Opening a thread to discuss ideas on selling or spreading Indian culture.
Per Mudy's advice in the 'Indian Movies' thread - will be donating my Hindi movies with English subtitles to local library. :guitar
I'm all for +ve psy ops.
I'd like others to contribute their experience/ideas in this area. Hopefully this thread will be kind of an 'action' thread than just plain old :argue yak-yak thread.
I am planning to bring books from India on Ramayana, Mahabharata, Upnishad, Panctantra for adults and Kid version (Amar Chitra Katha) and will try to donate to local library and Hindu Temple.
Malguri Days complete volume is excellent for Library.
I have donated couple of books to local library previously.
They have some books but local library collection is pretty bad on India.
___________
Try to visit used books store here in US or UK, One can get great books on India, which are very difficult to find even in India.
Now a days it is my hobby to visit these shops and recently bought couple of books on War fare, Hindu mythlogy, Shastra, Upnishad, India during British period.
Mudy, good idea. My local library is about to move into a brand new building and so they are looking to add to their collection. Anybody have any good suggestions? I would like to give the librarian a list of 10-20 books. Thanks.
For library donation-
Indian Philosophy by Sarvepalli Radhakrishan and Charles A. Moore - excellent book.
[url="http://www.indian-express.com/full_story.php?content_id=33835"]http://www.indian-express.com/full_story.p...ontent_id=33835[/url]
Tourism hubs to pop up along 800-km long `riverbed'
VRINDA GOPINATH
NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 20: The mythical Saraswati is yet to be traced
but Union Minister for Tourism and Culture Jagmohan has already
announced an ambitious Rs 5-crore Saraswati Heritage Project, which
aims to develop the ``Saraswati river belt'' as a ``cultural-
tourist'' hub with 15 circles or centres.
Earlier this year, the minister had sanctioned Rs 8 crore to the
Archaeological Society of India (ASI) to search for the river, which
is believed to have run dry a million years ago. Now he seems to
have zeroed in on a 800-km belt, stretching from Adi Badri in
Haryana (the source of the river, says the ASI) to Dholavira in
Gujarat.
The 15 hubs â located in far-flung archaeological sites like Kapal
Mochan and Kaithal in Haryana to Baror and Juni Kuran in Rajasthan,
and Narayan Sarovar in Gujarat â will showcase important discoveries
made by the ASI in their Saraswati excavations over the past few
months.
``The ASI and other organisations have been excavating almost 1,500
sites along the banks of the Saraswati and have made some exciting
discoveries of mounds and artefacts,'' says Jagmohan. ``The 15 hubs
along the riverbed will be developed as a destination for both
tourism and research and will have a green belt for picnics, a
documentation centre and a museum.''
The hubs will also have pavilions exhibiting models of the Saraswati
basin in its cultural and topographical perspectives, and
dormitories for scholars and tourists, all of which will be set in
verdant gardens, with pools of water symbolising the river.
The Saraswati Heritage Project is part of Jagmohan's vision for
tourism in India. A year ago, he initiated `Regeneration India', a
Rs 300-crore project to boost ``cultural and spiritual tourism'',
which will largely tap the growing domestic market.
The focus is on ``synthesis of the spiritual and aesthetic'' for
development of mind and body, says Jagmohan, rather than focusing
on ``material possessions, rest and recreation alone''.
He has just completed the development of the Kurukshetra hub, where
the epic battle of the Mahabharata is said to have been fought.
Says the minister: ``Last year alone, domestic traffic increased by
three crore. I have multiple objectives â to bring to life
culturally significant monuments, towns and sacred spots, improve
the surrounding area and infuse keen civic sense to make it a
pleasant experience. I also want to encourage visitors to come in
contact with the profound minds which created all these wonders.''
The Saraswati river project, however, has always raised a storm
among archaeologists. It is seen as a flagrant attempt by RSS-
inspired theorists to liken the Harappan civilisation with the Vedic
era (the Saraswati has been described gloriously in the Rig Veda) as
one and the same. It, therefore, seeks to establish the
indigenousness of Hinduism vis-a-vis Islam and Christianity and
opposes the Aryan invasion theory. But Jagmohan is indifferent to
accusations of ``Sanskritisation'' and ``Hinduisation'' of culture.
He is charging ahead with his pet projects with at least 50
new ``cultural'' destinations ready to be developed, from Hardwar-
Gangotri in Uttaranchal to Pandharpur in Maharashtra, and from
Ayodhya in UP to Hampi in Karnataka.
``If St Peter's in the Vatican can attract so many million visitors,
why can't we develop our cultural centres and introduce the new
generation to the profundity of ancient India?'' he asks.
Among other things, the new sites will have parkways, sound and
light shows, shopping plazas, restrooms, trauma centres, medical
kiosks, restaurants, helipads, airports and hotels.
Vijay, I have posted a number of books in the Book folder thread, most of them worth acquiring, especially the ones by KS Lall which can be read in one afternoon . Among British authors, the one by Elliot and Dowson (History of India as told by its own historians) is is good, but it is dry and not very readable (it is a literal translation from the Persian originals)
Orthodox Russians see red over plans for 'Hindu Vatican' in Moscow
Nick Paton Walsh
Wednesday October 22, 2003
The Guardian
Alfred Ford, a great-grandson of the motoring legend, Henry, has outraged the
conservative Russian Orthodox Church with his plans to build a huge centre for
Hare Krishna and Vedic religion worshippers in the centre of Moscow.
The Orthodox Church, whose influence in Russia is rocketing since the fall of
Communism eased religious worship, is furious at the prospect that a building
big enough to hold 8,000 Hindu worshippers would be built, a few miles from Red
Square. The first stone was supposed to be laid in November when the Indian
prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, visits Moscow. However, that ceremony is
in doubt because of the outcry over the centre.
Prominent Russian Orthodox figures have called the church "open religious
expansion".
Valentin Lebedev, head of the Union of Orthodox Citizens of Russia, said: "We
know that in India, Christianity is persecuted.
"According to the teaching of the Orthodox Church, Hinduism is considered one of
the most anti-Christian cults and we do not understand why such an enormous
church and cultural centre is necessary in Moscow."
He said the Vedic religion already had one centre in Moscow and that was enough.
Yesterday the union wrote to the Moscow mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, demanding that
plans for the centre be scrapped. Mr Lebedev launched a personal attack on the
centre's financier, Mr Ford, who is expected to spend about $10m (£6m) on the
domed structure, which would be the largest of its kind in Europe and has
already been nick-named by some the "Hindu Vatican".
Father Mikhail Dudko, secretary of the Commission for Church and Society for the
Orthodox Church, said the church did not react to "declarations of intent". But
he added that the union's position would closely resemble that of the public,
and that the church "always takes into account the positions of the public".
The head of the executive committee of the Krishna Consciousness of Russia,
Sergei Zuyev, said Mr Ford had lobbied for the project with Moscow government
officials. "He told us that he would like to support the building of such a
cultural centre in Moscow." Yet Mr Zuyev said as soon as Mr Ford had made his
intentions known, "the Orthodox groups made a fuss".
He added: "The Orthodox Church, from our point of view, is one of the most
totalitarian sects in the world which in Russia disguises itself as a state
religion.
"It is the source of intolerance and mixing the Orthodox belief with nationalism
is a really explosive and dangerous mixture."
Vedic believers say they are 90,000 strong in Russia.
Mr Ford, during a visit to Moscow last week, said: "For me the most important
thing is to spread the Hindu knowledge about the soul. This is more important
than any other knowledge and is my main priority".
I am not sure if it goes in here, admins feel free to suitable thread. Tx.
---
[url="http://www.telegraphindia.com/1031022/asp/nation/story_2486849.asp"]http://www.telegraphindia.com/1031022/asp/...ory_2486849.asp[/url]
Piracy shield for Ayurveda
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, Oct. 21: A database of 36,000 traditional medicine
formulations gleaned and translated from ancient Ayurvedic texts has
emerged as India's newest tool to fight biopiracy and unfair
international patents.
The government-funded database of formulations based on medicinal
plants and herbs used in India for centuries will be made available
to patents authorities in the US, Europe, Japan and elsewhere to flag
India's traditional knowledge, a scientist associated with the
project said.
The database is intended to prevent international patents offices
from honouring unfair claims such as the patent on turmeric as a
wound healing agent issued by the US patents office to US-based
scientists in the mid-1990s.
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) had
successfully got the US patent on turmeric revoked, but there are
concerns that the world is still largely unaware of the rich
reservoir of traditional plant-based medicinal formulations that have
been known and used in India for centuries.
Medicinal formulations in Ayurvedic texts cannot be patented because
a patent is valid only if an invention is not in the public domain.
A team of 30 Ayurveda experts, two patent examiners and scientists at
the CSIR's National Institute of Science Communication and
Information Resources in New Delhi have completed 36,000 entries in
the traditional knowledge database.
The first phase of the database project involved documenting
information on Ayurveda in a digitised format in English, German,
French, Spanish and Japanese.
CSIR director-general Raghunath Mashelkar said researchers around the
world will be able to use this library.
International patent examiners had until now no source to fall back
on when considering the patentability of any claimed invention
dealing with traditional knowledge because the literature related to
traditional knowledge remained hidden in diverse sources.
Although India could get the patent on turmeric revoked, the legal
battle to get a patent re-examined is expensive and can be time-
consuming.
The knowledge database would provide an easily accessible and
retrievable source of knowledge for patent examiners to verify
claims. It could act as a bridge between traditional knowledge and
modern science, a CSIR scientist said.
When you tire of India, you tire of life [url="http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/nov/04inter.htm"]http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/nov/04inter.htm[/url]
Quote:Over 27 years ago, when Tony Wheeler, one of the book's founders, sat in a movie hall watching Mad Dogs & Englishmen, he picked the name from their song Space Captain that featured in the film.
One of the world's best-loved travel books, Lonely Planet's first-ever guidebook was on Nepal. The first edition of the India book came out in 1981. Nearly 24 years later, the book is in its 10th edition and has a picture of India's most enduring icon -- the Taj Mahal on its cover.
Wheeler says of all the guides from the Lonely Planet stable, he is most proud of the book on India. For him India isn't a simple love affair; it's "passionate, difficult, nerve-wracking," but worth the effort.
In an emailed interview with Senior Associate Editor Archana Masih, India admirer Wheeler said the greatest attraction in the country was not some building or shrine or a tourist spot, but life. Simply put, the different facets of Indian life.
How did the guidebook come to be named 'Lonely Planet'? Whose idea was it?
We needed a name, we'd been to a movie called Mad Dogs & Englishmen, the '60s rock & roll band on the road affair with Joe Cocker and Leon Russell. And the name came out of a song in that film -- Space Captain -- except the line 'once while travelling across the sky this lonely planet caught my eye' was actually 'lovely planet.'
So the name was a mistake. I never get the words of songs right.
You say the Lonely Planet guidebook that you are most proud of is the one on India. Why this special fondness for Lonely Planet India?
When we did the first Lonely Planet India guide, Lonely Planet was still a very small company, less than 10 people. It was a big risk, betting the whole show on one roll of the dice.
Researching it and putting it together was, for an operation as small as Lonely Planet was at the time, was a huge thing, enormously time consuming and as it rolled along it simply got bigger and bigger.
But all the time we were very aware that we were producing something very special. I was very proud of the book when it was finished and I think our India guide has always been a critical and a popular success, which is a two-way combination you can't beat.
What do you find most fascinating about India?
India is like that old line about London, when you tire of it you tire of life. For most of us India isn't a simple love affair, it's a passionate, difficult, nerve-wracking thing, but worth the effort.
How much travel have you done in India? Apart from research for the book, how much have travelled as a tourist?
Looking back now it doesn't seem like I've spent a lot of time in India at all. Less than a year in total I guess. Mainly because I haven't continued working on the book year in, year out. I worked on that first edition, I was heavily involved in the third and then I came back and did a smaller part of -- it might have been the 5th or 6th -- and now we're up to the 10th.
As a tourist? Well nearly all my trips can be defined as research in some way or other. I don't think I've ever been to India purely as a tourist, although I may well one day. My last two trips to India have been working on non-guidebook projects -- the Chasing Rickshaws photographic book I did with photographer Richard I'Anson and then, with the same photographer, a book we've just finished which will be titled Rice Trails.
It's the story of rice in the region. We travelled around Punjab and Uttar Pradesh looking at rice!
If there was one thing you had to warn travellers to India about, what would that be?
Their preconceptions. Nothing is going to work out the way you expected, nothing is going to be like you think it will be. Go with the flow and it will be fine.
Is there some thing you would never want a tourist to miss seeing/doing in India?
The life, not some building/temple/tourist attraction. Although I guess if I had to pick out a 'tourist attraction' it would probably be Rajasthan -- the colour, life, energy. Or perhaps Tamil Nadu -- colour, life, energy!
The Taj Mahal remains the focus of attraction most tourists to India -- it is also on the cover of your latest book -- what are the other must see sites in India?
Book covers are almost always clichés, something which you take one glance at and say, 'oh yeah, that's India (or wherever)'
Other must sees? Well⦠Khajuraho, Varanasi, various places in Rajasthan, Konarak, I could go on.
In your assessment, what is it about the Taj that captivates tourists?
It's the number one India icon, like the Opera House for Australia, the Statue of Liberty for the USA, the Eiffel Tower for France. Which doesn't necessarily make it more than that, an icon.
There's a lot more to India than that.
What is the worst experience you have had in India so far?
So far? You mean there's worse to come. Actually the worst experience I had in India took place in London.
I was in our office in London when a call came through that one of our writers was in hospital in Srinagar after her driver ran head on into an oncoming truck. He killed himself and left her in hospital nearly dead as well. She survived, miraculously, but I don't ever want to go through that sort of thing again.
What are your best memories of India?
Not any specific sight or icon like the Taj Mahal. My best memories are train platforms late in the evening, waiting for a train to go somewhere far away. Arriving some place early in the morning in the run up to the monsoon and having that wonderful cool interlude before the heat builds up.
What are the worth seeing places in India that have been ignored by travellers and haven't got their due?
Where to start, India is so big and (comparatively) the number of international visitors are so small that most places barely scratch the surface. Gujarat hardly gets touched. I reckon a lot of central India doesn't get many visitors. It's a shame Kashmir has been off the itinerary for so long but the whole of the North-East has never been on the itinerary.
In terms of infrastructure etc, what is it that India needs to work upon to rank among the best tourist destinations in the world?
Let's face it, India is hard work. For a start, half the flights seem to arrive in the middle of the night, things often seem to be chaotic (sometimes they really are chaotic), sometimes things don't work as well as they should (the longest I have ever spent between stepping out of the aircraft, getting my baggage and getting through immigration was in Chennai). But hey, that's what makes it so interesting.
Has excessive tourist traffic damaged any popular destination in India? Say, like Goa, Delhi, Jaipur...
Never ever say 'I was there when it was still really good/untouched/undamaged by excess tourist traffic.' Although I was there before all that happened to Goa.
No, seriously, too much is not good for anywhere but if everybody goes to Goa that means there aren't so many people somewhere else. And Delhi's overcrowding certainly isn't a tourist problem, Delhi would be just as chaotic if there's wasn't a single tourist in town. Don't know about Jaipur, a while since I've been there.
What is it that Lonely Planet has that other guide books don't?
All we do is travel. We're not part of some larger organisation where guidebooks are just part of the whole show. With us it's travel or nothing.
How different was the first edition of Lonely Planet India from the 10th edition? What additional elements does the 10th edition have?
Well, it's much more carefully researched, edited, produced, the maps are far more accurate, there's far more information in it. But the spirit is the same.
How long did you spend researching the book on India? How many copies of the book on India have been sold so far?
That first edition had three writers -- Geoff Crowther, Prakash Raj and myself -- and we each spent about 4 months in India, so 12 months of travel research. India is well past 1 million copies now.
Why do you think Lonely Planet India remains a best-seller? Which are the other best-sellers?
At first our best-seller was South-East Asia on a Shoestring. Then India for a long while. Then Thailand for a short spell. Then Australia-India-Thailand-Australia again. Just recently and for a very short period we actually sold more New Zealand than anything else, some The Lord of the Rings spill over. In Europe our biggest seller is Italy.
Posted By krishna :
" August 16th, 2018 is India Day. The Day when all of India's enemies would be either eliminated or their ability to harm India would be destroyed. "
Krishna, just out of curiosity, why AUG 16th, 2018?
Thanks
Murali
[url="http://pib.nic.in/archieve/lreleng/lyr2003/rnov2003/11112003/r1111200311.html"]http://pib.nic.in/archieve/lreleng/lyr2003...1111200311.html[/url]
VEDIC CHANTING DECLARED INTANGIBLE HERITAGE OF HUMANITY BY UNESCO
The oral tradition of vedic chanting has been declared intangible heritage
of humanity by UNESCO. In a meeting of jury members on 7th November, 2003
at Paris, Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, declared the
chanting of vedas in India outstanding example of heritage and the form of
cultural expressions. The proclamation says in the age of globalisation and
modernisation when the cultural diversity is under pressure, the
preservation of oral tradition of vedic chanting, a unique cultural
heritage has great significance. Total 80 entries were received for this
purpose from all over the world and the jury members included Dr. Richard
Kurin, Director of the Center for Folklore and Cultural Heritage of the
Smithsonian Institution (United Nations), Mr. Juan Goytisolo Writer
(Spain), Mr. Yoshikazu Hasegawa (Japan), Ms. Olive W.M. Lewin. Pianist,
ethnomusicologist, Director of the Jamaica Orchestra for Youth (Jamaica).
The UNESCO declaration will bring international recognition to the
excellence of the vedic chanting tradition of India, which have survived
for centuries encoding the wisdom contained in the Vedas through an
extraordinary effort of memorisation and through an elaborately worked out
mnemonic methods. The purity and fail-safe technique devised for Vedic
chanting in the olden days led to access to one of the ancient literatures
of humanity in its entirety.
The Department of Culture, Ministry of Tourism and Culture took the
initiative to put up the candidature of the vedic chanting to UNESCO. A
presentation was prepared by Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts. The
Department has also prepared five year action plan to safeguard, protect,
promote and disseminate oral tradition of vedic tradition in terms of their
uniqueness and distinctiveness, encourage scholars and practitioners to
preserve, revitalise and promote their own branch of vedic recitation as
the custodians of their own traditions and direct the efforts primarily to
making the tradition survive in its own context.
[url="http://headlines.sify.com/2619news4.html"]http://headlines.sify.com/2619news4.html[/url]?
headline=Tallest~Nataraja~idol~to~be~airlifted~for~Switzerland
Tallest Nataraja idol to be airlifted for Switzerland
Chennai: A 11 foot tall panchaloha idol of Lord Nataraja, weighing
about two tonnes, sculpted in a village near Swamimalai in
Kumbakonam taluk in Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu, is to be
airlifted from Chennai for Switzerland.
Nearly 24 sculptors in Thimmakudi village toiled day and night for
the past six months to create the worlds tallest Nataraja idol, now
on its way to Chennai from the village.
The Nuclear Power Corporation in Geneva, Switzerland, had requested
the Indian nuclear power corporation for a panchaloha idol. The job
was entrusted to the sculptors in the village.
The total cost of the idol was around Rs 15 lakh. It has been
crafted as per the agama rules.
PTI
k.ram,
why they need Nataraj idol? <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/huh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='  ' />
hey i know the guy who did it (Rajan) Graduate , i have also visited his studio in thimakkudi. <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='  ' /> If any one want any bronze icons contact me, i can arrange it for you, but in large quantites please, rhytha does'nt handle small quantites <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='  ' /> <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=' ' />
Meeting God: Elements of Hindu Devotion ( Book review)
Noted cultural anthropologist, photographer and art historian Stephen
P. Huyler exposes us to the breadth and vitality of the reverential
experience in India. Through beautiful full-color photographs (there
are 160 in this 272-page book) and an evocative commentary, Dr.
Huyler reveals household and community rituals and festivals that are
at the heart of Hindu life. It is a unique pictorial tour of an India
rarely seen by outsiders.
Hinduism is the world's third largest religion after Christianity and
Islam. One in every six human beings is a Hindu and in the US alone
there are 1. 2 million Hindus, yet Westerners either know little
about Hinduism or misunderstand its basic beliefs and rituals.
Dr. Huyler has spent much of the last twenty-eight years traveling
throughout India documenting craftsmanship and contemporary
traditions. During the past decade, his focus on pooja, the Hindu
practice of daily devotions, led him to witness many ceremonies and
rituals and to share in both private and public devotions.
On one extraordinary visit, he became the first outsider in more than
1,200 years, other than an immediate royal family member, allowed to
witness a maharaja's personal devotion. He looks at worship within
the home, the community, the temple, during festivals and at sacred
processions. Virtually all Hindus, regardless of age, sex, race,
subculture, creed, caste, social standing or occupation are diligent
in their practice of daily devotion.
His descriptions of the wide scope of Hindu beliefs and practices
include women whose "painted prayers" decorate the walls of their
homes with intricate sacred patterns and designs; a community
worshipping at an ancient peepul tree, whose roots wind around a
large upright stone that represents the village's protective goddess;
and the famous festival at the sacred city of Puri, an awesome
spectacle viewed by a million people each year, where the Lord
Jaganath (from whose name we get the word "juggernaut") is paraded
through the streets on an immense 16-wheeled wooden chariot 45-ft
high and pulled by 4, 000 men.
Huyler writes of poojas in village huts, urban homes and a royal
palace. In other chapters he looks at the tenets of Hindu belief,
household shrines, temple rituals and architecture, festivals and
holy days and the gods and goddesses associated with them.
In his preface, he writes: "From the beginning, I have been in awe of
the innumerable household rituals I have been privileged to observe.
I have been fascinated by Hindu spirituality, by the ways in which
conscious awareness of the Divine permeates every aspect of daily and
seasonal life. In writing this book, I have attempted to convey the
transformative intensity of worship in India as it evokes the heart
as well as the mind, and as it involves the active use of all the
senses . . . Hinduism is a religion of strength, vitality,
innovation, and balance. By opening our hearts and minds to its
messages, we can enrich our own lives."
In a final chapter, he explores the roles of ascetics, pilgrims and
others who have renounced worldly life. Also included are accessible
notes from each chapter, an extensive bibliography, a glossary and an
index..
---------------------------------
NOTEBOOK: Meeting God: Elements of Hindu Devotion by Stephen P.
Huyler is published by Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. Dr.
Huyler co-curated an exhibition about sacred rituals in India that
opened at the Sackler Gallery in Washington D. C. in 1996. He has now
assembled a new traveling exhibition of photographs and interactive
wooden shrines that complement his book. This new exhibition will
travel throughout North America and abroad over the next several
years.
Vishal,
I have no idea why they picked Nataraja idol over others. Nonetheless, it will promote our culture no matter what idol they chose. <!--emo&:lol:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='laugh.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:guitar--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/guitar.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='guitar.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>Himachal to promote religious to</b>urism
...
The Hindu circuit covering important pilgrimage centres in lower Himachal Pradesh, including Naina Devi-Jwalaji-Baijnath-Kangra and Chamaunda Devi, would be strengthened.
<b>But a bulk of the money would be spent on revamping the Buddhist circuit</b>, which largely falls in the sprawling tribal belt including, Lahual, Spiti and Kinnaur, the official said.
A <b>non-tribal Buddhist circuit covering Kullu, Mandi and Kangra districts would also be developed.</b>
"The emphasis would be on improving roads and hotels and developing amenities for pilgrims on the religious circuit," the spokesman added.
The swamis
Everybody agrees that India is a very spiritual place. Is that all good?
âWRITE!â instructed the severe-looking swami, adjusting his spectacles. The Economist put pen to notebook and wrote: âAll work is worship.â In truth a kind man, the swami, Gokulananda, of the Ramakrishna mission in Delhi, was helping The Economist understand the role spirituality plays in Indian society and politics. He went on to talk of the need to strike a balance between contemplation and action, and to unleash the power that lies dormant within every human being, like a coiled serpent.
For a newspaper that brandishes its rationality, its faith in human intelligence, âwhich presses forwardâ, in the small print on its contents page, this was one of a series of disconcerting encounters. Our journalists are not used to writing about the divine. If our work is worship, almost all of it is at a secular altar.
Mata Amritanandamayi's official website. The Art of Living, the Divine Life Society and insight into the art of hugging. The Bharatiya Janata Party. More about travelling to Rishikesh.
Many saffron-robed swamisâthose, in western parlance, who have taken holy ordersâwere benevolent enough to try to enlighten The Economist. None had a moment's hesitation in accepting the proposition that âspiritualityâ, broadly defined, is an essential part of what it means to be Indian, and that India is a uniquely spiritual place. Many foreigners agree. Generations of westerners have travelled to India in the hope that some of its spirituality will rub off, and thus help them get closer to enlightenment than they would if they just stayed at home.
Many come to Rishikesh, a holy city built where the sacred river Ganges comes tumbling out of the foothills of the Himalayas to meet the great north Indian plain. The ashrams, or retreats, there house spiritual tourists from Israel and Italy as well as from all over India and, once upon a time, from Liverpoolâthe Beatles.
At sunset on the banks of the river, a tousled man plays a serene flute. A German blonde meditates in the lotus position. On a rock, a swami, also in full lotus, reads the scriptures, apparently oblivious to all distractions. From the shadows another saffron-robed figure emerges. He proffers a name card promising âpalmistry, meditation, eye-opening discourses, initiation in swami's life of cosmic adventuresâ, as well as âtravel guidanceâ. His e-mail ID is âiamtheuniverseâ and he advertises a link with the Intergalactic Culture Foundation in San Pedro, California. âGet all your spiritual questions answered,â suggests the card. We did not.
Often quoted is a saying of Swami Vivekananda, a 19th-century saint, that every nation has a âspecial geniusâ, and that India's is religion. Four of the world's great religions were born here: Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, as well as the oldest of them all and the source of the tradition from which these swamis speak, Hinduism. The most famous leader of India's independence struggle, Mahatma (âGreat soulâ) Gandhi, was as much concerned with India's spiritual well-being as with its political liberation.
Karan Singh, once regent and governor of the former princely state of Jammu & Kashmir, into whose royal family he was born, is a writer on Indian culture. He believes that âfor us, religion is all-pervasive; it dictates all we do.â So in India, in contrast to a western country of Sunday churchgoers, the religious life âis not divorced from public life.â In the West, religion has become an âantiseptic distilled waterâ. In India, it is like the holy river Ganges: âIt looks muddy, but it is there.â
Holy dips and hugathons
Many Indians plunge right in. You do not have to look far for evidence of the pulling-power of religious faith in India. Last August and September, the devout descended in their hundreds of thousands on the town of Nasik in Maharashtra, for the three-yearly Kumbh Mela. This is a festival beloved of the western media for its colourful spectacle: the hordes of bearded, ascetic, often dreadlocked, holy men, many wearing the saffron, some nothing at all; the cars and lorries decked out like chariots; the lumbering elephants; the shahi snan, the mass bathing in the river or in specially designed reservoirs, after queuing up along the ghats, the steps and platforms lining the rivers of India's holy cities. The bather is cleansed of his sins.
The English-language press describes the ancient ritual in the language of P.G. Wodehouse: âa holy dipâ. This year, however, the Kumbh Mela was marred by disaster: a stampede to the ghats left around 40 people crushed to death.
Generations of westerners have travelled to India in the hope that some of its spirituality will rub off, and thus help them get closer to enlightenment than they would if they just stayed at home
Besides such hugely popular festivals, India is rich in holy people who draw large followings. September also saw the 50th-birthday celebrations of Mata Amritanandamayi, a âGod-womanâ widely known as âAmmaâ. Held over three days in a sports stadium in Kochi (formerly Cochin), in the southern state of Kerala, the party attracted over 1m people. They included devotees from 131 countries, and an impressive sprinkling of India's great and good, including the president, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the deputy prime minister, Lal Krishna Advani, and several chief ministers of Indian states. They were joined by a number of leading businessmen, including Mukesh Ambani, boss of Reliance, one of India's biggest companies.
Amma, the illiterate daughter of a poor fishing family, is an unusual sage. No silver-tongued preacher, she does not go in for philosophical discourses. Rather, her most famous gift is for hugging. At her gatherings, people queue up in their thousands to be clasped to her bosom, and relish the feeling it gives, of warmth and wisdom. Her followers estimate she has hugged more than 21m people over the years. Asked why she did it, she once replied it was like asking a river why it flows.
Hinduism is an unusual religion in not having been founded by a single prophet or his followers. Pluralism is built in. It has never been a âchurchâ. Instead, holy menâand the occasional womanâhave appeared through the ages and drawn disciples who have formed foundations and ashrams. Nowadays some of these gurus, or teachers, head global enterprises. Amma's foundation, for example, runs ashrams in over 30 countries. Devotees make donations and the foundation spends the money: on a network of schools, on earthquake-flattened parts of the state of Gujarat, on a hospital in Kochi.
Even bigger is Art of Living (AoL), the foundation formed by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a guru with a big following among the urban middle classes. Indeed, in his youth he shared a guru with the Beatles: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Like Mahesh Yogi, he has a puckish charm that makes holiness seem fun. And like his guru, he is an international spiritual superstar: AoL claims to be the world's largest non-governmental organisation, with operations in 141 countries, having, says its founder proudly, just opened in Kazakhstan.
On a balmy evening in his ashram just outside the southern city of Bangalore, the guru holds forth in a kind of transcendental management-speak larded with pithy one-liners: of the need to âglobalise wisdomâ; to maintain an organisation with âthin bordersâ; to take the best from everywhereâGerman teamwork, Japanese precision, Indian human values (andâan afterthought produced out of generosity to The EconomistâBritish decency).
AoL has what you might call an appealing business model. Besides attracting donations from its often well-heeled disciples, it also sells classes to businesses in the guru's breathing and meditation techniques. These, he says, are proven to raise productivity and reduce absences through sickness. His followers agree. One is Nikhil Sen, who runs Britannia, a food firm that recently went through a bruising boardroom battle. He describes how AoL's courses helped staff adjust to the difficult conversion of a factory in Delhi from making bread to making biscuits.
Choose destiny
So AoL is rich. This is evident from the new meditation hall built to the guru's design: a five-tiered wedding cake of a structure, rimmed by 1,000 carved petals, and visible at night for miles around thanks to a computer-controlled lighting system that changes the colour of its glass cupola every few seconds. But AoL's wealth is most obvious in the huge range of social work it carries out: one of its activities is named, with characteristic marketing nous, the âFive Hâ programme (Health, Hygiene, Homes, Human Values and Harmony in Diversity). It works in prisons and among the poor in 15,000 Indian villages in 21 states. It also works abroad, even in Iraq, where it has sent doctors, and trainers in AoL's courses.
To his disciples, however, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is far more than a business guru and formidable do-gooder. His achievement has been to offer his teachings in packages that suit everyone from the office-worker seeking relief from stress to the dedicated truth-seeker prepared to drop everything and follow his guru.
At his ashram, he delivers daily satsangs, or religious discourses. The atmosphere at one such session, in August, was jolly, indeed jubilant. Young people who had completed advanced AoL courses, with a view to becoming trainers themselves, were dancing, chanting and singing to celebrate a festival devoted to the elephant-headed god Ganesh. The guru presided seraphically, preached a sermon on the festival (âGod should not be taken too seriously; He gets boredâ), and answered questions with the aplomb of a stand-up comedian. Asked about the interplay of karma (destiny) and free will, he solved the philosophical dilemma in six words: âWhat you choose is your destiny.â
Hinduism has always been diverse, so even in the more austere, older foundations, there are few open critics of popular gurus such as Amma and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. But there is a hint of concern and disdain in the comments of less flamboyant swamis. Nikhilananda, a cerebral swami at the Chinmaya Mission in Delhi, says Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has presented philosophy practically and sensibly; AoL does good work and is useful in spreading awareness, but it is like a âcrazeâ and lacks a stable foundation. It is âuser-friendlyâ, but that has a drawback: when something goes wrong, people will not be able to repair it. It relies on its charismatic founder.
If India is so spiritually rich, and spirituality transcends the details of individual faith, why has the country been so prone to religious strife?
Swami Nikhilananda is one of those convinced that, although India is prey to a lot of corruption and superstition, âdeep down there is a spiritual coreâ. He and others who say this mean more than that large numbers of people take part in religious festivals and flock to honour famous gurus. Their creed, known as âVedantaâ Hinduism, preaches the unity of all religions, and argues that all are different routes to the same end. As Karan Singh puts it: âWho are we, denizens of this tiny speck of dust, to say that in the whole cosmos there is only one path to the divine?â Swami Yogaswarupananda, of the Divine Life Society, another Vedanta-based foundation in Rishikesh, has the same idea: âSpiritual hunger is common to all; but tastes differ. There are different forms of God to suit all tastes.â
This, however, raises a difficult question. If India is so spiritually rich, and spirituality transcends the details of individual faith, why has the country been so prone to religious strife? The swamis, of course, point out that the political exploitation of religious prejudices is none of their doing. But could they not do more to stop it?
For years now, the rising trend in Indian politics has been hindutva, or âHindunessâ, a nationalist set of beliefs that asks Indians to take pride in the traditions of the majority Hindus. Perhaps inevitably, this has sometimes taken the unhappy form of raising hostility towards minority religions, especially Islam, which is followed by about 12% of the population. Indeed, to many Muslims, all the central items on the hindutva agenda seem directed at them. These include the demand for a national ban on the slaughter of cows, sacred to Hindus. Second is the campaign for a âuniform civil codeââa reference to the separate family law that governs Muslims and is seen by many Hindus as an unjust affront to the idea of a unified, âsecularâ state.
The fury of the fanatics
Third is the movement to build a temple on the supposed birthplace of the Hindu divine ruler, Ram, at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. A mosque, built on this site in the 16th century by Babur, a Muslim invader, was demolished by a mob of Hindu fanatics 11 years ago. Communal violence ensued in many parts of the country, and the dispute still stirs passions and hatred. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which heads the present coalition government, rode to power on the back of the Ayodhya campaign and, in the coming year, facing a general election, is likely to revive it.
Politicians, naturally, are loth to admit they mix politics and religion. Even Uma Bharti, a fiery BJP leader, who has faced a criminal investigation for her alleged role in the riot that led to the destruction of the Babri mosque, is coy about it. The BJP, she claims, is the party of âthe most secular peopleâ. Yet she is a sanyasin, a celibate who has renounced everything, to dedicate herself to religion and service: the first sanyasin, she says, in the 56 years since independence to go into full-time politics. But, she adds, this is a very personal matter, as much part of her as âthe colour of my skinâ and has ânothing to do with politicsâ, except that it makes her more ruthless because she has nothing to fear.
Campaigning this year as the BJP candidate for chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, a large central state, she denied that Ayodhya had anything to do with religion. Rather, it was an issue of national self-respect and identity. There happened to be a mosque on the site, but it could have been any other âmonument of victoryâ. Similarly, the question of cow slaughter is not one of religion but of economics: look at the Netherlands, floating to prosperity âon a river of milkâ. How, she asks, can India afford to kill cows?
Karan Singh says that Vedanta and hindutva are âopposite polesâ of Hinduism, comparing them to two forms of Islam: respectively Sufism, a personal, mystical strain and Wahhabism, with its more fundamentalist doctrine. If Vedanta has a political party, he says, then it is Congress, now the main national opposition. But Congress does not represent it as closely as the BJP does hindutva.
Congress is, after all, like India's constitution, avowedly secular. Sir Mark Tully, a British broadcaster and writer, this year made a television documentary about India (âHindu Nationâ), in which he argued that religion and spirituality were so much part of Indian life that to exclude them from politics would be dangerous, and bound to lead to distortions. He was immediatelyâand unfairlyâcondemned by many liberals in Delhi as having become a cheerleader for hindutva.
It is hard, however, for Hindu sages to condemn hindutva ideas, and hence hard to disentangle the âspiritualâ from the religious. On the issue of Ayodhya, for example, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar might be expected to urge compromise on his Hindu disciples. He has a huge following, a message of universal human values and access to, as he sees it, âdesperate and helplessâ politicians who ask him for a blessing and spiritual support. Art of Living, moreover, is open to people of all faiths. But in fact, discussing the Ram temple, its guru starts to sound less like a spiritual leader and more like a politician, talking of the long history of âappeasement of the minority communityâ, and of the unfairness of a system that subsidises Muslims to go on the haj to Mecca, while making Hindus pay a fee to take a dip at the Kumbh Mela.
Swami Nikhilananda, like Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, blames the media for much of the trouble over Ayodhya and other religious disputes. If a Hindu commits a crime, he says, it is presented as a loss of tolerance. But, as when a cow is attacked by a tiger and suddenly shows an unbovine violence in self-defence, you have to examine what prompted it. In Rishikesh, Swami Yogaswarupananda argues that there is no point appealing to politicians since they come to holy men only for their blessings, and do not listen to their advice.
That is a shame. But it is perhaps to be expected of politicians. Hinduism's men of faith, however, might be expected to speak unpopular truths. As the severe-looking Swami Gokulananda argues, the age of âexclusive spiritual practicesâ is gone; what is needed is a ânew monasticismâ. He then dismissed The Economist. âI have told you enough
Hello everybody. This is my very first post. I start it with a pessimistic observation.
Indian culture is doomed to change... doomed to be destroyed. You can try all you can and arrest this doom for a while, but the end is imminent. Now, don't go on to the denial mode already - this is bound to happen inspite of howmuchever we wish it to be false.
The only hope is to savage what we can before its too late. We have to take up whatever is 'savagable', guard it alone and lift it above our heads to keep it safer... and RUN!
Do not look back,
Leave the rest to sink.. rot... decay... and be replaced.
The whole of Indic culture with its unique arts, architecture, culture has already been eroded to such an extent that we do not yet comprehend the loss.
1. The Arts- Architecture.
With 5 centuries of Muslim rule, North India already has *no* Hindu architecture left to start with. What ever survives is only plain pagoda type temples with not much sculpture to write about. The Konark style temples which are an example of ancient pure Hindu architecture are now only historical pieces counting their last years to come. The art of sculpting is totally alien now to that region. Idols are fashioned out of terrakotta, even Lingams are now increasing being made of concrete of all materials.
In the South, the situation is only slightly better. Few communities of Shilpis exist, a few numbered Shapathis, -traditional Temple builders/architects survive.
The only hope here is that Rich Indian Communities in the US spend generously to FIRST, repair ancient monuments back home and SECONDLY, build new temples strictly according to Hindu principles of architecture in the States.
We cannot build new large temples, the size of old ones... So, let us atleast savage what we have left.
2. The Arts - Performing - Dance, Drama and Music.
The Only Gods/Goddesses who can dance, play musical instruments and act belong to Hinduism.
We have Nataraja, the Cosmic dancer whose Dance signifies the whole existence of this Universe - movement, rythm, change and limitless energy.
Bharathy- Saraswathi who plays the Rudra Veena (it is being lost too, this Veena)
Narada, the Sage of the demigods, who is an actor par excellence.
Where else, inwhich religion's pantheon is so rich, culturally and artistically as is Hinduism?
Sadly, Bollywood with its 'Jisms' have ALREADY killed the popular taste for Classical Dance forms. Except for a tiny minority of people who still have both the knowledge and appreciative taste for such, the vast common man has not the least interest.
Enemies of this Nation need no nuclear bombs. One crore of rupees to make a single Bollywood movie can go a long way to disturb and morph and justify the new generation's tastes for things considered too vulgur before.
One can go on and on and on.. especially if the mood is sombre like mine.
3. Dress/Cuisine
4. Etiquettes, traditions and manners
5. The Family, values and bringing up of Children.
Anyway, I think I am just complaining.. but heck, my first post needs some outpouring and now, here I am already feeling better.
Anyway, thanks for reading it out.
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