04-13-2006, 06:33 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->SECONDOPINION - <b>Crescent & the Cross </b>
 SURYA NARAIN SAXENA
I n response to Ms Sandhya Jainâs article, âConversion not a personal matterâ (April 4), Mr Priyadarsi Dutta has in his letter âBefuddling worldviewâ (April 7) gone overboard. Interestingly, he argues as if the printing press were invented by Jesus Christ and journalism had its origin in Bible! The authorâs use of the two is incongruous. One need not remind him the relation of Urdu language with Islam and, though a beautiful language, what divisive role it played in aggravating Muslim communalism and in the creation of Pakistan.
It is recalled that Munshi Premchand used to write in Urdu initially; only later did he switch to Hindi. Should we ostracise Firaq Gorakhpuri (Raghupati Sahay), GC Narang, Jagannath Azad, Brij Narain Chakbast or Ram Prasad âBismilâ and other countless Hindus, who wrote and enriched Urdu, only because they embraced a language that appears alien to the uninitiated?
Who can forget Pratap and Milap, two Urdu dailies from Lahore and Tej of Delhi, founded by no less a person than Hindu martyr Swami Shraddhananda (who also founded Gurukul Kangri)? Almost the entire Hindu consciousness in north India, even before and after the advent of Swami Dayananda and Arya Samaj, got vent through Urdu publications. Urdu was the most powerful vehicle of propagation of thoughts in those days. Would one attribute these great menâs adoption of Urdu for their literary works to their vested interest in Islam?
A majority of Hindus find no difference between the two monotheistic religions because their tenets, the treatment they mete out to believers of other faiths, their history and their means of expansion â invasion and conversion â and their imperialist deeds and designs are similar and concentric.
Atrocities on Hindus by Mahmud Ghaznavi, Mohammad Ghauri, Babar, Aurangzeb and their ilk are too well known to merit a repeat here. <b>However, the history of the Church is as much soaked in blood. An excerpt from the oath administered to Christian missionaries reveals the character of Christianity: âThat I will spare neither age, sex nor condition and I will hang waste boil, flay, strangle and bury alive these infamous heretics (non-Christians), rip up the wombs of their women and crush their heads against walls in order to annihilate forever their execrable ranch...â Islam and Christianity both divide humanity into two: Muslims and kafirs (infidels) and Christians and heathens. Also, elimination of people of other faiths is incumbent on Muslims for establishing the kingdom of Allah as it is on Christians to establish the kingdom of God.</b>
But why go that far? The Pioneer (March 25) exposé by Mr Kanchan Gupta of a hate-Hindu book, Haqeeqat throws enough light. The book is completely outrageous. Mr Duttaâs premise about user-innovator/inventor relationship is that the former owes total loyalty to the latter and has no liberty of conscience of his/her own. That way, the 1857 mutineers were the worst offenders who used British made guns and bullets to throw their masters out, without success though. As for Hindus, we have harmonious relationship with the governments of all Christian countries. However, what irks us is the omnipotence of crooked evangelists, who are intoxicated to view all non-Christians as the children of Satan.
Should we allow the evangelists to reap a rich harvest of over 70 crore Dalit, backward, poor and ignorant Hindus or allow our Northeast to get totally Christianised and let it secede like East Timor from Indonesia?
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 SURYA NARAIN SAXENA
I n response to Ms Sandhya Jainâs article, âConversion not a personal matterâ (April 4), Mr Priyadarsi Dutta has in his letter âBefuddling worldviewâ (April 7) gone overboard. Interestingly, he argues as if the printing press were invented by Jesus Christ and journalism had its origin in Bible! The authorâs use of the two is incongruous. One need not remind him the relation of Urdu language with Islam and, though a beautiful language, what divisive role it played in aggravating Muslim communalism and in the creation of Pakistan.
It is recalled that Munshi Premchand used to write in Urdu initially; only later did he switch to Hindi. Should we ostracise Firaq Gorakhpuri (Raghupati Sahay), GC Narang, Jagannath Azad, Brij Narain Chakbast or Ram Prasad âBismilâ and other countless Hindus, who wrote and enriched Urdu, only because they embraced a language that appears alien to the uninitiated?
Who can forget Pratap and Milap, two Urdu dailies from Lahore and Tej of Delhi, founded by no less a person than Hindu martyr Swami Shraddhananda (who also founded Gurukul Kangri)? Almost the entire Hindu consciousness in north India, even before and after the advent of Swami Dayananda and Arya Samaj, got vent through Urdu publications. Urdu was the most powerful vehicle of propagation of thoughts in those days. Would one attribute these great menâs adoption of Urdu for their literary works to their vested interest in Islam?
A majority of Hindus find no difference between the two monotheistic religions because their tenets, the treatment they mete out to believers of other faiths, their history and their means of expansion â invasion and conversion â and their imperialist deeds and designs are similar and concentric.
Atrocities on Hindus by Mahmud Ghaznavi, Mohammad Ghauri, Babar, Aurangzeb and their ilk are too well known to merit a repeat here. <b>However, the history of the Church is as much soaked in blood. An excerpt from the oath administered to Christian missionaries reveals the character of Christianity: âThat I will spare neither age, sex nor condition and I will hang waste boil, flay, strangle and bury alive these infamous heretics (non-Christians), rip up the wombs of their women and crush their heads against walls in order to annihilate forever their execrable ranch...â Islam and Christianity both divide humanity into two: Muslims and kafirs (infidels) and Christians and heathens. Also, elimination of people of other faiths is incumbent on Muslims for establishing the kingdom of Allah as it is on Christians to establish the kingdom of God.</b>
But why go that far? The Pioneer (March 25) exposé by Mr Kanchan Gupta of a hate-Hindu book, Haqeeqat throws enough light. The book is completely outrageous. Mr Duttaâs premise about user-innovator/inventor relationship is that the former owes total loyalty to the latter and has no liberty of conscience of his/her own. That way, the 1857 mutineers were the worst offenders who used British made guns and bullets to throw their masters out, without success though. As for Hindus, we have harmonious relationship with the governments of all Christian countries. However, what irks us is the omnipotence of crooked evangelists, who are intoxicated to view all non-Christians as the children of Satan.
Should we allow the evangelists to reap a rich harvest of over 70 crore Dalit, backward, poor and ignorant Hindus or allow our Northeast to get totally Christianised and let it secede like East Timor from Indonesia?
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