11-22-2005, 01:31 PM
Some lessons from history
A myth that should definitely bite the dust is that Indians did not venture out of the confines of the sub continent in search of new lands and or trade.
Anther myth that has somehow taken root is that Indans were never great evangelizers. Au contraire, the ancient Indics spread their way of life
with a great deal of zeal and gusto to the four corners of Asia and even to the Roman empire in the form of Mithraism (Alexandre Dumas refers to the cult of Mithra in the mediterannean in his novel the Count of Monte Cristo. Dumas of course lived in the early nineteenth century.
While the demographic onslaught of Islam today cannot be stopped,what can be resuscitated is the evangelical fervor with which the Kanishkas , the Satavahanas (to Khamboj and essentially founding the kingdom of Angkor))andthe Cholas (to Java and Sumatra and the Sri Vijaya kingdom) spread Hinduism (or the Dhaarmic way of life). Since GOI has officially abandoned all pretense to be the defender of the Indic civlization, there is no reason why private parties should not mobilize resources for such purposes. The Americas are especially rife with such opportunities. Even if one does not actively evangelize,for heavens sake please do not be apologetic about who you are ,a la 'I am a Hindu but....'
Indonesia essentially became Muslim due to the efforts of Muslim traders from Gujarat in 1400 ce by which time the arab khilafat had come to an end, thanks to the depredations of Hulagu who had made Damascus a ghost city. The Maghreb (the west)fell into decline also culminating in the reconquista of spain by Isabel and Ferdinand.
But it was in India and the rest of SE Asia that Islam began its slow ascent into eventual domination.
For some reason, perhaps explainable by psychologists and due partially to not being associated with a single prophet, the Dharma came to be associated with Pagan worship and hence became less acceptable in the eyesof the West than Islam which had the 'virtue' of being a prophetic religion at least in the eyes of the Church hierarchy. Today it remains a matter of being opportunistic and being the most vulnerable to conversion, especially with a Government in power which bends over backward to be overly hospitable to such activites.
A myth that should definitely bite the dust is that Indians did not venture out of the confines of the sub continent in search of new lands and or trade.
Anther myth that has somehow taken root is that Indans were never great evangelizers. Au contraire, the ancient Indics spread their way of life
with a great deal of zeal and gusto to the four corners of Asia and even to the Roman empire in the form of Mithraism (Alexandre Dumas refers to the cult of Mithra in the mediterannean in his novel the Count of Monte Cristo. Dumas of course lived in the early nineteenth century.
While the demographic onslaught of Islam today cannot be stopped,what can be resuscitated is the evangelical fervor with which the Kanishkas , the Satavahanas (to Khamboj and essentially founding the kingdom of Angkor))andthe Cholas (to Java and Sumatra and the Sri Vijaya kingdom) spread Hinduism (or the Dhaarmic way of life). Since GOI has officially abandoned all pretense to be the defender of the Indic civlization, there is no reason why private parties should not mobilize resources for such purposes. The Americas are especially rife with such opportunities. Even if one does not actively evangelize,for heavens sake please do not be apologetic about who you are ,a la 'I am a Hindu but....'
Indonesia essentially became Muslim due to the efforts of Muslim traders from Gujarat in 1400 ce by which time the arab khilafat had come to an end, thanks to the depredations of Hulagu who had made Damascus a ghost city. The Maghreb (the west)fell into decline also culminating in the reconquista of spain by Isabel and Ferdinand.
But it was in India and the rest of SE Asia that Islam began its slow ascent into eventual domination.
For some reason, perhaps explainable by psychologists and due partially to not being associated with a single prophet, the Dharma came to be associated with Pagan worship and hence became less acceptable in the eyesof the West than Islam which had the 'virtue' of being a prophetic religion at least in the eyes of the Church hierarchy. Today it remains a matter of being opportunistic and being the most vulnerable to conversion, especially with a Government in power which bends over backward to be overly hospitable to such activites.