faddism. The so called pseudo secular, westernized media pundits, anti-national social activists, the leftist intellectual movers and shakers are bent on destroying Hindu families and their social support system.
There is a far more sinister threat to the Hindu family, however. The threat emanates from those who are out to destroy Hindu institutions because they want to destroy India, or at least the Hindu way of life. Why would they attack Hindu way of life? Simply because all that India has become-full of creativity, variety, and uniqueness-owes itself to the foundational influence of our Hindu way of life. Hindu family system has proved itself the most effective economic institution the world has ever known. Hindu family is the back bone of India. By weakening and destabilizing Hindu family life, these enemies of the the home hope to make Kerala easy prey for their efforts at thought control. A nation is hard to brainwash when most of its people are from stable families that have imparted to them a sense of strong values, and a variety of wholesome attitudes on every facet of life. Our enemies would much prefer to work with the insecure, emotionally disturbed, poorly motivated products of a weak and unstable Hindu family. Unwholesome family life also creates economic dependency that Christian-Muslim loan sharks are only too eager to exploit.
The collectivists goal, of course, is to make as many people as possible dependent on Christian-Muslim economic institutions. When people are at the mercy of loan sharks, they tend to be subservient to them. The depressed, the despondent and the alienated individuals commit suicide as a way of escape from the predicament. Other gullible Hindus fall prey for the conversion gangs. Some of the forces that encourage suicide may be due to the predictable results of western materialism. This imported western values destroy the foundations of the Hindu family as well as creating confused, alienated, depressed individuals.
I urge Hindu friends to remember two things. First, the enemies of the Hindu family are lying when they claim to have won the war in Kerala. There are millions of decent Hindus in Kerala, who are upholding the traditional Hindu values throughout Kerala. There is a Hindu resurgence and unity movement in Kerala. If every Hindu family in Kerala unite and commit themselves to battle, then depressed, alienated Hindus can be saved from suicide.
Second, the glaring truth is that we must act now because we cannot act any sooner. It's pointless to debate whether enough time remains for doing all that must be done. we must use whatever time remains because that's all the time we have (within the next 15 years Hindus will become a minority in kerala). Hindus must stand strong and united against the attackers. Our children will not hold us blameless if we sit with hands folded, enjoying our temporary comforts while the forces of darkness destroy our family, our freedom, our sacred Hindu tradition and our children's future.
<b>THE STATUS OF HINDU HUMAN RIGHTS IN BANGLADESH, PAKISTAN, AND INDIAâS STATE OF JAMMU & KASHMIR â 2004</b>
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The human rights of Hindu citizens are consistently violated in three regions where Hindus constitute a minority: Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Jammu & Kashmir.
<b>PEOPLEâS REPUBLIC OF BANGLADESH</b>
· Over 400 documented attacks have taken place on Bangladeshi Hindus between January and November 2004.
· These attacks include the day to day acts of murder, rape, kidnapping, temple destruction, and physical intimidation.
· Hindus are labelled as âenemiesâ of Bangladesh. The Enemy Property Order II of 1965, under which property belonging to Hindus was identified as enemy property, was renamed the Vested Property Act in 1972. Under it the Government of Bangladesh vested itself with alleged enemy properties. Still in force, this Order of the President and the Enemy \ Vested Property Act has not been subjected to any judicial review.
· Hindus, who comprised nearly 30% of Bangladeshâs population in 1947, now constitute less than 10% of the population.
· By 1991, 20 million Hindus were unaccounted or âmissingâ according to expected population trends.
<b>ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF PAKISTAN</b>
· Hindus, who constituted between 15% and 24% of Pakistanâs population in 1947, now comprise less than 1.6% of the population.
· Nearly 2 million people, many of them Hindus, are held as slaves in âbonded laborâ in southern Pakistan.
· Kidnapping of vulnerable Hindus is a well-established multi-million dollar industry.
· Pakistan officially discriminates against non-Muslims through a variety of laws and strictures. Discriminatory laws include the âanti-blasphemy lawâ under which anyone who is accused of criticizing the Prophet Muhammad is imprisoned without trial for long periods of time, and mandatory religious identification in passports. Specific discriminatory laws are the Hudood Ordinance of 1979 (offence of Zina, offence of Qazaf, execution of punishment of whipping ordinance), the Qanoon-i-Shahadat Order of 1984 and Qisas & Diyat Ordinance (Section 306 C) of 1991.
<b> INDIAâS JAMMU & KASHMIR STATE</b>
· Over 300,000 Kashmiri Hindus have been forced to leave due to ethnic cleansing abetted by Kashmiri Muslims & Pakistan.
· These 300,000 Hindus are refugees in their own country, sheltered in temporary camps near New Delhi and elsewhere in India.
· More than 3,000 Hindu civilians have been killed, and thousands more Hindu police and army personnel have succumbed to terrorist violence.
· There are virtually no Hindus left in the Kashmir Valley; they have all been driven out.
<b>CONCLUSION</b>
· Of these regions, Bangladesh represents an ongoing crisis for Hindus and is of utmost and immediate concern.
· Human rights violations against Hindus are repeatedly ignored by human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and government commissions like the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom as they routinely fail to specifically highlight the plight of Hindus in regions where they comprise a minority.
· Minority and human rights commissions in these regions must be created and/or empowered to pressure the governments of these countries to provide security and uphold the rights of minority Hindus.
· The international community must compel the governments of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India to respect the human rights of Hindus as an urgent priority. www.hinduamericanfoundation.org
Hi,
I got the following by mail. Can someone please forward it to the appropriate organizations like "American Hindus against Defamation" etc to call up the breweries and protest against the depiction of Lord Ganesha?
I am beginning to think that injuns need to come out with jesus condoms and mohammed sanitary napkins. That will teach these b@stards. <!--emo&<_<--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dry.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='dry.gif' /><!--endemo-->
One of the replies received from the above mentioned company:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Please accept our humble apologies for any and all offensive behavior
we have towards Lord Ganesha in misuse of the art in question.
Secondly I would like to state that myself, the company that I
represent and all American people in general would never intentionally
promote such a behavior that would degrade your god or any god such as
Ganesha. This was not intentional and is only a byproduct of a simple
marketing campaign from a very small company and was not meant to bring
about any harm.
Please understand that your belief that we might be "using this as a
tactic to promote its own hidden agenda!!" is far from the truth. We
have no hidden agenda against you, your religious belief or the Hindu
community at large. We are peace loving people and wish for forgiveness
by you, the Hindu community and Ganesha. In return the product will
succumb to eventual removal from distribution. However this will take
time, but we are working on it.
Thank you for reaching out to us and letting your voice be heard. We
mean no wrong, please understand this.
Regards,
Briar Bush
General Manager
Lost Coast Brewery www.LostCoast.com
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Please do not be rude or insulting if you do decide to mail/call to register your protest.
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='rolleyes.gif' /><!--endemo-->