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Horseplay in Harappa: Sid Harth

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Horseplay In Harappa - The Indus Valley Decipherment Hoax
Author: Michael Witzel, Steve Farmer
Publication: Frontline
Date: October 13, 2000

MICHAEL WITZEL, a Harvard University Indologist, and STEVE FARMER, a
comparative historian, report on media hype, faked data, and Hindutva
propaganda in recent claims that the Indus Valley script has been
decoded.

Last summer the Indian press carried sensational stories announcing
the final decipherment of the Harappan or Indus Valley script. A
United News of India dispatch on July 11, 1999, picked up throughout
South Asia, reported on new research by "noted histo rian, N.S.
Rajaram, who along with palaeographist Dr. Natwar Jha, has read and
deciphered the messages on more than 2,000 Harappan seals." Discussion
of the messages was promised in Rajaram and Jha's upcoming book, The
Deciphered Indus Script. For nearly a year, the Internet was abuzz
with reports that Rajaram and Jha had decoded the full corpus of Indus
Valley texts.

This was not the first claim that the writing of the Indus Valley
Civilisation (fl. c. 2600-1900 BCE) had been cracked. In a 1996
book, American archaeologist Gregory Possehl reviewed thirty-five
attempted decipherments, perhaps one-third the actual numb er. But
the claims of Rajaram and Jha went far beyond those of any recent
historians. Not only had the principles of decipherment been
discovered, but the entire corpus of texts could now be read. Even
more remarkable were the historical conclusions that Rajaram and his
collaborator said were backed by the decoded messages.

The UNI story was triggered by announcements that Rajaram and Jha had
not only deciphered the Indus Valley seals but had read "pre-Harappan"
texts dating to the mid-fourth millennium BCE. If confirmed, this
meant that they had decoded mankind's earliest literary message. The
"texts" were a handful of symbols scratched on a pottery tablet
recently discovered by Harvard University archaeologist Richard
Meadow. The oldest of these, Rajaram told the UNI, was a text that
could be translated "Ila surrounds th e blessed land" - an oblique but
unmistakable reference to the Rigveda's Saraswati river. The
suggestion was that man's earliest message was linked to India's
oldest religious text.1 The claim was hardly trivial, since this was
over 2,000 year s before Indologists date the Rigveda - and more than
1,000 years before Harappan culture itself reached maturity.

Rajaram's World

After months of media hype, Rajaram and Jha's The Deciphered Indus
Script2 made it to print in New Delhi early this year. By midsummer
the book had reached the West and was being heatedly discussed via the
Internet in Europe, India, and the United States. The book gave
credit for the decipherment method to Jha, a provincial religious
scholar, previously unknown, from Farakka, in West Bengal. The book's
publicity hails him as "one of the world's foremost Vedic scholars and
palaeographer s." Jha had reportedly worked in isolation for twenty
years, publishing a curious 60-page English pamphlet on his work in
1996. Jha's study caught the eye of Rajaram, who was already
notorious in Indological circles. Rajaram took credit for writing
most of the book, which heavily politicised Jha's largely apolitical
message. Rajaram's online biography claims that their joint effort is
"the most important breakthrough of our time in the history of Indian
history and culture."

Boasts like this do not surprise battle-scarred Indologists familiar
with Rajaram's work. A U.S. engineering professor in the 1980s,
Rajaram re-invented himself in the 1990s as a fiery Hindutva
propagandist and "revisionist" historian. By the mid-1990s, he could
claim a following in India and in �migr� circles in the U.S. In
manufacturing his public image, Rajaram traded heavily on claims, not
justified by his modest research career, that before turning to
history "he was one of America's best-known wor kers in artificial
intelligence and robotics." Hyperbole abounds in his online biography,
posted at the ironically named "Sword of Truth" website. The Hindutva
propaganda site, located in the United States, pictures Rajaram as a
"world-renowned" expert o n "Vedic mathematics" and an "authority on
the history of Christianity." The last claim is supported by violently
anti-Christian works carrying titles like Christianity's Collapsing
Empire and Its Designs in India. Rajaram's papers include his "Se
arch for the historical Krishna" (found in the Indus Valley c. 3100
BCE); attack a long list of Hindutva "enemies" including Christian
missionaries, Marxist academics, leftist politicians, Indian Muslims,
and Western Indologists; and glorify the mob dest ruction of the Babri
Mosque in 1992 as a symbol of India's emergence from "the grip of
alien imperialistic forces and their surrogates." All Indian history,
Rajaram writes, can be pictured as a struggle between nationalistic
and imperialistic forces.

In Indology, the imperialistic enemy is the "colonial-missionary
creation known as the Aryan invasion model," which Rajaram ascribes to
Indologists long after crude invasion theories have been replaced by
more sophisticated acculturation models by seriou s researchers.
Rajaram's cartoon image of Indology is to be replaced by "a path of
study that combines ancient learning and modern science." What Rajaram
means by "science" is suggested in one of his papers describing the
knowledge of the Rigveda poets. The Rigveda rishis, we find, packed
their hymns with occult allusions to high-energy physics, anti-matter,
the inflational theory of the universe, calculations of the speed of
light, and gamma-ray bursts striking the earth three times a day. The
l atter is shown in three Rigveda verses (3.56.6, 7.11.3, 9.86.18)
addressed to the god Agni. The second Rajaram translates: "O Agni! We
know you have wealth to give three times a day to mortals."

One of Rajaram's early Hindutva pieces was written in 1995 with David
Frawley, a Western "New Age" writer who likes to find allusions to
American Indians in the Rigveda. Frawley is transformed via the
"Sword of Truth" into a "famous American Vedic scholar and historian."
The book by Rajaram and Frawley proposes the curious thesis that the
Rigveda was the product of a complex urban and maritime civilisation,
not the primitive horse-and-chariot culture seen in the text. The
goal is to link the Rigv eda to the earlier Indus Valley Civilisation,
undercutting any possibility of later "Aryan" migrations or
relocations of the Rigveda to "foreign" soil. Ancient India, working
through a massive (but lost) Harappan literature, was a prime source
of civilis ation to the West.

The Deciphered Indus Script makes similar claims with different
weapons. The Indus-Saraswati Valley again becomes the home of the
Rigveda and a font of higher civilisation: Babylonian and Greek
mathematics, all alphabetical scripts, and even Roman numerals flow
out to the world from the Indus Valley's infinitely fertile cultural
womb. Press releases praise the work for not only "solving the most
significant technical problem in historical research of our time" -
deciphering the Indus script - but for demonstrating as well that "if
any 'cradle of civilisation' existed, it was located not in
Mesopotamia but in the Saraswati Valley." The decoded messages of
Harappa thus confirm the Hindutva propagandist's wildest nationalistic
dreams.

Rajaram's 'Piltdown Horse'

Not unexpectedly, Indologists followed the pre-press publicity for
Rajaram's book with a mix of curiosity and scepticism. Just as the
book hit the West, a lively Internet debate was under way over whether
any substantial texts existed in Harappa - let alone the massive lost
literature claimed by Rajaram. Indus Valley texts are cryptic to
extremes, and the script shows few signs of evolutionary change. Most
inscriptions are no more than four or five characters long; many
contain only two or three characters. Moreover, character shapes in
mature Harappan appear to be strangely "frozen," unlike anything seen
in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt or China. This suggests that expected
"scribal pressures" for simplifying the script, arising out of the
repeate d copying of long texts, was lacking. And if this is true,
the Indus script may have never evolved beyond a simple proto-writing
system.

Once Rajaram's book could actually be read, the initial scepticism of
Indologists turned to howls of disbelief - followed by charges of
fraud. It was quickly shown that the methods of Jha and Rajaram were
so flexible that virtually any desired message co uld be read into the
texts. One Indologist claimed that using methods like these he could
show that the inscriptions were written in Old Norse or Old English.
Others pointed to the fact that the decoded messages repeatedly turned
up "missing links" betwe en Harappan and Vedic cultures - supporting
Rajaram's Hindutva revisions of history. The language of Harappa was
declared to be "late Vedic" Sanskrit, some 2,000 years before the
language itself existed. Through the decoded messages, the horseless
Indus Valley Civilisation - distinguishing it sharply from the culture
of the Rigveda - was awash with horses, horse keepers, and even horse
rustlers. To support his claims, Rajaram pointed to a blurry image of
a "horse seal" - the first pictorial evidence eve r claimed of
Harappan horses.

Chaos followed. Within weeks, the two of us demonstrated that
Rajaram's "horse seal" was a fraud, created from a computer distortion
of a broken "unicorn bull" seal. This led Indologist wags to dub it
the Indus Valley "Piltdown horse" - a comic allusion to the "Piltdown
man" hoax of the early twentieth century. The comparison was, in
fact, apt, since the "Piltdown man" was created to fill the missing
link between ape and man - just as Rajaram's "horse seal" was intended
to fill a gap between Harappa and Vedic cultures.

Once the hoax was uncovered, $1000 was offered to anyone who could
find one Harappan researcher who endorsed Rajaram's "horse seal." The
offer found no takers.

The "Piltdown horse" story has its comic side, but it touches on a
central problem in Indian history. Horses were critical to Vedic
civilisation, as we see in Vedic texts describing horse sacrifices,
horse raids, and warfare using horse-drawn chariots. I f Rigvedic
culture (normally dated to the last half of the second millennium BCE)
is identified with Harappa, it is critical to find evidence of
extensive use of domesticated horses in India in the third millennium
BCE. In the case of Hindutva "revisioni sts" like Rajaram, who push
the Rigveda to the fourth or even fifth millennium, the problem is
worse. They must find domesticated horses and chariots in South Asia
thousands of years before either existed anywhere on the planet.

Evidence suggests that the horse (Equus caballus) was absent from
India before around 2000 BCE, or even as late as 1700 BCE, when
archaeology first attests its presence in the Indus plains below the
Bolan pass. The horse, a steppe animal from the semi-temperate zone,
was not referred to in the Middle East until the end of the third
millennium, when it first shows up in Sumerian as anshe.kur (mountain
ass) or anshe.zi.zi (speedy ass). Before horses, the only equids in
the Near East w ere the donkey and the half-ass (hemione, onager).
The nearly untrainable hemiones look a bit like horses and can
interbreed with them, as can donkeys. In India, the hemione or khor
(Equus hemionus khur) was the only equid known before the horse; a few
specimens still survive in the Rann of Kutch.

As shown by their identical archaeological field numbers (DK-6664),
M-772A (published in Vol. II of Corpus of Indus Seals and
Inscriptions, 1991) is the original seal that seven decades ago
created the seal impression (Mackay 453) that Rajaram claims is a
'horse seal.'

The appearance of domesticated horses in the Old World was closely
linked to the development of lightweight chariots, which play a
central role in the Rigveda. The oldest archaeological remains of
chariots are from east and west of the Ural mountains, wh ere they
appear c. 2000 BCE. In the Near East, their use is attested in
pictures and writing a little later. A superb fifteenth-century
Egyptian example survives intact (in Florence, Italy); others show up
in twelfth-century Chinese tombs.

Chariots like these were high-tech creations: the poles of the
Egyptian example were made of elm, the wheels' felloes (outer rim) of
ash, its axles and spokes of evergreen oak, and its spoke lashings of
birch bark. None of these trees are found in the Ne ar East south of
Armenia, implying that these materials were imported from the north.
The Egyptian example weighs only 30 kg or so, a tiny fraction of slow
and heavy oxen-drawn wagons, weighing 500 kg or more, which earlier
served as the main wheeled tra nsport. These wagons, known since
around 3000 BCE, are similar to those still seen in parts of the
Indian countryside.

The result of all this is that the claim that horses or chariots were
found in the Indus Valley of the third millennium BCE is quite a
stretch. The problem is impossible for writers like Rajaram who
imagine the Rigveda early in the fourth or even fifth m illennium,
which is long before any wheeled transport - let alone chariots -
existed. Even the late Hungarian palaeontologist S. Bokonyi, who
thought that he recognised horses' bones at one Indus site, Surkotada,
denied that these were indigenous to South Asia. He writes that
"horses reached the Indian subcontinent in an already domesticated
form coming from the Inner Asiatic hors e domestication centres."
Harvard's Richard Meadow, who discovered the earliest known Harappan
text (which Rajaram claims to have deciphered), disputes even the
Surkotada evidence. In a paper written with the young Indian scholar,
Ajita K. Patel, Meadow argues that not one clear example of horse
bones exists in Indus excavations or elsewhere in North India before
c. 2000 BCE.3 All contrary claims arise from evidence from ditches,
erosional deposits, pits or horse graves originating hun dreds or even
thousands of years later than Harappan civilisation. Remains of
"horses" claimed by early Harappan archaeologists in the 1930s were
not documented well enough to let us distinguish between horses,
hemiones, or asses.

All this explains the need for Rajaram's horse inscriptions and "horse
seal." If this evidence were genuine, it would trigger a major
rethinking of all Old World history. Rajaram writes, in his
accustomed polemical style:

The 'horse seal' goes to show that the oft repeated claim of "No horse
at Harappa" is entirely baseless. Horse bones have been found at all
levels at Harappan sites. Also... the word 'as'va' (horse) is a
commonly occuring (sic) word on the seals. The sup posed
'horselessness' of the Harappans is a dogma that has been exploded by
evidence. But like its cousin the Aryan invasion, it persists for
reasons having little to do with evidence or scholarship.

Rajaram's "horse," which looks something like a deer to most people,
is a badly distorted image printed next to an "artist's reproduction"
of a horse, located below a Harappan inscription.4 The original source
of the image, Mackay 453, is a ti ny photo on Plate XCV of Vol. II of
Ernest Mackay's Further Excavations of Mohenjo-Daro (New Delhi,
1937-38). The photo was surprisingly difficult to track down, since
Rajaram's book does not tell you in which of Mackay's archaeological
works, whi ch contain thousands of images, the photo is located.
Finding it and others related to it required coordinating resources in
two of the world's best research libraries, located 3,000 miles apart
in the United States.

Once the original was found, and compared over the Internet with his
distorted image, Rajaram let it slip that the "horse seal" was a
"computer enhancement" that he and Jha introduced to "facilitate our
reading." Even now, however, he claims that the sea l depicts a
"horse." To deny it would be disastrous, since to do so would require
rejection of his decipherment of the seal inscription - which
supposedly includes the word "horse."

Once you see Mackay's original photo, it is clear that Rajaram's
"horse seal" is simply a broken "unicorn bull" seal, the most common
seal type found in Mohenjo-daro. In context, its identity is obvious,
since the same page contains photos of more than two dozen unicorn
bulls - any one of which would make a good "horse seal" if it were
cracked in the right place.

What in Rajaram's "computer enhancement" looks like the "neck" and
"head" of a deer is a Rorschach illusion created by distortion of the
crack and top-right part of the inscription. Any suggestion that the
seal represents a whole animal evaporates as soo n as you see the
original. The fact that the seal is broken is not mentioned in
Rajaram's book. You certainly cannot tell it is broken from the
"computer enhancement."

While Rajaram's bogus "horse seal" is crude, because of the relative
rarity of the volume containing the original, which is not properly
referenced in Rajaram's book, only a handful of researchers lucky
enough to have the right sources at hand could trac k it down.
Rajaram's evidence could not be checked by his typical reader in
Ahmedabad, say - or even by Indologists using most university
libraries.

The character of the original seal becomes clearer when you look more
closely at the evidence. Mackay 453, it turns out, is not the photo
of a seal at all, as Rajaram claims, but of a modern clay impression
of a seal (field number DK-6664) dug up in Mohe njo-daro during the
1927-31 excavations. We have located a superb photograph of the
original seal that made the impression (identified again by field
number DK-6664) in the indispensable Corpus of Indus Seals and
Inscriptions (Vol. II: Helsinki 19 91, p. 63). The work was
produced by archaeologists from India and Pakistan, coordinated by the
renowned Indologist Asko Parpola. According to a personal
communication from Dr. Parpola, the original seal was photographed in
Pakistan by Jyrki Lyytikk� spe cifically for the 1991 publication.

Like everyone else looking at the original, Parpola notes that
Rajaram's "horse seal" is simply a broken "unicorn bull" seal, one of
numerous examples found at Mohenjo-daro. Rajaram has also apparently
been told this by Iravatham Mahadevan, the leading I ndian expert on
the Indus script. Mahadevan is quoted, without name, in Rajaram's
book as a "well known 'Dravidianist"' who pointed out to him the
obvious. But, Rajaram insists, a "comparison of the two creatures
[unicorns and horses], especially in [the ] genital area, shows this
to be fallacious." Rajaram has also claimed on the Internet that the
animal's "bushy tail" shows that it is a horse.

Below, on the left, we have reproduced Lyytikk�'s crisp photo of the
original seal, compared (on the right) with the seven-decade-old photo
(Mackay 453) of the impression Rajaram claims is a "horse seal." We
have flipped the image of the original horizon tally to simplify
comparison of the seal and impression. The tail of the animal is the
typical "rope" tail associated with unicorn bull seals at Mohenjo-daro
(seen in more images below). It is clearly not the "bushy tail" that
Rajaram imagines - although Rajaram's story is certainly a "bushy
horse tale."

Checking Rajaram's claims about the "genital area," we find no
genitals at all in M-772A or Mackay 453 - for the simple reason that
genitals on unicorn bulls are typically located right where the seal
is cracked! This is clear when we look at other unico rn seals or
their impressions. One seal impression, Parpola M-1034a (on the
right), has a lot in common with Rajaram's "horse seal," including the
two characters on the lefthand side of the inscription. The seal is
broken in a different place, wiping out the righthand side of the
inscription but leaving the genitals intact. On this seal impression
we see the distinctive "unicorn" genitals, identified by the long
"tuft" hanging straight down. The genitals are located where we would
find them on Rajaram's "horse seal," if the latter were not broken.

Other unicorn bull seal impressions, like the one seen in Parpola
M-595a, could make terrific "horse seals" if cracked in the same
place. Unfortunately, Parpola M-595a is not broken, revealing the
fact (true of most Harappan seals) that it represents not a real but a
mythological animal. (And, of course, neither this nor any other
unicorn has a bushy tail.)

Rajaram's 'computer enhancement' of Mackay 453 on the left; the arrow
points to an object apparently stuck into the original image. On the
right, pictures of Mohenjo-daro copper plates showing similar
telephone-like 'feeding troughs.'

A Russian Indologist, Yaroslav Vassilkov, has pointed to a suspicious
detail in Rajaram's "computer enhancement" that is not found on any
photo of the seal or impression. Just in front of the animal, we find
a small object that looks like a partia l image of a common icon in
animal seals: a "feeding trough" that looks a little like an old-style
telephone. Who inserted it into the distorted image of the "horse
seal" is not known. Rajaram has not responded to questions about it.

Below, we show Rajaram's "computer enhancement" next to pictures of
Mohenjo-daro copper plates that contain several versions of the
object.

'Late Vedic' Sanskrit - 2000 Years Before Schedule

The horse seal is only one case of bogus data in Rajaram's book.
Knowledge of Vedic Sanskrit is needed to uncover those involving his
decipherments. That is not knowledge that Rajaram would expect in his
average reader, since (despite its pretensions) th e book is not aimed
at scholars but at a lay Indian audience. The pretence that the book
is addressed to researchers (to whom the fraud is obvious) is a
smokescreen to convince lay readers that Rajaram is a serious
historical scholar.

The decipherment issue explains why Rajaram continues to defend his
"horse seal" long after his own supporters have called on him to
repudiate it. He has little choice, since he has permanently wedded
his "Piltdown horse" to his decipherment method. The inscription over
the horse, he tells us, reads (a bit ungrammatically) "arko-hasva or
arko ha as'va" - "Sun indeed like the horse (sic)." The reading
clearly would be pointless if the image represented a unicorn bull.
Rajaram claims that there are links between this "deciphered" text and
a later Vedic religious document, the Shukla Yajurveda. This again
pushes the Rigveda, which is linguistically much earlier than that
text, to an absurdly early period.

As we have seen, Rajaram claims that the language of Harappa was "late
Vedic" Sanskrit. This conflicts with countless facts from
archaeology, linguistics, and other fields. Indeed, "late Vedic" did
not exist until some two thousand years after the start of mature
Harappan culture!

Let us look at a little linguistic evidence. Some of it is a bit
technical, but it is useful since it shows how dates are assigned to
parts of ancient Indian history.

The Rigveda is full of descriptions of horses (as'va), horse races,
and the swift spoke-wheeled chariot (ratha). We have already seen
that none of these existed anywhere in the Old World until around 2000
BCE or so. In most places, they did not appear until much later. The
introduction of chariots and horses is one marker for the earliest
possible dates of the Rigveda.

Linguistic evidence provides other markers. In both ancient Iran and
Vedic India, the chariot is called a ratha, from the prehistoric
(reconstructed) Indo-European word for wheel *roth2o- (Latin rota,
German Rad). ( A chariot = "wheels," just as in the modern slang
expression "my wheels" = "my automobile.") We also have shared Iranian
and Vedic words for charioteer - the Vedic ratheSTha or old Iranian
rathaeshta, meaning "standing on the chariot." Indo -European, on the
other hand - the ancestor of Vedic Sanskrit and most European
languages - does not have a word for chariot. This is shown by the
fact that many European languages use different words for the
vehicle. In the case of Greek, for example, a chariot is harmat(-
os).

The implication is that the ancient Iranian and Vedic word for chariot
was coined sometime around 2000 BCE - about when chariots first
appeared - but before those languages split into two. A good guess is
that this occurred in the steppe belt of Russia a nd Kazakhstan, which
is where we find the first remains of chariots. That area remained
Iranian-speaking well into the classical period, a fact reflected even
today in northern river names - all the way from the Danube, Don,
Dnyestr, Dnyepr and the Ural (Rahaa = Vedic Rasaa) rivers to the Oxus
(Vakhsh).

These are only a few pieces of evidence confirming what linguists have
known for 150 years: that Vedic Sanskrit was not native to South Asia
but an import, like closely related old Iranian. Their usual assumed
origins are located in the steppe belt to th e north of Iran and
northwest of India.

This view is supported by recent linguistic discoveries. One is that
approximately 4 per cent of the words in the Rigveda do not fit Indo-
Aryan (Sanskrit) word patterns but appear to be loans from a local
language in the Greater Panjab. That language is close to, but not
identical with, the Munda languages of Central and East India and to
Khasi in Meghalaya. A second finding pertains to shared loan words in
the Rigveda and Zoroastrian texts referring to agricultural products,
animals, and domestic goods that we know from archaeology first
appeared in Bactria-Margiana c. 2100-1700 BCE. These include, among
others, words for camel (uSTra/ushtra), donkey (khara/xara), and
bricks (iSTakaa/ishtiia, ishtuua). The evidence suggests that b oth
the Iranians and Indo-Aryans borrowed these words when they migrated
through this region towards their later homelands.5 A third find
relates to Indo-Aryan loan words that show up in the non-Aryan Mitanni
of northern Iraq and Syria c.1400 BCE. These loanwords reflect
slightly older Indo-Aryan forms than those found in the Rigveda. This
evidence is on e reason why Indologists place the composition of the
Rigveda in the last half of the second millennium.

This evidence, and much more like it, shows that the claim by Rajaram
that mature Harappans spoke "late Vedic" Sanskrit - the language of
the Vedic sutras (dating to the second half of the first millennium) -
is off by at least two thousand years! At bes t, a few adventurous
speakers may have existed in Harappa of some early ancestor of old
Vedic Sanskrit - the much later language of the Rigveda - trickling
into the Greater Panjab from migrant "Aryan" tribes. These early Indo-
Aryan speakers could have mi ngled with others in the towns and cities
of Harappan civilisation, which were conceivably just as multilingual
as any modern city in India. (Indeed, Rigvedic loan words seem to
suggest several substrate languages.) But to have all, or even part,
of Hara ppans speaking "late Vedic" is patently absurd.

But this evidence pertains to what Rajaram represents as "the petty
conjectural pseudo-science" called linguistics. By rejecting the
science wholesale, he gives himself the freedom to invent Indian
history at his whim.

Consonants Count Little, Vowels Nothing!

According to Rajaram and Jha, the Indus writing system was a proto-
alphabetical system, supposedly derived from a complex (now lost)
system of pre-Indus "pictorial" signs. Faced with a multitude of
Harappan characters, variously numbered between 400 and 800, they
select a much smaller subset of characters and read them as
alphabetical signs. Their adoption of these signs follows from the
alleged resemblances of these signs to characters in Brahmi, the
ancestor of later Indian scripts. (This was the scri pt adopted c.
250 BCE by Asoka, whom Jha's 1996 book assigns to c. 1500 BCE!)
Unlike Brahmi, which lets you write Indian words phonetically, the
alphabet imagined by Jha and Rajaram is highly defective, made up only
of consonants, a few numbers, and some special-purpose signs. The
hundreds of left-over "pictorial" signs normally stand for single
words. Whenever needed, however - and this goes for numbers as well -
they can also be tapped for their supposed sound values, giving
Rajaram and Jha extraordin ary freedom in making their readings. The
only true "vowel" that Jha and Rajaram allow is a single wildcard sign
that stands for any initial vowel - as in A-gni or I-ndra - or
sometimes for semi-vowels. Vowels inside words can be imagine d at
whim.

Vowels were lacking in some early Semitic scripts, but far fewer
vowels are required in Semitic languages than in vowel-rich Indian
languages like Sanskrit or Munda. In Vedic Sanskrit, any writing
system lacking vowels would be so ambiguous that it would be useless.
In the fictional system invented by Jha and Rajaram, for example, the
supposed Indus ka sign can be read kaa, ki, ku, ke, ko, etc., or can
also represent the isolated consonant k. A script like this opens the
door to an enormou s number of alternate readings.

Supposing with Jha and Rajaram that the language of Harappa was "late
Vedic", we would find that the simple two-letter inscription mn might
be read:

mana "ornament"; manaH"mind" (since Rajaram lets us add the
Visarjaniya or final -H at will); manaa "zeal" or "a weight"; manu
"Manu"; maana "opinion" or "building" or "thinker"; miina "fish"; mi
ine "in a fish"; miinau "two fish"; miinaiH "with fish"; muni "Muni",
"Rishi", "ascetic"; mRn- "made of clay"; menaa "wife"; meni "revenge";
mene "he has thought"; mauna "silence"; and so on.

There are dozens of other possibilities. How is the poor reader,
presented with our two-character seal, supposed to decide if it refers
to revenge, a sage, the great Manu, a fish, or his wife? The lords of
Harappa or Dholavira, instead of using the scrip t on their seals,
would have undoubtedly sent its inventor off to finish his short and
nasty life in the copper mines of the Aravallis!

If all of this were not enough to drive any reader mad, Rajaram and
Jha introduce a host of other devices that permit even freer readings
of inscriptions. The most ridiculous involves their claim that the
direction of individual inscriptions "follows no hard and fast rules."
This means that if tossing in vowels at will in our mn inscription
does not give you the reading you want, you can restart your reading
(again, with unlimited vowel wildcards) from the opposite direction -
yielding further al ternatives like namaH or namo "honour to...,"
naama "name," and so on.

There are other "principles" like this. A number of signs represent
the same sound, while - conversely - the same sign can represent
different sounds. With some 400-800 signs to choose from, this gives
you unlimited creative freedom. As Raj aram puts it deadpan, Harappan
is a "rough and ready script." Principles like this "gave its scribes
several ways in which to express the same sounds, and write words in
different ways." All this is stated in such a matter-of-fact and
"scientific" manner that the non-specialist gets hardly a clue that he
is being had.

In other words, figure out what reading you want and fill in the
blanks! As Voltaire supposedly said of similar linguistic tricks:
"Consonants count little, and vowels nothing."

A little guidance on writing direction comes from the wildcard vowel
sign, which Rajaram tells us usually comes at the start of
inscriptions. This is "why such a large number of messages on the
Indus seals have this vowel symbol as the first letter." Wha t Jha and
Rajaram refer to as a vowel (or semi-vowel) sign is the Harappan
"rimmed vessel" or U-shaped symbol. This is the most common sign in
the script, occurring by some counts some 1,400 times in known texts.
It is most commonly seen on the left side of inscriptions.

Back in the 1960s, B.B. Lal, former Director-General of the
Archaeological Survey of India, convincingly showed, partly by
studying how overlapping characters were inscribed on pottery, that
the Harappan script was normally read from right to left. Much other
hard evidence confirming this view has been known since the early
1930s. This means that in the vast majority of cases the U-sign is
the last sign of an inscription. But here, as so often elsewhere,
Rajaram and Jha simply ignore well-establi shed facts, since they are
intent on reading Harappan left to right to conform to "late Vedic"
Sanskrit. (In times of interpretive need, however, any direction goes
- including reading inscriptions vertically or in zig-zag fashion on
alternate lines.)

The remarkable flexibility of their system is summarised in statements
like this:

First, if the word begins with a vowel then the genetic sign has to be
given the proper vowel value. Next the intermediate consonants have
to be shaped properly by assigning the correct vowel combinations.
Finally, the terminal letter may also have to be modified according to
context. In the last case, a missing visarga or anusvaara may have to
be supplied, though this is often indicated.

How, the sceptic might ask, can you choose the right words from the
infinite possibilities? The problem calls for a little Vedic
ingenuity:

In resolving ambiguities, one is forced to fall back on one's
knowledge of the Vedic language and the literary context. For
example: when the common composite letter r + k is employed, the
context determines if it is to be pronounced as rka (as in arka) or as
kra as in kruura.

The context Rajaram wants you to use to fill in the blanks is the one
that he wants to prove: any reading is proper that illustrates the
(imaginary) links between "late Vedic" culture and Indus
Civilisation. Once you toss in wildcard vowels, for example, any rk
or kr combination provides instant Harappan horseplay - giving you a
Vedic-Harappan horse (recalling their equation that arka "sun" =
"horse") long before the word (or animal) appeared in India.

Why did the Indus genius who invented the alphabet not include all
basic vowel signs - like those in Asoka's script - which would have
made things unambiguous? It certainly could not be because of a lack
of linguistic knowledge, since Rajaram claims that the Harappans had
an "advanced state of knowledge of grammar, phonetics, and etymology,"
just as they had modern scientific knowledge of all other kinds. But
vowels, of course, would rob Rajaram of his chances to find Vedic
treasure in Harappan inscript ions - where he discovers everything
from horse thieves to Rigvedic kings and advanced mathematical
formulae.

Peculiarly, in contrast to the lack of vowel signs, Jha and Rajaram
give us a profusion of special signs that stand for fine grammatical
details including word-final -H and -M (Visarjaniya and Anusvaara; if
these are missing, you can just toss them in); special verb endings
like -te; and noun endings such as -su. All of these are derived from
Paninian grammar more than two thousand years before Panini! They even
find special phonological signs for Paninian gu Na and vRddhi (that
is, u becomes o or au) and for Vedic pitch accents (svara).

Although the scribes lacked vowels, they thus had signs applicable
only to vowel combination (sandhi) - which is remarkable indeed, given
the absence of the vowels themselves.

A Hundred Noisy Crows

It is clear that the method of Rajaram and Jha is so flexible that you
can squeeze some pseudo-Vedic reading out of any inscription. But,
with all this freedom, what a motley set of readings they hand us!
Moreover, few of their readings have anything to do with Harappan
civilisation.

What were Indus seals used for? We know that some (a minority) were
stamped on bales of merchandise; many were carried around on strings,
perhaps as amulets or ID cards. Many of them were lost in the street
or were thrown out as rubbish when no longer ne eded. Sometimes a
whole set of identical inscriptions has been found tossed over
Harappan embankment walls.

In their usual cavalier way, Rajaram and Jha ignore all the well-known
archaeological evidence and claim that the inscriptions represent
repositories of Vedic works like the ancient Nighantu word lists, or
even the mathematical formulae of the Shulbasutras. The main object
of Harappan seals, they tell us, was the "preservation of Vedic
knowledge and related subjects."

How many merchants in the 5000-odd year history of writing would have
thought to put mathematical formulae or geometric slogans on their
seals and tokens? Or who would be likely to wear slogans like the
following around their necks?

"It is the rainy season"; "House in the grip of cold"; "A dog that
stays home and does nothing is useless" - which Rajaram and Jha
alternately read as: "There is raw meat on the face of the dog";
"Birds of the eastern country"; "One who drinks barley wat er"; "A
hundred noisy crows"; "Mosquito"; "The breathing of an angry person";
"Rama threatened to use agni-vaaNa (a fire missile)"; "A short
tempered mother-in-law"; "Those about to kill themselves with
sinfulness say"; or, best of all, the refreshingly populist: "O!
Moneylender, eat (your interest)!"

By now, we expect lots of horse readings, and we are not
disappointed. What use, we wonder, would the Harappans have for seal
inscriptions like these?

"Water fit for drinking by horses"; "A keeper of horses (paidva) by
name of VarSaraata"; "A horsekeeper by name of As'ra-gaura wishes to
groom the horses"; "Food for the owner of two horses"; "Arci who
brought under control eight loose horses"; an d so on.

The most elaborate horse reading shows up in the most famous of Indus
inscriptions - the giant "signboard" hung on the walls of the Harappan
city of Dholavira. The "deciphered" inscription is another attack on
the "no horse in Harappa" argument:

"I was a thousand times victorious over avaricious raiders desirous of
my wealth of horses!"

In the end, readers of Jha and Rajaram are likely to agree with only
one "deciphered" message in the whole book: apa-yas'o ha mahaat "A
great disgrace indeed!"

Vedic Sanskrit?

Before concluding, we would like to point out that the line we just
quoted contains an elementary grammatical error - a reading of mahaat
for mahat. The frequency of mistakes like this says a lot about the
level of Vedic knowledge (or lack thereof) of the authors. A few
examples at random:

- on p. 227 of their book we find adma "eat!" But what form is adma?
admaH "we eat? At best, adma "food," not "eat!"

- on p. 235, we find tuurNa ugra s'vasruuH. No feminine adjectives
appear in the expression (tuurNaa, ugraa), as required by the angry
"mother-in-law" (read: s'vas'ruuH!).

- on p. 230, we read apvaa-hataa-tmaahuH, where hataatma might mean
"one whose self is slain," or the "self of a slain (person)," but not
"those about to kill themselves." In the same sentence, apvaa does not
mean "sinfulness" (whic h is, in any case, a non-Vedic concept) but
"mortal fear."

- on p. 232, we have amas'aityaarpaa, supposedly meaning "House in
the grip of cold." But amaa (apparently what they want, not ama
"force") is not a word for "house," but an adverb meaning "at home."
The word s'aitya "cold" is not "late Vedic" but post-Vedic, making the
reading even more anachronistic than the other readings in the book.

- on p. 226, we find paidva for "horses," in a passage referring to
horse keepers. But in Vedic literature this word does not refer to an
ordinary but a mythological horse.

Many similar errors are found in the 1996 pamphlet by Jha, billed by
Rajaram as "one of the world's foremost Vedic scholars and
palaeographers."

None of those errors can be blamed on ignorant Harappan scribes.

History and Hindutva Propaganda

It might be tempting to laugh off the Indus script hoax as the
harmless fantasy of an ex-engineer who pretends to be a world expert
on everything from artificial intelligence to Christianity to Harappan
culture.

What belies this reading is the ugly subtext of Rajaram's message,
which is aimed at millions of Indian readers. That message is anti-
Muslim, anti-Christian, anti-Indological, and (despite claims to the
opposite) intensely anti-scientific. Those views pr esent twisted
images of India's past capable of inflicting severe damage in the
present.

Rajaram's work is only one example of a broader reactionary trend in
Indian history. Movements like this can sometimes be seen more
clearly from afar than nearby, and we conclude with a few comments on
it from our outside but interested perspective.

In the past few decades, a new kind of history has been propagated by
a vocal group of Indian writers, few of them trained historians, who
lavishly praise and support each other's works. Their aim is to
rewrite Indian history from a nationalistic and rel igious point of
view. Their writings have special appeal to a new middle class
confused by modern threats to traditional values. With alarming
frequency their movement is backed by powerful political forces,
lending it a mask of respectability that it do es not deserve.

Unquestionably, all sides of Indian history must be repeatedly re-
examined. But any massive revisions must arise from the discovery of
new evidence, not from desires to boost national or sectarian pride at
any cost. Any new historical models must be cons istent with all
available data judged apart from parochial concerns.

The current "revisionist" models contradict well-known facts: they
introduce horse-drawn chariots thousands of years before their
invention; imagine massive lost literatures filled with "scientific"
knowledge unimaginable anywhere in the ancient world; p roject the
Rigveda into impossibly distant eras, compiled in urban or maritime
settings suggested nowhere in the text; and imagine Vedic Sanskrit or
even Proto Indo-European rising in the Panjab or elsewhere in northern
India, ignoring 150 years of evide nce fixing their origins to the
northwest. Extreme "out-of-India" proponents even fanaticise an India
that is the cradle of all civilisation, angrily rejecting all
suggestions that peoples, languages, or technologies ever entered
prehistoric India from f oreign soil - as if modern concepts of
"foreign" had any meaning in prehistoric times.

Ironically, many of those expressing these anti-migrational views are
emigrants themselves, engineers or technocrats like N.S. Rajaram, S.
Kak, and S. Kalyanaraman, who ship their ideas to India from U.S.
shores. They find allies in a broader assortment of home-grown
nationalists including university professors, bank employees, and
politicians (S. S. Misra, S. Talageri, K.D. Sethna, S.P. Gupta,
Bh. Singh, M. Shendge, Bh. Gidwani, P. Chaudhuri, A. Shourie,
S.R. Goel). They have even gained a small but vo cal following in
the West among "New Age" writers or researchers outside mainstream
scholarship, including D. Frawley, G. Feuerstein, K. Klostermaier,
and K. Elst. Whole publishing firms, such as the Voice of India and
Aditya Prakashan, are devoted to pr opagating their ideas.

There are admittedly no universal standards for rewriting history.
But a few demands must be made of anyone expecting his or her
scholarship to be taken seriously. A short list might include: (1)
openness in the use of evidence; (2) a respect for well-es tablished
facts; (3) a willingness to confront data in all relevant fields; and
(4) independence in making conclusions from religious and political
agendas.

N.S. Rajaram typifies the worst of the "revisionist" movement, and
obviously fails on all counts. The Deciphered Indus Script is based
on blatantly fake data (the "horse seal," the free-form
"decipherments"); disregards numerous well-known facts ( the dates of
horses and chariots, the uses of Harappan seals, etc.); rejects
evidence from whole scientific fields, including linguistics (a
strange exclusion for a would-be decipherer!); and is driven by
obvious religious and political motives in claimi ng impossible links
between Harappan and Vedic cultures.

Whatever their pretensions, Hindutva propagandists like Rajaram do not
belong to the realm of legitimate historical discourse. They
perpetuate, in twisted half-modern ways, medieval tendencies to use
every means possible to support the authority of relig ious texts. In
the political sphere, they falsify history to bolster national pride.
In the ethnic realm, they glorify one sector of India to the detriment
of others.

It is the responsibility of every serious researcher to oppose these
tendencies with the only sure weapon available - hard evidence. If
reactionary trends in Indian history find further political support,
we risk seeing violent repeats in the coming deca des of the fascist
extremes of the past.

The historical fantasies of writers like Rajaram must be exposed for
what they are: propaganda issuing from the ugliest corners of the pre-
scientific mind. The fact that many of the most unbelievable of these
fantasies are the product of highly trained e ngineers should give
Indian educational planners deep concern.

In a recent online exchange, Rajaram dismissed criticisms of his faked
"horse seal" and pointed to political friends in high places, boasting
that the Union government had recently "advised" the "National Book
Trust to bring out my popular book, From Sarasvati River to the Indus
Script, in English and thirteen other languages."

We fear for India and for objective scholarship. To quote Rajaram's
Harappan-Vedic one last time: "A great disgrace indeed!"

(Michael Witzel is Wales Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard University
and the author of many publications, including the recent monograph
Early Sources for South Asian Substrate Languages, Boston: ASLIP/
Mother Tongue 1999. A collecti on of his Vedic studies will be
published in India by Orient Longman later this year. He is also
editor of The Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies, accessible through
his home page at

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm.

Steve Farmer, who received his doctorate from Stanford University, has
held a number of academic posts in premodern history and the history
of science. Among his recent works is his book Syncretism in the
West, which develops a cross-cultural m odel of the evolution of
traditional religious and philosophical systems. He is currently
finishing a new book on brain and the evolution of culture. He can be
contacted at in...@safarmer.com.)

http://www.hvk.org/articles/1000/12.html

...and I am Sid Harth

chhotemianinshallah

unread,
Jan 5, 2010, 7:33:07 PM1/5/10
to
COMMUNALISM

The Hindutva ride

K.N. PANIKKAR

The organisational advance, social reach, political clout and
ideological influence that Hindu communalism achieved were extensive
but it could not consolidate its mass base mainly because of its
obscurantist, divisive and pro-imperialist policies.

THE HINDU PHOTO LIBRARY

The Somnath to Ayodhya rath yatra led by Lal Krishna Advani (centre)
was communal in conception, aggressive in execution and religious in
appeal.

DURING the 25 years of its publication, Frontline has carved out a
critical space in the intellectual life of the country by defending
progressive causes, supporting popular struggles and exposing
irrational practices. While championing secular and democratic values,
it has provided a platform for the campaign against communalism, which
emerged during this period as a powerful entity in Indian politics.
The magazine’s interventions have helped demystify the communal
discourse and expose its divisive politics.

While rightly highlighting the dangers of majority communalism, it has
not failed to emphasise that communalism is not a phenomenon confined
to any one community; the followers of all religious denominations
have been susceptible to its influence. Yet, the organisational
advance, social reach, political clout and ideological influence that
Hindu communalism achieved during this period were so extensive that
it could succeed in bringing the government under its control.
However, while in power, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the
political wing of Hindu communalism, could not consolidate and further
its mass base, mainly because of its obscurantist, divisive and pro-
imperialist policies. The situation was worsened by the different
constituents within the Hindu communal formation pulling in different
directions, advocating different programmatic preferences.

Although the Sangh Parivar, as the Hindu communal collective is
called, increased the number of its constituents by setting up several
new social and cultural organisations, it could not remain cohesive
and united as before. The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the
mother organisation of Hindu communalism, tried to dominate over the
others; the BJP, on its part, was keen on distancing itself from the
RSS; the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) was trying to expand its popular
base; and the Bajrang Dal was engaged in street squabbles, regardless
of religious considerations. As a consequence, the Parivar faced the
elections of 2004 and 2009 hardly as a united and happy family. The
BJP lost the race in both elections, with a clear decline in its
popular support in 2009.

This sudden discomfiture of the party, which was the result of a
variety of reasons, became particularly glaring in the context of the
political possibilities foregrounded by the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.
The campaign for the construction of a permanent abode for Ram Lalla
at the site of the Babri Masjid was expected to clear the path for
Hindutva to gain political power. It did not happen immediately as the
Hindu vote bank it created was not sufficient to march past the post.
But the BJP gained enough political clout to work towards marshalling
the support of parties that were prepared to sacrifice principles at
the altar of power. It was the opportunism and lack of principles of
parties such as the Telugu Desam Party, the Janata Dal, the Dravida
Munnetra Kazhagam and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
that catapulted the BJP to power in 1998. The power, though, was not a
windfall for the BJP. For almost 50 years it had patiently worked for
it, assiduously supported by the cultural work of the RSS and the VHP.
The politics, the BJP knew, was a game of patience.

TOWARDS RELIGIOUS POLITICS

Sangh Parivar PROJECT

The major impediment the BJP (as well as its earlier incarnation, Jana
Sangh) faced was its political isolation as other parties, wedded to
secular ideology, were not prepared to do business with the communal
BJP. The Emergency provided the first opportunity to break out of this
isolation and to share political space with secular parties. For
instance, the RSS was an active participant in the movement led by
Jayaprakash Narayan and used that connection to expand its social base
and to earn political acceptability. It enabled the Jana Sangh to
participate in the coalition government formed after the Emergency.
The access to state apparatuses thus gained by the communal forces was
a major breakthrough, which was most effectively used by them to
spread their influence.

Yet, the failure of the “Janata experiment” of the post-Emergency
period left the Jana Sangh considerably weakened, and it had to
rebuild its base by regrouping its cadre, both organisationally and
ideologically. The party was quick to realise that the secular and
democratic legacy of the anti-Emergency politics did not enthuse its
hard-core supporters. Nor did anti-imperialism, which a section of
Janata coalition had advocated, appeal to the BJP leadership. The new
path charted out, as a consequence, was based on bringing religion to
the centre stage of its politics and invoking culture as the defining
constituent of nationalism.

Among the strategies adopted for the realisation of the first was the
Ram Janmabhoomi movement. The second was attempted through the
cultural inclusion of all Hindus, on the one hand, and, on the other,
the exclusion of non-Hindus from the nation. The ideological and
cultural justification for such a strategy was provided much earlier
by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and M.S. Golwalkar. The programme that
emanated from this dual strategy was a heady cocktail of religion,
culture and politics, which appealed to all segments of the Sangh
Parivar as it gave working space to all of them. The BJP could harp on
nationalist politics, the RSS on religious ideology and the VHP and
other like-minded organisations on cultural identity. In pursuance of
these three objectives, the Sangh Parivar launched the Ram Janmabhoomi
movement, which was described by Atal Bihari Vajpayee as an expression
of Indian nationalism.

The nationalism that the Ram Janmabhoomi movement invoked had greater
salience with religion than with the nation. It was basically a
strategy of religious mobilisation using Ram as a symbol to attract
the allegiance of the believers to a political cause shrouded in
religious garb. The Hindu consolidation such a mobilisation would
entail was expected to ensure easy access to power. Only Ram had to be
taken to the people couched in an emotional idiom, which the Sangh
Parivar did through a variety of programmes associated with the
construction of the temple at Ayodhya.

Militant INITIATION

The most effective of them was the rath yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya
led by Lal Krishna Advani. It was communal in conception, aggressive
in execution and religious in appeal. As a result, violence erupted
along the entire route of the yatra, in which several people were
killed and injured. The yatra, however, did not yield the expected
dividend; in terms of political gains, it did not produce the desired
result. For, it did not lead to the consolidation of the Hindus as the
BJP had believed it would. On the contrary, it foregrounded the
internal differences within Hinduism and raised the question, “Who is
a Hindu?”. The overwhelming majority of Adivasis and Dalits could not
be convinced that the construction of the temple at Ayodhya was a
matter for their concern. At least a section among them believed that
their incorporation into the Hindu fold would only perpetuate the
cultural oppression practiced for centuries. Nor did the yatra attract
the pious believers to the BJP fold; in fact, they were repulsed by
the aggression and violence perpetrated in the name of Hinduism.

The yatra proved to be a misadventure, which considerably damaged the
image of the BJP and also deprived it of a possible symbol of
mobilisation in the future. Advani was largely responsible for this
suicidal mistake. Although he became the Deputy Prime Minister and the
Prime Minster-in-waiting, the yatra signalled the end of his political
career. He continued to be in the limelight only because of the
backing of the RSS and later because Vajpayee was ill and the BJP had
no credible leadership to match his “reputation”.

Yet, the yatra was a traumatic experience for the nation. It
demonstrated as never before the danger to democracy inherent in
majority communalism. The introspection the secular forces undertook
as a consequence highlighted the weaknesses of their political
practice. A large number of civil society organisations, sensing the
danger, tried to stem the communal tide by organising local-level
resistance. Such efforts, however, did not coalesce with broader
secular politics, and as a consequence, Hindu communalism succeeded in
coming to power in 1998. A major reason for this success of the BJP
was not its own strength; it was more owing to the political decline
of the Indian National Congress and the opportunism of some regional
parties.

VIOLENT IMAGE

Communal CONQUEST

The violence and brutality inherent in communalism found unprecedented
expression during this period. Ashgar Ali Engineer has systematically
documented the number of communal conflicts witnessed in independent
India. But there is no reliable estimate of the number of innocent
victims who succumbed to the violence unleashed in communal conflicts.
What is on record is that the brutality of violence has increased with
every incident.

The communal violence of the 21st century is qualitatively different
from the communal incidents of the 20th century. If the 20th century
conflicts were mostly spontaneous, the recent events are meticulously
organised and systematically executed. In most of the latter, the
members of the Sangh Parivar have been both instigators and
participants. What happened in Gujarat in 2002 and in Orissa in 2007
are glaring examples. In both cases, they were not riots or conflicts
between the members of two communities. In Gujarat, it was practically
a genocide perpetrated with the active support and consent of the
government. In Orissa, on the other hand, it was the members of the
VHP who literally hunted the Christians out of their establishments
and tortured them. In both cases, the inhuman brutality elicited
universal condemnation. It is worth probing whether the violent image
of the Sangh Parivar adversely affected the fortunes of the BJP in the
2004 and 2009 elections.

In the last 25 years, the BJP (and the Jana Sangh) got the opportunity
to govern at the Centre twice and for longer periods in several
States. In all of them, the BJP came to power on a promise to provide
a “different” administration. The difference, however, was not felt in
efficiency or honesty. The BJP administration proved to be as
inefficient, insensitive and corrupt, if not more, as the rule of the
Congress. The only difference was that the BJP was ideologically
committed to saffronise the administrative machinery and use it for
furthering the Hindutva agenda.

Forming a FRONT

The Hinduisation of the police and other apparatuses of the state in
Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan are well-known examples. More attention
was devoted to the ideological apparatuses of the state like education
and culture. When the Ministry of Human Resource Development was under
the charge of Murli Manohar Joshi, schools and universities were
commissioned to propagate obscurantism in the guise of promoting
traditional knowledge. As a consequence, secular and rational content
in education gave way to religious fundamentalism, undermining the
already fragile scientific temper in society.

The dislike of the fascists and fundamentalists of the “thinking” and
the “creative” class is well demonstrated in Nazi Germany and Fascist
Italy. A large number of the people from this class were forced to
migrate to other countries in order to escape the possible brutal
treatment. Although the rule of the Sangh Parivar did not have the
chance to fully blossom as a fascist order, its treatment of artists
and intellectuals indicated its potentially repressive character.
Several artists were intimidated and their works were vandalised. The
secular historians were particularly the target of its ire as the
Sangh Parivar was keen on legitimising a religious interpretation of
India’s past. With that in view, it rewrote the textbooks to project
India as a Hindu nation.

The Parivar was interested in creating a thinking class of its own.
With that in view, it took several initiatives to reorder education on
religious-communal lines. It set up a large number of schools in which
the curriculum was heavily loaded in favour of religious instruction.
The Parivar took particular interest in educating tribal people in
order to recruit them to the Hindutva fold. In fact, its infiltration
in the field of education has been pretty successful.

LONG-TERM VIEW

Change of GUARD

The initiatives of the Sangh Parivar in the field of education and
culture reflect a long-term view of power. From the 1980s, the Parivar
has been engaged in expanding its social base through grass-roots-
level activities undertaken by cultural and social organisations. The
unprecedented increase in the number of shakhas of the RSS and the
expansion of the VHP and Bajrang Dal during this period are
symptomatic of the increasing clout the Parivar was gaining among
Hindus. Apart from these all-India organisations, the Parivar also
authored a large number of local outfits, continuously engaged in
issue-based activities.

The BJP is a part of this large network and is not just the political
wing of the RSS. Only that the BJP is subjected to the control of the
RSS in all crucial decision-making. No other political party has such
a vast cadre-based organisational support structure as the BJP, as its
strength does not actually lie in its cadre alone, but in the social
reach and cultural influence of a large corpus of its sister
organisations. Although the recent electoral reverses and internal
bickering have inflicted a body blow, the BJP continues to be an
influential factor in Indian politics.

Even during the worst of times, as in the 2009 elections, it has
managed to garner the electoral support of about 20 per cent. It has a
sufficiently large political base, in a highly fragmented polity, to
manoeuvre for power through alliances with other parties. About a five
percentage increase in its popular support would make the BJP a serous
contender for power. Even though it would mean a long haul, it is not
beyond the BJP if the cohesion and unity of the Parivar are regained
and its leadership is overhauled, which is a distinct possibility,
through the intervention of the RSS.

AKHILESH KUMAR

GUJARAT CHIEF MINISTER Narendra Modi, with a sword presented to him by
Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, at an NDA rally in
Ludhiana on May 10, 2009.

Will the popular disenchantment with the United Progressive Alliance
government, in view of its pro-imperialist and pro-affluent policies,
bring the BJP into contention, even if it shares considerable common
ground with the Congress?

Given the present political conditions and economic prospects, such a
possibility cannot be ruled out.

K.N. Panikkar is a former Vice-Chancellor of the Sri Sankara
University of Sanskrit, Kalady, Kerala.

Volume 27 - Issue 01 :: Jan. 02-15, 2010
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU

http://www.flonnet.com/stories/20100115270104200.htm

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COMMUNALISM

When the ‘dead’ came back

S.P. SINGH AND VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN

NOBODY in independent India seems to have seen anything like this – so
claimed the loyalists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) after the
April 4 rally of the organisation in New Delhi. But they do not seem
to know that there is another historic first to the organisation, that
of playing a political hoax non pareil in this country.

In its enthusiasm to ride the so-called “Rama bhakti wave” the VHP has
played the cruellest of jokes on the people of India. That of creating
non-existent martyrs and even branding live people as “martyrs” for
its cause.

All this started on February 20 when the VHP leadership published a
list of “martyrs”, kar sevaks who had died during the kar seva
agitation in Uttar Pradesh in October-November 1991. The list
comprising 59 names generated great interest because the toll on those
fateful days was controversial and the exact figures were much
awaited. (The VHP claimed that 36 “kar sevaks” died in police firing
in Ayodhya on October 30 and November 2 and that 23 others had been
killed in other places during the kar seva agitation. In addition, it
asserted, 23 “kar sevaks” were missing.) There were rumours and even
newspaper reports that more than 100 people had died.

On December 27, 1990, the Chandra Shekhar government stated in
Parliament that only 15 “kar sevaks” had died in the police firing in
Ayodhya and even challenged those who were projecting a bigger figure
to come out with a single additional name. The list released by VHP
working president V.H. Dalmia and joint general secretary Acharya
Giriraj Kishore with much fanfare was in answer to the government
challenge. While releasing it the leaders also claimed that this was
only the first list. Many more names were to come was the indication.

But enquiries in Uttar Pradesh alone show that the first list itself
is a false document meant to stir the Rama bhakts all over the country
and gain political mileage for the VHP associate, the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP).

Of the names in Uttar Pradesh the real people killed are the ones on
the government list also. The number comes to 11 but the VHP claims to
have 23 martyrs in U.P.

Out of the other 12 whom the VHP claims to be “martyrs”, four are
still alive. Five others died for various other reasons which had no
direct relation to the kar seva, and even many years before 1990. One
is non-existent and his personality is shrouded in mystery. Two others
suffered injuries in the kar seva but died many days later at their
own places.

Three of the “live martyrs” belong to Mathura district. They are
Thakur Lal Singh of Raal village, Ashutosh Das of Brindavan and Baba
Raghav Das from Gadaya village. The other “live martyr” is Ramdev
Yadav of Hajiyanbad in Rae Bareili.

Lal Singh, now around 64, still moves around Raal and adjoining places
in sound health. Tall and well built, he met us at the very same
temple in the village where a sradhanjali sabha was organised by the
VHP and the BJP to condole his “martyrdom” a few weeks earlier. The
local BJP MLA, Ravikanth Garg, and the district BJP president, R.P.
Kamal, took part in the sradhanjali sabha and prayed that Lal Singh’s
soul might rest in peace. A deeply religious person, Lal Singh at that
time was on a pilgrimage in Maharashtra and Gujarat. He is a bachelor
and his sole occupation is religious worship and pilgrimage.

True, he was not in Raal at the time of the kar seva. True also that
he did not come back many days after the kar seva. The local VHP
outfit took notice of this fact and put out the version that he had
died in the police firing at Ayodhya. According to Lal Singh, he was
nowhere near Ayodhya on the fateful days – October 30 to November 2,
1990. Only when he came back to the village some time in January did
he know that he was declared to be dead and even his funeral rites
were over. But in the meantime his brother’s family, his only close
relatives, had gained 200 kilograms of wheat given by the VHP
representatives.

Lal Singh was not at all happy with all this. Yes, he liked his
brother’s family getting some wheat. But no, he was not going to “die”
for the VHP people, he told us. When he came back the VHP people asked
him to hide since he was on the martyrs’ list. They promised him money
and many other material benefits. But Lal Singh clearly told them that
he was not ready to oblige them for their petty political cause.When
questioned about Lal Singh’s sradhanjali, R.P. Kamal, who was present
at this function, was clearly on the defensive. He admitted that he
was in the wrong to have participated in the sradhanjali for someone
whose death was not “clearly established”. He also admitted that he
was not sure whether there were any martyrs in Mathura at all.

The case of Baba Ashutosh Das is stranger. Never in his life had he
gone to Ayodhya, let alone for the kar seva. A Bengali by birth, he
had been a wanderer before settling down in Mathura. Dabbling in
painting religious pictures, he often stays with Shambu Charan Pathak
in Sewa Kund at Brindavan. We met him in a dingy room at Radha Shyam
Sundarji mandir in the same locality. Ashutosh was taken for a “ghost”
when he came back after visiting his parents in Calcutta, where he was
during the time of the attempted kar seva. He had stayed for months in
Calcutta and by the time he returned to Brindavan, the VHP list was
out. “Arre Ashutosh, tum to Ayodhya mein mar gaye they, tum bhooth ho
kya?” (Ashutosh, you died at Ayodhya, are you a ghost?) was the
greeting he got everywhere in Brindavan for a few days. He was
irritated by this for some time, but now he takes it coolly. The
people of Brindavan also do not take him for a bhooth now.

Ramdev Yadav has also never been to Ayodhya. During the time of kar
seva he was very much in his village, Hajiyanbad. How the VHP dared to
put him on the martyrs’ list is a mystery. “When I saw my name on the
list I was surprised and amused. I have nothing to do with the VHP or
the BJP. They are dirty people,” said Ramdev Yadav when we stopped him
on the street. Raghav Das is a travelling sadhu. He is not really from
Gadaya village as is mentioned in the VHP list. But he often goes
there, said Dinanath Tiwari, purohit of the temple in the village.
Tiwari vouchsafes that Raghav Das is very much alive. “He came here
during the Holi festival after the VHP list was published. We told him
about the martyrs’ list and he laughed, saying “Sadhu ko kya, kabhi
yehan, kabhi wahan” (What is there for a sadhu, some time here and
some time there).

Mangilal Satyanarayan of Faizabad, who is on the martyrs’ list, died
17 years ago – a natural death. His wife Rashmi Devi told us that, of
course, her son died during the kar seva but not her husband. The VHP
seems to have made use of the fact that Mangilal’s son, Mahavir
Prasad, had “two wives”, one at Faizabad and one at Gonda. They have
listed the son at the Gonda address, where one of his wives lives, and
the father at the Faizabad address. An interesting aside to the story
is that both the “wives” are now claiming the Rs.1 lakh compensation
to be given by the government for those killed in the police firing.

At Shahjahanpur we encountered another curious case. Even the convener
of the Rama Janmabhoomi Mukti Sangharsh Samiti and the high-profile
leader of the VHP, Swami Chinmayanand, could not tell us whether
anyone from Shahjahanpur had died during the kar seva, but the VHP
list mentions Raghuvir Sharma of Shahjahanpur, and surprise of
surprises, the address given is that of the BJP office in town! Nobody
in the office or around it could tell us whether anyone of that name
had ever stayed there.

At Soron near Etah, a person listed as a martyr is Pannalal Khothewal.
According to the VHP list he died at his village after suffering
bullet injuries during kar seva. But Ishwar Kumar, who went along with
him for the kar seva, vouchsafes that there was no bullet injury. “He
was an old, unmarried man, and both of us got lathi beatings and he
could not stand it. He returned soon after with high fever. But at
that time there was no one in the house to look after him. The people
nearby gave some assistance. But that was not enough and he died,”
said Ishwar Kumar.

Khothewal’s sister’s son Vinay Shankar corroborates the statement. “We
were in Agra at that time and with nobody to care, he died on November
17.” But on the question of the date of death also the VHP list errs,
putting it as November 11 to create a sensational effect.

Both Vinay Shankar and Ishwar Kumar have a complaint against the VHP.
“The VHP guys did not care for Khothewal after his death. They did not
come here after November. Nor have they given the family the Rs.1 lakh
compensation promised.”

There are more cases like this. But one cannot go into all the details
here. (The accompanying table gives the salient details.) There is a
pattern in the selection of fake “martyrs” by the people of the VHP.
They have mostly taken old men who have no one to care for them and
whose cases no one is likely to pursue. They have also tried to list
people who have no regular addresses, and in this too they have
selected people in remote, interior areas.

There was a pointer to the hoax on the very day the list was
published. After announcing a list of 59 martyrs the VHP split it into
two, putting 36 people as martyrs during the kar seva in Ayodhya and
another 23 as people who died in various parts of the country while
preparing for the kar seva. Accident and sickness deaths became part
of this second list. These people could not be called martyrs by any
stretch of the imagination but the VHP probably did not expect that
the list of the “dead” would be probed into. That was its biggest
mistake. Interestingly, it has not committed the second hoax – of
coming out with the promised further lists of martyrs.

Volume 27 - Issue 01 :: Jan. 02-15, 2010
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU

http://www.flonnet.com/stories/19910524046.htm

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SPOTLIGHT

GUJARAT'S SHAME

Violence against the minority community continues in Gujarat even as
the Narendra Modi government sticks to its stand that the situation is
under control.

DIONNE BUNSHA
in Gujarat

AS Noorjehan Ghachi and her family took their afternoon nap, their
house was set on fire. Five members of the family were burnt to death
and six sustained serious burn injuries. The brutal massacre in
Abasana village in Ahmedabad district was part of the relentless
pogrom against Muslims in Gujarat, the Bharatiya Janata Party's
Hindutva experiment, the only State where it rules with a majority of
its own.

The Ghachi family was killed on April 3, just a day before Prime
Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee made a long-overdue visit to the State.
It took 36 days of violence, 750 deaths and the displacement of almost
1.5 lakh people to hit the Prime Minister finally. On the day before
his visit, seven people, including members of the Ghachi family, died
in the continuing state-supported terror campaign against the
minorities. However, all that Vajpayee did was to make heart-rending
speeches and express his shame and sympathy for the Muslim refugees
against whom the Sangh Parivar had launched a witch-hunt. Vajpayee did
nothing to prevent further killings or to initiate steps to arrest the
perpetrators of the violence.

DIONNE BUNSHA
Inside a burned house in Sundaram Nagar in Ahmedabad, a little boy
clutches to the wall.

"I don't know how I can face the rest of the world after the shameful
events in Gujarat," said Vajpayee, addressing refugees in the Shah
Alam relief camp. "We don't know how he has been able to face us after
all this time either," retorted a refugee, from the sidelines.

Mere words were not enough. There had been no reprieve in Gujarat's
communal carnage. Apparently, the alleged mastermind of the pogrom,
Chief Minister Narendra Modi, has escaped unscathed. Demands for his
dismissal from several sections of society, besides human rights
organisations and Opposition parties, were squelched. Modi has been
let off with a dressing down. "Officials should perform their duty and
the political leadership should undertake its responsibility to
protect citizens without any discrimination," Vajpayee said. But a day
after his visit, it was business as usual in Gujarat. The violence
continued, and 11 incidents of stabbing and two deaths were reported
on April 5.

Narendra Modi's smug denial of the planned nature of the massacres has
upset some of the country's most influential people and institutions,
including the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). Yet he
continues in power, owing to the support from the top brass of the BJP
and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, who certified that he had handled
the crisis well. His cover-up of the terror unleashed by Sangh Parivar
cadre apparently pleased them. Although Modi was summoned to New Delhi
by the Prime Minister, who was irked by his inaction in curbing the
violence and his blatant support of its militant Hindutva
perpetrators, the Chief Minister remained unruffled. However, his
hopes of holding mid-term elections to the State Assembly to translate
the saffron wave into votes were dashed. Instead of trying to set
right the damage, Modi went on a seeming public relations campaign to
project his stand to the media and business communities in Mumbai and
New Delhi.

If Modi were to be believed, peace was restored in Gujarat within 72
hours; barring a few 'stray' incidents, it was business as usual in
the country's most prosperous State; people in Gujarat observed
Muharram and celebrated Holi peacefully; and the systematic targeting
of Muslims was just a figment of the media's imagination. But his
amazing denials found no takers. Almost all the refugees in the
State's 104 relief camps are Muslims, revealing the extent to which
the community has been targeted. Every day more people are being
killed, mobs are still on the rampage in the streets of Ahmedabad and
Vadodara, and new attacks are being launched in villages and towns
previously untouched by communal violence. Rumours spread every day,
keeping up the tension, fear and sense of insecurity. During both Holi
and Muharram, curfew was enforced and heavy security arrangements were
made in most places. People preferred to stay at home owing to the
tension. In fact, many schools and colleges had to postpone
examinations.

According to industry sources, the riots have resulted in an estimated
loss of between Rs.3,000 crores and Rs.5,000 crores. Most business
establishments run by Muslims were targeted during the riots - from
small bakeries and hotels along the highway to large showrooms in
Ahmedabad's elite shopping areas. Different versions of a pamphlet
calling for an economic boycott of Muslims have been distributed all
over the State. One such even lists the annual earnings of various
business establishments run by Muslims in Kalol. Apart from shop-
owners, thousands of daily wage earners in Ahmedabad are also on the
brink of starvation. They have not earned anything for over a month.
Moreover, a month of violence has had its effect on the financial
position of the State government. With virtually no tax revenue
collected in March, the government was unable to clear its bills and
had to get an overdraft from the Reserve Bank of India.

THE role of the State police in aiding and abetting the violence has
also become clear. In Naroda Patia, Ahmedabad, where 91 people were
massacred, people who claimed that they were witnesses said that
police personnel offered no help to the victims and instead pointed
out homes of Muslims to the mob, which allegedly included certain
Vishwa Hindu Parishad stalwarts. Near Ambika Mill in Gomtipur,
Ahmedabad, witnesses to violence claimed that they saw a police
officer supplying petrol from his jeep to a mob wearing saffron
scarves and armed with swords and trishuls (tridents). The police
refused to lodge a complaint against the officer. There were reports
that in several places the police opened fire indiscriminately into
Muslim bastis that were under attack. Innocent residents, young and
old, were rounded up during 'combing operations' in Muslim areas.
"These combing operations are a typical instrument of police
harassment where the police just enter houses and arrest people in a
random manner," said a senior police officer.

DIONNE BUNSHA
In Sundaram Nagar, the remains of the day.

In perhaps the most glaring cases of police indifference, the calls
for help from two judges, both Muslims, were not heeded. They had to
abandon their homes and seek refuge elsewhere. Justice M.H. Kadri, a
sitting judge of the Gujarat High Court, was not given police
protection despite several calls for help. He left his official
residence and sought refuge in a colleague's home. Justice A.N.
Divecha, a retired judge of the High Court, also had to leave his
home. He returned to find it ransacked. Despite the heavy security
outside the Gujarat High Court, trucks were burned outside its gates
on February 28. Several judges fled the premises of the court.

Apparently, a large section of the police seem to have complied with
the orders of their political bosses. The few who ignored political
interference and tried to prevent the escalation of violence were
punished with sudden transfers. While the violence continued, 27
police officers were transferred. The names of officers who prevented
flare-ups and took stern action against the culprits were mentioned in
the government order. For instance, Rahul Sharma, Superintendent of
Police (S.P.), Bhavnagar, was transferred within 20 days to a less
active post of Deputy Commissioner of Police, Ahmedabad (Control
Room). In Bhavnagar, Sharma had nipped violence in the bud by taking
action against local VHP operatives. It is alleged that Sharma's
actions angered the local BJP Member of the Legislative Assembly.

Vivek Srivastava, who was shifted to the prohibition department from
his position as the S.P. of Kutch, played a major role in preventing
mob violence.

Even as the storm of communal violence swept across 15 districts of
Gujarat, Kutch remained peaceful. It is alleged that despite
interventions by Home Minister Gordhan Zadaphia, he arrested the
district Home Guards commandant, Akshya Thakkar, who is also
apparently a local VHP leader, for stirring trouble in Kutch. A
communal incident was reported a week after his transfer. On April 2,
shops were burned following the defacement of an idol at a place of
worship in Anjar town. Incidentally, the RSS has been trying to
strengthen its base in Kutch ever since the January 2001 earthquake in
the area.

Another officer, Pravin Gondia, who accepted a First Information
Report (FIR) naming local MLA Mayaben Kodnani and VHP general
secretary Jaideep Patel in the Naroda Patia massacre, was shunted to
an inconsequential post in the civil defence directorate. The posting
of two other officers, Himanshu Bhatt and M.D. Antani, has also drawn
criticism from various quarters. The transfers have shaken the police
force at the highest levels and prompted even the Director-General of
Police of the State to write to the Chief Minister opposing the
transfers, which were announced without his approval.

The extent to which the authority of senior police officers has been
undermined is a matter of grave concern in police circles. "I received
a call from a Minister asking me not to shoot at Hindus," said one
police officer. While political interference has been an occupational
hazard for most police officers, they now feel that it has reached
dangerous levels in Gujarat. In the first few days of rioting, when
Sangh Parivar activists massacred hundreds, two Ministers, Ashok Bhatt
and I.K. Jadeja, were allegedly sitting in police control rooms in
Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar respectively and monitoring the situation.
Many victims also reported that local BJP leaders were stationed at
police stations, influencing the operations of the police.

At a meeting with Narendra Modi and other Ministers, top police
officials pleaded with the Chief Minister to allow them to take action
against VHP and Bajrang Dal cadre in order to curb the unending
violence. "There has been political interference throughout the
history of the police force. But this time it is more dangerous since
the fascist ideology behind it is one of hatred and one which attempts
to subvert all democratic institutions," said a police officer. He
also pointed out that RSS and VHP cadre were cornering positions in
the Home Guards and the Gram Rakshak Dal. Moreover, the few Muslim
police officers in the State force have been systematically sidelined.
In fact, in the last seven years, none of the eight Muslim Indian
Police Officers (IPS) officers in Gujarat have been given an executive
posting that has jurisdictional authorities and deals with crime and
law and order functions.

While the government would like to portray the ongoing violent
incidents as communal clashes, they are in fact not. Muslims are still
targeted, though in some cases they have defended themselves. The
political motives behind the attacks have been exposed in several
instances. Many Congress(I) strongholds in Kheda, Anand, Mehsana and
Vadodara, which remained unaffected earlier, are now burning.
Moreover, rumours, and pamphlets such as those circulated before Holi
instigating Hindus to 'take Ram's name and attack and kill Muslims',
keep stoking the fires of fear and hatred. The sending of bangles by
the VHP to villages that have remained peaceful has also ignited
violence in many places. "Bangles were also sent to our sarpanch some
time back. But our village remained peaceful until April 1," said
Razzak Vora from Boryavi village in Anand district.

Although there is little doubt that the pogrom was a well-planned one,
no police investigation seems to be looking into the VHP's role in the
conspiracy. Apparently, only the Godhra incident is considered as
being the result of a conspiracy. A senior police officer said: "The
fact that they gathered so many people to attack at the same time,
points to the level of planning by the VHP. They used gas cylinders,
swords and petrol bombs at several places, which also shows they were
premeditated attacks. The VHP launched a massive membership drive last
year, ensuring itself a ready mob. They had with them lists of Muslim
homes and shops. Obviously, they were waiting for something to happen.
They seized the opportunity when the Sabarmati Express tragedy
occurred."

As new tragedies like the massacre of the Ghachi family keep unfolding
in Gujarat, it seems the Prime Minister can do little to keep the
violence, or his Parivar, under check.

Volume 19 - Issue 08, Apr. 13 - 26, 2002
India's National Magazine


from the publishers of THE HINDU

http://www.flonnet.com/fl1908/19080210.htm

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COMMUNALISM

Basic instinct

A.G. NOORANI

And the Sangh's survival strategy

THERE is one and only one Indian political organisation which was
allowed to exist on assurances of good behaviour: the Rashtriya
Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS). This is not a reference to the ban imposed on
it during the Emergency on July 4, 1975, but to the one imposed in the
wake of Gandhiji’s assassination on January 30, 1948. On February 1,
the RSS supremo, M.S. Golwalkar, was arrested. His telegrams to
Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel on January 30 expressing shock and
sadness at the assassination did not save him. On February 4, 1948,
the Government of India banned the RSS.

By the time the third ban came upon it, on December 10, 1992, the RSS
had grown to phenomenal proportions. The article in Frontline (January
15, 1993) is an excellent portrayal of its career over the years. This
writer had, in 1970, analysed briefly the correspondence between
Golwalkar on the one hand and Patel and Nehru on the other, before the
lifting of the ban, in a pamphlet entitled “RSS and Politics”,
published by the Sampradayikta Virodhi Committee. Since then a lot of
material has been published, especially the 10-volume “Sardar Patel’s
Correspondence” (1945-50) edited by Durga Das and published by the
Navjivan Trust.

THE HINDU PHOTOLIBRARY

M.S. Golwalkar.

Less known is another correspondence, if it can be called so. It
consists of Golwalkar’s successor Balasaheb Deoras’ cringing letters
from the jail during the Emergency to Indira Gandhi and to the then
Chief Minister of Maharashtra, S.B. Chavan. They did not inspire the
addressees to reply. This correspondence was placed on the table of
the Maharashtra Assembly on October 18, 1977. If this correspondence
proves that the RSS won its freedom to operate on promises of good
behaviour, Deoras’ letters reveal the true face of the RSS during the
Emergency. Today, the RSS’ political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP), and its apologists in the media would like to forget both. But
the record on both counts is irrefutable. On July 17, 1949, Sardar
Patel wrote to Nehru: “I followed the same policy in the case of
Golwalkar. It was only after I had made him agree to a satisfactory
constitution for the RSS and got some assurances and undertakings in
regard to the Sangh policy for the future that I thought it safe to
release him.”

What were those “assurances and undertakings?” The government
communique of February 4, 1948, announcing the ban, said: “The
professed aims and objects of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh are to
promote the physical, intellectual and moral well-being of the Hindus
and also to foster feelings of the brotherhood, love and service
amongst them. Government themselves are most anxious to approve the
general material and intellectual well-being of all sections of the
people and have got schemes on hand which are designed to carry out
the objects, particularly the provision of physical training and
education in military matters to the youth of the country. Government
have, however, noticed with regret that in practice members of
Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh have not adhered to their professed
ideals.

“Undesirable and even dangerous activities have been carried on by the
members of the Sangh. It has been found that in several parts of the
country individual members of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh have
indulged in acts of violence involving arson, robbery, dacoity and
murder and have collected illicit arms and ammunitions. They have been
found circulating leaflets, exhorting people to resort to terrorist
methods, to collect firearms, to create disaffection against the
government and suborn the Police and Military.”

On February 6, Golwalkar gave a directive to “disband the RSS till the
ban is there” while “denying all the charges”. He claimed that the RSS
was law-abiding and would “carry on its activities within the bounds
of law”.

Golwalkar was released on August 6, 1948, but his movements were
restricted to Nagpur. Five days later he wrote to Nehru and Patel
complaining against the restrictions. On September 27, A.V. Pai
replied from the Prime Minister’s Secretariat that “Government have a
great deal of evidence in their possession to show that the RSS were
engaged in activities which were anti-national and prejudicial from
the point of view of public good. Just before the banning of the RSS
he (Mr. Nehru) is informed that the U.P. government sent you a note on
some of the evidence they have collected about such activities of the
RSS in U.P. Other provinces have also such evidence in their
possession. Even after the ban we have received information about the
undesirable activities of the old members of the RSS. This information
continues to come to us even now. You will appreciate that in view of
this, the government cannot consider the RSS as such a harmless
organisation from the public point of view.”

Golwalkar demanded (November 3) an inquiry. By now the restriction had
been lifted for the sole purpose of permitting him to visit Delhi and
lay his case before the government. However, his request for an
interview with Nehru was refused. While declining the interview, Nehru
(November 10) made a telling point: “It would appear that the declared
objectives have little to do with the real ones and with the
activities carried on in various forms and ways by people associated
with the RSS. These real objectives appear to be completely opposed to
the decisions of the Indian Parliament and the provisions of the
proposed Constitution, anti-national and often subversive and
violent.”

It is interesting to note that in his letter of November 12 to Nehru,
Golwalkar claimed that the RSS was “aloof from politics”. Golwalkar’s
letter of August 11, however, elicited an altogether different
response from Patel. His attitude must be analysed carefully. Not long
before the ban, Patel had said, on January 7, 1948: “You cannot crush
an organisation by using the danda. The danda is meant for thieves and
dacoits. After all the RSS men are not thieves and dacoits. They are
patriots who love their country.” Even after the ban, Patel was keen
to absorb the RSS within the Congress. Yet, he was not too forthcoming
when his Hindu Mahasabhaite colleague in the Cabinet, Shyama Prasad
Mookerjee, began pestering him to be soft on the RSS and the
Mahasabha. Patel wrote to Mookerjee on July 18 that “our reports do
confirm that, as a result of the activities of these two bodies,
particularly the former (the RSS), an atmosphere was created in the
country in which such a ghastly tragedy (Gandhiji’s assassination)
became possible. There is no doubt in my mind that the extreme section
of the Hindu Mahasabha was involved in this conspiracy. The activities
of the RSS constituted a clear threat to the existence of government
and the state. Our reports show that those activities, despite the
ban, have not died down. Indeed, as time has marched on, the RSS
circles are becoming more defiant and are indulging in their
subversive activities in an increasing measure.”

This makes it hard to understand Patel’s reply to Golwalkar less than
two months later, on September 11. Addressing him as “Brother
Golwalkar” (the latter’s letter was addressed to “Hon’ble Sardar
Vallabh Bhai Patel”), the Sardar recalled his speech at Jaipur in
December 1947 in which he had spoken very gently of the RSS (“patriots
who love their country”). He regretted that this had no effect on the
Sangh: “There can be no doubt that the RSS did service to the Hindu
Society.... But the objectionable part arose when they, burning with
revenge, began attacking Musalmans. Organising the Hindus and helping
them is one thing, but going in for revenge for its sufferings on
innocent and helpless men, women and children is quite another thing.”
He added: “All their speeches were full of communal poison.” Patel
reminded Golwalkar that RSS men expressed joy and distributed sweets
after Gandhiji’s death. He squarely charged that “as a final result of
the poison the country had to suffer the sacrifice of the invaluable
life of Gandhiji”.

But the Sardar, nonetheless, made a strange proposal for reasons of
his own: “I am thoroughly convinced that the RSS men can carry on
their patriotic endeavour only by joining the Congress and not by
keeping separate or opposing.” He had the restriction lifted and
Golwalkar came to Delhi. But his talks did not succeed, and on
November 2, 1948, Golwalkar announced the failure in public statements
outlining his stand.

Three days later he replied to Sardar Patel’s proposal in terms which
are very significant. They were the basis on which he later supported
the creation of the Jan Sangh, the ancestor of the BJP: “I tried my
utmost to see that between the Congress, which is capable of
delivering goods in the political field and is at present the ruling
party, and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh in the cultural field,
which has achieved success in creating a matchless spirit of
patriotism, brotherhood and selflessness among the people, there be no
bad blood, there be only everlasting mutual love, one supplementing
and complementing the other, both meeting in a sacred confluence.”

He wanted partnership. The Sardar wanted a merger, no doubt, to
buttress his own position in the Congress. The talks having failed,
Golwalkar was ordered to go back to Nagpur.

The Home Ministry issued a statement on November 14 recording what had
transpired in Golwalkar’s two interviews with Sardar Patel and the
former’s refusal to alter the Sangh’s ways: “The information received
by the Government of India shows that the activities carried on in
various forms and ways by the people associated with the RSS tend to
be antinational and often subversive and violent and that persistent
attempts are being made by the RSS to revive an atmosphere in the
country which was productive of such disastrous consequences in the
past.”

It added: “He has written letters both to the Prime Minister and Home
Minister explaining inter alia that the RSS agrees entirely with the
conception of a secular state for India and that it accepts the
National Flag of the country and requesting that the ban imposed on
the organisation in February should now be lifted. These professions
of the RSS leader are, however, quite inconsistent with the practice
of his followers and for the reason already explained above, the
Government of India find themselves unable to advise Provincial
Governments to lift the ban.”

Two hours after the statement was issued, Golwalkar was arrested, but
not before he had issued on the previous day a call to the
Swayamsewaks to revive the organisation and flout the ban. He withdrew
formally his directive of disbandment.

In his book The Jana Sangh, Craig Baxter offers an explanation for the
change which is sound: “Golwalkar took into consideration the change
in the political climate.” If Golwalkar called a halt to the
satyagraha (which he launched on December 9, 1948) on January 14,
1949, it was because Patel and he had resumed contact through
intermediaries.

The principal mediator was T. R. V. Shastry, president of the Indian
Liberal Federation. Another person who came into the picture was
Pandit Mauli Chandra Sharma, the then general secretary of the Civil
Liberties Union. He rose to be president of the Jan Sangh but resigned
on November 3, 1954 alleging “domination and interference by the RSS.”
The government demanded that the RSS constitution be reduced to
writing and be made public. The status of the RSS flag was another
issue.

Golwalkar forwarded a written constitution to the government on April
11, 1949. On May 3, the Home Ministry replied through H.V.R. Iengar:
“You will recall his (Sardar Patel) telling you that the gravamen of
the charges against the RSS was that it functioned in secrecy, that
whatever the professions of its organisers might have been, it derived
its main inspiration in the minds of the people from the doctrine of
communal hatred, that it exalted a communal party above State and that
in practice its followers indulged systematically in violence. The
Government of India feel that the Constitution as drafted does not
fully safeguard the organisation against these defects.”

Iengar added: “Incidents have occurred in all Provinces and many
States where the methods adopted by the Sangh were anything but
peaceful and legitimate, and where the advancement of the interest of
Hindu religion and culture took the form of violence against those who
happen to profess some faith other than Hinduism.”Iengar raised
another point. The Government wanted “a specific declaration, under
Article 4 (of Golwalkar’s draft), of allegiance to the Constitution of
India as established by law and an explicit acceptance, in Article 5,
of the National Flag.” It also insisted on “the democratic elective
principle” in the RSS.

RSS leader Balasaheb Deoras

Golwalkar replied on May 17 angrily objecting to these demands
(“wholly out of place in the matter under consideration”). He asked
the government “to recognise the difference between a constitution and
an oath of allegiance.” This is highly significant. It touches the
core of the RSS credo. Iengar rejoined on May 24: “I am to repeat that
the Government have ample evidence in their possession implicating
both the RSS and its individual members in systematic acts of
violence.” After Golwalkar’s letter of June 1, Iengar wrote back on
June 11 and declared the correspondence closed.

But only a day earlier, on June 10, Golwalkar had written to Mauli
Chandra Sharma “restating the position of the RSS on the points that
you have raised.” His aim, of course, was to pass on the “restatement”
to the Government. The other mediator, T.R.V. Shastry, recorded his
role in a statement on July 13. He had “framed the constitution and
passed it on to the Government of India.”

The ban was lifted and Golwalkar released. As Baxter remarks, “This
discussion of the RSS constitution shows that the minimum demands of
the Government were met, albeit sometimes grudgingly as in the case of
the flag. The elective principle was given lip service but the power
remained vested in Golwalkar as ‘guide and philosopher.’ The RSS went
to great lengths to disclaim any political role for itself, although
the very issue of the Organiser which contained the constitution also
contained an article urging the RSS to enter politics.”

The government issued a communique on July 11, 1949, announcing the
lifting of the ban. It recorded the RSS leader’s clarifications and
said: “In March this year, the RSS leader wrote to the government
forwarding a draft constitution, the terms of which were examined by
government in consultation with the Provinces. The Government of India
conveyed to the RSS leader their reactions on the draft and he has now
generally accepted the suggestions made by the Government of India and
the clarifications made by him indicate that the relevant provisions
of the constitution are intended to be worked in the spirit
contemplated by the government.“In the light of the modifications made
and clarifications given by the RSS leader, the Government of India
have come to the conclusion that the RSS organisation should be given
an opportunity to function as a democratic, cultural organisation
owing loyalty to the Indian Constitution and recognising the National
Flag eschewing secrecy and abjuring violence.”

But on August 1 Golwalkar claimed: “There was no compromise. There was
no undertaking of any kind given to the government.” He claimed that
nobody had a right to ask for the constitution of any organisation. In
his view, it was “transgressing the limits of administration”. But,
only four months earlier, on April 11, he himself had forwarded the
RSS constitution to the Home Minister of India.

The government’s communique had clearly asserted that “the RSS leader
has undertaken to make the loyalty to the Indian Constitution and
respect for the National Flag more explicit in the constitution of the
RSS and to provide clearly that persons believing or resorting to
violent and secret methods will have no place in the Sangh. The RSS
leader has also clarified that the constitution will be worked on a
democratic basis.”

Patel exacted the price for his support to the ban earlier. While
Nehru was abroad, on October 7, 1949, he was able to get the Congress
Working Committee to open Congress membership to RSS men. Nehru had
the decision rescinded on November 7, 1949. RSS men could join the
Congress only if they quit the RSS.In contrast to Golwalkar’s letters
to Nehru, Balasaheb Deoras’ missives to Indira Gandhi during the
Emergency were cringing: “I have heard the speech you delivered on
August 15, 1975, from the Red Fort, Delhi on AIR. The speech was
balanced and befitting to the occasion and has prompted me to write
this letter to you,” he wrote on August 22. He concluded: “I beseech
you to rescind the ban imposed upon the RSS.”

Deoras wrote to Indira Gandhi again on July 16, praising her foreign
policy and renewing his plea on the ban. Both letters were ignored.
Deoras’ letters to S.B. Chavan were as abject. He wrote on July 15,
1975: “The Sangh has done nothing against the government or society
even remotely. There is no place for such things in the Sangh’s
programme. The Sangh is engaged only in social and cultural
activities.”

He wrote to Chavan again on November 24, 1975, December 12, 1975, and
January 24, 1976. On June 6, 1976, he even asked Chavan for “release
on parole with a view to clarifying certain issues directly to you”.
The entreaty was repeated on July 12, 1976. None of the letters
elicited a reply.

But, the Emergency over, the RSS prospered during the Janata era. In
1980 the Jan Sangh walked out of the Janata Party to form the
Bharatiya Janata Party. Seven years later, on November 16, 1987,
Deoras felt emboldened to say that the RSS entry into politics “in the
near future” was not ruled out. Meanwhile, it rules the roost over its
parivar – the BJP, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal and
the front organisations. The promises which the RSS made 45 years ago
were a sham.

Nehru’s fears have come true. Donald Eugene Smith wrote in his classic
“India as a Secular State”: “Nehru once remarked that Hindu
communalism was the Indian version of fascism, and, in the case of the
RSS, it is not difficult to perceive certain similarities. The leading
principle, the stress on militarism, the doctrine of racial-cultural
superiority, ultra-nationalism infused with religious ideal- ism, the
use of symbols of past greatness, the emphasis on national solidarity,
the exclusion of religious or ethnic minorities from the nation-
concept – all of these features of the RSS are highly reminiscent of
fascist movements in Europe.”

The report of Justice P. Venugopal, a retired Judge of the Madras High
Court, on the riots in Kanyakumari in March 1982 exposes in meticulous
detail “the RSS methodology for provoking communal violence."

Volume 27 - Issue 01 :: Jan. 02-15, 2010
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE

from the publishers of THE HINDU

http://www.flonnet.com/stories/19930326052.htm

chhotemianinshallah

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COVER STORY

History from below

IRFAN HABIB

All the tensions generated by British colonialism came to be
concentrated in the very instrument it forged for its own purpose -
the Bengal Army.

Photograph of Cotton Beaters by W. Johnstone 1856. Urban weavers were
observed to be especially enthusiastic in their support of the Revolt,
many even joining as armed volunteers.

THE Revolt of 1857 must be set in the larger context of what
colonialism was doing to India and its people at the time.

First of all, colonialism involved a constant and devastating drain on
India's resources. For 1854-55, just two years before the Revolt, the
annual drain was about Rs.5.8 crore, if one goes by the excess of
exports over imports shown in Indian customs records. Because of the
drain, the Indian people were subjected to increasing and excessive
taxation. The tax burden most heavily increased in what were called
the Mahalwari areas, where land tax was not fixed, as was the case in
the Permanently Settled and Madras Ryotwari areas.

In real terms, between 1819 and 1856, taxation in Mahalwari areas
(present UP, excluding Awadh, and parts of Central India) increased by
70 per cent. In many districts, up to 50 per cent of the land changed
hands as a result, between 1839 and 1858. The problem of land and
taxation for both peasants and zamindars thus had become extremely
critical. We must remember that this area constituted the heart of the
rebellion: the one from where the Bengal sepoys - mostly Hindustani
peasants in uniform - came, and where the rebellion enjoyed the widest
support.

The British retaliated with horrific violence against the native
population. (Charles Ball, `History of the Indian Mutiny', Vol. 1.)

The second factor to be taken account of was the development of what
is now called the Imperialism of Free Trade. English industrial
manufactures, after the Charter Act of 1833, entered India practically
free of duty. This meant that Indians, particularly spinners and
weavers, were thrown out of employment as more than a quarter of the
total textile consumption of India was now met by imports from
Britain. It is not surprising that urban weavers were observed to be
especially enthusiastic in their support of the Revolt, many even
joining as armed volunteers.

The urge to expand markets brought under enforced Free Trade gave
spurt to a vigorous policy of annexation. Sind, the Punjab, Satara,
Nagpur, Jhansi and Awadh were annexed between 1843 and 1856. Almost
one-fifths of the territory of India was added to British control
during these years. Each annexation resulted in huge unemployment as
people employed by the older regimes - dependants of the princely
courts, and artisans for example - were deprived of their livelihood.
The annexation of Awadh in 1856 particularly caused much distress, and
1857 here represented partly a popular attempt at the restoration of
the old regime.

Finally, Imperialism of Free Trade demanded a considerable
contribution in blood.

The Bengal Army, the largest modern army in Asia, had over 135,000
Indian (`native') soldiers trained in modern methods of warfare. It
was the main army of British imperialism at the time, one that had
borne the brunt of British wars of aggression in India and the world
from 1839 onwards. The sepoys fought and died in wars in Afghanistan,
Sind, Punjab, Burma, Crimea, China and Iran, sustaining heavy
casualties year after year. This naturally put a very heavy strain on
the morale of the Bengal Army, and on the loyalty of its sepoys to
their paymasters.

In a sense, all the tensions that imperialism or colonialism was
generating came to be concentrated in a dramatic form in the very
instrument which it had forged for its own purposes. In order to have
soldiers who spoke the same language, the Bengal Army sepoys were
recruited only from Hindustani speaking areas. The British wanted
literate and disciplined soldiers, so they concentrated on recruiting
Brahmins for their main arm, the infantry, and this increased the
element of caste sensitivity within the Bengal Army. After 1855, it
was decided that because there were so many Brahmins in the Bengal
Army, no `low caste' people would be recruited.

The Bengal Army had little to do with the old world of rajas, nawabs,
zamindars and taluqdars. They had little intrinsic sympathy with the
old regimes. The sepoys revolted on the immediate issue of greased
cartridges, an issue most important for the Brahmins, who were
naturally more conscious of caste and ritual purity than other
elements in the Army. Yet it would be a mistake to suppose that since
the sepoys rose to defend their "dharm" or "deen" (religion), they
were tied down to any theocratic perceptions or anti-modern
prejudices.

The sepoys were greatly familiar with modern methods of military
organisation and leadership, and, as noted, had no connection with the
`feudal' classes. An important feature of the Bengal Army was that
Hindus and Muslims were put together in the same units. When the issue
of greased cartridges came up, there were many occasions where the
Muslim sepoys said that as long as their Hindu brothers would not
accept these cartridges, they would not do so. After the Revolt broke
out, the sepoys began to elect their own officers. It is astonishing
that on many occasions largely Hindu contingents elected Muslim
officers and, similarly, contingents with a largely Muslim composition
chose Hindus as their officers. The fact that this was not anywhere
done consciously makes it a particularly notable example of inter-
religious solidarity among the Bengal Army sepoys.

In the debate on whether 1857 was or was not a "mutiny", one should
not overlook the crucial role of the sepoys in the Revolt. They were
the core of the rebellion, its armed element, its most steadfast
component. Of course, there were others. But in any rebellion, the
forces that are armed become its primary component. This is what made
the rebellion of 1857 the biggest anti-colonial revolt in the world.
No other anti-colonial revolt brought into the field over 120,000
professional soldiers of the kind that the Bengal Army sepoys put into
battle.

Democratic sentiments

Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi, one of the great leaders of the Revolt of
1857. She died fighting near Gwalior on June 17, 1858. From `1857, A
Pictorial Representation, New Delhi, 1957'.

Of particular significance is the republican or democratic sentiments
of the Bengal Army sepoys. Where they formed representative bodies,
they chose to call them `councils', and elected their peers. In Delhi,
they acknowledge the titular emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, but actually
constituted a `Court of Administration' consisting of the
representatives of different rebel contingents to administer Delhi. If
the revolt had succeeded, then we might have had, instead of the
Central Legislative Assembly, the Court of Administration of Delhi as
the initial Parliament in India. In Lucknow too the sepoys insisted on
constituting a similarly representative `court' or `council'.

Thus, the Bengal Army sepoys not only had a concept of modern
organisation, but also put stress on the important question of
representation by election. (It was often said that this was also
their undoing because there were interminable discussions before any
decision could be taken.)

Another thing to mark is that despite the criticism of the sepoys'
conduct in Delhi in British accounts, it is remarkable that during the
four months of rebel control in Delhi (there are newspapers and
documents belonging to this phase in the National Archives), the
amount of misconduct by the sepoys was limited. They were not
receiving any pay, so in the beginning they had to get some money out
of the civilian population. But once their pay was organised, they did
not harass the civilian population, not even the moneylenders.
Contrast this with what happened after the British occupation. There
was mass slaughter and plunder of the people. In contrast, throughout
the rebellion, the conduct of sepoys was exemplary considering the
circumstances.

A patriotic colour was sought to be given to the slogan of religion.
An argument put forth by the rebels was that Hindus and Muslims were
monotheists while Christians believed in the Trinity. Thus, Muslims
and Hindus had common religious values, which they did not share with
the English. But beyond this was the idea that both Hindus and Muslims
were loyal to India and the English were people of a different race
who insulted and exploited Indians. One can indeed gauge the kinds of
notions prevalent among the rebels from the newspapers that were
issued during the four months of the rebel regime at Delhi.

There were three such newspapers, issued weekly, during that time, two
in Urdu and one in Persian. Delhi Urdu Akhbar, the major paper,
strongly argued that the English rulers were foreigners and drew away
wealth from India. They were Christians and so not monotheists. On the
other hand, Muslims believe in Allah and Hindus in Adipurush, that is,
One God.

Proclamation of Birjis Qadr, both in Urdu and Hindi, with his seal at
the top. Qadr, who was the adopted son of Begum Hazrat Mahal, was then
proclaimed ruler and leader of the rebels in Awadh.

The paper always addressed its readers as `fellow countrymen' and
called the rebel army fauj-i Hindustani or the Indian Army. The
paper's hero was Bakht Khan, the `republican'-minded commander-in-
chief in Delhi, who is most unfairly portrayed as a Wahabi in some
modern accounts.

Delhi Urdu Akhbar acclaimed the value of manual labour and pleaded
that people should obtain skill and manufacture rifles. There was no
condemnation in the paper of modern means of communication. In fact,
it demanded a restoration of the postal services under the aegis of
the rebels. In his proclamation of August 1857, Feroz Shah, a noted
rebel leader, said that the rebels would develop both steamboats and
railways.

Peasant participation in the rebellion was provoked first by taxation
(or over-taxation) under the British, and secondly by the fact that
the sepoys themselves came from the villages. Basically, however, it
was over-taxation in the Mahalwari areas, the loss of their lands or
the probability of such loss, that drove most peasants to giving
support to the rebellion. In some localities, and especially in Awadh,
they also tended to rise at the call of the traditional landed
elements, the zamindars and taluqdars.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in The Discovery of India characterises the
rebellion of 1857 as basically a feudal uprising. This is true only
insofar as many of the major leaders of the uprising were either
princes or zamindars and some of these rendered outstanding
contributions to the Revolt. For example, Kunwar Singh and Amar Singh,
the two zamindars of Jagdishpur, marched through Rewa, Kalpi, Kanpur,
Lucknow and Azamgarh in an epic campaign.

It has been said by some British writers on the rebellion that if the
rebels had about a dozen such leaders, then English rule could never
have been re-imposed. There was the Rani of Jhansi, Rani Lakshmi Bai,
and Hazrat Mahal of Lucknow, who so stoutly resisted the British.
There was Khan Bahadur Khan, a zamindar of Bareilly, who was
ultimately hanged. Bahadur Shah Zafar partly atoned for his early
hesitation and ultimate surrender through his post-1857 verses in
which he so movingly mourns the rebel dead.

It is also to be observed that when taluqdars, zamindars and princes
went into rebellion against the greatest colonial power of the world,
the exigencies of popular resistance inevitably imposed changes in
their visions and attitudes.

Let us consider the language of the proclamations of the Awadh rebels,
led so visibly by taluqdars, by the side of the sepoys. The
proclamations are generally in spoken Hindustani. For instance, the
initial Proclamation of Prince Birjis Qadr in July 1875 is a printed
one that has Urdu script on the right and Nagari on the left. The
texts are nearly identical in both columns, but the Urdu one has very
few Persian words and the Nagari has an equally few Prakritic
variants. The aim is obviously to use a language comprehensible to the
common people.

Early appeals

Kunwar Singh, Taluqdar of Jagdishpur near Arrah. He became a great
military leader who led an epic march from near Arrah to Rewa, Kanpur,
Lucknow and back to his home territory where he died of injuries. From
Charles Ball, `History of the Indian Mutiny', Vol 2, 1858.

In the early appeals, traditional notions are in evidence, with
promises to re-establish the old feudal hierarchies once the English
are defeated. In time, these sentiments disappear from rebel
proclamations. When, finally, the rebels from the camp of Hazrat Mahal
issued their reply to Queen Victoria's Proclamation of November 1857,
all these matters were forgotten. It is the Indian people who are in
the forefront. "The Army and people of India" are told not to believe
Queen Victoria and her Proclamation, which is so full of fraud and
deception.

If the English really want to do justice, why don't they return Mysore
which they took from Tipu Sultan, or return the Punjab which they took
from Dulip Singh, the rebels of Awadh ask. The second argument was
that the English are unforgiving in their vengeance, and therefore the
people must never give up the fight. And what future, the rebels ask,
was to be in store for the Indian people if the English won. They
would be merely coolies - fit only to build roads and dig canals?

In the story of Rani of Jhansi we see how family grievances convert
into larger causes. The Rani had no problem with the British
government till Jhansi was annexed and the child heir pushed aside.
She was initially hesitant to join the rebels. But once she did, she
did things she could never have imagined earlier. As she was fleeing
from Jhansi after the stormy battle over that city she met a Deccan
Brahmin,Vishnu Bhat Godse, who records that she was in a `Pathan'
dress. The Rani told him that she was a poor widow who should have
adopted the vidhwa dharma or the prescribed customs for widows. But
fate willed otherwise and she must now fight for the honour of Hindu
dharma. That Hindu dharma was thus not the restoration of the
customary religion that dictated that she should remain a widow
secluded from the world, but one that decreed that the foreigners
should be driven away. Loyalty to one's particular religion now
assumed a patriotic and non-sectarian form.

A veil should not be drawn on what the British did, however
undiplomatic it may be for us to raise this question. What happened to
the Indian people after the rebellion broke out and was suppressed,
cannot be erased from the pages of history. As J.W. Kaye put it in his
classic History of the Sepoy War, "An Englishman is almost suffocated
with indignation when he reads that a Mrs. Chamber or Miss Jinnings
was hacked to death by a dusky ruffian; but in native histories it may
be recorded that mothers, wives and children with less familiar names
fell miserable victims to the first swoop of English vengeance, and
these stories may have as deep a pathos as those that rend our own
hearts."

Massacre in Delhi

The massacre in Delhi is described in a large number of memoirs that
exist and in British reports. The whole city was de-populated and
subject to massacre. The slaughter went on for days. If the rebels
killed the English in hundreds, the English killed in tens of
thousands. Numberless Indians were "tried" and hanged or shot in
gruesome ways for the presumed offence of complicity in the killing of
English persons, but which Briton was ever brought to face retribution
for killing hundreds of ordinary Indians, men, women and children? How
can we treat the two as at par? Therefore, when our statesmen (as our
Prime Minister did, the other day, at Oxford) speak of the good things
that happened under British rule, like the establishment of the Indian
Civil Service, they should think sometimes of 1857, not only of the
rebels but also of the ordinary citizens - men, women and children -
who were shot or hacked to death or killed by various means, under the
aegis of our great praiseworthy benefactors.

Irfan Habib was Chairman, Centre for Advanced Studies in History at
Aligarh Muslim University. He is currently working on a People's
History of India series.

Volume 24 - Issue 12 :: Jun. 16-29, 2007


INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2412/stories/20070629006501100.htm

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BBC.
Hindu terrorism' debate grips India

By Zubair Ahmed
BBC News, Nasik, western India

It's argued that Hinduism and terrorism are incompatible

A new and highly controversial phrase has entered the sometimes cliche-
riddled Indian press: "Hindu terrorism".

As with the term "Islamic terrorism" and "Christian fundamentalism",
this latest addition to the media lexicon is highly emotive.

It was in the aftermath of the 29 September bomb blast in the
predominantly Muslim town of Malegaon in the western state of
Maharashtra that the term "Hindu terrorism" or "saffron terrorism"
came to be used widely.

That was because the state police's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS)
arrested 10 Hindus following the blasts and has said that it wants to
arrest several more.

Little-known

One of those detained was a female priest, Sadhwi Pragya Singh Thakur,
aged 38, who has been accused by the ATS of being involved in the
Malegaon blast. Her detention shocked members of the faith.

So too did the arrest of a serving Indian army officer, Lt-Col Prasad
Srikant Purohit, who the ATS says is the prime accused in the case.

Police said the Malegaon attacks were the work of 'terrorists'

Police are investigating whether some of those arrested are members of
a little-known Hindu outfit called Abhinav Bharat (Young India).

At least three of those held have some links with a prestigious
college in the city of Nasik, the Bhonsala Military Academy.

ATS investigators have questioned two of the academy's former office
bearers several times.

One of them was Col Raikar, who retired from the Indian army some
months ago.

Both he and Col Purohit served in the same unit of the army and became
friends.

The ATS claims the meeting in which the plan for the bomb blast was
hatched was held in the Bhonsala school.

Another retired army officer, Maj Prabhakar Kulkarni, is also under
arrest. He too was an office bearer at the school.

In addition, the ATS says that at least one of the 10 suspects
received military training here.

Sadhwi Pragya Singh Thakur, Col Purohit, Maj Kulkarni and Col Raikar
have denied any connection with terrorism, as has the Bhonsala
Military Academy and its parent organisation, the Central Hindu
Military Education Society (CHMES).

Founded in 1937, the sprawling Bhonsala campus is run by the CHMES, an
organisation established in the 1930s by Dr BS Moonje, a former
president of the militant Hindu Mahasabha (Hindu Assembly)
organisation.

His vision was to militarise India to fight the British Raj.

Military-style training

As the name suggests, this is not an ordinary college.

Its aim, as its website claims, is to "encourage students to take up
careers in the armed forces of the country".

Many Hindus are bemused at claims their faith is linked to terrorism

Military training involves teaching students how to fire guns.

The students are prepared for the National Defence Academy, the
central government's premier military college.

The branch of the academy in the city of Nasik has many impressive
buildings.

One of them is used to impart military-style training to students,
aged 10-16 years.

Its secretary, Divakar Kulkarni, laments the fact that his school is
getting a bad press these days.

He says that besides military training, students are taught Hindu
philosophy and scriptures.

Mr Kulkarni accepts it's primarily a school for Hindus, but he adds
that there are two or three Muslim and Christian children in every
class of 45 students.

'Tea and biscuits'

"Even Muslim students study the Bhagwat Gita and the Ramayana [Hindu
scriptures]," he says proudly.

So how does he respond to the ATS allegation that the bomb plot was
hatched at a meeting in the academy?

Mr Kulkarni concedes his school has recently had 'bad press'

"Col Raikar let out a hall to Abhinav Bharat for a meeting for two
hours, but we don't know what transpired in the meeting," Mr Kulkarni
said.

The ATS believes Col Raikar was also present in the meeting. But
according to Mr Kulkarni he went there just for a few minutes "to ask
if they wanted tea and biscuits".

The ATS says that it has also found the aims and objectives of Abhinav
Bharat downloaded on the computers of the two men.

Mr Kulkarni insisted that there was a perfectly innocent explanation
for this: "They downloaded the outfit's aims and objectives without
knowing much about its work," he said.

Meanwhile, most Hindu organisations believe India's Congress party-led
government is playing politics by defaming Hindus.

They argue that the very term "Hindu terrorist" is not only a creation
of the media but also a contradiction in terms - because the faith
explicitly renounces violence.

"The government, with an eye on the general election next year, is
trying to woo Muslims by maligning Hindus," says Datta Gaikward, chief
of the right-wing Hindu Shiv Sena party in Nasik.

Hindu political parties are also staunchly defending Sadhwi Pragya
Singh Thakur, the arrested female priest.

They have hired lawyers to represent her and at every legal hearing in
Nasik supporters of right-wing parties gather outside the court and
shout anti-government slogans.

All eyes will be now be on the court proceedings - whenever they start
in earnest - to find out whether "Hindu terrorism" really has taken
root or not.

BBC NEWS | South Asia | 'Hindu terrorism' debate grips India

Watch these videos before you comment

YouTube - Hindu Terrorism
YouTube - Hindu Terrorism

YouTube - Hindu State Sponsered terrorism Exposed in White House
YouTube - Hindu State Sponsered terrorism Exposed in White House

RAW sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan.

YouTube - The Indian Government is FUNDING Al-Qaeda and other
Terrorist organizations in Afghanistan.
YouTube - The Indian Government is FUNDING Al-Qaeda and other
Terrorist organizations in Afghanistan.
YouTube - Good Americans Expose Indian Hindu Terrorists & Mumbai
Attacks REAL Terrorist
YouTube - Good Americans Expose Indian Hindu Terrorists & Mumbai
Attacks REAL Terrorist

Be without fear in the face of your enemies ! Be brave and upright so
that God may love thee. Speak the truth, always, even if it leads to
your death. Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong.
Last edited by Black blood; Today at 07:35 AM.

http://www.defence.pk/forums/world-affairs/43407-sewed-lips-hindu-terrorism-india.html

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 6, 2010, 4:51:31 AM1/6/10
to
Church Bomber Admits Links With Hindu Fundamentalists
January 5, 2010 at 4:33 pm

Nepal – The chief of Nepal Defence Army (NDA) Ram Prasad Mainali, who
is currently serving time in Nakkhu jail in the capital for bombing a
Catholic church in Lalitpur on May 23, 2009, has confirmed links with
Hindu fundamentalist parties of India.

The 37-year-old chief of now-defunct Hindu extremist group which was
struggling for reinstatement of monarchy and proclamation of Nepal as
a Hindu nation said that NDA was formed in New Delhi in the early
months of 2007 at a meeting held in Birla Mandir, a Hindu temple.

The 37-year-old chief of now-defunct Hindu extremist group which was
struggling for reinstatement of monarchy and proclamation of Nepal as
a Hindu nation said that NDA was formed in New Delhi in the year early
months of 2007 at a meeting held in Birla Mandir, a Hindu temple.

In an interview with an Indian news portal, he said a large number of
Hindu fundamentalists and nationalists from India had attended the
meeting including leaders from Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the parent party
of India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Rastriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Bajrang Dal and the Shiva Sena party.

Mainali, however, refused to name the leaders of these Hindu
fundamentalist groups who were present at the meeting.

Mainali also said the NDA, which has become inactive since his arrest
in Sep 2009, was receiving about Rs 500,000 every month from the
aforementioned organizations.

Mainali said that the NDA purchased arms from United Liberation Front
of Assam (ULFA), a separatist outfit fighting to free North East
Indian state Assam from Indian rule.

During the candid interview, Mainali said that he regretted bombing
the Catholic church which killed a teenager and a woman from Bihar and
injured more than a dozen others.

He says he has become disillusioned with Hindu nationalists since and
has sought refuge in Christianity whom his outfit had vowed to drive
away from the country.

He said he started reading the bible after coming in contact with
Christians inside the prison and also attends the Nakkhu Gospel Church
run inside the prison premises. Nepalnews.com

http://www.churchnewssite.com/portal/?p=8739

chhotemianinshallah

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Jan 6, 2010, 9:32:04 AM1/6/10
to
IN BAD FAITH? BRITISH CHARITY & HINDU EXTREMISM
Awaaz — South Asia Watch Ltd, 2004
Print summary (pdf, 40Kb)
report (low resolution images, pdf, 600Kb)
(high resolution images, pdf, 2Mb)

The report starts with a summary of key findings and recommendations.
Section 1 provides brief information on Hindutva and shows Sewa
International UK’s connections with the RSS. Readers familiar with
these areas can skip to: Sections 2 – 4 which look at Sewa
International UK, its activities around the Gujarat earthquake 2001
and its other supported projects. Section 5 documents extensive links
between the HSS UK family of organizations and the Indian RSS.
Background information on the RSS and Hindutva is given in Appendices
4 – 8. A glossary of Indian terms is included. Updates to the report
are available at www.awaazsaw.org. All enquiries to
cont...@awaazsaw.org.


SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

SECTION 1: SEWA INTERNATIONAL UK & HINDUTVA

Section summary
Hindutva violence in India
How does this affect the UK?
Sewa International UK
SIUK: a part of the RSS Hindutva mission
Links with Sewa International India
Sewa Bharati’s supremacist agenda

SECTION 2: THE GUJARAT EARTHQUAKE 2001

Section summary

The context
Discrimination against Dalits and Muslims
Intimidation of other NGOs
Hindutva intimidation
SIUK’s India Quake Appeal
Sewa Bharati’s use of village reconstruction funds
The funding of RSS schools
Other RSS projects
Anti-minority violence in Chanasma

SECTION 3: THE SEWA INTERNATIONAL – FUNDED VILLAGES

Section summary

Chapredi
Mithaspasvaria
Rapar
Badanpur
Rampura

SECTION 4: OTHER RSS PROJECTS SUPPORTED BY SEWA INTERNATIONAL UK

Section summary

Kalyan Ashram Trust UK
Orissa Cyclone 1999
Sewa Education Aid
Bharatiya Shiksha Samiti
Swa Roopwardhinee
Prabhodhini Gurukula
Devi Ahalyabai Smarack Samiti
The scope of SIUK aid
Conclusion

SECTION 5: THE HINDU SWAYAMSEVAK SANGH UK & ITS ALLIED ORGANIZATIONS

Section summary

Modelled on the Indian RSS
UK affiliates
The HSS, religious sectarianism and religious hatred
Links with the Indian RSS
Attendance at major RSS / VHP events in India
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad UK
Links between VHP UK and HSS UK
Links with VHP India

APPENDICES

Appendix 1: The finances of HSS UK and Sewa International
Appendix 2: Sewa International UK one year progress report
Appendix 3: Non-earthquake related organizations supported by HSS UK
Appendix 4: Hindutva and the RSS
Appendix 5: Women, dalits, adivasis and the RSS
Appendix 6: RSS service and education networks
Appendix 7: Historical associations with Nazi and Fascist ideologies
Appendix 8: RSS languages of deception
Appendix 9: Glossary

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Sangh parivar and violence
Table 2: The UK & Indian sangh parivar
Table 3: Sewa Bharati-Gujarat Schools - Project 2
Table 4: Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh UK Summary of Funds
Table 5: Sewa International UK’s village progress
Table 6: Sewa International UK’s infrastructure facilities progress
Table 7: Sewa International UK’s school building progress
Table 8: Organizations, projects and other work of Sewa
International
UK

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: HSS UK annual training camp 2001
Figure 2: Homepage of Sewa Bharati
Figure 3: Another Sewa Bharati website
Figure 4: SIUK homepage, December 2002
Figure 5: SIUK homepage, December 2003
Figure 6: Atalnagar (Chapredi village)
Figure 7: RSS dedication plaque at rebuilt Chapredi
Figure 8: Hindu temple, Chapredi village
Figure 9: Gateway, Chapredi village (Malayala Manorama)
Figure 10: Bird shelter and community pavilion, Chapredi (Malayala
Manorama)
Figure 11: K. S. Sudarshan, Mithapasvaria village
Figure 12: Bharat Mata Poojan at Karnataka girls’ school
Figure 13: HSS UK 9-day annual training camp
Figure 14: NHSF UK Annual lecture
Figure 15: European HSS and VHP members attending World RSS Camp
Figure 16: Barry Gardiner, Brent North Labour MP at VHP Wembley
event
Figure 17: VHP rifle training camp, Patan, Gujarat
Figure 18: VHP UK at VHP International Coordination meeting

A NOTE ON METHODS

The report is based on: site visits to Gujarat villages in September
2003; interviews in Gujarat from March – May 2003; interviews in the
UK, US and other parts of India during 2003; and analysis of paper
and
electronic documents, primarily those produced by Hindutva groups.

PUBLISHED BY — AWAAZ SOUTH ASIA WATCH LTD, LONDON
© Awaaz South Asia Watch Limited, 2004
ISBN 0 9547174 0 6 (PRINT VERSION)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Any final conclusions of fact or expressions of opinion are the
responsibility of Awaaz – South Asia Watch Limited alone. Awaaz –
South Asia Watch would like to thank numerous individuals and
organizations in the UK, India and the US for advice and assistance
in
the preparation of this report. Awaaz – South Asia Watch would also
like to acknowledge the insights of the report The Foreign Exchange
of
Hate researched by groups in the US.

http://www.awaazsaw.org/ibf/index.htm

chhotemianinshallah

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Jan 6, 2010, 9:47:55 AM1/6/10
to
IN BAD FAITH? BRITISH CHARITY & HINDU EXTREMISM
Awaaz — South Asia Watch Ltd, 2004

Print summary (pdf, 40Kb) Download / Print
full report (low resolution images, pdf, 600Kb)
Print full report (high resolution images, pdf, 2Mb)

SECTION 1: SEWA INTERNATIONAL UK & HINDUTVA

Section summary

•The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS – National Volunteers Corps) is
a paramilitary, all-male political organization founded in the 1920s
and dedicated to turning India into an exclusive ‘Hindu nation’ based
on ‘Hindu strength’ and ‘Hindu unity’. RSS founders were strongly
inspired by Fascist and Nazi ideas and the RSS was modeled on Fascist
youth organizations. The RSS and its allies have been repeatedly
named by judicial inquiries for their role in religiously-motivated
violence over several decades. The RSS has been banned three times
in
India, twice for its role in fomenting religious hatred and serious
anti-minority violence. M. K. Gandhi’s murderer was an RSS activist.

•The RSS’s world-view is ‘Hindutva’, an extremist anti-minority
ideology of Hindu supremacy formed in the 1920s. Hindutva has little
relation to Hindu religions. Rather, it is based on the claim that
India only belongs to those who ‘share the blood’ of Vedic-Aryans and
who consider India as their holyland. Hindutva claims that Indian
citizens who are Muslim or Christian are not ‘true’ Indians. If they
do not swear allegiance to the RSS’s ideology, they should be treated
as foreigners and potential enemies. According to RSS followers,
India has to be turned from a secular democratic state in which all
citizens are equal into a Hindu nation-state in which Hindus have
absolute supremacy.

•The RSS has a large ‘family’ (sangh parivar) of closely related
organizations that share its aims and world-view. RSS affiliates,
including the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP – World Hindu Council), have
been involved in large scale anti-minority violence or hatred,
including riots and pogroms in which thousands have died.

•The Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh UK (HSS UK) is the UK branch of the RSS
and shares the RSS’s aims and ideology. The HSS UK is a registered
charity. Sewa International UK (SIUK), though not a registered
charity, is the fundraising arm of the HSS UK.

•SIUK is directly linked with the RSS and its affiliates, including
Sewa International India and Sewa Bharati; the latter is a key
recipient of SIUK funds. SIUK’s claim to be a non-sectarian, non-
religious and non-political organization that ‘does not provide funds
for anything other than humanitarian relief’ is false. Its main
purpose is to raise funds for and support a distinct family of
organizations associated with the extremist RSS.

•Sewa International India and Sewa Bharati are dedicated to building
a
Hindu nation based on Hindu extremist ideas, glorifying the RSS,
recruiting for the RSS and expanding RSS physical and ideological
training cells (shakhas) in India.

•Sewa Bharati has been openly involved in Hindutva extremist
political
work in India, including promotion of RSS ideology and politics. The
state government of Madhya Pradesh revoked its license because of
alleged violence against Christians. Allegations of violence by Sewa
Bharati against Christians in Madhya Pradesh continue.

•We do not think it is a coincidence that the two Indian states where
Hindutva networks, hatred and violence have grown phenomenally in
recent years both had natural and human tragedies (the Gujarat
earthquake in 2001, the Orissa cyclone in 1999) followed by massive
amounts of funding to Hindutva organizations under the guise of
humanitarian charity.

HINDUTVA VIOLENCE IN INDIA

I am the first enemy of the Muslims…Killing Muslims was necessary.
All Muslims had to be taught a lesson…If the Muslims do not learn, it
will be very harmful for them. Harish Bhatt, Gujarat state vice
president, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, describing the killing of 2,000
Indians, almost all Muslims, in Gujarat during 2002.

Virtually every judicial commission of inquiry officially appointed
to
investigate communal riots since Independence and Partition has
indicted organizations affiliated with or allied to the RSS/VHP/BD/
BJP
combine, including the Maharashtra-based Shiv Sena, for their role in
violent crimes against India’s minorities. Concerned Citizens
Tribunal on the Gujarat 2002 massacres, led by former chief justice
of
India, V. R. Krishna Iyer.

In India since the early 1980s, there has been a massive growth of
violent Hindu extremist political movements and organizations. These
organizations follow a supremacist ideology called Hindutva. Hindutva
has little relation to the religion of Hinduism. Instead, Hindutva is
an ideology formed in the 1920s and 1930s and influenced by Fascism
and Nazism. It claims that India belongs only to Hindus and that
Hindus are a single ‘race’, people, culture or nation. India has to
be turned into an exclusive Hindu nation-state in which minorities
have limited or few rights of democratic citizenship. Minorities are
viewed by Hindutva organizations as enemies, traitors, polluters and
alien foreigners. From their beginning, Hindutva organizations have
opposed secularism, freedom of belief and the democratic and tolerant
values of the Indian constitution.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS, National Volunteers Corps),
formed in 1925-1926, is at the core of the family of Hindutva
organizations operating in India.

•The RSS is modelled on Italian Fascist youth movements that were
growing at that time. Its founders (K. B. Hedgewar and B. S. Moonje)
and its second leader (M. S. Golwalkar) were all strong admirers or
supporters of both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

•The RSS is not a democratic organization but based on obedience to
and veneration of its supreme leader.

•The RSS is not a formally registered society in India and is not
regarded as a charity. It claims not to keep any bank accounts and
it
does not have to pay income tax. The RSS, its women’s and student
affiliates, and the VHP are notified under section 5 of the Foreign
Contribution (Regulation) Act 1976 (FCRA) as organizations of a
political nature. The Act bans such organizations from receiving any
foreign funds, unless they receive prior permission from the central
government on a case by case basis.

•The family of RSS-spawned organizations is known as the sangh
parivar
or just sangh (meaning ‘organization’).

•The key sangh parivar belief is that India belongs only to Hindus;
all other religious communities, and those Hindus who refuse to
accept
RSS leadership, are considered enemies of the country. The ideology
of the sangh parivar is ‘Hindutva’. This is a rejection of the
secular and civic idea of Indian nationhood and citizenship in favour
of an extremist and discriminatory idea of an exclusive ‘Hindu
nation-
state’, called a Hindurashtra.

•The RSS’s key method of recruiting and organizing cadres is called
sangathan – the consolidation of all Hindus under its hate-driven
ideology in order to create a Hindu nation-state. RSS volunteers
working to build the ‘Hindu nation’ are called swayamsevaks and RSS
workers / activists are called karyakartas.

•The RSS is organized through cells called shakhas in which uniformed
members undergo military drills, physical, ideological and weapons
training, and prayers to its saffron flag. In RSS shakhas, images of
Hindu Gods or Goddess are absent. The ‘god’ of the RSS is the ‘Hindu
nation’ and members are required to venerate the RSS’s first two
supreme leaders, K. B. Hedgewar and M. S. Golwalkar.

Hindutva organizations have repeatedly flouted the law, acted
illegally, undermined judicial processes and the criminal justice
system, infiltrated the federal state, and systematically targeted
and
massacred Indian citizens who are Muslims or Christians.

Since the late 1960s, the RSS has been repeatedly named in judicial
commissions and enquiries into serious incidents of religiously-
motivated violence in India. This included the murder of M. K.
Gandhi
by Nathuram Godse, an RSS propagator. The RSS has been banned three
times in independent India, twice because of its association with
violence and hatred. Over the past two decades, there have been very
serious incidents of violence against Muslim and Christian
communities
by Hindutva organizations, including the VHP, the RSS, the Gujarat
BJP
and the Bajrang Dal. These incidents include the killings in
Bhagalpur in 1989, in Bombay in 1992–1993 and in Dangs district,
Gujarat from 1997 and 1998-1999. Over 5,000 Indians were killed in
these various events.

Table 1: Sangh parivar and violence[1]

Location / Date Estimated number killed, where known Sangh parivar
indicted by:

Bhiwandi 1970 78 Justice D.P. Madon Commission: ‘The organization
responsible for bringing communal tension in Bhiwandi to a pitch is
the Rashtriya Utsav Mandal [an arm of the Jana Sangh, the then RSS
political wing].’

Jalgaon 1970 43 Justice D. P. Madon Commission, as above.

Tellicherry 1971 251 Justice Joseph Vithyathil Commission: ‘It was
only after the RSS and the Jana Sangh set up their units … that there
came a change in the situation. Their anti-Muslim propaganda, its
reaction on the Muslims … and the communal tension that followed
prepared the ground for the disturbances.’

Jamshedpur 1979 127-137 Commission of Inquiry: ‘The dispute on the
route of the procession became sharp and agitated reactions from a
group of persons … who systematically distributed pamphlets to
heighten communal feelings and had organizational links with the
RSS.’

Kanyakumari 1982 Justice Venugopal Commission: ‘The RSS
methodology for provoking communal violence is: a) rousing feelings
in
the majority community by propaganda… b) deepening fear in the
majority community by a clever propaganda that the [minorities’]
population is increasing… c) infiltrating into the administration… e)
spreading rumours to widen the communal cleavage…’

Bhagalpur 1989 At least 918 Commission of Inquiry, Majority Report
of Justice Ram Chand Prasad and S. Shamshul Hasan: ‘The climax was
reached when the BJP and VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) workers led by
their leaders demonstrated…’

East Delhi 1992 19 People’s Union for Civil Liberties: ‘The
December 11 incidents… [were] a vicious police operation carried out
with communal bias, with so-called Hindutva activists and local
[thugs] with a view to unleash terror on members of the minority
community.’

Bombay 1992 – 1993 At least
1,700 Human Rights Watch: ‘The violence in Bombay emerged out of an
organized and systematic ideological campaign directed primarily
against India's Muslim minority… During the preceding months, a
movement … including the BJP, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Shiv Sena, had called for the
construction of a temple on the site of the [Babri] mosque as an
integral move in their struggle for Hindutva, or Hindu rule.’
Gujarat 2002 2,000 Concerned Citizens’ Tribunal (chaired by former
Chief Justice of India V.R. Krishna Iyer): ‘The leadership of large
mobs running into thousands was provided by easily identifiable
elected representatives of the BJP (including cabinet ministers), and
others from the VHP, the Bajrang Dal and the RSS...’

The Gujarat pogroms in 2002 were the most chilling illustration of
the
rise of Hindutva. From 27 February 2002, at least 2,000 Indian
citizens, the vast majority Muslim, were killed – most over the
course
of three days – and over 200,000 displaced in the worst violence seen
in India over the last decade. The pogrom was concentrated in the
towns and villages of Gujarat. The violence continued for several
months and involved the active cooperation of RSS leaders that head
the Gujarat state government. It followed the killing of 58 Hindus
on
a train just outside Godhra town in Gujarat, reportedly by a Muslim
mob. The Gujarat carnage was unprecedented in its brutality, its
planning and methodical execution. The violence included the
systematic rape and mutilation of women and girls, the killing and
burning of adults and children and the destruction and arson of
homes,
businesses and property.

The carnage was condemned by numerous governments, the European Union
and human rights organizations worldwide. Numerous Indian and
international human rights reports directly indicted the RSS and its
affiliates in the violence. In April 2002, a Human Rights Watch
Report
concluded that:

The groups most directly involved in the violence include the Vishwa
Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council, VHP), the Bajrang Dal, the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that
heads the Gujarat state government.[2]

A survey in 2002 by Citizen’s Initiative, Ahmedabad of almost 2800
Muslim families affected by the violence named these same
organizations as involved in the carnage[3]. Similarly, in 2002, a
Concerned Citizens Tribunal headed by Justices V.R. Krishna Iyer,
Hosbet Suresh and P.B. Sawant detailed extensive eyewitness testimony
that named these same organizations for involvement in the atrocities
[4].

HOW DOES THIS AFFECT THE UK?

British citizens were victims of RSS and VHP-inspired violence:
three
members of the Dawood family from Yorkshire, on holiday in India,
were
killed during the Gujarat carnage in 2002. The Indian RSS also has
highly active organizations working in the UK. They have spread RSS
ideology, provided extensive financial and political support for
Hindutva organizations in India, and attempted to gain influence
among
Hindus in the UK, especially among youth. They have received support
from political parties, local authorities, education authorities, MPs
and members of the royal family. The UK organizations pretend to be
simply religious or cultural organizations that represent Hindus and
they attempt to disguise their links with political extremism in
India. Several UK organizations raise funds from the general public
in the name of charity and channel them to RSS front organizations in
India. UK organizations linked to the RSS include:

•Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS UK, a registered charity, charity
number
267309), the UK branch of the RSS.

•Sewa International UK (SIUK, the fundraising and ‘service project’
of
HSS UK) which raises funds for RSS projects in India.

•Kalyan Ashram Trust (KAT, a registered charity, charity number
261327) which raises funds for RSS ‘tribal’ projects in India.

•Vishwa Hindu Parishad UK (VHP UK, a registered charity, charity
number 262684), the UK branch of the Indian VHP.

•Overseas Friends of the BJP (OFBJP UK), which provides support in
the
UK for the BJP political party which is part of the RSS family.
The close relation between the HSS UK, the VHP UK and the Indian RSS
is described in Section 5. The following table shows how the HSS UK
family of organizations exactly parallels the Indian RSS and its
affiliates.

Table 2: The UK & Indian sangh parivar

UK SANGH PARIVAR INDIAN SANGH PARIVAR
Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh UK

•Initiated 1966, registered as charity in 1974, charity registration
number 267309

•Key decision making bodies are annual Akhil UK Pratinidhi Sabha, and
three monthly Central Executive Committee (KKM)

•Key training event for workers is annual Sangh Shikshak Varg

•Has around 75 weekly shakhas, attended by around 1500 members called
‘swayamsevaks’

•Reverence and devotion to saffron flag, K. B. Hedgewar and M. S.
Golwalkar

•Has same hymns and prayers, and celebrates same festivals as RSS

•Considers Indian RSS head as its supreme leader
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (India)

•Formed in 1925-1926 as paramilitary male organization

•Key decision making bodies are Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha and
Central Executive Committee (Kendriya Karyakari Mandal)

•Numerous Shikshak Vargs (training camps for instructors)

•Branches are called ‘shakhas’ – daily physical and ideological
training cells attended by several million members called
‘swayamsevaks’

•Reverence and devotion to saffron flag, K. B. Hedgewar and M. S.
Golwalkar

Vishwa Hindu Parishad UK

•Formed 1971, acquired charitable status in 1972, charity
registration
number 262684

•Branch of VHP India operating in UK, part of Vishwa Hindu Parishad
international section

•Has 12 UK branches
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (India)
Vishwa Hindu Parishad India – Overseas section
Vishwa Hindu Parishad International

•VHP formed in 1964 as RSS ‘religious’ affiliate

•VHP at forefront of anti-minority campaigns and violence in India

Hindu Sevika Samiti UK

•HSS UK women’s affiliate formed in 1975

•Structure mirrors HSS UK

•Key training event for workers is annual Samiti Shikshak Varg

•Has about 30 weekly shakhas attended by around 500 women and girls
Rashtra Sevika Samiti (India)

•RSS women’s affiliate, formed 1936

•Structure mirrors RSS

•Organizes Samiti Shikshak Vargs

Overseas Friends of the BJP UK

•Formed 1991

•Lobbies for UK support of Indian BJP
Friends of India Society International

•Formed in mid-1970s during ‘emergency’ period in India

•Supports various sangh parivar-linked political projects
Bharatiya Janata Party (India)

•Political party formed in 1980 by RSS activists

•Senior leaders are RSS members

Sewa International UK

•Formed 1991, became private limited company in 2002, company number
04482628
•Uses the charity registration number of HSS UK, 267309
•‘Service project of HSS UK’
•Key fundraising for Indian RSS affiliates
Sewa Bharati (India) / Sewa International (India)
Gram Bharati (India)

•RSS ‘service’ & rural project wings
Vidya Bharati (India)
Saraswati Shishu / Vidya mandirs
Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation (VHP)

•RSS / VHP education projects / schools
Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (India)

•RSS adivasi (‘tribal’) projects

Kalyan Ashram Trust UK

•Registered as charity in 1970, charity registration number 261327

•Established to raise funds for Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram projects in
India

National Hindu Students Forum UK

•HSS UK student affiliate, formed 1991

•Shares address of HSS UK, key activists also HSS UK members

•Largest body of Hindu students in UK
Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (India)

•RSS student affiliate

•Largest body of Hindu students in India

Hindu Sahitya Kendra

•Formed in 1984

•HSS UK literature dissemination outfit
Hindu Vivek Kendra (India)

•Hindutva literature dissemination

Deendayal Research Institute

•Ideological unit
•Named after senior RSS worker, ideologue and founder of a Hindutva
political party in 1950s

Deendayal Shodh Sansthan (India)

•Ideological unit
•Publishes journal Manthan
•Named after senior RSS worker, ideologue and founder of a Hindutva
political party in 1950s

Hindu International Medical Mission

•HSS UK medical affiliate
National Medicos Organization (India)

•RSS medical affiliate

Figure 1: HSS UK annual training camp 2001. Images of RSS founder
Hedgewar, RSS second supreme leader Golwalkar and RSS map of India at
front

SEWA INTERNATIONAL UK

Yet another development is the establishment of an international
organization titled SEWA INTERNATIONAL which now has branches in many
countries. Sewa International will look after the interests of seva
[RSS service] related issues not only in the respective countries
where they have chapters but also take up GLOBAL level care of sewa
[service] work carried out under the Sangh [RSS] ideology [5].

Hindusthan is Hindu Rashtra—K.S. Sudarshan. The Sarsanghchalak
[supreme leader] of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Shri K.S.
Sudarshan has chalked out a systematic approach to be adopted by
Sangh
swayamsevaks [RSS members] to reach out to the last person in the
village through various developmental programmes and bring them all
within its organizational fold…The Sarsanghchalak [RSS head]
emphasised the need for special efforts to expand the Sangh [RSS]
network in the remote parts of the country. He pointed out that
various political parties realised the significance of Hindus getting
united, which could ultimately change the very contour of the
nation’s
polity.[6]

Sewa International UK (SIUK), formed in 1991, is the ‘service
project’
of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, the UK branch of the RSS. SIUK has
become in a short space of time a high profile organization that
raises funds for what it says are welfare, education and development
projects in India. It claims to be a non-sectarian, non-religious
and
non-political humanitarian organization. It presents itself as
working for the good of humanity, focusing on education, poverty and
natural tragedies in India. It is widely presented as simply an
Indian or Hindu charity. SIUK has received the support of royalty,
MPs and councillors, lord mayors, many local authorities, schools,
large companies, prominent individuals, voluntary and community
groups
and members of the South Asian communities. SIUK received
considerable coverage in the UK in the aftermath of the devastating
earthquake that centred on Gujarat state in 2001. It said it raised
£4.3 million for Gujarat earthquake relief, rehabilitation and
reconstruction. It has also raised funds for various other service
and educational activities in India. SIUK is not a charity, but uses
the charity registration number of the HSS UK (267309) to collect
donations from the general public. It is also a limited company
(company number 04482628, date of incorporation 11 July 2002.) The
company registered address is the Leicester office of the HSS UK[7].

Our point is not about whether SIUK funded service activities in
India, or whether or not these have benefited individuals. Nor does
our argument concern the detail of the financial accounting
procedures
of SIUK. We show in this report that the main purpose of SIUK is to
raise funds in the UK for RSS projects in India in order to directly
help the expansion of the extremist RSS’s networks across Indian
society in line with the long term political and sectarian aims of
the
RSS. SIUK was established primarily to raise funds for one clear,
distinct political family of organizations entirely related to the
RSS. The vast bulk of SIUK efforts are directed to the principal aim
of furthering the extremist RSS’s goals. One of SIUK’s slogans is
‘service to humanity is service to God’. We think a much more
accurate slogan would be: ‘fundraising for RSS service networks to
create a Hindu nation’.

In response to a Channel 4 News report in December 2002 which said
that SIUK had raised funds for an organization, the Vanvasi Kalyan
Ashram (VKA), that was directly involved in the Gujarat carnage, HSS
UK and SIUK stated:

HSS and Sewa International denies all the allegations and will whole
heartedly continue to help the Charity Commission with its on-going
enquiries, in order to clear its name of ALL the biased and malicious
allegations that have been raised. HSS and Sewa International
confidently and unequivocally states that it does not provide funds
for anything other than humanitarian relief and rehabilitation. Sewa
International has never sent money to any parties with the intention
of spreading communal violence or hatred, either directly or
indirectly. Recent reports which centre totally on the communal
violence in Gujarat bear no relevance to any of the relief work or
projects supported by Sewa International.[8]

HSS / SIUK denied they had the intention of funding organizations for
the purposes of hatred and violence. This is an easy denial to make.
However, given the seriousness of the Channel 4 allegations, HSS /
SIUK did not make the relevant denial – that organizations they fund
and support have not been involved in hatred or violence. HSS / SIUK
also state that the violence in Gujarat during 2002, which directly
involved the VKA, bears no relevance to projects it supports and
funds, which include the VKA. HSS / SIUK do not make the important
denial – that the VKA has not been involved in violence or hatred.
We
do not think it is a coincidence that the two Indian states where
Hindutva networks, hatred and violence have grown phenomenally in
recent years both had natural and human tragedies (the Gujarat
earthquake in 2001, the Orissa cyclone in 1999) followed by massive
amounts of funding to Hindutva organizations under the guise of
humanitarian charity.

SIUK: A PART OF THE RSS HINDUTVA MISSION

…Sewa International is not an RSS-backed organization. The allegation
is totally false and misleading, Sewa International is a Sewa Project
of HSS. A malicious propaganda is going on against Sewa international
by the Left wings of UK[9].

In an interview in 2002, the vice-chair of SIUK denied that it is
‘backed’ by the RSS. However, this interview was from Organiser, the
main Indian weekly of the RSS. In fact the Indian RSS considers SIUK
to be an integral part of work and mission. There are numerous
strong
ties between SIUK and the Indian RSS that occur through:

•Direct links between SIUK and the RSS

•Strong, extensive links between the HSS UK and the RSS (described in
Section 5)

•Links with Sewa Bharati, the RSS service affiliate in India

•Links with Sewa International India, which coordinates international
fundraising for and publicises RSS and VHP projects

•Various other ties between SIUK and other RSS affiliates
The former Indian RSS supreme leader, Rajendra Singh gave a talk
titled ‘code of guidelines to workers’ to HSS members in north London
on 24 April 1995. The first guideline is to Sewa International on
its
areas of priority[10]. If SIUK is not backed by the RSS, why would
the most senior RSS figure in the world consider it his remit to
provide codes of guidance for it?

RSS publications list SIUK and the Kalyan Ashram Trust UK as examples
of the RSS (sangh) organizations the UK or as ‘sangh work
abroad’[11]. An RSS brochure published on the occasion of the World
RSS Camp held in Gujarat in December 1995 describes the activities of
the HSS UK, Sewa International, Kalyan Ashram Trust UK, the VHP UK
and
other UK organizations as part of the RSS’s Hindutva mission in the
UK
[12]. One article in this RSS publication is authored by the SIUK
vice chair who discusses the Ayodhya temple campaign in the UK. (The
Ayodhya temple campaign is a political VHP/RSS project which led to
the illegal destruction by Hindutva mobs of the Babri mosque at
Ayodhya in 1992 and which led to bloody riots throughout India.) The
RSS’s ‘service department’ similarly states that Sewa International
is
an RSS project working under the sangh’s ideology[13].

The former HSS UK full-time worker, Ram Vaidya, one of two sons of
M.G. Vaidya, a senior RSS figure and media spokesperson, came to the
UK in 1999 to evaluate the work of HSS UK and expand and consolidate
HSS work in Europe. In a report to the HSS UK central executive
committee on 13 May 2001 in Coventry, he made recommendations
regarding SIUK work around the Gujarat earthquake that stressed the
need to expand HSS physical and ideological training cells (shakhas)
and undertake charitable work with ‘detached involvement’[14].

The VHP UK Manchester branch newsletter also stated ‘Sewa
International (UK) is a service project of Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh
(UK) which is working closely with the RSS and VHP in India to
provide
aid to the victims of the earthquake.’[15] SIUK’s anniversary report
on its earthquake work includes a message of support from ‘Mananiya
K.
S. Sudarshanji’ – the ‘venerable’ K.S. Sudarshan, who happens to be
the supreme leader of the Indian RSS[16].

The SIUK vice-chair also co-wrote a report on the Gujarat earthquake
of 2001 with two very senior RSS officers. This celebrated the RSS
and its members, and stated that:

It is indisputably impossible to fathom the import of the training
being imparted to the Swayamsevaks [RSS members] through RSS shakhas
[cells]. Challenges faced during the natural or other calamities
provide the right testing ground for the thus trained Swayamsevaks.
The disaster management skills exhibited by the Swayamsevaks [RSS
members] and Karyakartas [RSS activists] during the most difficult
and
painful hours in Gujarat right after the dreadful tremors, is an
excellent case in study.[17]

SIUK’s website shows extensive associations with RSS projects, though
the RSS itself is rarely mentioned. The email address listed for the
contact person for Sewa Bharati Gujarat, a key recipient of SIUK
funds, begins ‘rssgujarat@’[18]. Similarly, Sewa Bharati Gujarat’s
letterhead states it is ‘Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Inspired’.
SIUK’s address is the HSS UK Leicester office, which was itself
inaugurated by the former RSS supreme leader, Rajendra Singh in 1995.
The SIUK / HSS headquarters is called ‘Keshav Pratishthan’, named
after the Indian RSS founder, Keshav Baliram Hedgewar.

LINKS WITH SEWA INTERNATIONAL INDIA

SIUK is closely associated with Sewa International India. On the
latter’s homepage (www.sewainternational.org), SIUK and the US-based
India Development and Relief Fund, and only these two, are listed as
‘associated organizations’[19].

Sewa International India, based in New Delhi, is an openly
ideological
and political project that promotes RSS and Hindutva ideas. It was
formed by the RSS, promotes international fundraising activities for
RSS and VHP projects in India, and promotes RSS projects among
Indians
outside India. The main purpose of Sewa International India is to
organize all Hindus under RSS ideology. Its website states that the
ultimate aim of all its work is Hindu sangathan – the ‘consolidating
and strengthening of Hindu society’ and the need to ‘constantly seek
unifying factors and jettison divisive factors’[20]. Its website
extols the RSS and its leaders and celebrates the work of RSS
members. It is very closely related to Sewa Bharati, the RSS’s
service wing, and its website is virtually exclusively focused on
Sewa
Bharati and RSS projects. The general secretary of Sewa
International
India is Shyam Parande, who is also in charge of the RSS external
affairs cell. His mailing address is listed as the RSS headquarters
in Nagpur[21]. In December 2000, he confirmed that HSS UK and
therefore SIUK are branches of the Indian RSS[22].

SEWA BHARATI’S SUPREMACIST AGENDA

Sewa Bharati is the main recipient of funds from SIUK. It is the RSS
service affiliate, founded in 1979. It became very important after
1989, when the RSS decided to expand its service sector. The senior
vice president of Sewa Bharati, New Delhi, D. V. Kohli said, ‘We make
no secret of the fact that we are members of the RSS’[23]. Sewa
Bharati Madhya Pradesh was implicated in violence against Christian
communities, leading the state government to revoke its license to
operate there[24], and its role in violence against Christians
continues[25].

Figure 2: Homepage of Sewa Bharati showing RSS founder Hedgewar and
the RSS map of ‘India’ with the RSS saffron flag held (bizarrely) by
the goddess ‘Bharatmata’, http://www.sewabharati.org.

Figure 3: Another Sewa Bharati website showing RSS founder Hedgewar
and second RSS supreme leader Golwalkar.http://www.sevabharati.org.

Sewa Bharati runs a very large network of RSS service projects in
India. These often overlap with those of Vidya Bharati (the RSS
education and schools network), the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (the
violent
RSS affiliate working among ‘tribal’ groups), ekal vidyalayas (VHP-
organized ‘one-teacher schools’) and other projects of the VHP. The
key question is not whether RSS affiliates provide services to
groups,
some funded from the UK and US, but about the aim, nature and
ultimate
political purpose of such services. The fundamental aim of these
projects is to penetrate communities through service activities in
order to promote RSS ideology and organization. For example, Sewa
International India’s website[26] shows how work undertaken by Sewa
Bharati is explicitly based on political recruitment for the RSS,
expanding the RSS physical and ideological training (shakha) network
and training new workers for the RSS. Its work in a slum in Uttar
Pradesh is described in the following way:

The Sangh has a tradition of converting strangers into friends,
friends into Swayamsevaks [RSS volunteers], and Swayamsevaks into
karyakartas [RSS activists]…Soon some fifty students from ten Bastis
[slums] also started attending. Different classes had to be
organized.
After the day’s tuition, the Bhagwa Dhwaj [RSS saffron flag] is
hoisted and the Prarthana [RSS prayers] too takes place. On Sundays,
a
regular full-fledged Shakha [RSS cell] is conducted… Sewa, Sangh and
Hindutwa [service, the RSS and Hindu supremacism] could thus enter
the
Basti [slum]. After this, the karyakartas [activists] of Sewa
Bharati
and Sangh started visiting the Basti frequently. As a result, two
residents of the Basti have now become full-time karyakartas
[activists] working with Vanvasis [the RSS term for adivasis, the
‘tribal’ peoples]. Even when the Bahujan Samaj Party [Dalit-Muslim
political party] fever gripped the neighbourhood, hundreds of youths
of this region held aloft the flag of Hindutwa [Hindu supremacy].
Even now, a daily Shakha [RSS cell] takes place in the AmbedkarPark,
where the attendance averages 30-35.[27]

Similarly, Sewa Bharati Madhya Pradesh, speaking about ‘tribal’
groups, said:

I hope you will kindly agree that, even one girl taken over today by
us and brought up in environment prevailing in our institutions will
not only bring herself above, but also surcharge the atmosphere in
her
tribe besides her own family. It may appear unbelievable, but it is
even numerically true that one single such girl, will grow in to 500
or more such males and/or females, having the precious ancient
culture
of this divine land i.e. BHARAT, endeared at their hearts.[28]

Sewa Bharati’s work is openly linked to the need to build a ‘Hindu
nation’. The former all-India head of the RSS service wing said:

Bharat is a Hindu Nation…The deprived masses of poor and ignorant of
our society also have an inherent strength and ingenuity in them to
contribute to the all round development of our Nation. Once they are
awakened they get back their lost personality. They are to be welded
together to form the backbone of the nascent Nation.[29]

Sewa Bharati has also openly engaged in political activity with the
RSS and the VHP. For example, on 17 January 2002 at Jhabua, Madhya
Pradesh, a large Hindu gathering aimed at ‘tribal’ groups was
attended
by the supreme leader of the RSS, K.S. Sudarshan who warned
‘Christian
missionaries’ to halt their activities. Sadhvi Rithambara, the
inflammatory VHP representative also attended this meeting. An RSS
publication stated that ‘As a result, on 17 January the whole area
was
filled by the upsurge of Hindutva-inspired Vanavasi [‘tribal’]
brothers, sisters and mothers’[30]. Sewa Bharati described how the
purpose of this event was to convert ‘tribals’ into RSS followers.

Sewa Bharati started its activity at about 5 years back with a single
OTS (One Teacher One School)…Behind the success of Hindu Sangam is
the
devotion and hard work of 350 Ekal Vidyalayas [one-teacher schools],
and 250 whole time workers of Sewa Bharati. They travelled
continuously to practically every village for 3 months and visited
about 3 Lakhs 25 thousand [325,000] families and established a place
of worship by putting a photo of Bajrangbali (Shri Hanumanji). They
also taught them how to worship and also made them learn and sing
Bhajans [Hindu hymns]…Similarly, Bhagwa [RSS saffron] flags were also
hoisted on practically each and every Tribal house…The gathering, in
agreement time and again encouraged the speakers by shouting slogans
such as ‘Jai Shri Ram, Jai Hanuman, and Keshav ki jai jai [victory to
the RSS founder] – Madhav ki jai jai [victory to the RSS’s second
leader]’ etc. The patriotic feeling was also quite evident as the
slogan Jai Bharat Mata ki [Victory to the Holy Motherland!] was also
frequently heard from the crowd…The whole environment in and around
Jhabua was pervaded with the enchantment of the slogans in praise of
Shri Ram, Shri Hanuman and Bharat Mata. The whole city was full of
saffron flags.[31]

The political importance of Sewa Bharati’s work among ‘tribal’ groups
also became clear through the involvement of the BJP in this same
event.

The much publicised congregation - the idea of which is said to have
been conceptualised at the RSS meet in Nagpur in early 2001 – was
organized by Sewa Bharati – an RSS outfit…Though initially, the BJP
kept away from the campaign, later it joined hands with Sewa Bharati
and the top BJP leaders including its state president Vikram Verma
attended a meeting at Jhabua on January 6 to work out arrangements
for
the Hindu Sangam [gathering]. The BJP's interest in the campaign is
seen as an attempt by the party to get a foothold in the tribal areas
of the state something which has been eluding it so far.[32]

Sewa Bharati has also been involved in political campaigns with the
VHP.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad today demanded that foreign missionaries
working in India should go back to their respective countries as they
were involved in forcible conversions and also in stoking insurgency
in the North-East…In a simultaneous development, the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh today decided to fully back the nationwide campaign
launched by Swadeshi Jagaran Manch [RSS ‘nationalist’ development
affiliate] to raise public awareness among the people about the
threat
posed by multi-national corporations. As part of this campaign, the
RSS and its frontal organizations such as the Bharatiya Janata Party,
Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh [RSS labour affiliate], Bharatiya Kisan Sangh
[RSS farmers affiliate], Sewa Bharati, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi
Parishad [RSS student affiliate] and the VHP will join the Chetna
Yatra organized throughout the country by the SJM.[33]

[1] Our purpose here is to demonstrate that the RSS and its family
have repeatedly been indicted for violence over several decades; this
is not to exonerate the police or other political parties who played
a
major role in several of these incidents.

[2] Human Rights Watch, ‘We have no orders to save you’: State
Participation and Complicity in Communal Violence in Gujarat, Human
Rights Watch, New York, April 2002 Vol. 14, No. 3(C). Human Rights
Watch, Compounding Injustice: The Government's Failure to Redress
Massacres in Gujarat, Human Rights Watch, New York, July 2003 Vol.
15, No. 3 (C).

[3] Citizens Initiative Ahmedabad, Ten hard facts: survey of victims
in Ahmedabad, (Period of survey: 4 – 13 March, 2002), Citizens
Initiative / Centre for Social Justice, 2002.

[4] Concerned Citizens Tribunal, Crime Against Humanity: an inquiry
into the carnage in Gujarat, volumes I and II, Concerned Citizens
Tribunal / Citizens for Justice and Peace, Mumbai, 2002.

[5] K. Suryanarayana Rao (All-India RSS Service Head), Seva Disha –
Building an Integrated and Self-Reliant Society, Chennai, 1997,
http://www.hssworld.org/seva/sevadisha.

[6] Manik Madhukar Kher, ‘Hindusthan is Hindu Rashtra’, Organiser, 1
February 2004. The three-day camp at Raipur was attended by the VHP,
Bajrang Dal, the RSS student affiliate, ABVP, and the Vanvasi Kalyan
Ashram.

[7] As at December 2003, the status of this company at Companies
House
UK was listed as ‘Proposal to Strike Off’. Current Appointments
Report for Sewa International Limited, Companies House, London,
compiled 29 December 2003.

[8] Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh UK & Sewa International UK, ‘Statement’,
4
March 2003, http://www.sewainternational.com.

[9] AL Sharma, ‘Sewa International encourages social integration, not
social division’, The Organiser, 29 December 2002.

[10] S. Tattwawadi, Sarsanghchalak Goes Abroad: a collection of
lectures delivered by Prof. Rajendra Singh on foreign land, Suruchi
Prakashan, 1995, p.9.

[11] S. Tattwawadi, Sarsanghchalak Goes Abroad: a collection of
lectures delivered by Prof. Rajendra Singh on foreign land, Suruchi
Prakashan, 1995, pp. 77-78.

[12] Sanghshaktih Vijetreeyam, Antar Rashtriya Sahyog Pratishthan,
Ahmedabad, 12 December 1995. The other organizations listed are
Hindu
Sevika Samiti UK, FISI, NHSF, OFBJP, the Hindu Marathon, Bharat Vikas
Parishad International UK and the Hindu International Medical Mission
(HIMM UK).

[13] K. Suryanarayana Rao (All-India RSS Service Head), Seva Disha –
Building an Integrated and Self-Reliant Society, Chennai, 1997,
http://www.hssworld.org/seva/sevadisha/sevadisha1/rss_seva_vibhag.html

[14] Sangh Sandesh, May – June 2001, vol. XII, no. 3, p. 20.

[15] VHP UKManchester Branch, VHP Newsletter, April 2001, Issue 20,
p.
4.

[16] Sewa International UK, Gujarat Earthquake – 26 January 2001
Anniversary Issue. One Year After, undated, p. 5. The other three
messages of support were from an SIUK officer, a member of the House
of Lords and a UK Gujarati organization.

[17] ‘Report of the visit to Earthquake struck Gujrat by Sewa Team
comprising of Dr. Yashwantji Pathak, Sah-Sanyojak Vishwa Vibhag, Shri
Arjun Lalji Sharma, Sewa International UK and Shri Shyam Parande on
5-7th February 2001’, http://www.hssworld.org/seva/Gujarat/sewa_report.html

[18] GujaratState Disaster Management Authority, Coming Together,
September 2001.

[19] http://www.sewainternational.org.

[20] http://www.sewainternational.org/social.html

[21] http://www.organiser.org/23feb2003/page10.htm

[22] Deepshikha Ghosh, ‘Rediscovering their Religion’, India Abroad,
8
December 2000, http://newsarchives.indiainfo.com/2000/12/08/rss.html.

[23] Edward Luce and Demetri Sevastopulo, ‘Blood and money’,
Financial
Times, 20 February 2003.

[24] Sudha Ramachandran, ‘US firms linked to extremist Indian cause’,
Asia Times, 10 January 2003.

[25] T. J. Rajalakshmi, ‘Terror in Jhabua’, Frontline, 14–27 February
2004.

[26] www.sewainternational.org is the Indian site, www.sewainternational.com
is the UK site.

[27] http://www.sewainternational.org/social.html.

[28] Vishnu Kumar, ‘Sewa Bharati Madhya Pradesh’, 25 July 2000,
http://www.hvk.org/articles/0700/68.html

[29] K. Suryanarayan Rao, ‘Concept of service – sewa and worship’,
Sanghshaktih Vijetreeyam, Antar Rashtriya Sahyog Pratishthan, 21
December 1995, p.30.

[30] RSS Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (RSS general council)
resolution, Bangalore,17 March 2002, reprinted in J. Dayal (ed.)
Gujarat 2002: untold and retold stories of the Hindutva lab, volume

1, Media House, Delhi, 2003, pp. 1139-1140.

[31] Vishnu Kumar, Sewa Bharati Madhya Pradesh, ‘Adarniya Bandhuwar’,
23 January 2002, http://www.hvk.org/articles/0102/98.html.

[32] Sanjay Sharma, ‘Stop conversions, RSS chief warns missionaries’,
Sify News, 18 January 2002.

[33] ‘Quit India, VHP tells missionaries’, Indian Express, 1 October
1998.

http://www.awaazsaw.org/ibf/section1.htm

chhotemianinshallah

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Jan 6, 2010, 10:26:58 AM1/6/10
to
MEDIA
Silencing act

VIKHAR AHMED SAYEED

Kannada journalist B.V. Seetaram’s arrest highlights the intolerance
of quasi-religious and other powerful forces towards criticism.

B.V. Seetaram, Editor of "Karavali Ale".

IN an interview with Frontline on the morning of January 4, B.V.
Seetaram, the 54-year-old director of Chitra Publications, which
publishes the midday Kannada newspaper Karavali Ale (The Coastal
Wave), expressed an uneasy foreboding that he would be arrested. “The
district administration has not responded to my calls for protecting
Karavali Ale and is, instead, looking for an excuse to target me,” he
remarked. That evening, Seetaram was detained by the Udupi police near
the small town of Karkala in Udupi district in southwestern Karnataka.
Seetaram and his wife Rohini were served a warrant in a two-year-old
defamation case.

According to sources close to Seetaram, 25 policemen surrounded his
house in Mangalore when he was on his way to Karkala. He was served
the warrant while he was en route, and he was produced before the
local Magistrate the next day. He was charged under Sections 500 and
501 of the Indian Penal Code (defamation) at the court of the Civil
Judge (Junior Division) and Judicial Magistrate, First Class, in Udupi
and remanded in judicial custody until January 17, after he refused
bail apprehending a threat to his life if he was arrested by the
Mangalore police.

Karavali Ale, founded in 1991 by Seetaram and his wife, is a six-page
Kannada broadsheet published from Mangalore and Karwar. The duo also
heads three other publications in the region – an English weekly
called Canara Times and two Kannada dailies Sanje Ale and Kannada
Janantaranga. Karavali Ale, priced at Rs.3 and with estimated sales of
more than 50,000 copies, was the leading midday newspaper in the
coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada before
December 2008 when a series of attacks on its distribution network
dented its circulation.

Delivery vans carrying copies of the newspaper were reportedly stopped
and attempts were made to burn the copies. On December 11, 2008,
miscreants burnt 5,000 copies of the newspaper. News agents and
hawkers were intimidated by men belonging to right-wing groups.
According to Seetaram, the circulation of Karavali Ale declined by
almost 20 per cent, and advertisers were very reluctant to advertise
in the newspaper. “I lost at least Rs.5 lakh in December,” he said.

The immediate provocation for the attacks was a report in the
newspaper on December 1. A Dalit organisation called Dalit Sangharsha
Samiti had issued a press statement in which it criticised
Rajashekhara Nanda Swami of the Gurupura Vajradehi Matha. The
statement, which was carried in Karavali Ale, alleged that the Swami
behaved in a discriminatory manner with the Dalit residents of the
area when he went to attend on November 30 an event that discouraged
conversion to Buddhism. Earlier, on November 17, there was an attack
on the printing press of the newspaper after it carried a report that
cast doubts on the method of acquisition of land for the Mangalore
Special Economic Zone (MSEZ) in Kudubipadavu village in Dakshina
Kannada district.

The Inspector-General of Police, Western Range, A.M. Prasad, however,
denied that the police were partial. “Police protection has always
been there for Mr. Seetaram. Even when his premises were attacked on
November 17, a constable who was guarding the place sustained injuries
but chased the culprits,” Prasad said. He added that several first
information reports (FIRs) had been filed against Seetaram, who in
turn filed FIRs against several people. “Around 15 people have been
arrested on the basis of Mr. Seetaram’s FIRs, but it will take some
time to investigate the whole issue,” he said.

State Home Minister Dr. V.S. Acharya denied that Karavali Ale and its
editors were being targeted. He said that Seetaram’s allegations
against the district and State administration were baseless.

The convener of the Bajrang Dal in Dakshina Kannada district, Vinay
Shetty, said the newspaper was targeted by the public because it had
been publishing articles against prominent Hindu religious leaders as
well as Christians and Muslims for the past four to five years. He
termed the attacks against the distribution network of the newspaper a
‘‘public revolt’’. Members of the Bajrang Dal, the Hindu Jagran Vedike
and followers of Gurupura Swami oppose the editorial policy of the
newspaper, he said. He added: “The circulation of the newspaper fell
by more than 50 per cent in December. If Seetaram’s allegations are
correct, why haven’t any of the other local newspaper establishments
stood by him?”

This is not the first time that the newspaper has ruffled feathers. In
several of its reports, there is only a thin line between evidence-
based journalistic critique and rhetoric that can be interpreted as
being defamatory. Its style is a no-holds-barred kind, and it does not
hesitate to make personal attacks. But it is still a fairly respected
newspaper for the bold stands it takes.

“It is a very people-centric newspaper and it is bravely waging a
battle against the communal forces of the Sangh Parivar. It also
doesn’t shy away from writing about fundamentalist elements in Islamic
and Christian faiths in the region,” a local journalist said. Its
reportage of issues pertaining to the MSEZ and its steady attack on
the Bajrang Dal for its alleged role in the church attacks in
September 2008 were well received.

The real estate mafia in the region also came under Karavali Ale’s
scanner. It criticised atrocities of large builders while questioning
the indiscriminate development being encouraged by the Urban
Development Authority in Mangalore. Another powerful group that the
newspaper has taken on was the private transport lobby. According to
Seetaram, a third group that the paper has offended is the ‘‘religious
mafia’’, many of whom he described as ‘‘fake priests’’. In the
original story that the newspaper carried on Rajashekhara Nanda Swami
in February 2008, it accused him of being involved in child
trafficking.

This is also not the first time that Seetaram has been arrested.
Earlier, in March 2007, he was detained for 10 days on the charge that
his articles promoted religious hatred. His comment piece, which
caused a great deal of furore, had said that Jain monks’ practice of
parading naked in Mangalore city was an affront to the norms of
modesty.

Members of the Left parties, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties
(PUCL), trade unions and women’s groups have been supporting Seetaram
for the past couple of years against attacks from the Sangh Parivar.
V.J.K. Nair, State secretary of the Communist Party of India
(Marxist), said: “This particular paper endorses secularism, and the
democratic movement must take up this issue, especially in Dakshina
Kannada district. The irony here is that the very groups who espoused
values of press freedom and were jailed during the Emergency are now
denying this paper’s freedom.”

The coastal areas of Karnataka have for long been touted as the
laboratory of Hindutva in the State. Several communal incidents have
occurred in the region in the past several years, the most serious of
them being the communal riot in Suratkal in December 1998 in which at
least 10 lives were lost. Again, in 2006, when the Janata Dal
(Secular)-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government was in power,
communal violence flared up in Mangalore over the transportation of
cows for slaughter.

Changing socio-economic dynamics, with local Muslims benefiting
greatly from the post-1970 Gulf boom, have caused disruption in the
traditional class structures. The changes in the political economy of
the region have also made coastal Karnataka’s soil suitable for the
growth of religious identities. Using these cleavages, the Sangh
Parivar has managed to increase its presence and is now a strong force
in the region. Bandhs called in the area even by relatively new right-
wing groups such as the Sri Rame Sene are total.

Arrest condemned

The attacks on Karavali Ale abated after January 1 when the State
government received a stern letter from Justice G.N. Ray, Chairman of
the Press Council of India, a quasi-judicial body. Justice Ray
directed the Chief Minister to look into the complaints and take firm
steps. Pressure was also brought on the establishment through the
Indian Newspaper Society, the Editors Guild of India, and Transparency
International.

Retired Justice M.F. Saldanha, who heads the Karnataka Chapter of
Transparency International, personally appraised the situation and
wrote in great anguish to the Chairman of the Press Council: “What is
most dangerous and virtually fatal to the rule of law is the total
breakdown of constitutional machinery in the district [Dakshina
Kannada]. The local mafia is running wild and the media is terrified
to report their atrocities. The one newspaper that is bold enough to
report the facts is being targeted.”

R.V. Deshpande, president, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee
(KPCC), and H.D. Deve Gowda, national president of the JD(S), have
condemned Seetaram’s arrest.

Seetaram’s arrest and related events show that freedom of the press in
the country is still subject to the whims of certain groups. •

Volume 26 - Issue 02 :: Jan. 17-30, 2009


INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2602/stories/20090130260212700.htm

bademiyansubhanallah

unread,
Jan 7, 2010, 5:11:02 AM1/7/10
to
India to launch cow urine as soft drink
Posted by Olce on 07-Jan-2010 – 1527

ahahaha it’s Redbull’s retarded cousin

Does your Pepsi lack pep? Is your Coke not the real thing? India’s
Hindu nationalist movement apparently has the answer: a new soft drink
made from cow urine.

The bovine brew is in the final stages of development by the Cow
Protection Department of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),
India’s biggest and oldest Hindu nationalist group, according to the
man who makes it.

Om Prakash, the head of the department, said the drink – called “gau
jal”, or “cow water” – in Sanskrit was undergoing laboratory tests and
would be launched “very soon, maybe by the end of this year”.

“Don’t worry, it won’t smell like urine and will be tasty too,” he
told The Times from his headquarters in Hardwar, one of four holy
cities on the River Ganges. “Its USP will be that it’s going to be
very healthy. It won’t be like carbonated drinks and would be devoid
of any toxins.”

sauce: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article5707554.ece

http://www.olceoktavia.com/2010/01/india-to-launch-cow-urine-as-soft-drink/

bademiyansubhanallah

unread,
Jan 7, 2010, 5:21:40 AM1/7/10
to
It is easy to blame BJP. But...

The election has ended but the journey continues. Please post here
your thoughts, ideas & suggestions on the road ahead.

11 posts •
by rphaniraj on Tue Dec 29, 2009 1:33 pm

@ Ms Sawhney & others

It is easy to blame BJP for all the so called unholy, unprincipled,
opportunistic alliances and admissions into party. Our blood boils in
anger and we get frustrated. I too am one such person. We are left
wondering what is happening to the party, its principles and in what
way are they better from others.

We even feel depressed and dejected, especially when this is done by
someone we love. But, on deeper thinking and reasoning, I think we
should share the blame.

Please tell how many times BJP has got a clear mandate at centre or
states ? How much it had to depend on unpredictable allies. The
Jharkhand fiasco is secondary to the fractured mandate given by
people. Had they voted for us whole heartedly, this would not have
happened. Unlike congress which does underarm deals with unidentified
persons and independents like madhu khoda, we have struck deal with
the largest party in state.

The maximum mandate we got at center was 182/545. Other than Shiv sena
and to some extent the akali dal, all the so called NDA partners are
not our natural allies. The BJD proved this. They are ready to ditch
us and the opposition ready to accept them at slightest chance. How on
earth can one form stable govt without compromise with such people?

While the people have been kind enough and patient to give repeated
decisive mandate to congress, they have never been so lenient to BJP.
We always had half chances and half mandates with a predator and
powerful opposition. It is like playing a cricket match with half
players and the boundary being made double while we are batting and
reduced to half while others are batting.

So, before criticising and pointing fingers at BJP, we should realise
that for every finger pointed at them there are 4 fingers pointing
towards us, the voters, which says that by not giving proper mandate
we are forcing them to enter into such alliances and making them
compromise.rphaniraj

Posts: 319
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2008 11:50 pm

Re: It is easy to blame BJP. But...
by abo007 on Wed Dec 30, 2009 10:17 am

I totally agree with you and as I have said in my other post, the
responsibility/blame totally belongs to the Indian voters.

In other democracies that I know a little bit about, voters are very
studious and don't allow any sort of principle-twisting politics. They
stop such politicians then and there itself. In India, however, we can
easily see that any sort of principle-twisting excuse, especially by
Congress, is whole-heartedly accepted by the media and also the Indian
voters.

There is no such comfort to the BJP...

What I have never got is the statement made by some "intelligent"
Indian voters that they voted for Congress because the oppostion is
weak or because opposition didn't do anything/enough.

To such voters, all I want to say is that, how come you understand
that the opposition is weak or not working hard enough just by looking
at their 5 years record and you still don't understand why Congress
couldn't provide any development at all by looking at their 60 years
record ???

How can you compare the performance report of 5 years against the
performance report of 60 years ???

In such a crazy public mentality sphere, how can you expect the
oppostion not to get frustrated and stop believing in the principle-
based society; and if it happens, who is to blame?abo007

Posts: 216
Joined: Tue Nov 25, 2008 6:23 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: It is easy to blame BJP. But...
by rphaniraj on Wed Dec 30, 2009 12:43 pm

i would like to augment my argument with the example of karnataka.

The party position in karnataka as per the election results was
BJp-110, cong-80, JD (S) -28 and 6 independents of whom some are
congress rebels and 2 of them are staunch, personal loyalists of
siddaramaiah , the current LOO in assembly and at that time
sidelineable leader in cong.

Now should we form govt or not? What is the people's mandate, its
intent?

At any point of time, cong and JDS will join hands, taking the total
to 108. So it is 110 Vs 108, add the 2 rebels(independents) it is 110
each. the battle is for 4 independents.

Now please tell me who has the mandate to rule the state? is it the
one with 110, or these 80s, 28s, or independents?
While the BJp has formed govt with ind support, it has to rely on the
unpredictable 6 independents, who at any point of time can change mood
and sides. Even though all are made ministers, there are still higher
inducements like portfolios, cash, influence etc which can make them
change sides.

The 80+ 28 is always a combine which has unprincipledly joined hands
together with sole intention to pull our legs.

Any amount of operation lotus, will only bring the greedy type of
leaders only into party, rather than the honest ones from other
parties.

It is but obvious that in such circumstances, it is these
independents, turncoats and others who weild influence more than loyal
workers. Shri yediyurappa, has toiled all his life, dedicated his
entire life to bring the party from 2 to 110. But, still, despite such
hard work, he is imprisoned by these ones and twos who are preventing
him from carrying out his agenda.
The people who gave comfortable majorities to other parties were not
kind enough to give the same to us . Starting from 85 elections party
positions were as follows- Total seats 224

1985-- JD-138, cong 66
1989-- Cong 185, JD-24
1994 JD 116, BJP-48, Cong 40, Bangarappa's party-10
1999, Cong- 128, BJP-49, Jd 20+

Look how comfortable other rulers were in contrast to BJP.

The experience of vajapayeeji from 1998 elections and 1999 elections
is known to all. We lost the trust vote by one vote when jayalalitha
withdrew support.The results of 1998 elections were such that every MP
was important.

Contrast this with the vast majorities given to congress and the
relative performance of the opposition at same time?
Why is it that people are not giving us such comfortable majorities.
The UP fiasco of dilly dallying with Mayawati started only after BJP
had less than majority seats.

In places like Chattisgarh, rajasthan, MP, gujrat, etc, where we had
majority comfortably on own, with opposition not breathing down the
neck, indulging in toppling games, we had always performed exceedingly
well without compromise on the principles.

Please compare likes with likes rather than lopsided comparisons while
commenting about BJP. So, it is for the people to give clear mandate
before they comment. Perform your duty properly before expecting or
commenting about results. Also the leadership should stive to get that
majority.

They should realise that people vote BJp with expectations and vote
congress out of hopelessness. While BJP has to live to the hopes,
aspirations and ambitions of the people, the congress just has to
harness the disappointment. People anyway dont expect congress to do
any good and hence they need not perform. When we point to congress's
non performance, they say "all are like that "and vote them, but
nobody votes BJP saying "all are like that". This is the difference
between Congress and BJP and our leaders should note that.rphaniraj

Posts: 319
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2008 11:50 pm

Re: It is easy to blame BJP. But...
by rajkiran on Wed Dec 30, 2009 3:37 pm

@rphaniraj,

Yes, the mandate by voters is terrible....but, a party cannot blame
this level of compromise in principles on voters...Till yesterday, we
were saying these people are bad and should be shunted out.... we
should stick to it...Yes, we can compromise a lot of times for
stability sake etc...but, the compromise this time is beyond
acceptable.....

Tell me, for a BJP voter, next time, when BJP says do not vote for
Shibu soren, what will the BJP voter think ??? --- Look at this
alliance from a staunch BJP voter's point of view. By doing this, we
will lose more voters than the gain we might have by keeping congress
away or the gain in strengthening the party (if at all it does)
rajkiran

Posts: 650
Joined: Sat Nov 08, 2008 8:16 am
WebsiteYIM

Re: It is easy to blame BJP. But...
by msawhney on Thu Dec 31, 2009 9:00 am

@rphaniraj

there is merit in your argument, but the question of the trust of
those who voted for BJP in Jharkhand remains.

If BJP can turn this alliance into something good for people...it is
ok else we just need to prepare for loss of base to other parties esp.
the Congress.msawhney

Posts: 113
Joined: Sun Nov 16, 2008 4:41 pm

Re: It is easy to blame BJP. But...
by randheer_singh on Thu Dec 31, 2009 6:42 pm

Chanakya or Kautilya had said that Good people should be much bigger
scoundrels than the corrupt. The day this balance is disturbed the
country and the civilization suffers. The designs and ends must be
honest but the path can be a bit wayward. This is what Lord Krishna
also said and proved in Mahabharat. The only person in modern day
India whom I can find close to Chanakya was the late PV Narasimha Rao.

Hindu Civilization suffered because it became too good and soft after
imbibing the teachings of Buddhism. BJP has to become 10 time more
cunning,shrewd,tactical than Congress if it wants to do the good for
this country. As Gadkari ji has said "Country First, Party Next,Self
Last".randheer_singh

Posts: 1100
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 5:54 pm
Website

Re: It is easy to blame BJP. But...
by msawhney on Thu Dec 31, 2009 8:59 pm

Being shrewd is all fine. But will BJP go beyond the narrow objective
of 'being in power' to free Jharkhand of this curse or will it reduce
this govt to sharing spoils of the state?

http://www.dailypioneer.com/225198/Jharkhand’s-resource-curse.htmlmsawhney

Posts: 113
Joined: Sun Nov 16, 2008 4:41 pm

Re: It is easy to blame BJP. But...
by rphaniraj on Fri Jan 01, 2010 1:43 pm

I agree that a staunch BJP supporter might be dejected. I too am.

But, the party should use these things as the pegs (stepping stones)to
achieve greater success in subsequent elections.
We should be able to explain the rationale of such agreement/
arrangement and win the confidence of people.

As i have said before, BJP should be assertive and uncompromising in
such situations. Special situations need special people. It would be
prudent we keep some of our best brains as representatives in the
cabinet and co ordination committees and as state observers, who at
slightest indication of things going wrong, should act and pull out of
such agreement.

It is true that we are pushed into the dirty cesspool, but as our
symbol, we should be LOTUS. The dirt should not stick to us and we
need to take care of that. Otherwise, things will happen as in UP,
orissa.rphaniraj

Posts: 319
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2008 11:50 pm

Re: It is easy to blame BJP. But...
by abo007 on Sat Jan 02, 2010 3:11 am

randheer_singh wrote:
Chanakya or Kautilya had said that Good people should be much bigger
scoundrels than the corrupt. The day this balance is disturbed the
country and the civilization suffers. The designs and ends must be
honest but the path can be a bit wayward. This is what Lord Krishna
also said and proved in Mahabharat. The only person in modern day
India whom I can find close to Chanakya was the late PV Narasimha Rao.

Hindu Civilization suffered because it became too good and soft after
imbibing the teachings of Buddhism. BJP has to become 10 time more
cunning,shrewd,tactical than Congress if it wants to do the good for
this country. As Gadkari ji has said "Country First, Party Next,Self
Last".

Randheer, I don't know how you do it everytime, but you just speak my
mind all the time... good on you ... abo007

Posts: 216
Joined: Tue Nov 25, 2008 6:23 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: It is easy to blame BJP. But...
by randheer_singh on Sat Jan 02, 2010 5:32 pm

Next target should be to punish Naveen Patnaik. Oriya people are peace
loving people and he demonized BJP to win this time. BJP is fighting
against illegal conversions which may lead to a potential civil war
kind of situation in future in Orissa. But Naveen Patnaik acted smart
and demonized BJP to win the elections. He betrayed the same BJP which
groomed him for last 8 years.

Such acts should not be pardoned. We should learn from Congress which
never forgives and always punishes. See what Congress is doing to Lalu
yadav. All his good work in Railways is mocked and invalidated by the
same government.Hindutva has always suffered because no body was there
to punish a Jaichand who betrayed.

BJP should use all the possible Sam/Daam/Danda/Bhed to break Naveen
Patnaik's party. Don't worry even if it means some period of
unstability in Orissa or a potential Congress Government also. BJP
should try to finish and recapture lot of its lost base from the
single person based parties like BJD and BSP. Now these parties should
be made irrelevant.

They have anyhow snatched away BJP's base only. Congress will anyhow
try to finish them so why not BJP should be a part in looting their
bases.

http://www.lkadvani.in/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=6988&p=0

bademiyansubhanallah

unread,
Jan 7, 2010, 5:52:00 AM1/7/10
to
Indians helped Nepal church bomber
Published Date: January 6, 2010

He said that the NDA purchased arms from United Liberation Front of


Assam (ULFA), a separatist outfit fighting to free North East Indian
state Assam from Indian rule.

Ram Prasad Mainali, the chief of now defunct extremist group Nepal
Defence Army (NDA) said he had link with India’s Hindu fanatic outfits
such as India’s VHP, BJP, RSS and Shiv Sena.

Mainali is currently serving time in Nakkhu jail in Kathmandu for
bombing the Catholic church in Lalitpur on May 23, 2009.

The 37-year-old said Hindu leaders in India helped him began NDA
aiming to reinstate monarchy and declare Nepal a Hindu nation again.

The NDA was formed in New Delhi in the early months of 2007 at a


meeting held in Birla Mandir, a Hindu temple.

In an interview with an Indian news portal, he said a large number of


Hindu fundamentalists and nationalists from India had attended the

meeting.

The leaders included those from Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the parent


party of India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),

Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Bajrang Dal and the Shiva Sena
party.

Mainali, however, refused to name the leaders who attended the
meeting.

Mainali also said the NDA, which has become inactive since his arrest
in Sep 2009, was receiving about Rs 500,000 every month from the
aforementioned organizations.

He said that the NDA purchased arms from United Liberation Front of


Assam (ULFA), a separatist outfit fighting to free North East Indian
state Assam from Indian rule.

During the candid interview, Mainali said that he regretted bombing

the church which killed a teenager and a woman from Bihar and injured


more than a dozen others.

He says he has become disillusioned with Hindu nationalists since and
has sought refuge in Christianity whom his outfit had vowed to drive
away from the country.

He said he started reading the bible after coming in contact with
Christians inside the prison and also attends the Nakkhu Gospel Church
run inside the prison premises.

http://www.religiousindia.org/2010/01/06/indians-helped-nepal-church-bomber/

chhotemianinshallah

unread,
Jan 7, 2010, 9:34:08 AM1/7/10
to
The RSS: The Force Behind Nanakshahi Change
WSN Bureau

It was Sardar Patel of the Congress who had written that “I am


thoroughly convinced that the RSS men can carry on their patriotic
endeavour only by joining the Congress and not by keeping separate or

opposing.” It is Prakash Singh Badal who has written that "I have
always maintained that the SAD-BJP alliance in Punjab and at the
Centre is more than a political arrangement. It represents the social
and emotional harmony of Punjab.” At a time when Akal Takht has
already declared RSS as the Enemy Number One of the Sikh Nation, with
what face does Prakash Singh Badal have an alliance with the RSS-BJP?
Clearly, the deeply entrenched RSS-backed forces have succeeded in
depriving the Quom of its distinctive Nanakshahi Calendar.

Sardar Parkash Singh Badal is very proud of his relationship with the
BJP. It is something he defines as more than a political alliance. His
favorite phrase for this is "brotherly alliance": "Bharawan Di
Saanjh". He has never written a single article about Sant Jarnail
Singh Bhindranwale, or a single lament about Operation Bluestar. He
never picked up a pen to write about denial of justice to victims of
the 1984 genocide of the Sikhs, but as the World Sikh News brought out
in its last edition, he has written an article in praise of a man who
takes pride in being a lifelong member of the RSS -- AB Vajpayee.

As per Badal, “If I have to pick one national leader as the ultimate
embodiment of the widest political consensus in the country, it will
have to be Atalji.”

Since Prakash Singh Badal's Akali Dal has a brute majority in the SGPC
and has ensured earlier this week that the Sikh Nation buckles before
the demands being orchestrated by deep RSS lobbies within the panthic
ranks and has changed the Nanakshahi Calendar, it is the best time to
engage with how the RSS past has been, and how such an organization
managed to stay lawful and accepted in India despite leading an
explicitly hatred-filled agenda.

Twice in India the RSS was banned. Once, on February 4, 1948, after
the murder of Mahatma Gandhi, and second time during the Emergency on
July 4, 1975.

Here is what the government communique of February 4, 1948, announcing
the ban, said:

“The professed aims and objects of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh are
to promote the physical, intellectual and moral well-being of the
Hindus and also to foster feelings of the brotherhood, love and
service amongst them. Government themselves are most anxious to
approve the general material and intellectual well-being of all
sections of the people and have got schemes on hand which are designed
to carry out the objects, particularly the provision of physical
training and education in military matters to the youth of the
country. Government have, however, noticed with regret that in
practice members of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh have not adhered to
their professed ideals.

“Undesirable and even dangerous activities have been carried on by the
members of the Sangh. It has been found that in several parts of the
country individual members of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh have
indulged in acts of violence involving arson, robbery, dacoity and
murder and have collected illicit arms and ammunitions. They have been
found circulating leaflets, exhorting people to resort to terrorist
methods, to collect firearms, to create disaffection against the

government and suborn the police and military.”

Read vintage Golwalker, the then chief of the RSS: “I tried my utmost


to see that between the Congress, which is capable of delivering goods
in the political field and is at present the ruling party, and the

Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh in the cultural field, …there be no bad


blood, there be only everlasting mutual love, one supplementing and

complementing the other, both meeting in a sacred confluence.” Of
course today they meet in a “confluence”, sacred or not, and also
joining this confluence is the Akali Dal of Badals.

Golwalkar claimed that the RSS was law-abiding and would “carry on its
activities within the bounds of law”. He was arrested on February 1
and was released on August 6, 1948, but his movements were restricted

Mark the words. "Declared objectives have little to do with the real
ones". Which part of it is not true today? The BJP's newly appointed
president Nitin Gadkari has taken upon himself to defend Narendra
Modi. He is going all out to project Modi, under whose watch the
killings of the Muslims in Gujarat took place, as the Vikas Purash of
India. It is with such a party that Prakash Singh Badal is proud of
his association.

Even after the ban, Patel was keen to absorb the RSS within the
Congress. Yet, he was not too forthcoming when his Hindu Mahasabhaite
colleague in the Cabinet, Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, began pestering him
to be soft on the RSS and the Mahasabha. Patel wrote to Mookerjee on
July 18 that “our reports do confirm that, as a result of the
activities of these two bodies, particularly the former (the RSS), an
atmosphere was created in the country in which such a ghastly tragedy

(Gandhi’s assassination) became possible. There is no doubt in my mind
that the extreme section of the Hindu Mahasabha was involved in this


conspiracy. The activities of the RSS constituted a clear threat to
the existence of government and the state. Our reports show that those
activities, despite the ban, have not died down. Indeed, as time has
marched on, the RSS circles are becoming more defiant and are
indulging in their subversive activities in an increasing measure.”

Clearly, this was the compromise between the Congress and the RSS.
Both catered to the radicalised, communal Hindu sentiments and did not
want to lose this important chunk of Indian electorate. With Congress
assuming a left of Centre position and leaving the right of centre to
the RSS-Janasangh or the modern day BJP, the entire Hindutva flank can
be covered. It is his cooperation, collusion and teaming up with such
a flank that Prakash Singh Badal is so proud of.

That there is a deeply entrenched soft Hindutva forever etched inside
the Congress is clear from Patel’s reply to Golwalkar less than two


months later, on September 11.

Addressing him as “Brother Golwalkar” (the latter’s letter was
addressed to “Hon’ble Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel”), the Sardar recalled
his speech at Jaipur in December 1947 in which he had spoken very
gently of the RSS (“patriots who love their country”). He regretted
that this had no effect on the Sangh: “There can be no doubt that the
RSS did service to the Hindu Society.... But the objectionable part
arose when they, burning with revenge, began attacking Musalmans.
Organising the Hindus and helping them is one thing, but going in for
revenge for its sufferings on innocent and helpless men, women and
children is quite another thing.” He added: “All their speeches were
full of communal poison.” Patel reminded Golwalkar that RSS men

expressed joy and distributed sweets after Gandhi’s death. He squarely


charged that “as a final result of the poison the country had to

suffer the sacrifice of the invaluable life of Gandhi”.

But the Sardar, nonetheless, made a strange proposal for reasons of
his own: “I am thoroughly convinced that the RSS men can carry on
their patriotic endeavour only by joining the Congress and not by
keeping separate or opposing.” He had the restriction lifted and
Golwalkar came to Delhi.

Prakash Singh Badal finds it easy to look for an enemy in the Congress
and a friend in the RSS-BJP. Why he cannot see what is visible to even
the political novices is beyond any understanding unless Badal is
being a hypocrite. Clearly, he is being one.

When the talks did not succeed, on November 2, 1948, Golwalkar


announced the failure in public statements outlining his stand. Three
days later he replied to Sardar Patel’s proposal in terms which are
very significant. They were the basis on which he later supported the
creation of the Jan Sangh, the ancestor of the BJP: “I tried my utmost
to see that between the Congress, which is capable of delivering goods
in the political field and is at present the ruling party, and the
Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh in the cultural field, which has achieved
success in creating a matchless spirit of patriotism, brotherhood and
selflessness among the people, there be no bad blood, there be only
everlasting mutual love, one supplementing and complementing the
other, both meeting in a sacred confluence.”

So, even though the talks had failed and Golwalkar was ordered to go
back to Nagpur, the intentions have come on record for the posterity.
The Congress till date has been delivering goods in the political
field and the RSS has been polluting the cultural field. The recent
changes effected in the Nanakshahi Calendar are the latest proof of
this cultural pollution.

This what PM Nehru’s office wrote to the RSS chief: “Government have a


great deal of evidence in their possession to show that the RSS were
engaged in activities which were anti-national and prejudicial from

the point of view of public good.”

Here is the Indian Home Ministry's statement of November 14, 1948


recording what had transpired in Golwalkar’s two interviews with
Sardar Patel and the former’s refusal to alter the Sangh’s ways: “The
information received by the Government of India shows that the
activities carried on in various forms and ways by the people
associated with the RSS tend to be antinational and often subversive
and violent and that persistent attempts are being made by the RSS to
revive an atmosphere in the country which was productive of such
disastrous consequences in the past.” It added: “He has written
letters both to the Prime Minister and Home Minister explaining inter
alia that the RSS agrees entirely with the conception of a secular
state for India and that it accepts the National Flag of the country
and requesting that the ban imposed on the organisation in February
should now be lifted. These professions of the RSS leader are,
however, quite inconsistent with the practice of his followers and for
the reason already explained above, the Government of India find
themselves unable to advise Provincial Governments to lift the ban.”

The government issued a communique on July 11, 1949, announcing the


lifting of the ban. It recorded the RSS leader’s clarifications and

said: “In the light of the modifications made and clarifications given


by the RSS leader, the Government of India have come to the conclusion
that the RSS organisation should be given an opportunity to function
as a democratic, cultural organisation owing loyalty to the Indian
Constitution and recognising the National Flag eschewing secrecy and
abjuring violence.”

Clearly, this was the compromise between the Congress and the RSS.
Both catered to the radicalised, communal Hindu sentiments and did not
want to lose this important chunk of Indian electorate. With Congress
assuming a left of Centre position and leaving the right of centre to
the RSS-Janasangh or the modern day BJP, the entire Hindutva flank can
be covered.

It is his cooperation, collusion and teaming up with such a flank that
Prakash Singh Badal is so proud of. Badal's words as a study in
obsequousness:

"After the elections, a BJP-led government was to be formed at the
Centre with Mr Vajpayee as Prime Minister. They were looking for
allies. I realized that this was a crucial and even a historic moment
to undo the feelings of mutual suspicion. The Shiromani Akali Dal had
swept the polls in Punjab. We went over to Mr Vajpayee's residence and
announced unconditional support to him. Vajpayeeji embraced me in
front of a large gathering that had come to his residence to express
solidarity with him. A picture of Vajpayeeji and me on Page 1 of a
prominent national daily the next morning did more to bridge the
emotional chasm that had been created between Hindus and Sikhs. It was
an emotional moment... I can never adequately explain what our coming
together has done for creating an atmosphere of mutual goodwill in
Punjab."

If this was the Badals' turn for turning obsequous, they were only
taking a leaf out of the RSS own book. When the RSS was banned for the
second time, the letters that the then RSS chief Balasaheb Deoras had
written to Indira Gandhi during the Emergency were cringing: “I have


heard the speech you delivered on August 15, 1975, from the Red Fort,
Delhi on AIR. The speech was balanced and befitting to the occasion
and has prompted me to write this letter to you,” he wrote on August
22. He concluded: “I beseech you to rescind the ban imposed upon the
RSS.” Deoras wrote to Indira Gandhi again on July 16, praising her
foreign policy and renewing his plea on the ban. Both letters were
ignored.

Deoras’ letters to S.B. Chavan were as abject. He wrote on June 6,
1976, asking Chavan for “release on parole with a view to clarifying


certain issues directly to you”. The entreaty was repeated on July 12,

1976. None of the letters elicited a reply.

When the Emergency was over, and the RSS prospered during the Janata
era, Prakash Singh Badal was among the key politicians that lent
credibility to the Janasangh. When the Janasangh walked out of the
Janata Party to form the Bharatiya Janata Party, Prakash Singh Badal
did not lose a single opportunity to underline his close links with LK
Advani or AB Vajpayee.

When the Akal Takht in recent past declared the RSS to be the Enemy
Number One of the Sikh Nation, Prakash Singh Badal did his level best
to get the hukumnama deferred or withdrawn. So far he has only
succeeded in not letting this Hukumnama come to the forefront.

Now when the Justice Liberhan Commission also says that the BJP and
the RSS are but one, and that there was no way the BJP can go out of
the command and control structure of the RSS, one thing is very clear:
Punjab's ruling Akali Dal of Parkash Singh Badal-Sukhbir Singh Badal
has an alliance with a party that is an appendage of the RSS,
described by the Akal Takht as Enemy Number One of the Sikhs.

So what is Akali Dal? Enemy Number Two of the Sikhs?

No wonder Mr Badal has written: "If I have to pick one national leader
as the ultimate embodiment of the widest political consensus in the
country, it will have to be Atalji." Whatever happened to a social
construct called "Shame"?

6 January 2010

http://worldsikhnews.com/6%20January%202010/The%20RSS%20The%20Force%20Behind%20Nanakshahi%20Change.htm

chhotemianinshallah

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Jan 7, 2010, 9:36:23 AM1/7/10
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RSS raids Red nerve center
A postcard from the bloody battle ground
WSN Network

NEW DELHI: Thalassery has echoed with political violence so often and
so regularly that the Indian media had long stopped even mentioning
it, but on Sunday, the RSS-CPM violence spilled out in Delhi as Sangh
Parivar activists stoned senior CPM leaders right inside the CPM
headquarters and smashed cars even as Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechuri
and other top leaders watched.

Vendetta politics played out in full screen version and the attack,
possibly the first such on the nerve-centre of a party in Delhi, was
so stunning that the nuclear winter also thawed for a few moments.
Even Sonia Gandhi called up Prakash Karat to convey her concern.

The attack had its roots to a deadly conflict over 3,000 km away in
Kerala, where a turf war between the BJP and the CPM have claimed
seven lives in just one week.

The BJP-RSS workers laid siege to the Left party’s A.K. Gopalan Bhavan
headquarters in Gole Market, protesting against the spiral of violence
in north Kerala’s Kannur. Among the seven murdered in Kannur, five
were BJP supporters.

The BJP, which has never won an election in Kerala, had been reminding
the CPM of the Sangh’s clout in Delhi and the attack in Delhi was
perhaps meant to be a trailer, putting into practice the warning that
the RSS workers openly uttered in Kerala.

The ugly stone pelting and brawl lasted around 20 minutes before
police used tear gas to disperse the crowd. A concrete slab was
dropped on the rear windshield of the Maruti Zen that politburo member
Sitaram Yechury drives. An office Ambassador, which Karat uses
sometimes, was also damaged.

12 March 2008

http://www.worldsikhnews.com/12%20March%202008/RSS%20raids%20Red%20nerve%20center.htm

chhotemianinshallah

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Jan 7, 2010, 9:41:57 AM1/7/10
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KERALA'S WAR ZONE
Rajeev PI
Posted: Sunday , Mar 16, 2008 at 1217 hrs
Updated:Saturday , Mar 15, 2008 at 1239 hrs

Last week’s killings of RSS and CPM men in Kannur is the latest
incident in a three-decade-old battle being fought on imagined
ideological lines. Our correspondent travels through the district
where violence has maimed as many as it has killed.

Her five-year-old daughter Ashna was holding her hand and the bomb hit
the child. It tore off Ashna’s right leg. Shanti says she didn’t even
feel the sharpnel slice her own abdomen and mangle the left foot of
her two-year-old son she was holding.

That was eight years ago on September 27, 2000. A series of surgeries
later, 13-year-old Ashna, in Class VIII now, hops about her small
unplastered home on one leg. She dreams of becoming a doctor, a
“village doctor”. For many years, her father used to carry her home
from school, the stump of her leg bleeding inside the prostheis.

Ashna’s father, Koota Nanu, who used to run the village teashop in
Kannur’s Poovathur, says he had known the man who threw that bomb for
years, a mason in the neighbouring village and an RSS worker. Nanu
swears they had never had a quarrel. But that day the man was among an
armed RSS mob pursuing Congress workers fleeing from a fight at the
village school across the road, where voting was going on in the local
polls.

Nanu claims to have no ill will for the bomb thrower. “We have run
into each other many times since, even at times when I carried Ashna
to the village market. We just try not to look at each other. I hear
he wept for his mistake soon after.” The case, with 14 RSS men in the
accused list, is still going on in the local court.
The Kannur blood game has mostly been a Red vs Saffron show but the
Congress too has been pitching in with equal fervour. So far, since
the killings began in the 1970s, close to 300 people have been
injured. The targets are mostly low-level party workers or
sympathisers, usually picked at random to quickly even the scores
after each killing.

Nanu and his brother were Congress supporters. The RSS mob had rushed
to look in their homes for the escaped quarry. Unknown to Shanti and
her kids standing near their front door, they came in the way. In
Kannur’s political killing fields, people have been maimed or killed
for less.
Those like 24-year-old Prasoon, an RSS worker of Peruthattil village.
Five years ago, on 14 July 2003, he was playing cricket with his
friends at their village ground. Prasoon was about to run up to bowl
when three local CPM men he knew clapped and gestured at him from the
ground’s edge. He walked up to them, but saw more men come quietly out
of the shadows towards him.

“I tried to run but three of them caught and pinned me down on the
ground. The others waved swords to keep my friends off. They hacked
off my left wrist, then removed my left leg above the knee with an
axe.” The doctors sewed back the severed wrist but the leg couldn’t be
put back and Prasoon, who once cleaned cement trucks on the side to
support his lorry driver father, gets around on a prosthesis, probably
for all his life.

All of 19 then, Prasoon had never got into a fight with anyone. But he
bore the brunt of an earlier attack by the RSS on a young man of the
CPM in another part of the district. And it’s always been Our Dead and
Maimed versus Their Dead and Maimed here. Statistics are deadly
important to keep the ranks from eroding, and scores must be evened
quickly, convincingly, openly. Prasoon, young and a regular at the
local RSS shakha, was too tempting a target to miss.

IT’S some 30 years now since this surreal war of statistics pitched on
imagined ideological planes, began here with bombs, swords, knives,
and axes. “As of last week, the RSS-BJP, the Congress and the police
have killed 149 of our comrades here. We don’t have the list of our
men who lost arms, legs, eyes—there are too many,” says P. Sasi,
senior CPM leader and its new district secretary at Kannur.
At the newly built RSS office in Kannur’s Thalassery, mounted photos
of 56 Sangh men—and a woman—bombed or cut to pieces by the CPM look
down from an entire wood-paneled wall (those too poor to have left
behind even a photo have a flower instead, with the name scrawled
below). It’s just a partial list, the wall just cannot hold more
photos.

The Congress is not keeping a strict count anymore. “I personally know
well over 50 of our men here who have lost their limbs,” says K.
Sudhakaran, former minister and the Congress’s powerful ex-district
secretary, who escaped many attempts on his life and is accused of
organising many attacks on his political foes.

The ranks die and become martyrs in brick memorials on Red or Saffron
village junctions, but not too many Kannur leaders want to be caught
without a gun handy. Kannur is where leaders like the CPM’s central
committee member E.P. Jayarajan walks around with a bullet still
lodged inside his head after a political attempt on him a few years
ago. It is also where local Marxist satrap, politburo member and state
CPM secretary Pinarayi Vijayan must carry his .38 revolver at all times
—remember the stir at Chennai airport last year when he inadvertently
carried bullets into the security check.

THIS is also a region where unemployment is galloping and where few
investors are stepping in. Parties vie to draw in the swelling army of
jobless young men. The local handloom industry, once India’s most
active, is collapsing in this “city of looms and lores”. The ruling
CPM, which was actually born in Kannur in 1930 and had bagged over 60
per cent of the votes polled even in the last local elections, has no
solution. Famously commanding many thousands of crores worth of
assets, even the party’s biggest showpiece cooperative hailed
internationally, the Dinesh Bidi Cooperative, has crumbled despite
many Government- funded resuscitation bids. But the CPM still commands
most of Kannur’s surviving little cooperatives, most offering ready
liquid cash for party-sponsored initiatives.

Bomb making, however, is looking up. “Enough bombs are made and
stocked here to last a long time. It’s a political activity, very
little is for non-political use. We can’t go beyond certain limits to
catch them,” a senior police official admitted. Even last week, after
seven RSS and CPM men were chopped to death here in a space of four
days and RSS and the CPM mobs spent time throwing scores of bombs at
each other at half a dozen a village junctions, the police had seized
no more than 41 bombs as of March 13.

Bombs come in many forms here. “Steel tiffin carriers from Salem, ball
bearings from Coimbatore,” are among the preferred stuff for making
the more potent steel bombs, says a political worker in Thalassery.
The bombs are made in remote village homes, stockpiled in abandoned
compounds, even party offices and buildings that few cops would risk
raiding in normal course, often even disused village wells and rubbish
bins. Party-inclined village blacksmiths, paid handsomely, churn out
regular supplies of swords, axes and special equipment like the
popular ‘S’ shaped stabbing knives from hard steel, including from old
suspension leaves of trucks. Samples from bomb batches are duly tested
and passed before handing them to the political sponsors, in deserted
quarries and compounds. Usually, banana trees are used to test newly
made hatchets and to train greenhorn assault teams.
Sometimes the stocked political bombs forget whom to kill or maim. A
few years ago, a little Tamil orphan boy picking rags in Kannur
(someone with a black humour had given him the name Amavasi, meaning
lunar eclipse) rummaged in a rubbish bin to find a steel container.
Amavasi had never seen a bomb before. It blew off both his hands. An
NGO later took him in—after renaming him Poornachandran, which means
full moon.

Another is Madathumkandi Surendran, a mason of Ponniath village. His
pickaxe hit metal while digging a house’s foundation in November 1994—
a hidden steel bomb, again. It blew up in his face, injuring both his
eyes. No party went to his aid since he belonged to none.

Much of the mostly nocturnal bomb making takes place in or around the
many “party villages”. Entire villages have been taken over by the
parties who control them and ferociously defend them from incursion by
other parties. The CPM, naturally has the largest number of these
here, followed by the BJP-RSS. The non-cadre based Congress has only a
few. Party villages are where the parties concerned decide who buys or
sells property there, who moves in or out, who gets invited to
marriages and funerals—sometimes even what newspapers are read, who
marries whom. These are easily identified, all the electric posts
leading to them wear the respective party colours and stenciled or
scrawled symbols, some even have welcome boards such as “welcome to
the communist village”, or massive hammers and sickles in concrete.
Most Red villages have red-festooned buildings, local clubs, reading
rooms and streets bearing portraits, slogans and names of men from the
local and international communist pantheons, besides the dead from the
battles with the Congress and the RSS. The saffron ones sport huge
lotuses, trishuls, flags and typical street names like Shivji Nagar
and Durga Nagar, apart from names of Sangh men the CPM had killed.

In these transgressing political opponents are seldom dealt with
kindly. One who did is C.H. Suresh Babu, mandal president of the
Congress in the 9th ward of Mokeri, a village the RSS was trying to
make its own. He filed his nomination in the local bodies poll three
years ago, despite threats. Four nights later, a bunch of RSS men
caught him in a dark village street with steel clubs. He spent over a
month in hospital and is immobile from waist down now.

The hit teams don’t like their quarries escaping a planned strike.
Last week, a masked RSS hit squad broke down the door of the CPM’s
branch secretary Rajesh in Kavumbhagom. They found only his 65-year-
old mother Sarada there. Both her legs were broken with iron rods.
Sarada, recovering at the CPM-sponsored Thalassery Cooperative
Hospital, is still in shock. In Kathirur, CPM men who came for BJP
worker Kunnummel Chandrika, beheaded her cow last Tuesday. In
Pulluvam, the hitmen cut off the head of BJP man Balan’s dog.

THERE is a pattern to everything in Kannur. The CPM men are almost
always taken to the party’s own well-guarded Thalassery Cooperative
Hospital, the saffron brigade takes its casualties to the Congress-
sponsored Indira Gandhi Hospital farther down. Neither side wants to
risk their casualties being attacked inside a hospital.

But there is no guarantee here. Even a spouse actively supporting the
opposite party is no guarantee of safety here. Praseetha, wife of
Prakash Babu of Pernthattil, a BJP worker and a truck driver, is a CPM
worker employed in the CPM-run Dinesh Bidi Cooperative. But on October
26, 2000, time when the local death tally of the period favoured the
RSS, Babu driving a firewood truck in the wee hours was an easy
target. Ten men waylaid him on the street, cut open his head, then
severed his wrist and took it away. He lives on a subsistence
allowance from the BJP-RSS now.

Not being an active supporter of either side may be no insurance
either. The only thing 65-year-old Elancheri Kumaran, a coconut
plucker of Kappummel, had to do with the CPM was voting for the party
at the elections. On the night of January 13, 1997, Kumaran ran out of
his bidis and walked across the road near his home to buy some. A
bunch of men led by an RSS man living next door, a man he had known
for years, stepped out of the shadows and threw a bomb. It took away
one of his legs below the knee. Infection set in soon after, and the
doctors amputated much of his remaining leg.

THE many narrow escape lanes in the area and plenty of cheap 100 cc
motorcycles to be bought and junked mean the hit men can strike at any
hour. K.P. Kumaran also known as Valsan, a local grocer and branch
secretary of the CPM in Chalakara, was attacked in broad daylight by
eight motorcycle-borne men last November in his shop. “They kicked me
down and cut off my right wrist with a sword. Then a man took out a
short axe, kept swinging it till my right leg was cut off at the
knee,” recalls Valsan, who underwent a Rs 5 lakh, 16-hour long
microvascular surgery at Kochi to get his wrist and leg joined back.
But he has no sensation in or control over either, and is confined to
a wheel chair, lifted and moved by relatives when the pain is more
bearable.

But for Valsan, it has been a double tragedy. His ailing 38-year-old
wife, Mahila, went into depression soon after the attack and never got
out of it. She died last month and their relatives now take care of
the couple’s two children.

CPM district secretary P. Sasi points out the case of Harindran, a
taxi driver and party secretary in Panur. The RSS attacked him on a
crowded road while he was ferrying school kids home. “They threw out
the screaming kids, cut off Harindran’s head, hacked his wrist off.
They carried away the severed hand in a plastic shopping bag, we later
came to know that was since the hit team had a student on his first
strike, and he was to present the hand before his gurus.” RSS sources,
however, deny this story about the cut hand taken away as
gurudakshina.

Police sources say the two sides have lately been hiring ‘quotation’
killers from places like Mangalore. Both the RSS and CPM leaders
refute that. “We are a mass-based party and it is the lay people who
retaliate when our comrades are murdered,” says P. Sasi, the Kannur
CPM chief.
More insight comes from a man in Kannur, one of CPM’s chief hit men
till sometime ago until he fell out. “Nothing is done by the ranks
without proper authorisation in both the RSS and the CPM,” he says.

Significantly, almost all the dead since the bloody political killings
began here in the 1970s have been the poor. The exceptions have been
the likes of P. Jayarajan, one of the state’s senior CPM leaders, who
was left for dead at his Kannur home, only to recover. On the other
side are the likes of Kannur’s former RSS Saha Karyavah C Sadanandan —
CPM men cut off both his legs—the police took him to hospital carrying
the legs in a plastic sack.

Both parties here take care of their injured. Each series of bombings
means injuries and high hospital bills. CPM sources say the party has
already spent close to Rs 1 crore on medical and support bills in
recent years. The RSS-BJP helps out its victims too, but is obviously
not as cash rich as the CPM.

Violence is something Kannur can no longer afford.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/keralas-war-zone/284786/0

chhotemianinshallah

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Jan 7, 2010, 9:58:29 AM1/7/10
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Having reneged on one, Badal proposes another memorial
WSN Network

CHANDIGARH: Twenty-Five years and eight days after thousands of Sikhs
were killed in Delhi and elsewhere, and after years of deafening
silence on why the Akali Dal or the SGPC have not made it a core issue
for articulating the discrimination towards Sikhs by the Indian nation
state, Akali Dal patron and Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal has
announced plans to raise a memorial to the victims of the pogrom.

Under severe attack from wide sections of the community, and facing
stinging criticism from the influential Sikh Diaspora around the
world, the Akali Dal top brass is fearing a strong backlash in the
upcoming SGPC elections as the issue of the SGPC and the Akalis
ignoring the sentiments of an entire community is likely to cost it
dearly in polls.

Ironically, the Akali Dal’s decision comes close on the heels of the
SGPC actually reneging on an earlier decision to set up a memorial
within the precincts of the Golden Temple complex to the memory of the
martyrs of Operation Bluestar. It was none other than the SGPC itself
that had initially vowed to set up such a memorial, but then, with egg
on its face, it stepped back under pressure from its Hindutva alliance
partner RSS-BJP.

Significantly, the politics of the new proposed memorial indicated by
Badal underlines a skewed understanding of the naunces involved.
Prakash Singh Badal has made it clear that the memorial he had in mind
was in the form of a “worldclass heritage building” in New Delhi that
will be a “tribute to the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.” Badal
and his spin masters churning out press releases insist on using the
term “riots” instead of “pogrom”, “carnage” or “Sikh holocaust” that
most human rights activists, victim families and scholars prefer.

Badal’s proposal came during the “ardas divas” on November 8 organised
in memory of the pogrom victims by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak
Committee and the Shiromani Akali Dal. The day was observed by the SAD
and SGPC after they got a rap from the Sikh sangat for staying away
from a Punjab Bandh that got huge response on November 3.

The Chief minister joined the Sikh community in prayers in Delhi.

Significantly, well known author and highly perceptive journalist
Manoj Mitta, who has written a path breaking book on 1984 carnage of
Sikhs alongside activist lawyer H S Phoolka, had proposed that the
Sikh community should set up a memorial in Block 32 of Trilokpuri, the
most apt place since it was there that a massaccre most foul took
place and hundreds were hounded and burnt alive. Scholars have often
proposed that such memorials should dot Delhi all over to signify as
to what depths soft and hard Hindutva spewing politicians can plumb to
extract mileage from political bosses.

A representative of the 1984 pogrom hit families said he will consider
it a better contribution from the Badals if they desist from their
friendship and close ties with men like Indian minister Kamal Nath who
too was allegedly involved in the carnage. Incidentally, Sukhbir Singh
Badal’s family enjoys a close friendship with the Naths.

11 November 2009

http://www.worldsikhnews.com/11%20November%202009/Having%20reneged%20on%20one%20Badal%20proposes%20another%20memorial.htm

chhotemianinshallah

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Jan 7, 2010, 10:02:06 AM1/7/10
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Editorial

After the change, Akalis & BJP

For many years, Prakash Singh Badal has kept up a strong relationship
with the BJP, and a peculiarly intense friendship with L K Advani
ensured that Akalis were able to ride roughshod over the local BJP
leaders in Punjab.

Along the way, the Badals lost much respect among the panthic circles,
and will be at pains to stress their credentials when they face the
SGPC elections shortly.

But with the RSS shadow getting longer and darker over the BJP, the
alliance will come under renewed pressure as the Akali rank and file
will find it difficult to swallow RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's theory
that anyone who lives in India is a Hindu.

Now that Advani is past his extended prime, and his protege Sushma
Swaraj as Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha will have to look more
towards Bhagwat than to new party president Nitin Gadkari will not
make Badal's task any easier. The fact that Gadkari himself is a
hardcore RSS man will put the Akali Dal-BJP alliance under
unprecedented pressure.

The friend-philosopher-guide Advani will be no more in a position to
steer the Badals through difficult patches of SAD-BJP relationship.

Friendship with the Rathyatri has done little credit to Badal, and
handshakes with someone who wants to see whole India "Sanghmayee" will
only besmirch his reputation more.

Also, since Gadkari is an organizational man, he will accord much more
respect to the views of his own party leaders in Punjab. It is a fact
that the BJP is not taking it kindly that it is being run roughshod by
Sukhbir Badal and his men.

Any protestations of the Badals that the BJP and the RSS were two
separate entities now lie in tatters. The Justice Liberhan Commission
has made it clear that the BJP is an appendage of the RSS and cannot
go outside its command. It is something that not only Advani has
conceded but even the RSS has proven by making sure that Gadkari
replaces Rajnath.

At least the BJP is now completely Sanghmayee.

It is for Prakash Singh Badal to decide whether he wants to make the
Akali Dal also "Sanghmayee." Many of course will argue that the party
is already way down that path, thanks to the compromises that the
Badals have been making for decades.

But if indeed that be the case, what are the other leaders in Akali
Dal doing? Will they be able to face their Sikh voters and ask for
support in SGPC polls?

If anything, Badals should be learning facts about intra-party
democracy from the BJP. If a leader like Advani can be replaced, if
someone like AB Vajpayee can be made dispensable, why are the Badals
so indispensable?

Clearly, the BJP is not propagating at least family rule in the party.
It still retains a certain norm of democracy in the party, something
the Akali Dal has denied its leaders who are more than happy to leave
all rights to Sukhbir Singh Badal to select names for Rajya Sabha,
president of SGPC, candidates for Assembly, perhaps even vegetables
for langar. So much so that which village or town will get to perform
sewa at the langar is also decided by Bibi Surinder Kaur Badal.

It is a pity that the Badals completely refused to learn the minimum
from their alliance partners. Will the alliance partner learn and shun
the Akalis if the Sikhs decide to teach a lesson to those who are
renegades of Sikh philosophy and culture? Wait for SGPC elections’
aftermath.

23 December 2009

http://www.worldsikhnews.com/23%20December%202009/After%20the%20change%20Akalis%20&%20BJP.htm

chhotemianinshallah

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Jan 7, 2010, 10:05:46 AM1/7/10
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Editorial

Outsourcing Political Honesty: A Solution Most Pernicious

In a most fantastic solution proposed to bring about honesty and
integrity in public life at least among those who are in Indian
politics on the Right of the Center domain, journalist-turned-
politician Arun Shourie has recommended that the job be entrusted to
the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS). Indeed, such a philosophy about
politics being some kind of a harlot and puritan souls entering
politics falling in love with the harlot and in need of being saved is
the core of RSS from which intellectuals like Shourie derive not only
their intellectual stance but also life philosophy.

It is good that the suggestion has come from Mr Shourie, otherwise
known for his personal integrity and wide reading, besides, of course,
competence. From anyone else, the words would have been taken little
note of since there was no way to find out if they actually mean these
but in this case, we take it for granted.

But why are souls like Shourie's or many others itching to allow the
RSS to baby feed all politics and philosophy to the BJP? Because the
agenda comes from some kind of a pernicious thought process that
Nagpur and Jhandewalan are the repositiries of unfathomable goodness
and only by embracing their ideas on country, politics and power can
the BJP save itself. Also, it is being projected as if the Sangh is
way above the distractions, has existed for centuries, or at least is
based on ideas that have existed for that long, and longer, and cannot
be impacted by minor historical and political processes like the
industrial revolution, the formation of nation states, the
technological changes in the world, the leap to a post-colonial
existence, the new processes and thoughts in politics etc.

For the Sangh, as Prof Jyotirmaya Sharma, who has studied the
functioning of the RSS closely than many others, holds, any idea of
change is merely cosmic play, leela, or is part of the illusory nature
of the phenomenal world and has little to do with reality. Reality is
what the Sangh feels, thinks, knows and decrees. The illusion of
permanence and hubris of certainty is protected because not only the
BJP but also the Congress and many other players in the Indian
politics are so deeply brahamanical and tilted towards the rich and
the established that any notion of change pressed for by minorities,
tribals, dalits, poor is dismissed as the word of heretics.

The RSS' idea of politics is strange and outdated. It holds that
politics is based on selfishness and the greater selfishness
increases, the greater the need for politics, power and governance.
The only way to avoid the path to politics is to have social unity,
cultivate the inner excellence of individuals within that society and
celebrate culture as the true representation of genuine power. It even
rejects democracy and thinks that it encourages individualism and
selfishness. The only ‘ism’ that the RSS finds tenable is Hinduism.

No wonder, with such ideas, the RSS thinks of itself as the paragon of
purity and perfection, as the sole guardian, protector and defender of
what they called Hindu culture, Hindu nationalism and Hindu
consolidation, the like of which is sometimes imposed by demolishing
mosques, whipping up a hysteria over Amarnath Yatra, pulling out girls
from pubs in Bangalore, smashing shop front windows on Valentine Day
or, if you have any free time left, cutting Muslims to small pieces in
Gujarat in order to attain the status of Hindu Hridiya Samrat.

All of it is not only condoned by the RSS, but is part of the larger
vision of the society that is visible from Nagpur. No wonder, for men
like Shourie, who now wants the "bombard the headquarters" approach,
the politicians in BJP fall short when compared to sages in the RSS.
That Shourie sees himself as a sage goes without saying. The RSS holds
that it indeed had sent some sages from its ranks to the politics to
improve it. These sages, over the years, instead of reforming that
harlot, namely, politics, instead fell in love with her. They began to
love all that she had to offer, be it power, wealth, position or
glory. So now, handover the task of cleansing the impurities to the
RSS.

It is this pernicious way of looking at society, politics and nation
building that we need to stay aware of. The BJP can untie its knots.
The damage that the RSS will inflict will be worse.

2 September 2009

http://www.worldsikhnews.com/2%20September%202009/Outsourcing%20Political%20Honesty.htm

chhotemianinshallah

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Jan 7, 2010, 10:11:36 AM1/7/10
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Editorial

Shamelessness In Saffron Colour

So far, no reasonable critique has emerged to counter the common
refrain among the right-thinking people in Punjab, rest of India and
all across the human rights domain: If the 1984 genocide of Sikhs
investigated properly and the guilty brought to the book swiftly, the
2002 Gujarat may have never happened.

The 1984 genocide victims are still waiting. The shenanigans of the
various Indian governments, investigating agencies including the CBI
and the judiciary make one thing clear: some nice words will be
uttered from time to time but nothing much will happen on the ground.

In case of Gujarat, we celebrate the doggedness of the civil society
activists and liberal domain who refused to just let the matters rest
with a Congress government at the Centre. It was clear that the soft
core Hindutva will not go with any determination after the hardcore
variety.

The investigation into the 2002 Gujarat riots was never going to be
easy. Gujarat Government was in the dock, and the the agencies of
investigation were in its hands. Where was the hope of any justice?
Particularly when Narendra Modi was being projected as the role model
and even the India Inc, the billionaires, said they want to see him as
the next Prime Minister?

The crucial step of Supreme Court sending the right message by
publicly indicting the Narendra Modi government and transferring the
high profile cases to neighbouring Maharashtra, then setting up a
Special Investigation Team have yielded results.

But even as the SIT marshalled the evidence, look what has come to the
fore: Commission after commission either ignored tell tale in-your-
face kind of evidence.

It was one police officer who had made an extra set of CDs that
contained the damning phone records, and it was a couple of dogged
journalists, among them Steven Desai of the Indian Express (now
working with the Hindustan Times), who made it a matter of faith to
get down to the bottom of it all.

At the WSN, we salute all those who shed a tear for the men, women and
children killed by the Hindutva-inspired goons. We salute all those
who kept up the fight. We hail all those scribes whose pen refused to
scratch out the truth, and we salute all those police officer who knew
the truth could get them into trouble.

It is necessary to hail the spirit of these fighters, because look at
how the enemy is not failing to celebrate those whose hands could be
bloodied. Gujarat's BJP government has proved that not only will it
not learn any lessons; rather, it will send signals that killing
people is okay as long as they are minorities.

Gujarat BJP MLA and state minister Maya Kodnani faces charges of
involvement in the 2002 massacre of Muslims in Naroda Patiya. She
denies involvement. But her statements to the SIT contradict what she
told a police officer just after the massacre; her cell-phone records
don’t square with her admitted whereabouts when the massacre was
taking place. In response, the SIT called her for questioning in
January 29, and when she failed to respond, was forced to declare her
an “absconder”. Though there is no explicit law forcing “absconding”
ministers to quit the cabinet, the Constitution mandates that the
state cabinet is collectively responsible to the legislative assembly.
And the very least that “collective responsibility” entails is that
the minister be publicly accessible. When a minister is declared an
“absconder”, it goes against the bare minimum that a minister must do:
be present. But Kodnani continued to be a part of the state cabinet
while remaining underground. She has now got anticipatory bail.

But with what face will the BJP now talk of good governance? Well, it
will do so with a straight face. Shamelessness comes cheap in color
saffron.

11 February 2009

http://www.worldsikhnews.com/11%20February%202009/Shamelessness%20In%20Saffron%20Colour.htm

Sid Harth

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Jan 7, 2010, 3:02:04 PM1/7/10
to
Taliban in saffron

VIKHAR AHMED SAYEED
in Bangalore

In an act of moral policing, activists of the fundamentalist group Sri
Rama Sene assault women in a Mangalore pub.
AFP

ACTIVISTS OF Sri Rama Sene attacking customers, including women, at
the pub on January 24.

A TYPICAL evening at “Amnesia: The Lounge”, a pub in Mangalore in
Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka, turned into a nightmare for a
few young women on January 24. As television news grabs later showed,
in an incident as bizarre as it could be, they were chased out of the
pub and hit brutally by a group of men. Eyewitnesses say that a group
of more than 40 people shouting slogans such as “Bharat Mata ki Jai”,
“Jai Sri Ram”, “Bajrang Dal ki Jai” and “Sri Rama Sene ki Jai” barged
into the pub.

Soon after the incident, Pramod Muttalik of the Sri Rama Sene, a four-
year-old right-wing group that is active in coastal Karnataka, claimed
responsibility for it. He justified the attack by stating proudly: “We
are the custodians of Indian culture.”

The Rama Sene was a little known entity before the incident. This
leads many senior journalists in the State to believe that it could
have used the incident to carve out a space for itself in coastal
Karnataka distinct from the Bajrang Dal, which has so far been
dominating headlines for its aggressive Hindutva stance in the
region.

In his response to the media after the event, Chief Minister B.S.
Yeddyurappa said there was no connection between the Sri Rama Sene and
the Bharatiya Janata Party. He, however, added that the BJP too was
against the “pub culture”.

The Bajrang Dal, a Sangh Parivar outfit, was also quick to distance
itself from the Rama Sene. “It is a fringe organisation started by the
renegade Muttalik and has limited support, with a membership of around
200 in Mangalore,” said a senior Bajrang Dal leader .

Later, the police arrested 28 people for their role in the incident,
including Muttalik and Prasad Attavar, convener of the Rama Sene in
the State. They were released on bail on January 31.

Significantly, this is not the first case that Muttalik has been
involved in. Documents available with Frontline show that 41 cases
were filed against him between February 12, 1999, and September 15,
2008. Almost all the cases were under Section 153 (a) of the Indian
Penal Code (promoting enmity between different groups), but many of
these were withdrawn in the past two years. In August 2007, when
Yeddyurappa was Deputy Chief Minister, the Janata Dal (Secular)-BJP
coalition government withdrew 51 cases against Bajrang Dal activists.
On January 3, the current BJP government withdrew 11 cases against
them. These included cases against Muttalik as well.

PTI

Rama Sene leader Pramod Muttalik waving at supporters after the court
granted him bail in the pub attack case in Mangalore, on January 31.

The rise of Muttalik, a right-wing demagogue, can be traced to the
growth of the BJP in the State. He began his career with the Rashtriya
Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). When the
Karnataka chapter of the Bajrang Dal was inaugurated in 1996, he
became its first convener. In his eight-year stint with the
organisation hence, he played an active role in attempts at
“liberating” the Bababudangiri shrine in Chickmagalur from Muslim
control. In December 1999, he threatened to capture it if the
government did not transfer the management of the shrine to Hindus and
proclaimed that he would make it the “Ayodhya of the South”.

Finding restricted space for his political ambitions in the BJP, he
joined the Shiv Sena in 2004. “In the 2004 elections Muttalik demanded
that several seats be given to his supporters. This did not happen and
he joined the Shiv Sena,” said a Bajrang Dal leader. He quit the Shiv
Sena, too, following its leader Bal Thackeray’s anti-Karnataka
statements and founded the Rashtriya Hindu Sena, of which he is the
national president. The Rama Sene is the youth wing of this party.

Hindutva laboratory

The coastal districts of Karnataka, which according to many news
reports have become the laboratory of Hindutva in the State, have
provided fertile grounds for the emergence and growth of organisations
such as the Sri Rama Sene in the past two decades. There have been two
major communal riots here, in 1998 and 2006.

In fact, to many in the area, the attacks on women in the pub came as
no surprise. “Looking at the way society has changed over the past few
years in the region it is not surprising at all that such an event
took place there,” said Muzaffar Assadi, professor in the political
science department of Mysore University, who has done extensive
research on the region.

H. Pattabhi Somayaji, who teaches English at University College in
Mangalore, termed the pub incident “trivial” compared with other
incidents in Mangalore in the past couple of years. One of them was in
December 2007, when Bajrang Dal activists attacked Muslim boys who
were eating ice cream in a public place in the city with Hindu girls,
all of them students of Star Tutorial College. On December 26, 2008,
Bajrang Dal men attacked a bus carrying a group of students,
consisting of Hindus, Christians and Muslims from the Sri Mata
Education Trust, on a trip outside Mangalore. Newspapers have reported
several other Bajrang Dal attacks on inter-communal groups in recent
years.

“The only new thing in this [pub] attack is that women were the
target. This has not happened in the past,” said Somayaji. He was
recently at the receiving end of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi
Parishad, the students’ wing of the BJP, for criticising the Rama Sene
on a news channel. The students forced the college shut on January 29
and demanded action against Somayaji.

The coastal region of Karnataka consists of three districts – Dakshina
Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada. Known for their high literacy rate,
the districts are only behind Bangalore in most social indicators.
According to the Karnataka Human Development Report of 2005, the
ranking of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada in the Human
Development Index was 2, 3 and 7 respectively from among 27 districts.
(Karnataka has 29 districts now after Chickballapur and Ramnagram were
designated districts in 2007.)

The area has a significant number of Muslims and has a historically
dominant Catholic presence. According to an article published by
Assadi in Economic and Political Weekly, the coastal region “…
underwent a complete transformation after the 1970s with the effective
implementation of land reforms, the Gulf boom, the establishment of a
large number of new industries, and the expansion of banking…”. In
this changed economic setting, two backward caste groups, the Billavas
and the Mogaveeras, and the relatively dominant Bunt community
competed with the newly affluent Bairy Muslims.

After the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 the area came
increasingly under the influence of the Sangh Parivar, which used the
changes in the political economy of the region to convert the long-
standing economic grievances into defined communal identities by
casting the Muslim as the “other”. The vernacular media played their
role in furthering the agenda of the Sangh Parivar.

“While the leadership of older Sangh Parivar groups such as the RSS
and the VHP continues to remain in the hands of the upper castes, the
backward castes, members of the Bajrang Dal and the Rama Sene, have
been indirectly indoctrinated and are responsible for much of the
vandalism in the region,” said Somayaji. Gulabi Talkies by the
acclaimed film-maker Girish Kasaravalli chronicles these changes in
the coastal region.

In September 2008, there were 15 attacks on churches in the region.
The following December the distribution of a Mangalore-based newspaper
Karavali Ale was disrupted following its criticism of the Bajrang Dal.
The Bajrang Dal may have washed its hands off the Rama Sene by calling
it the organisation of the renegade Muttalik, but it has been
indulging in its own brand of “moral policing” for the past few
years.

Women’s rights in India

Self-appointed guardians of “culture” have routinely targeted women in
India because of the prevailing notion that there are certain
boundaries for women in “public spaces”. According to Women in Modern
India by the historian Geraldine Forbes, attitudes to women’s rights
in India began to change in the 19th century with an understanding of
European ideas of gender. Raja Rammohun Roy’s role in questioning the
practice of sati, which was legitimised by religion, was an important
step that helped make this change. By the second half of the century,
reformist groups all over the country focussed their attention on
sati, female infanticide, polygyny, child marriage and female
education. Laws such as the Hindu Widow Remarriage Act of 1856 could
be passed partly because of the efforts of such groups.


During the course of the nationalist movement women got more space to
negotiate issues with regard to their rights. Geraldine Forbes writes
that while Mahatma Gandhi did not bring women into public life he made
their presence felt by giving them a blueprint for action. He did this
while assuring the husbands and fathers that these women would not
rebel against their families. Muslim women’s organisations also began
to articulate similar demands, as demonstrated by the work of the
historian Gail Minault.

Partition was an important period to understand how notions of
“religious nationalism” were contested over women’s bodies. As Ritu
Menon and Kamla Bhasin say in Borders and Boundaries: Women in India’s
Partition, women’s bodies were seen as territory to be marked by the
enemy.


AKHILESH KUMAR

In Chandigarh on January 30, teachers and students of Punjab
University protesting against the Rama Sene attack.

In post-independent India, the first serious debate about the
religious opposition to equal rights for women took place when
Jawaharlal Nehru attempted to pass the Hindu Code Bill. “Towards
Equality”, a report commissioned in 1974 by the Government of India,
pointed out the lacunae in the state’s intention and the results when
it came to gender equality. In 1986, Muslim fundamentalists, with
their excessive response to the decision of the Supreme Court to grant
alimony to Shah Bano, exhibited the influence of patriarchal notions
over them about women’s place in society.

Notions of patriarchy

Notions of patriarchy are still a challenge to the women’s movement in
India. In the Mangalore incident, for instance, a large number of
people surveyed by online news portals, newspapers and TV news
channels, though not condoning the excessive methods of the Rama Sene,
expressed their disapproval of women drinking. “A conservative element
dominates in the thinking of certain groups of people which is opposed
to Western habits,” said Tanika Sarkar, professor of Modern Indian
history at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi.

The manner in which a National Commission for Women (NCW) team led by
Nirmala Venkatesh assessed the situation is perhaps indicative of this
line of thinking. The NCW, a statutory body set up by a Central Act,
condemned the Mangalore incident and immediately sent a team led by
the member in charge of South India, Nirmala Venkatesh. She made
statements that almost justified the Rama Sene’s action; she blamed
the pub owners for not providing enough security and recommended that
the licence of the pub be cancelled. “The lesson to be learnt for
women out of this incident is that we should try and safeguard
ourselves,” she told a news channel.

Disagreeing with the observations of the NCW team, Renuka Chowdhary,
Union Minister of State for Women and Child Development, has sent
another team from her Ministry to Mangalore to reassess the situation.
Girija Vyas, National Chairperson of the NCW, has also distanced
herself from the initial report of its panel. •

Volume 26 - Issue 04 :: Feb. 14-27, 2009


INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2604/stories/20090227260402700.htm

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 10, 2010, 2:54:32 PM1/10/10
to
Weird Hindu Practices
Funny ways Hindus practice their religion.

Sunday, February 11, 2007
1857-Sepoy Mutiny of British India: Sid Harth

I857-Sepoy Mutiny of British India: Sid Harth

http://www.williamdalrymple.uk.com/

"Funny thing happened on the way to the Forum." I mean this august
forum, the newsgroup forum, soc.culture.Indian, Google newsgroups
forum, you idiots, not the "Roman Forum."

Back to the basic argument...The funny part is buried somewhere in this
critique. Wise readers might find it most challenging to locate this
funny part. Suffice it to say, I bought, as I always do, some
interesting reading material, books, magazines, daily newspapers,
spiritual books, how-to-do books, travel books, history books, recipe
books, yoga books, crossword puzzle books, investment-gurus'- strategy
books, poetry books, old books, new books, dictionaries, maps,
exercise books, books on morality, spirituality, autobiographies,
cookbooks, telephone address books...you get the picture, this morning
before I came to write this here piece.

I am a voracious book reader. I read several books in several
languages every single day. That too, by buying them and reading them,
not borrowing them and never reading them. My collection of reading
material is, to say most demurely, is eclectic. I collect and read all
kinds of material. Nothing ever gets escaped from my book hunt,
nothing. Even the bookseller admits, "I never met a guy," he is
describing yours truly, "who is crazier than this here man. This man
picks up garbage of titles, in unknown languages on unheard of topics
and is very happy to pay for such trash."

Enough, Sid, get on with the main topic.

"Back to the Future." My good-buddy, William (Bill) Dalrymple, has
written a wonderful account of the 1857, Sepoy Mutiny, in his most
readable and well researched, interesting book on the last Mughal
Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, II, much maligned in the other history
books as a' lazy Emperor' under whose emperorship Mughals (Mongols)
lost their Mughal Empire to the British. Wrong and also right. It is
the way one looks at the life and times of this "Last Mughal."

William Dalrymple's book title quoted above. His byline under the main
title is also very educative and informative. "The Fall of a Dynasty,
Delhi, 1857."

Viking
Penguin Group
Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi, India
ISBN-10:0-67099-925-3
ISBN-13: 978-0-67099-925-5

The funny part, is "I did not read it. Really funny," Sid.

I have read all about the famous Mutiny of 1857. All, in real sense.
There are many books on this subject, as many heroic deeds are
involved, many notable, remarkable and just about any persons. From
Hindu Sepoys to their brethren Muslim Sepoys to Tatya Tope, (Topi) and
hundreds upon thousands of major as well as minor characters are
involved. All the major British occupied cities as well as Princely
State Capitals, battle-grounds were involved in this famous mutiny.

It was the "last and final battle" of the Mughal Dynasty's citizens to
claim the territory, territories, wrongfully, skillfully but without
any respect to the rights of the Mughal-Indians' 'god given rights'
involved, by the occupying British company, "East India Company's"
forces. A remarkable saga, indeed. William Dalrymple like authors,
historians, waste no time in writing glossy books, biased books, cheap
books. The books that our own, Murali Manohar Joshi, ordered to write.
The man, my good-buddy, William Dalrymple, spent years, just on
collecting, assembling, collating, studying, cross-referencing, almost
'mountain-like,' genuine, historic materials before he set his pen to
paper. Heavy and unbiased reading and finding the truth before a
single word to be written, is how memorable and accurate or perhaps,
close to, as accurate as humanly possible, account of the life and
times of the last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, II should be and
must be written. Idiot-boy, Murali Manohar Joshi, no more Minister,
must read the true account of what he would call the "First War of
Independence. Semantics, saffron semantics, for sure.

The people who have read this memorable historical novel, sort of
easily readable, historically accurate novel, include Nobel Prize
winner, like:

Amartya Sen:

Exerpts: "'captivating'...'is not only great reading, it contributes
very substantially to our understanding of the remarkable history of
the Mughal empire in its dying days'...'of Delhi'...'Of Indo-British
relations in a critically important phase of imperialism and
rebellion'...'It is rare that a work of such consummate scholarship and
insight coiuld also be so accessible and such fun to read.'"

Harbans Mukhia, Emeritus Professor of History, Jawaharlal Nehru
University:

Exerpts: "the most definitive account of events centered on Bahadur
Shah Zafar and the great Indian mutiny in and around Delhi in 1957-8,
based upon an immense amount of empirical research, often unearthing
archival material hitherto untouched by historians"
Dalrymple brings home the overwhelming grandeur of the tragedy enacted
in those fateful months and its aftermath." The aftermath, obviously,
is that the then British Government, taking over the company,
dismissing its private army and bringing the most hated and dreaded
"British Empire, replacing Mughal Empire of the 'last seven hundred
years,' to an ignoble end." Fortunately or unfortunately, British
Empire, lasted merely for roughly about 150 years. Thank god for that
manna from the heaven. Mughal dynasty, whatever the Hind-Brahmin bad-
boys like Murali Manohar Joshi, et al might say, was the first dynasty
of any kind that was truly memorable and slightly unjust. Mughals,
(Mongols) invaders that they were, Muslims they were not. They
accepted Islam, not their native religion, when they passed thru
Persia and requested the permission of the then Muslim rulers about
their intentions to raid the territory, simply referred to as
"Sindhustan," "Hindustan," to rob and loot. The Persian rulers, not
aware of the raiding Mongols' true intentions gave them such
permission, provided, the marauding Mongols would take to Islam and
carry with them some religious leaders, copies of Koran and spread the
Islam in the territories raided by the marauding Mongols. Very pleased
for the permission, knowing very well that Islam or no Islam, their
objective to loot and plunder the territory would bring them untold
fortunes and who in the hell is going to ask them of what faith they
were? Muslim invaders? Mongols? Wake up. They were as bad in their
newly acquired Islam as they were in their morality, humanity, and all
sorts of "ity ending qualities. They were as good as, or perhaps
better raiders than the first, white-trash Aryan raiders, looters,
destroyers. The Aryans could teach a thing or two to similar invading
and illegally occupying foreign barbarians like Mongols, about how
best to decimate native people, their religion, their way of life,
their native beliefs, and not to forget, their religious places,
temples.

Hindus, almost all Hindus claim that Mughals, Muslim Mughals destroyed
thousand of Hindu temples. How many Mohen-jo Daro cultures temples do
you see around India? The correct answer is, a BIG FAT ZERO. That is
how bad the first foreign white-trash Aryan invaders are, were,
'historically speaking.' Total destruction. "Scorched-Eearth Policy,"
is how such total Aryan destruction of the native culture, can be
mentioned in the history books. No other way. Complete elimination of
and complete ignorance about such complete destruction and
elimination, is what rewriting of history books by people like Murali
Manohar Joshi, et al want from the learned Indian historians. Oh, dear
god, help me here. Rewriters of history books would not stop at such
larceny. They would be energized to burn all references to the genuine
history accounts. The accounts of "the white-trash Aryan invasion and
illegal and immoral occupation if holy Hindu India. The truth hurts.
That my good friends, is 'god's truth.' I did not make it up.

White-trash Aryans destroyed 'Mohen-jo Daro culture,' simply'
eliminated them from the face of the earth. That is how bad were those
first, as in the first and foremost destroyers of native culture.
White-trash Aryans destroyed people and their thousands year-old,
true, Indian cultures. Aryan religion, whatever that may be, was the
first non-native, 'foreign, absolutely dreadful religion,' in the
whole wide world. Aryans not only destroyed and decimated the native
cultures, their religious beliefs, but also, they, the white-trash
Aryans, subjugated, enslaved the remaining people for ten thousand
years, hundreds plus or minus.

Actually, I am using their historic method. The method by which
jingoistic Hindus claim the Aryan-Hindu-religion as old, is to go back
ten thousand from Gregorian calendar's zero year, Before Christ, b.c.
That makes the actual count to twelve thousand and seven years back
from today. Very generous accounting, indeed. This saffron accounting
method is totally inaccurate, it is not only not a true account of
white-trash Aryans coming and illegally and immorally occupying
foreign forces of India, it is ridiculous and almost a laughable
matter. The truth is the Aryans came to India between 2300 b.c. to
1530 b.c. depending upon the accuracy, as researchers might consider
as, or defined by them as, by their own definition. Indologists have
agreed upon the range, as mentioned above, remaining aloof upon the
exact year. History itsel, is not a science nor is it an exact
science. There are more accurate accounts available, like in case of
Chinese Mongol occupation and their Chinese Mongol Dynasty history.
The reason being, there was already an established practice of
writing. Indians never perfected the art and science of writing.
Chinese used their on invention, the paper, to write copious accounts
of the Emperors' daily routines, accounts of visiting dignitaries,
treaties, wars, famines, population increase or decrease, financial
accounts, tax collecting accounts and just about any subjects under
the sun that merits a qritten record.

Mughals also were the first rulers, who wrote copious accounts of
their rule. Just the way Chinese Mongol Emperors' staff did. It was
Mughals' method of recording the state business that is why we have a
written account of so called Indian history. Stupid, white-trash
Aryans, as rulers wanted to keep their so called scriptures safe in
manufactured, artificial language, Sanskrit. Moreover, Such Sanskrit
accounts, if what they said can be liberally and most generously taken
as historic accounts, were in the form of spoken and heard accounts,
"Shruti." The Sanskrit word, literally, means, only to be spoken and/
or heard by the chosen, very few, learned in the art of memorizing and
uttering what was four Vedas, that my good friends is the source, the
true (sic) historical materials, which or from which all the Aryan
historical greatness is made available by the racist, parochial,
pathetic and idiots like Murali Manohar Joshi, et al company of
history cheaters and history rewriters.

Simply pathetic, "Joshibuva," "Buva," means the "fake guru," in
Marathi. My two cents' worth, mild slap on "Murali Manohar Joshi-idiot-
Brahmin-boy's fascist face." This idiot, "Joshibuva," tried very hard,
when he was Human Resources Minister in BJP government, to ban all
history books which were recommended by the expert Indian historians
and ordered those same historians to "Rewrite the history from the
perspective of Hindu view, frankly Fascist Hindu view, one sided Hindu
view, biased Hindu view, pro Hindu and totally inaccurate view, anti
Muslim Hindu view, anti British view, anti Christian view.

How bad can these morons get? Far worse in future, if we let them go
ahead and rewrite genuine, true history of India. There is no such
thing as Hindu India. If we allow such fascism to persist, we would as
well commit mass suicide, right now and be done with our non-Hindu,
worthless lives. They would love it, of course. Are you going to let
them? Not this man, Sid the truth seeking and the truth telling Harth
is alive and kicking their saffron asses. Watch me do it, right here
on this august forum. I have done it in the past. You know those
battles. The bad-boy Sid Harth, has paid full price for doing it by
remaining silent for seven long years, hoping against hope that wise
Hindus would stop the people like history cheaters and history
rewrites like Murali Manohar Joshi, a saffron simian, nincompoop,
Neanderthal, historically speaking from messing these public forums by
their propaganda.

Sid Harth

William Howard Russell- a man now famous as the father of war
journalism- arrived in the ruins of Delhi, recently recaptured by the
British from the rebels after one of the bloodiest sieges in Indian
history. Skeletons still littered the streets, and the domes and
minars of the city were riddled with shell holes; but the walls of the
Red Fort, the great palace of the Mughals, still looked magnificent:
"I have seldom seen a nobler mural aspect," wrote Russell in his
diary, "and the great space of bright red walls put me in mind of
finest part of Windsor Castle." Russell's ultimate destination was,
however, rather less imposing. Along a dark dingy back passage of the
Fort, Russell was led to the cell of a frail 83 old man who was
accused by the British of being one of the masterminds of the Great
Rising, or Mutiny, of 1857, the most serious armed act of resistance
to Western imperialism ever to mounted anywhere in the world: "He was
a dim, wandering eyed, dreamy old man with a feeble hanging nether lip
and toothless gums," wrote a surprised Russell. "Not a word came from
his lips; in silence he sat day and night with his eyes cast on the
ground, and as though utterly oblivious of the conditions in which he
was placed... His eyes had the dull, filmy look of very old age... Some
heard his quoting verses of his own composition, writing poetry on a
wall with a burned stick." The prisoner was Bahadur Shah Zafar II, the
last Mughal Emperor, direct descendant of Genghis Khan and Tamburlane,
of Akbar, Jehangir and Shah Jehan. As Russell himself observed: "He
was called ungrateful for rising against his benefactors. He was no
doubt a week and cruel old man; but to talk of ingratitude on the part
of one who saw that all the dominions of his ancestors had been
gradually taken from him until he was left with an empty title, and
more empty exchequer, and a palace full of penniless princesses, is
perfectly preposterous." Zafar was born in 1775, when the British were
still an insignificant coastal power clinging to three small enclaves
on the Indian shore. In his lifetime he saw his own dynasty reduced to
humiliating insignificance, while the British transformed themselves
from humble traders into the most powerful military force India had
ever seen. Zafar came late to the thone, succeeding his father only in
his mid Sixties, when it was already impossible to reverse the
political decline of the Mughals. But despite this he succeeded in
creating around him a court of great brilliance. Personally, he was
one of the most talented, tolerant and likeable of his dynasty, and
through his patronage there took place the greatest literary
renaissance in modern Indian history. Himself a mystic, poet and
calligrapher of great charm and accomplishment, Zafar nourished the
talents of India's greatest love poet, Ghalib, and his rival Zauq- the
Mughal poet laureate, and the Salieri to Ghalib's Mozart. While the
British progressively took over more and more of the Emperor's power,
removing his head from the coins, seizing complete control even of the
city of Delhi itself, and finally laying plans to remove the Mughals
altogether from the Red Fort, the court busied itself in obsessive
pursuit of the most moving love lyric, the most cleverly turned
ghazal, the most perfect Urdu couplet. As the political sky darkened,
the court was lost in a last idyll of pleasure gardens, courtesans and
mushairas, or poetic symposia. Then on a May morning in 1857, three
hundred mutinous sepoys from Meerut rode into Delhi, massacred every
British man, woman and child they could find in the city, and declared
Zafar to be their leader and Emperor. No friend of the British, Zafar
was powerless to resist being made the leader of an uprising he knew
from the start was doomed: a chaotic and officerless army of unpaid
peasant soldiers set against the forces of the world's greatest
contemporary military power. No foreign army was in a position to
intervene to support the rebels, and they had little ammunition and
few supplies. The Siege of Delhi was the Raj's Stalingrad: a fight to
the death between two powers, neither of whom could retreat. There
were unimaginable casualties, and on both sides the combatants driven
to the limits of physical and mental endurance. Finally, on the 14th
September 1857, the British attacked and took the city, sacking and
looting the Mughal capital. The entire population who had survived the
massacre which followed were driven out into the countryside to fend
for themselves. Delhi was left an empty ruin. Though the royal family
had surrendered peacefully, many of the Emperor's sons were tried and
hung, while three were shot in cold blood, having first freely given
up their arms, then been told to strip naked: "In 24 hours I disposed
of the principle members of the house of Timur the Tartar," Captain
William Hodson wrote to his sister. "I am not cruel, but I confess I
did enjoy the opportunity of ridding the earth of these wretches."
Zafar himself was put on trial in the ruins of his old palace, and
sentenced to transportation. He left his beloved Delhi on a peasants'
bullock cart. Separated from everything he loved, broken hearted, the
last of the Great Mughals died in exile in Rangoon on Friday 7th
November 1862, aged 87. It is an extraordinary and tragic story, and
one I have dedicated the last three years to researching. Archives
containing Zafar's letters and his court records can be found in
London, Lahore and even Rangoon. Most of the material, however, lies
in Delhi, the great Mughal capital that Zafar lived in and loved. The
writing of the book therefore gave me and my family a welcome excuse
to flee the grey skies of Chiswick move back to this, my favourite of
cities, and one that has haunted and obsessed me now for over 20
years. * * * I first fell in love with Delhi when I arrived, aged 18,
on the foggy winter's night of the 26th January 1984. The airport was
surrounded by shrouded men huddled under shawls, and it was
surprisingly cold. I knew nothing at all about India. My childhood had
been spent in rural Scotland, on the shores of the Firth of Forth,
south east of Edinburgh, and of my contemporaries at school I was
probably the least well travelled. My parents were convinced that they
lived in the most beautiful place imaginable and rarely took us on
holiday, except on an annual Spring visit to a corner of the Scottish
Highlands even colder and wetter than home. At the age of eleven I
begged my mother to take me abroad as I was the only boy in the class
who had not had a glimpse of life oversees. So she took me on a
package to Paris, for the weekend. Perhaps for this reason Delhi- and
India in general- had a greater and more over whelming effect on me
than it would have had on other more cosmopolitan teenagers; certainly
the city hooked me from the start. I back-packed around for a few
months, and hung out in Goa; but I soon found my way back to Delhi and
got myself a job at a Mother Teresa's home in the far North of the
city, beyond Old Delhi. There the nuns gave me a room overlooking a
municipal rubbish dump. In the morning I would look out to see the sad
regiment of rag-pickers trawling the stinking berms of refuse;
overhead vultures circled the thermals forming patterns like fragments
of glass in a kaleidoscope. In the afternoons, after I had swept the
compound and the inmates were safely asleep, I used to slip out and
explore. I would take a rickshaw into the innards of the Old City and
pass through the narrowing funnel of gullies and lanes, alleys and cul
de sacs, feeling the houses close in around me. In summer I preferred
the less claustrophobic avenues of the Civil Lines, or maybe Lutyens's
Delhi. Then, under a pulsing sun, I would stroll slowly along the
shady rows of neem and arjuna, passing the white classical bungalows
with their bow fronts and bushes of molten yellow gulmohar. In both
Delhis it was the ruins that fascinated me. However hard the planners
tried to create new colonies of gleaming concrete, crumbling tomb
towers, old mosques or ancient Islamic colleges would intrude,
appearing suddenly on roundabouts or in municipal gardens, curving the
road network and obscuring the fairways of the golf course. New Delhi
was not new at all. Its broad avenues encompassed a groaning
necropolis, a graveyard of dyn-asties. Some said there were seven dead
cities of Delhi, and that the current one was the eighth; others
counted fifteen or twenty-one. All agreed that the crumbling ruins of
these towns were without number. In particular Zafar's palace, the Red
Fort of the Great Mughals, kept drawing me back. Slowly I grew to be
fascinated with the Mughals who had once lived there, and began
reading voraciously about them. It was here that I first thought of
writing a history of the Mughals, an idea that has now expanded into a
Quartet, a four volume history of the Mughals which I expect may take
me another two decades to complete. For the Red Fort is to Delhi what
the Acropolis to Athens, and by far the most substantial monument that
the Mughals left in Delhi. Viewed from the end of Chandni Chowk, the
sight is superb: a great rhubarb-red curtain wall pierced by a pair of
mag-nificent gates and fortified by a ripple of projecting bastions,
each one topped with a helmet-shaped chattri. Yet however often I
visited it- and I often used to slip in with a book and spend whole
afternoons there, in the shade of some cool pavillion- the Red Fort
always made me sad. When the British captured it after 1857, they
pulled down the gorgeous harem appartments, and in their place erected
a line of the some of the most ugly buildings ever thrown up by the
British Empire - a set of barracks that look as if they have been
modelled on Wormwood Scrubs. Even at the time, the destruction was
regarded as an act of wanton philistinism. The great Victorian
architectural historian James Fergusson was no certainly whining
liberal, but recorded his horror at what had happened in his History
of Indian Architcture: "those who carried out this fearful piece of
vandalism," he wrote, did not even think "to make a plan of what they
were destroying, or preserving any record of the most splendid palace
in the world... The engineers perceived that by gutting the palace they
could provide at no expense a wall round their barrack yard, and one
that no drunken soldier could scale without detection, and for this or
some other wretched motive of economy the palace was sacrficed." He
added: "The only modern act to be compared with this is the
destruction of the summer palace in Pekin. That however was an act of
red-handed war. This was a deliberate act of unnecessary Vandalism."
The barracks should of course have been torn down years ago, but the
fort's current proprietors, the Archaeological Survey of India, have
lov-ingly continued the work of decay initiated by the British: white
marble pavilions have been allowed to discolour; plasterwork has been
left to collapse; the water channels have cracked and grassed over;
the fountains are dry. The Mughal buildings which remain - a line of
single-storey pavilions, the Emperor's private apartments- stand still
in their marble simplicity; superb and melancholy, but without their
carpets, awnings and gorgeous trappings they look strangely
uncomfortable: cold and hard and white, difficult to imagine back into
life. Only the barracks look well maintained. * * * Since 1984 I have
lived between London and Delhi for over 20 years, and the Indian
capital remains then as now my favourite city: as multi-layered and
endlessly fascinating as it is, in parts, astonishingly beautiful.
Above all it is the city's relationship with its past that continues
to fascinate me: of the great cities of the world, only Rome and Cairo
can even begin to rival Delhi for the sheer volume and density of
historic remains. I am hardly alone in being struck by this: the ruins
of Delhi are something visitors to Delhi have always been amazed by,
perhaps especially in the 18th century when the city was at the height
of its decay and its mood most melancholic. For miles in every
direction, half collapsed and overgrown, robbed and re-occupied,
neglected by all, lay the remains of six hundred years of trans-Indian
Imperium- the wrecked vestiges of a period when Delhi had been the
greatest city between Constantinople and Canton. Hammams and garden
palaces, thousand pillared halls and mighty tomb towers, empty mosques
and semi-deserted Sufi shrines- there seemed to be no end to litter of
ages: "It has a feeling about it of 'Is this not the great Babylon?'
all ruins and desolation," wrote Emily Eden in her diary. "How can I
describe the desolation of Delhi," agreed the poet Sauda. "There is no
house from which the jackals cry cannot be heard. In the once
beautiful gardens, the grass grows waist-high around fallen pillars
and ruined arches. Not even a lamp of clay now burns where once the
chandeliers blazed." The first East India Company Officials who
settled in these melancholy ruins at the end of the 18th century were
a series of sympathetic and notably eccentric figures who were deeply
attracted to the high courtly culture which Delhi still represented.
Sir David Ochterlony set the tone. With his fondness for hookahs and
nautch girls and Indian costumes, Ochterlony amazed Bishop Reginald
Heber, the Anglican Primate of Calcutta, by receiving him sitting on a
divan wearing Hindustani pyjamas and a turban while being fanned by
servants holding a peacock-feather punka [fan]. Although the people of
Delhi knew Ochterlony as 'Loony Akhtar' when in the Indian capital he
liked to be addressed by his full Moghul title, Nasir-ud-Daula,
Defender of the State, and to live the life of a Moghul gentleman. A
miniature survives depicting an evening's entertainment at the Delhi
Residency at this period. Ochterlony is dressed in full Indian costume
and reclines on a carpet, leaning back against a spread of pillows and
bolsters. To one side stands a servant with a flywhisk; on the other
stands Ochterlony's elaborate hubble-bubble. Above, from the picture
rail, portraits of the Resident's ancestors- kilted and plumed
Colonels from Highland Regiments, grimacing ladies in stiff white
taffeta dresses- peer down disapprovingly at the group of dancing
girls swirling below them. Ochterlony, however, looks delighted.
Ochterlony was not, however, alone- either in his Indianised tastes,
or the dilemmas this precipitated in his relations with his more
orthodox compatriots. When the formidable Lady Maria Nugent, wife of
the new British Commander-in-Chief in India visited Delhi she was
horrified by what she saw there. It was not just Ochterlony that had
'gone native', she reported, his assistants William Fraser and Edward
Gardner were even worse: "I shall now say a few words of Messrs.
Gardner and Fraser who are still of our party," she wrote in her
journal. "They both wear immense whiskers, and neither will eat beef
or pork, being as much Hindoos as Christians, if not more; they are
both of them clever and intelligent, but eccentric; and, having come
to this country early, they have formed opinions and prejudices, that
make them almost natives." Fraser, it turned out, was a distant cousin
of my wife, Olivia. A Persian scholar from Inverness, he pruned his
moustaches in the Rajput manner and according to one traveller,
fathered "as many children as the King of Persia" from his harem of
"six or seven legitimate [Indian] wives who all live together some
fifty leagues from Delhi". He was also a friend a patron to the great
poet Ghalib, the poet laureate of Zafar's Delhi. It was this
intriguing and wholly unexpected period which dominated the book I
wrote about Delhi, City of Djinns, and which later ignited the tinder
that led to my last book, White Mughals, about the many British who
embraced Indian culture at the end of the 18th century. Now I am at
work on what will be my third book inspired by the capital, The Last
Mughal, all about the end of Zafar's Delhi, and how the easy
relationship of Indian and Briton, so evident during the time of
Ochterlony and Fraser, gave way to the hatreds and racism of the high
nineteenth century Raj. Two things in particular seem to have put paid
to this formerly easy co-existence: one was the rise of British power,
and the other was the rise of Evangelical Christianity. In a few years
the British defeated all their Indian rivals and, not unlike the
Americans after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the changed balance of
power quickly led to an attitude of undisguised imperial arrogance.
The change in the religious tenor of the period also profoundly
changed attitudes. The Wills written by dying Company servants show
that the practice of marrying or cohabiting with Indian wives or bibis
all but disappeared. Biographies and memoirs of prominent eighteenth-
century British Indian worthies which mentioned their Indian wives or
Anglo-Indian children were re-edited in so that the consorts were
removed from later editions. No longer were Indians seen as inheritors
of a body of sublime and ancient wisdom as 18th century luminaries
such as Sir William Jones and Warren Hastings had once believed; but
instead merely 'poor benighted heathen', or even 'licentious pagans',
who, it was hoped, were eagerly awaiting conversion. As military and
economic realities of British power and territorial ambition closed
in, among Zafar and his circle, literary ambition replaced the
political variety, and this taste for poetry soon filtered down to the
Delhi streets: a compilation of Urdu poets published in 1855, The
Garden of Poetry, contains no less than 53 poets from Delhi who range
from the Emperor and members of his family to a poor water-seller in
Chandni Chowk, a young wrestler, a courtesan and a barber. The closest
focused record of the Red Fort at this period is the court diary which
contains a fabulously detailed day-by-day picture of Zafar's life. The
Last Emperor appears as a benign old man, daily having olive oil
rubbed in his feet to soothe his aches, occasionally rousing himself
to visit a garden, go on a hunting expedition or host a mushaira or
poetic symposium. Afternoons were spent watching his elephants being
bathed in the Jumna and evenings "enjoying the moonlight", listening
to Ghazal singers, or eating fresh mangoes. All the while the aged
emperor tries to contain the infidelities of his young concubines, one
of whom becomes pregnant by the court musician. By the early 1850's,
however, many British officials were nursing plans to abolish the
Mughal court and impose not just British laws and technology on India,
but also Christianity. The reaction to this steady crescendo of
insensitivity came in 1857 with the Great Mutiny. Of the 139,000
sepoys of the Bengal Army- the largest modern army in Asia- all but
7,796 turned against their British masters. In some parts of India,
the sepoys were joined by the entire population, as the uprising
touched a major popular chord. Atrocities abounded on both sides.
Delhi was the principle centre of the uprising. As Mutinous troops
poured into the city from all round Northern India, it was clear from
the outset that the British had to recapture Delhi or lose their
Indian empire forever. Equally the rebels realised that if they lost
Delhi they lost everything. Every available British soldier was
therefore sent to the Delhi Ridge, and for the four hottest months of
the Indian summer, the Mughal capital was bombarded by British
artillery with thousands of helpless civilians caught up in the
horrors. The Great Mutiny has usually been told by the Marxist
historians of the 1960's and 1970's primarily as a rising against
British economic policies. Over the last three years, however, I and
my team of Urdu and Persian translators have been translating some of
the 20,000 new documents we have found in the National Archives of
India, which allow the Rising of 1857 to be seen for the first time
from a properly Indian perspective, and not from the British sources
which to date it has almost exclusively been viewed. What we have
found has remarkable resonance with the political situation today: for
as far as the Indian participants were concerned, the Rising was
overwhelmingly a war of religion, looked upon as a defensive action
against the rapid inroads missionaries and Christianity was making
India, as well as a more generalised fight for freedom from foreign
domination. As far as the Indian participants of the Rising were
concerned, they were above all resisting a move by the Company to
impose Christianity and Christian laws on India- something many
Evangelical Englishmen were indeed contemplating. As the sepoys told
Zafar on May the 11th 1857, "we have joined hands to protect our
religion and our faith". Later they stood in the Chandni Chowk, the
main street of Old Delhi, and asked people: "Brothers: are you with
those of the faith?" British men who had converted to Islam- and there
were a surprising number of those in Delhi- were not hurt; but Indians
who had converted to Christianity were cut down immediately. Although
the great majority of the sepoys were Hindus, in Delhi a flag of jihad
was raised in the principle mosque, and many of the insurgents
described themselves as mujihadin, ghazis and jihadis. One of the
causes of unrest, according to one Delhi source, was that "the British
had closed the madrasas." These were words which had no resonance to
the historians of the 1960's. Now, sadly, in the aftermath of 9/11 and
7/7 they are words we understand all too well. If all this has strong
contemporary echoes, in other ways, however, Delhi feels as if it is
fast moving away from its Mughal past. In modern Delhi an increasingly
wealthy Punjabi middle class now live in an aspirational bubble of
fast-rising shopping malls, espresso bars and multiplexes. On every
side, rings of new suburbs are springing up, full of call centres,
software companies and fancy apartment blocks, all rapidly rising on
land that only two years ago was billowing winter wheat. These new
neighbourhoods, most of them still half-built and ringed with
scaffolding, are invariably given unrealistically enticing names-
Beverly Hills, Windsor Court, West End Heights- an indication,
perhaps, of where their owners would prefer to be, and where, in time,
they may eventually migrate. This fast emerging middle-class India is
a country with its eyes firmly fixed on the coming century. Everywhere
there is a profound hope that the country's rapidly rising
international status will somehow compensate for a past often
perceived as a long succession of invasions and defeats at the hands
of foreign powers. Whatever the reason, the result is a tragic neglect
of Delhi's magnificent past. Sometimes it seems as if no other great
city of the world is less loved, or less cared for. Occasionally there
is an outcry as the tomb of the poet Zauq is discovered to have
disappeared under a municipal urinal or the haveli courtyard house of
his rival Ghalib is revealed to have been turned into a coal store;
but by and large the losses go unrecorded. I find it heartbreaking:
often when I revisit one of my favourite monuments it has either been
overrun by some slum, unsympathetically restored by the ASI or, more
usually, simply demolished. Ninety nine per cent of the delicate
havelis or Mughal courtyard houses of Old Delhi have been destroyed,
and like the city walls, disappeared into memory. According to
historian Pavan Verma, the majority of the buildings he recorded in
his book Mansions at Dusk only ten years ago no longer exist. Perhaps
there is also a cultural factor here in the neglect of the past: as
one conservationist told me recently: "you must understand," he said,
"that we Hindus burn our dead." Either way, the loss of Delhi's past
is irreplaceable; and future generations will inevitably look back at
the conservation failures of the early 21st century with a deep
sadness. Sometimes, on winter afternoon walks, I wander to the lovely
deeply atmospheric ruins of Zafar's fabulous summer palace in
Mehrauli, a short distance from my Delhi house, and as I look out from
its great gateway, I wonder what Zafar would have made of all this.
Looking down over the Sufi shrine that abuts his palace, I suspect he
would somehow have managed to make his peace with the fast changing
cyber-India of call centres, software parks and back office processing
units that are now slowly overpowering the last remnants of his world.
After all, realism and acceptance were always qualities Zafar excelled
in. For all the tragedy of his life, he was able to see that the world
continued to turn, and that however much the dogs might bark, the
great caravan of life continues moves on. As he wrote in a poem
shortly after his imprisonment, and as Mughal Delhi lay in ruins
around him: Delhi was once a paradise, Where Love held sway and
reigned; But its charm lies ravished now And only ruins remain. No
tears were shed when shroudless they Were laid in common graves; No
prayers were read for the noble dead, Unmarked remain their graves But
things cannot remain, O Zafar, Thus for who can tell? Through God's
great mercy and the Prophet All may yet be well. * * * The Last
Mughal, part of William Dalrymple's Mughal Quartet, will be published
by Bloomsbuy in October 2006. HYPERLINK "http://
www.williamdalrymple.com" www.williamdalrymple.com William
Dalrymple's Delhi Favourite monuments: The Red Fort- the great Mughal
palace complex of Shah Jehan. Humayun's Tomb- the greatest early
Mughal tomb. Safdarjung' Tomb- the last of the great Mughal Tombs
Begumpur Masjid- magnificent mediaeval mosque The Qu'tb Minar-
spectacular early mediaval victory tower. Tughlukabad- huge mediaval
barrack complex build as a defence against the Mongols of Genghis
Khan. Zafar Mahal- Zafar's ruined and crumbling summer palace south of
Delhi. Favourite walks: The Lodhi Gardens- Delhi's answer to Central
Park- laid out by 1930's vicereign Lady Willingdon around some early
mediaeval tombs of the Lodhi period The Mehrauli Archaeological Park-
a wonderful new wooded walk through crumbling ruins to the south of
the Qu'tb Minar. Rajpath- from India Gate to Lutyens' great
masterpiece, the Viceroy's House, now called Rastrapati Bhavan. For my
money, the best British building of the 20th century. The Civil Lines-
north of Old Delhi lies the still quiet streets where the British
built their bungalows in the 1830's. Many still bare the scars of
1857. Favourite Restaurants Karim's, near the Jama Masjid in Old Delhi
(236 9880). The most authentic Mughal food and a great adventure to
find at night. Swagath- South India fish restaurant in Defence Colony
Market (24337538)- try the chilli garlic crab claws The Bukhara and
Dum Pukht, both in the Maurya Sheraton Hotel (2611 2233). Terrible
décor, spectacular (though expensive) food. Try the Sikandari Raan at
the Bukhara. Punjabi By Nature in Vasant Vihar (95120-251 4431)- good
filling Punjabi food. Favourite Hotels: The Imperial- wonderful, smart
colonial hotel in the middle of Delhi. The Oberoi- stylish and
established favourite with excellent restaurants (and the best air
conditioning for the Delhi summer.) The Oberoi Maidens- crumbling
colonial splendour in the middle of Old Delhi. Favourite Delhi/Mughal
films: Monsoon wedding Mughal-e-Azam Recommended reading: Twilight in
Delhi- by Ahmed Ali. The great Delhi novel. Delhi: A Thousand Years of
Building by Lucy Peck. Best architectural guide. Old Delhi: 10 Easy
Walks. The best way

to discover the backstreets of Old Delhi. City of Djinns- William
Dalrymple- my own love letter to the city

Blast from the past stories, photos and world-wide celebration of the
Independence of India.

http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=75693#compstory

Thanks to the guys of SAJA South Asian Journalist' Association, New
York, NY USA:
http://www.sajaforum.org/history/index.html
http://www.saja.org/dissect/1947.html
New York Times stories and specials, New York, NY USA:
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/300406salt-march.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/300525women.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/facts.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/india-celebrate.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/events.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/photo-gallery.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/web-links.html

The "Future Shock," 'The unfortunate present," "where did the spirit
of Independence gone?"...and what for?
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/india.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/india.html#1
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/india.html#2
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/india.html#3
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/970422india-gujral.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/india50-gujral.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/970421india-politics.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/970420india-politics.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/970710india-anniversary.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/970810burns.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/970728india-politics.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/970726india-president.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/970702india-politics.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/970624india-pakistan.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/970513india-pakistan.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/970512india-pakistan.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/970401india-pakistan.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/970331india-politics.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/970329india-pakistan.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/970131india-gandhi-legacy.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/970131india-gandhi-legacy.1.GIF.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/970126india-polio.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/970124india.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/india-book-review.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/970725philadelphia-india-anniv.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/970725philadelphia-india-anniv.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/08thar.html

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/feb112007/update.asp
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/?
http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/thehindu.html

Indian-Americans in America:

http://www.ipnatlanta.net/foi.htm

Hindu-Muslim Bhai Bhai, New York Style:

http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/ny-india-pakistan.html

Pakistan too got their Independence from British and severance, with
pay, from Hindu Indians:
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/pakistan-page.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/470815pakistan-free.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/470815independence-day.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/470815independence-day.html#1
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/470815independence-day.html#2
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/470815independence-day.html#3
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/470815independence-day.html#4
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/470815independence-day.html#5
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/470815un-ceremony.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/470604partition-plan.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/470604partition-plan.html#1
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/470604partition-plan.html#2
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/470604partition-plan.html#3
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/470604partition-plan.html#4
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/470604partition-plan.html#5

http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/pakistan.html
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/pakistan.html#1
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/pakistan.html#2
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/pakistan.html#3
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/pakistan-leader.html

Or is it restricted to Mulayam Singh like local leaders? I think, this
new arrangement, sweet and most convenient arrangement is spreading
like wild fire, all over the world.
For instance right in England. Thanks to the Economist

http://www.economist.com

February 10th-16th, 2007 International edition article on page 53.

"Muslims and Sociologists
With Friends like these

Excerpts:

"As George Bush prepares to send more troops to Iraq, his critics all
over the Western world are bringing more protesters onto the street-
and the range of people who are angry enough to fill the icy air with
chants of rage seems broader, and in some ways stranger, than
ever."....

...On February 24th, for example, gallery-goers and pigeon-feeders
should probably avoid London's Trafalgar Square, on which tens or
possibly hundreds of thousands of people will converge from all over
Britain, and farther afield, to demand the withdrawal of Western
troops from Iraq-and while they are at it, oppose the renewal of
Britain's nuclear arsenal.....Tourists....will notice the odd
sociology of the anti-war movement: the unkempt beards and unisex
denims of old-time street fighters rubbing shoulders with the well-
trimmed Islamic beards and head-scarved ladies."...

I say, "There goes the neighborhood." for our jingoistic frineds of
certain ideology, you know very well whom I am referring to. Saffron
kind. These Righteous and Right wing politicians, in India, always
complaining about Congress (I) party's "vote bank-politicking to favor
Muslims," to take advantage of their guaranteed support for India's
"secular democracy," have to deal and fight the same issue at two
fronts from here to the eternity.

Socialists, well-trenched socialists, of India, are not going to 'Kow-
Tow' to any saffron politicians' Righteous or just plain-vanilla-kind
protests. The recent Mumbai Municipal elections results surprised even
Soniaji. The former guaranteed Muslim, "vote-bank" votes, flew in
Mulayam Singh's socialist nests, resulting some gains to the
socialists and unheard of losses to the Congress (I) stalwarts.

Well, those happy as puppy, good-old days of such 'safe arrangement'
are over. If Mulayam Singh started something new and unique, in India,
at least, he must be a true visionary. His one step towards getting
angry Muslims to see his Socialist secular version, smaller and
manageable Socialist, egalitarian and also very, very secular, non
sectarian and Socialist. Why, Let our own, 'dyed in wool,' Mulayam
Singh take a bow and pat his strong 'Socialist back.' Things are
moving right along, in London, England.

Sid the political pundit Harth

http://sidharththehindupundit.blogspot.com/2007/02/i857-sepoy-mutiny-of-british-india-sid.html

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 10, 2010, 2:59:15 PM1/10/10
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Weird Hindu Practices
Funny ways Hindus practice their religion.

Sunday, February 11, 2007
Female Gods: Sid Harth

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/2007/01/religion_in_the_political_camp/comments.php?page=5

Sid Harth :

My dear Victoria,

In your little comment at the beginning, paraphrasing, ‘there is
little faith in these discussions.’

My dear friend, I take strong objection to such vulgar and demeaning
remarks. I love you, even then. You are one of those slightly on the
stricter side of the spectrum, ‘religious believers’,’ colorful
spectrum, only little on the right side, right not meaning correct,
the wrong side of the faith, in my honest opinion.

What, in the heavens, are you talking about? You appear as if this
forum being not enough “Faith-bound?” We are talking about, effects of
associations with the religious bodies and thoughts being used, and/or
abused by the clever politicians to maximize their effectiveness in
catching fat-worms of blind believers like your good-self.

Of course, in their political campaigns, awash with legal, illegal
PAC, Political Action,-money. We are on the right track before you
made your wisecrack about faith. Not good enough, my dear sister.
Scientific reasons and justifiable rationale of faith being used by
politicians is the main topic.

If you get bored, get out of this forum. Good House Keeping magazine
may have something more suitable for your mild taste. We, the
participants want thoughtful answers and/or commentaries like mine on
the very specific questions raised, not a campaign rhetoric for the
Faith. Capital F, if you please. Bless you all.

I am Hindu, if you did not notice.

Sid the Brave Harth
January 29, 2007 11:21 PM

Jihadist :

Sid Harth,
Victoria’ sentence, “there is little faith in this discussions” is
“vulgar and demeaning”?
I can’t believe the amount of bile and rants Victoria has to go
through here when she seek to correct some poster’s understanding and/
or perceptions on Muslims and Islam.

And Hindu or Muslim, as Americans (if you are one), don’t you all
respect and practice the much promoted and vaunted “freedom of speech”
in the US?

Telling her to go read Good Housekeeping is sexist and dismissive.
Everyone is entitled to their opinions here. Including you. But what
you posted on Victoria is an uncalled for and unwarranted personal
attack.

As you pointed out, this forum is about the impact and effect of faith
(or otherwise) in our private and public lives.

Victoria is correct about “little faith in the discussions”. Many
questioned their own religious faith, or had their religous faith
questioned and challenged by others. And it was every educational for
all.

We also seem to have little faith in our secular leaders, our
religious leaders, and our fellow men judging by many postings here.

So, step back and ease up on Victoria. It is not personal. She is just
making a general observation.

And I look forward to your personal attack on me and to let it pass.

May peace be with you.

January 29, 2007 11:54 PM

Concerned The Christian Now Liberated :

Jihadist,

I still don’t see you or Victoria taking to task the militantcy of
Islam. Ann Coulter is not teaching young Christians to be suicide
bombers like the mullahs do to Moslem boys and girls on a daily basis.
I find it ironic that Islamic girls are allowed to commit suicide on
behalf of your Allah but the same Allah does not provide her with the
same protection or grand time in Heaven as Hades for Moslem males.

Your “religion” is a sham in today’s world. It is time to rectify the
Koran by removing its hatred of non-believers, its promises of
heavenly virgins to the “extreme” elements and the degradation of
women in the Islamic world.

Christians finally grew up. Time for Islam to do the same!!!

The mullahs should be a thick-skinned as you say you are and allow
mockery of your “prophet” go without turning the followers into raving
lunatics every time someone criticizes him.

January 30, 2007 12:25 AM
VICTORIA :

Hi Daniel- nice to see you back- Tongue-in-cheek is a term that refers
to a style of humor in which things are said only half seriously, or
in a subtly mocking way.

Tongue-in-cheek humor in fiction often takes the form of gentle
parodies. Such stories seem to abide by the conventions of an
established serious genre, while in reality, they gently poke fun at
some aspects of that genre.

Actually I didn’t mean Jihad was fooling around- i saw it from the
perspctive that she is gently poking fun at peoples misconception
about the very important and most miused word from Islam
There is no sense of meaning terrorism in Jihad at all- its a positive
struggle-While you are asking her to be sensitive- should we be
sensitive of lack of knowledge?

If children are afraid of the bogeyman, to we coddle that fear or tell
them the bogeyman doesn’t exist? (No parallels just analogy)

We are all adults here and if someone is afraid of a word- then there
is an obligation to remove that fear and replace it with solid
knowledge.

By any standards Jihadist is a most excellent name for a faith forum
because its meaning is someone who vigorously pursues their own faults
and weaknesses with the intent of correcting them and pursuing their
spiritual path with tenacity and dedication.

Its looking at the beam in our own eyes under a microscope- so to
speak- it is self analysis and critque with the goal of perfecting our
own beings.

SID HARTH thanks for the love- actually- since ive noticed that the
moderators pay more attention at the beginning of these questions- it
wasnt really directed at anyone here- but to the moderators as they
seem to be posting more politically geared questions- and we still
have 2 years before the election and there are 1000s of political
blogs but this is a special site as there just aren’t many outlets for
interfaith discussion available-so it wasn’t intended as a wisecrack-
but a gentle chide- as one of the consumers of this site- to let the
people running it know that some of us are interested in faith based
dialogue- since its called on faith- it seemed a reasonable remark to
me.

And actually SID HARTH- perhaps you also failed to notice that the
first post was also by me- the definition of the word rhetoric- do you
think i posted the definiton of the word rhetoric to-
1)endorse rhetoric or2)call attention to the actual meaning of the
word?

guess which-Liberated- you catch more flies with honey than you do
with vinegar.salaams all

January 30, 2007 2:22 AM

Concerned The Christian Now Liberated :

The definition of jihad as portrayed by the daily activities of the
Iraqi Sunnis and Shiites, the Iranian Shiites and the Afghan
“Talibaners”: “jihad (ji-hahd, ji-had) In Islam, a holy war; a war
ordained by God. The Koran teaches that soldiers who die in jihad go
to heaven immediately.
Modern-day terrorists often claim that they are carrying out acts of
destruction, such as the attacks on the World Trade Center towers, as
part of a jihad. “

To change the definition will require a rewriting of the Koran and the
end of the significantly stupid butchery imposed by Sunnis on Shiites
and vice versa.
January 30, 2007 2:34 AM

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/starhawk/2007/01/women_and_the_goddess_1.html

Sid Harth:

Being a Jewish woman, you have neglected the Hindu tradition of
worshipping women gods, nay, goddesses.

If I be honest to you, sister, there is but one goddess, the mother of
all the living things, including us, humans, of course. We humans are
endowed with something so superior that the rest of the living
creation has no way to compete with us.

the human intelligence, human mind endowed to think and create
unimaginable things, All the scientist's brain cells do not differ
from us ordinary folks of both sexes, yet they are our avante-garde
creationists. If we do not think about, or just about anything
imaginable, we may suffer the same fate of the animals.

Religion, whatever that curious thing may be doing to us as humans is
not doing enough as people have encased their religions or their
separate but equal, to them, branches of the mother religion. They
restrict our independent think, the power of reasoning and finding
what is good for us, as individuals, not as masses following the
dictates of some ancient seer, guru, god, god's only son who
sacrificed himself to pay the price of our sins. Nobody thinks.

Why would any religion straight its theology, its message, its
bonafide articles of religion? The Christianity, Islam, and Jewish
traditions allow just one book as their sole reference book. All this
makes me mad. Hinduism, however, has not bothered to put great stress
on "How to," where at, whys and why nots of western religions, Islam
Judaism have that bad habit.

Person of intelligence may or may not follow the strict rules of the
religion and yet be a part of the tradition, suitably modified for
their best outcome.

We, Hindus, have a long and very stable tradition of worshipping a
female goddess. She could be your Kali, with several arms carrying
weapons and dancing on the cadaver of god Shiva whom she had beheaded
and the head, dripping with fresh blood, her tongue hanging out for
more blood, all crimson red and the whole stance and demeanor of her
image must be the reason her followers worship her.
I wish I had a mother like Kali, taking care of me, solving my
personal problems and facing all kinds of my enemies with weapons and
showing action at the cost of her beautiful face.

The women goddesses carry a special meaning to many rich and poor
worshippers. It is the first authority figure who not only loves them
dearly but is willing to take a sword, proverbially speaking, of
course, to defend her child, her ward till the person, the child
attains enough wherewithal to take of themselves. There are nine of
these women goddesses. They are not all, cruel. Some look as good or
better yet, better than one's own mama.

The women goddesses include, Goddess of knowledge, Saraswati, goddess
of wealth, money and prosperity, Lakshmi, Bhadrakali is a new and
improved version of cruel and fearful Kali..”Bhadra,” in Sanskrit
means, “Good deed.”

Hope you guys got some original and interesting information about
women gods of India.

Sid Harth

Posted January 29, 2007 10:03 AM

Women and the Goddess

Women have not faired well under most religions for the last five
thousand years or so. But let’s take the long view: that’s just a blip
on the timeline of human history. Before, and concurrently in many
indigenous cultures, the divine was and is pictured in female as well
as male form, as the Great Mother who was the creative, regenerative
power in nature and life.
At the very beginnings of Western civilization, there were early
cultures, egalitarian and peaceful, that honored the Goddess and whose
arts and religious artifacts reflect their interest in the sacredness
of nature and an orientation to life. These societies were long lasting
—in places like Catal Huyuk they existed for thousands of years, and
they originated agriculture, pottery, weaving, architecture—the arts
and skills that were to be the basis of civilizations to come.

But they changed when culture and religion became more and more
focused on war. Myths changed—from celebrations of the sacred
marriages and sacred images of food, plants—to the imagery of warfare,
with Gods as conquerors and Lords of Battle. Law and religion changed
as well—and the results are still with us.

I was raised Jewish and still feel deeply connected to those roots.
But as a young woman deeply interested in questions of the spirit, and
always at the top of my Hebrew school class, I saw nowhere to go in
Judaism. At that time, there were no women rabbis, cantors, and few
women scholars. Women could teach Hebrew school, or head up Hadassah,
or marry a rabbi, but that was about it. Of course, all of that
changed a decade later with challenges from the feminist movement, but
in the meantime I had found a community of people practicing the Old
Religion of the Goddess.

The Goddess is not just God-in-a-skirt, she represents a different
spiritual orientation, one which locates the sacred in this world, in
the cycles of nature, in the body and all its processes, that sees
sexual communion, birth, maturation, healing, and even death and decay
as sacred processes.

As a young woman, it was tremendously empowering for me to find a
spiritual tradition that honored my body and that encouraged me to
take on roles of responsibility and leadership.

In our tradition, we honor women without denigrating men, and there
are also many wonderful, powerful and empowering men in our
communities. But men do not have the automatic position of privilege-
unearned, assumed authority-that they do in some other religions.

There isn’t space here to fully discuss this issue, but if you want to
pursue this question further, I refer you to my own books, (see
www.starhawk.org), Especially The Spiral Dance and Truth or Dare:
Encounters with Power, Authority and Mystery (HarperSanFrancisco,
1988) and our documentary on the work of archaeologist Marija
Gimbutas, Signs Out of Time. (Available from www.belili.org). Marija’s
own books, The Language of the Goddess, The Civilization of the
Goddess, The Living Goddess (with Miriam Dexter Robbins) are also
excellent resources, as is Riane Eisler’s The Chalice and the Blade.

Posted by Starhawk on January 23, 2007 6:13 AM
Posted by sidH at 11:01 PM

http://sidharththehindupundit.blogspot.com/2007/02/female-gods-sid-harth.html

bademiyansubhanallah

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Weird Hindu Practices
Funny ways Hindus practice their religion.

Thursday, February 1, 2007
Too Weird to Describe

http://www.fotowarung.com/archives/2007/02/01/photo-essay-hindu-devotee-uthaya-kumar-fullfill-vows/

I thought that I have seen everything, heard everything about how many
ways a Hindu person of either sex contributes to my fond theory that
there is no such thing as a "Hindu," religion.

This photo essay link provided above shold substantially bolster my
studied opinion.

I am a born Hindu, not the kind this man portrays himself as. No
cruelty in worship. No piercing of toungue or for that matter, any
body parts with sharp objects to please hindu god, any number of them,
if you please. As a matter of fact, there are thirty-three-million
Hindu gods on record.

Imagine all those gods requiring, nay, demanding the kind of worship,
the cruel kind, I would believe, there would never be enough hospital
beds, no sufficient medical help, timely, and expert medical help
available in this whole universe as there are more than one billion
strong idiots like our photo essay guy.

Sid Harth
Posted by sidH at 5:30 AM

http://sidharththehindupundit.blogspot.com/2007/02/too-weird-to-describe.html

bademiyansubhanallah

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Weird Hindu Practices
Funny ways Hindus practice their religion.

Saturday, February 17, 2007
Muslim Weird Practices: Sid harth

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/02/17/pakistan.bomb.ap/index.html

I am Hindu. I am not criticising Hindus alone. I just find it
incredible that Hindus do not see themselves as they are seen by
everybody in the world. Bad things happen in any religion. For
example, in Islam. "Islam," the religion, as practiceed by its current
practitioners all over the world, has already been associated with the
world terrorism. That is in itself a "Weird," thing, as Islam, means
peace.

...and I am Sid Harth

Posted by sidH at 3:06 AM

http://sidharththehindupundit.blogspot.com/2007/02/muslim-weird-practices-sid-harth.html

bademiyansubhanallah

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Saturday, February 17, 2007
Morality Meltdown in India: Sid Harth

Sid Harth View profile

Goddamned Hindus worship Devil. If you do not believe this simple
statement, you must be one of those Devil worshipping dingbat. In a
civilized society also crimes of all kinds take place. All governments
strive to keep the law and order in a secure, foolproof and almost
reverential, pristine condition as human nature cannot be legislated.
It is true that law only punishes the guilty provided they are charged
for a specific crime, not criminality in general, prosecuted and found
guilty either by a jury of twelve or the judge who is authorized to
pass the judgment. India has no jury system, therefore a judge is a
presiding deity who sometimes, nay, all the time resorts to a
politically correct judgment. This is very true as the line drawn in
the sand to keep the executive and judiciary, to keep each influencing
the other has been redrawn most of the time or totally eliminated as
judges are not elected but appointed. Honest judges are transferred if
they pass harsh judgments or demoted, given golden parachutes and
kicked upstairs where their opinions do not count besides being
ceremonial deities. The court system in India is so clogged that
genuine cases crawl for years and by the time a case is heard the
litigants have died, committed suicide or bought off. The witnesses
move on, the prosecuting persons retire, governments change making it
impossible for the judge to take unbiased view even when he wants to.
If the case is so heinous that it defies the credibility of the
criminals mostly a political cover is used to deflate the charges.

A so called fact finding commission is appointed whose job is to
prepare a case for the prosecutor. These commissions have no power of
the courts though they consists eminent jurists, either as judges
themselves or retired luminaries. It is a sham. The commissions
complain about this and that and carry on this charade to the best
they can. A report is submitted to the government, which being the
appointing authority in the first place has no inclination to pursue
the recommendation. Bal Thackeray, Mumbai's Marathi Mafia thug has
caused mayhem, not one time, not two time many times in his political
career. This man incites his brainwashed followers, as a matter of
fact, Bal Thackeray, like a criminal Mafia don, orders his henchmen to
commit specific crimes, naming names, timing to suit his convenience.
Bal Thackeray has ordered murders, which were executed as ordered not
only of his opponents but his own men for disobeying him or dropping
his criminal enterprise. The recent case of tension in India involves
Bal Thackeray's former follower, Chagan Bhujbal who served Bal the
boss very well but got disenchanted and left his political outfit,
Shiv Sena.

Chagan Bhujbal carries this quest to get even with his former boss and
mentor. Bal Thackeray cultivated criminal elements like Arun Gawli
whose criminal empire was threatened by other criminal gangs headed by
Muslims. Once someone fails to pay Bal Thackeray tributes or disobeys
him he is called a traitor and banished, sometimes brutally murdered
in broad daylight to create panic among his followers not to break the
unwritten rule that Bal Thackeray cannot be crossed. Bal Thackeray, as
a big criminal, big politician, ally in a criminal cabal ruling Delhi,
capital of India refuses to see the reason and threatens anyone,
including his allies, local police, local government and the last but
not the least the very government of India with promise of more
violence.

Bal Thackeray is not the first neither is he the last political
gangster who takes advantage of his political clout. Almost all
politicians do the same. They make the files on them kept by various
agencies vanish. They intimidate the arresting authorities, witnesses
with grave reprisals and use their political connections to reach as
high a person as the prime minister of India, Atal Behari Vajpayee and
force him to issue directives to ward the evil off. The prime
minister's office is not a place to discuss or debate criminal case.
He has no jurisdiction on local disputes. He says so. Yet he or his
chosen ministers pontificate on criminal cases pending or as yet not
initiated, as in case of Bal Thackeray's imminent arrest and
prosecution.

Srikrishna commission appointed under a political pressure found Bal
Thackeray and many of his criminal disciples guilty as charged but the
then chief minister in collusion with the prime minister dismissed the
specific charges. Manohar Joshi, Bal Thackeray's friend and one of the
foremost disciple took oath of office to preserve, protect and defend
the constitution of India and the governing laws of the land. Manohar
Joshi declared that he would violate the constitutional obligation and
obey only Bal Thackeray's diktats, in public. The prime minister, Atal
Behari Vajpayee, home minister Lal Kishenchand Advani and bunch of
other top level ministers have been charged as criminal conspirators
in Babri demolition/ murder/mayhem case. They refuse to comply
Allahabad high court orders or summons to present themselves to hear
the charges. If this is not a moral meltdown what is?

Sid Harth..."Filthy Hindu criminals of north America should be
banished as potential trouble makers whose criminal acts would destroy
the country.

" http://www.comebackkid.com/ http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/20000722/ina22061.html

If there's violence, we can help -- Govt. to Sena DEVESH KUMAR NEW
DELHI, JULY 21: The Vajpayee Government today reserved the right to
intervene if the current face-off between the Maharashtra Government
and the Shiv Sena spirals out of control. In a clear bid to mollify
ally Shiv Sena, a high-level meeting at the Prime Minister's residence
this evening took the view that the Centre could not remain a mute
spectator if a serious law and order problem developed either in
Maharashtra or in any other part of the country as a result of the
State Government's decision to prosecute Bal Thackeray. Ironically,
it's the Sena which has threatened violence if its chief is arrested.
But armed with this sop, the two Sena union ministers, Suresh Prabhu
and Manohar Joshi, softened on their resignation and said it was up to
the Prime Minister to decide what to do with their letters.

The PM has already rejected their resignations and the Government
seemed optimistic that by the time Parliament reopens next week, the
Sena ministers will be back in the saddle. Attorney General Soli
Sorabjee clarified to correspondents after the meeting that the new
affidavit to be filed by the Government in the Supreme Court in six
weeks would be the same as the old one which states that the Centre
had no locus standi in the decisions taken by the Maharashtra
Government regarding the implementation of the Srikrishna Commission
Report. The Government seems to be attempting to draw a distinction
between the ongoing hearings on the Srikrishna Commission Report and
the fallout of Thackeray's possible prosecution. The distinction was
reiterated by Law Minister Ram Jethmalani today in a sharp reaction to
the Court's criticism of his statements. In Mumbai, he said his
comments related specifically to the move of the Maharashtra
Government to arrest Bal Thackeray.

He said that this does not form part of the Court proceedings. ``The
learned Chief Justice should at least have realized that he was making
comments about a minister who knows his law as well as anyone else,''
Jethmalani declared. Incidentally, the case against Thackeray which
the state government has decided to re-open deals with charges covered
by the Srikrishna Commission as well. By indicating it had a right to
intervene, the Centre seems to be sending a warning to the Maharashtra
Government to ensure that there is no trouble in the State because it
has threatened to prosecute Thackeray.

At the same time, official sources maintained that a similar
admonishment has been given to the Sena as well. This evening's
meeting also took the view that all matters relating to the move to
prosecute Thackeray should be referred to the courts which would rule
on their legal status. Sorabjee and Information and Broadcasting
Minister Arun Jaitley were called to the meeting, also attended by
Prabhu and Joshi, to ascertain the legal position of the demand from
the Sena for central intervention, particularly after the Supreme
Court's interim ruling. The two Sena ministers made out a strong legal
and political case against the Congress-NCP combine's action.

``They gave to the Prime Minister the details of why they felt that
the sanction given by the Maharashtra government for Thackeray's
prosecution is not in conformity with the law,'' Jaitley told
reporters after the meeting. ``The Prime Minister heard their
arguments at length. He would be consulting his colleagues on the
matter. He has not accepted their resignations,'' he added. The two
Sena ministers disclosed that they would not be attending tonight's
Cabinet meeting as they had fly back to Mumbai. Asked whether they
would press for the acceptance of their resignations, Joshi responded
by saying that a final decision after consulting `Balasaheb' and other
senior leaders.

But the tone and tenor of their voice indicated a considerable
softening in their stance ``The Centre should do whatever it feels is
right. We have said anything from our side. I is for the Prime
Minister to decide. After all, he is the leader of the entire
coalition,'' Joshi said.

Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.

http://www.india-today.com/ntoday/newsarchives/100/7/21/n10.shtml

A hot diary in Ahmedabad, incriminating evidence in Mumbai Aaj Tak
@2000 hrs NEWS TODAY EXCLUSIVE By Ravi S. Jha, Ahmedabad/ Anjali
Cordeiro, Mumbai India's cricket world quaked as income-tax officials
took stock of their spoils the day after. Thursday's raids at nearly
90 houses and offices of cricketers, cricket officials and bookies
across nine cities uncovered piles of documents and records that
officials are now sifting through. The indications are there could
incriminating, even sensational, evidence. In Ahmedabad, a diary
seized from from Hiren Hathi—who manages Kapil Dev’s business
operations in Gujarat and a ‘key operations man’—is likely to prove a
major blow for many prominent cricketers, according to income-tax
department sources. And in Mumbai, the incriminating evidence has
reportedly turned up against the cricketer raided on Thursday.

The taxmen won't say who, but it could be Mohammed Azharuddin. In
Ahmedabad “A bookies’ diary was found at Hathi's residence; it has
details of names of prominent cricketers and money transactions made
through them,” said an official. The diary is one of the many
important documents that has details of money involved in various
transactions held during the past few years. IT officials who were
part of the raids at Hathi’s residence told NEWS TODAY about Rs 8
crore of unaccounted income and incriminating documents were also
seized.

Hathi is alleged to be an Ahmedabad-based cricket bookie. His name has
figured in match-fixing scandal during the interrogation of some top
cricket celebrities in New Delhi. However, the officials are
tightlipped about the transactions and refused to mention whether it
was related directly to match fixing or just a business operation of
Kapil Dev. The raids were conducted from early morning on Thursday
till late night. Some sources said Hathi looked after Kapil Dev's
business dealings in Gujarat. Ajay Jadeja’s name also figures. Both of
them have been in close touch with Hathi, according to CBI. Hathi is
said to have known Jadeja for long owing to his Saurashtra
connections.

Jadeja belongs to Saurashtra and his family is said to be pretty close
with Hathi's family. In Mumbai The Income Tax department has found
incriminating evidence to show that the cricketer they raided on
Wednesday has had benami sources of income, P.K. Sarma, director
general of IT (investigation) told NEWS TODAY. Incriminating evidence
had been found against his family members too, Sarma said. While Sarma
had stated on Wednesday that two cricketers had been raided, he said
on Thursday morning that raids had been conducted on the home of only
one cricketer and other members of his family. Since reporters were
present while the IT officials entered the home of former India
captain Mohammad Azharuddin in Mumbai it would not be wrong to surmise
that the cricketer Sarma is talking about could in fact be Mohammad
Azharuddin. The home of his wife Sangeeta Bijlani was also raided.
Sarma has however said that he is not yet in a position to give any
names. “I can only say that the cricketer we raided in Mumbai was not
present yesterday when the raid was on,”

Sarma said. “We have found incriminating evidence against this Mumbai
cricketer. At the moment, however, it is all prima facie evidence. We
have received information that he is returning to Mumbai immediately.
This means that he is in a mood to cooperate with us,” Sarma said.
Raids are still on in the home of the Mumbai bookie Shobhan Mehta.
Tell us what you think of this story NEWS TODAY EXCLUSIVE: Crackdown
on Cricket World: 90 Raids in 9 Cities, with video and audio reports.
Cricket in Turmoil With accusations of match-fixing, furtive deals and
ill-gotten wealth,

Indian cricket is going through its worst days. It's the same all over
the world. Get the latest news breaks, exclusive audio and video
reports and more. Read exclusive interview by India Today with Ajay
Sharma, former India cricketer and self-professed friend of
Azharuddin. Day of the Wrong 'Un Embattled coach. Clueless
administrators. Players under tax scrutiny. Indian cricket never had
it so bad. The Hansie Inquiry The list of team mates of South Africa's
disgraced cricket captain Hansie Cronje who now say he made match-
fixing offers to them is growing. Read the South African viewpoint.
Read the complete Justice Y.V. Chandrachud report on match- fixing in
Indian cricket.

http://www.the-week.com/20jul23/events9.htm

End of a nightmare Bihar: A Dalit survives 32 days of torture
inflicted by a Bihar minister, for whom crime was getting to be a way
of life Kanhaiah Bhelari Deenanath Baitha had lost all hopes of making
it to his daughter's wedding on July 12. For 32 days, he lay confined
in a room at the official residence of Minister of State for
Cooperatives Lalit Kumar Yadav in Patna, living out his worst
nightmare. The truck driver was starved and beaten and his toenails
were pulled out. His truck cleaner Karo Ram received the same
treatment. Chained misery: Karo Ram (left) and Deenanath Baitha sit
handcuffed at the police station, with Baitha displaying his torture
scars When the two were finally rescued, it cost the minister his
job.

A criminal case under the Atrocities Act was slapped on Lalit, his
brother Surendra Prasad Yadav and five others. But they were yet to be
arrested. "The minister is so powerful," said Baitha, 55, at the
Secretariat police station on July 11. "He won't spare us." Baitha, a
Dalit from Nagari village in Bhojpur district, had been working for
Surendra Yadav for seven years. On June 6, he and Karo Ram were
driving down from Sasaram carrying a load of stone chips. At Hajipur
they halted near a petrol bunk for a drink, only to find their truck
missing when they returned.

After a futile two-day search, says Baitha, he called Surendra and
informed him about the theft. He was told to come to Patna. Their
ordeal began the day they reached the city. They were accused of
conspiring to steal the truck, and pleas that they were innocent only
enraged the Yadav brothers more. "Lalit pried out my nails, urinated
in my mouth and beat me with bamboo sticks," said Baitha displaying
his scars. They were locked up in the minister's outhouse and security
guards posted to watch them. "We were not served food for a week,"
said Baitha.

"We survived on dirty water and urine." So certain were they that
Baitha and Karo Ram were behind the theft that Lalit and Surendra
waited till June 15 to file a report with the police at Hajipur, from
where the truck had vanished. Four days later, the police recovered
the truck at Kanti, 100 km from Muzaffarpur. It was lying outside the
house of two brothers, Samim Ahmed Rehmani and Mohammad Wasim Akhtar,
who were regular truck-lifters. The brothers were arrested two days
later, but one of them managed to escape while the police were taking
them to the Hajipur court.

Truck driver Deenanath Baitha says Minister of State for Cooperatives
Lalit Kumar Yadav (extreme left in pic with Laloo Yadav) pried out his
nails and urinated in his mouth. The truck's recovery didn't mean the
end to Baitha's and Karo Ram's torture. Lalit and Surendra insisted
they knew the thieves. It was only when a TV news reporter, tipped off
by a policeman, went on air with the report that the two were finally
freed. Their sense of relief was short-lived. They were handcuffed and
branded "truck lifters" by the officer in charge of the Secretariat
police station where they were taken and kept in custody for two
days.

According to sources, the officer was acting on the instructions of
Director-General of Police K.A. Jacob who had been told by Rashtriya
Janata Dal president Laloo Prasad Yadav to play down the affair.
Declaring the minister innocent, the officer said: "They have stolen
the minister's truck, and a case has been filed against them at
Hajipur." However, a look at the FIR at Hajipur revealed that no one
had been named as the main accused.

When the officer was confronted once again with the fact, he retorted:
"Write what you want, I only know the minister is innocent." According
to sources, Laloo was forced to take a tough line once Congress
president Sonia Gandhi demanded that the minister be sacked
immediately. Laloo tried appealing to AICC spokesman Ajit Jogi to win
time, but was turned down. On the evening of July 10, Laloo held a
press conference at the chief minister's official residence to
announce that the police had been asked to file a criminal case
against the minister.

He said stern action would be taken if he was found guilty. Laloo
hoped this would appease Sonia. But according to a minister who was
with Laloo that night, "Sonia refused to speak to him on the issue
unless he dismissed the minister." When a senior minister, too,
supported her demand, Laloo seemed to have no way out. He tried
providing Lalit a face-saver by asking him to tender his resignation,
but the latter refused.

For Lalit Kumar Yadav, who represents the Manigachhi assembly segment
in Darbhanga district, criminal charges are nothing new. He has been
charge-sheeted in two criminal cases. Starting off as a contractor in
the early eighties, he entered the liquor business, and soon acquired
a monopoly over the trade. Even today he holds licence to sell foreign
and country liquor in the district, and runs a dozen retail shops in
Darbhanga town alone. Former health minister Mahavir Prasad, then an
influential politician in the region, assumed the role of his
godfather.

In 1993, Lalit beat up a reporter, who had published an
uncomplimentary story on Prasad. A criminal case was filed. In 1994,
Lalit was charged with stabbing Samshad Ali, an employee of C.M.
College in Darbhanga. An arrest warrant was issued on February 16,
1994. The police, however, declared him an absconder. In 1995, the
"absconder" won his first election as an independent candidate, joined
the Janata Dal soon after, and became vice-chairman of the anti-
corruption bureau of the State Vigilance Committee. He rapidly gained
prominence within Laloo's inner circle, and is reportedly close to
Sadhu Yadav, Laloo's brother-in-law.

It looks like Lalit is finally running out of luck. Rival parties,
intent on making political capital out of the issue, are baying for
his blood. "I have information that Laloo has hidden him in the chief
minister's house," said opposition leader Sushil Kumar Modi. A report
submitted by Sunil Kumar, SSP investigating the case, has upheld
Baitha's allegations against the minister. Meanwhile, the National
Human Rights Commission has asked the government to submit a report on
the incident. For Baitha's family, however, it is time for a reunion.
"The almighty showed pity on my brother by saving him in time for his
daughter's wedding," said Ramnath Baitha, who had come to escort
Baitha home. And among the wedding guests were a dozen MLAs led by
Sushil Kumar Modi.

http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/20000722/ied22049.html

Twelfth man To say that the extensive raids at far-flung
establishments of some of current Indian cricket's greatest names have
come as anything of a surprise would be overstating it. And to wail
that the income tax and CBI searches at 85 premises have heralded
Indian cricket's darkest hour would be a gross misrepresentation of
facts. The Dark Ages began far too long ago -- to be precise, on the
day Hansie Cronje's salesman-like conversations became public
knowledge -- to occasion disconsolate wails. And yet, it would be
naive to declare Thursday, when the unprecedented seal- and-search
operations commenced, just another manic monsoon day. No, there is a
message and it is hopelessly depressing. Given the list of cricketing
personalities now under income tax -- and consequently public --
scrutiny, it seems that the much desired rescue of India's most loved
game is a near impossibility. It is a sad thing to say, extremely
cynical, but given the circumstances very realistic.

It is traumatic indeed when leading players in sport that till
yesterday was a religion come under a shadow; but when the men who are
supposed to be minding them and who have been self- righteously
drafting codes and policies to combat the match- fixing menace
themselves become subjects of intensive investigation and allegations,
drastic action is in order. Ajay Jadeja, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Mohammed
Azharuddin... which cricket lover is not saddened by their seemingly
imminent fall from grace? Still, it has been repeatedly demanded that
a thorough probe be undertaken to once and for all establish each
protagonist's guilt or innocence, as the case may be. Hence, the raids
are entirely in order; but why did they take so long in coming? Ever
since the worms started squirming out of the can after the Cronje
bombshell, everyone and her grandfather have been speculating on the
timing of the seemingly imminent raids. Nit-picking aside, it is the
curious spectacle of national team coach Kapil Dev, BCCI treasurer
KishoreRungta and the de facto boss of Indian cricket, Jagmohan
Dalmiya, being asked to sing in their own defence that threatens to
nudge matters beyond repair.

Seeking government intervention is clearly against the tenor of our
times; but it is clear that cricket administrators are simply not up
to the crisis at hand. The modalities of a stronger governmental
involvement in cleansing cricket will no doubt require extensive
debate before a consensus can be arrived at. Should changes be made in
the structure of the BCCI? Should there be a one-shot amnesty for
anyone anxious to unload a heavy conscience? Sure, there will be much
talk before concrete action can be initiated; but at least that debate
will bring back disillusioned fans. And disillusioned and repulsed
they are.

"You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements," said
American adman Norman Douglas way back in 1917. Scan the ads today,
compare them with those just six months ago, and it will be clear
where cricket and its leading lights stand in public perception. In
the meantime, the raids are all very well. But if follow-up
investigation is not swift, they will remain just a distraction to
help Department of Revenue officials pass time.

Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.

http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/20000722/ied22050.html

Damning the violated Twenty years ago, the Supreme Court acquitted two
policemen from Maharashtra for raping a young tribal woman in a police
station. The case, better known as the Mathura rape case, led to a
storm of protest and serious attempts to redefine, or at least
clarify, concepts like ``consent'' and ``custodial rape''. The case
proved how difficult it was to ensure that justice is done in a crime
like rape, which occurs largely in the private sphere and has serious
social consequences for the violated person.

Thursday's Supreme Court judgment, acquitting two teachers of Bengaon,
Maharashtra, of raping their colleague six years ago, therefore,
evoked a strong sense of deja vu. Twenty years may have gone by, but
the inadequacies of the country's criminal justice system in
addressing crimes like rape are patently obvious. The justices, in
their recent verdict, were convinced that the prosecution had failed
to prove its case against the appellants ``beyond reasonable doubt''.

That the raped woman had chosen not to inform her parents about the
incident and had delayed lodging an FIR for 10 days after it had
occurred were factors that seemed to have weighed heavily on their
minds. Yet, given the social odium attached to a crime of this kind --
in this case, the raped woman chose to commit suicide five months
later, evidently unable to bear the stigma -- such a pattern of
behaviour may not be considered unusual. Interestingly, both the trial
court and the Bombay High Court had chosen to discount these factors
in their own judgments and preferred to go by the circumstantial
evidence presented to them, as well as eye- witness accounts and
medical reports.

Be this as it may, there is no getting away from the fact that crucial
evidence of the crime was indeed lost because of the delay in lodging
the FIR and the Supreme Court judges preferred to go strictly by the
evidence at hand. It is this aspect of the case that demands the
utmost introspection from law enforcers, social activists and, indeed,
society at large.

The conviction rate in rape cases, most of which are not reported at
all, is abysmally low precisely because the necessary investigations
are not conducted with any degree of accuracy. One of the factors is,
of course, ignorance. The violated woman is unaware of the crucial
importance attached to the FIR and the medical examination in such
cases. Her hesitation in coming forward with her complaint is often
buttressed by the apathy and lack of sensitivity the local police and
medical authorities display in dealing with her case. Precious time
and valuable evidence is lost in the process and the violator
invariably goes unpunished.

Some months ago, the Union home minister had suggested that rapists be
awarded the death penalty. But, as was pointed out then, it is not the
severity of the punishment that ensures that justice is done, but the
surety of it. The latest judgment provides sufficient indication that
the system is still largely unable to ensure that a rapist does,
indeed, get his just desserts. Copyright © 2000 Indian Express
Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. Got questions? Get answers over the phone at
Keen.com. Up to 100 minutes free!

http://www.keen.com
More options Jul 22 2000, 12:00 pm

Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian

From: Sid Harth
Date: 2000/07/22
Subject: Morality Meltdown in India

Goddamned Hindus worship Devil. If you do not believe this
simple statement, you must be one of those Devil worshipping
dingbat.

In a civilized society also crimes of all kinds take place.
All governments strive to keep the law and order in a secure,
foolproof and almost reverential, pristine condition as human
nature cannot be legislated.

It is true that law only punishes the guilty provided they are
charged for a specific crime, not criminality in general,
prosecuted and found guilty either by a jury of twelve or the
judge who is authorized to pass the judgment.

India has no jury system, therefore a judge is a presiding
deity who sometimes, nay, all the time resorts to a politically
correct judgment. This is very true as the line drawn in the
sand to keep the executive and judiciary, to keep each
influencing the other has been redrawn most of the time or
totally eliminated as judges are not elected but appointed.

Honest judges are transferred if they pass harsh judgments or
demoted, given golden parachutes and kicked upstairs where their
opinions do not count besides being ceremonial deities.

The court system in India is so clogged that genuine cases
crawl for years and by the time a case is heard the litigants
have died, committed suicide or bought off. The witnesses move
on, the prosecuting persons retire, governments change making it
impossible for the judge to take unbiased view even when he
wants to.

If the case is so heinous that it defies the credibility of
the criminals mostly a political cover is used to deflate the
charges. A so called fact finding commission is appointed whose
job is to prepare a case for the prosecutor. These commissions
have no power of the courts though they consists eminent
jurists, either as judges themselves or retired luminaries.

It is a sham. The commissions complain about this and that and
carry on this charade to the best they can. A report is
submitted to the government, which being the appointing
authority in the first place has no inclination to pursue the
recommendation.

Bal Thackeray, Mumbai's Marathi Mafia thug has caused mayhem,
not one time, not two time many times in his political career.
This man incites his brainwashed followers, as a matter of fact,
Bal Thackeray, like a criminal Mafia don, orders his henchmen to
commit specific crimes, naming names, timing to suit his
convenience.

Bal Thackeray has ordered murders, which were executed as
ordered not only of his opponents but his own men for disobeying
him or dropping his criminal enterprise.

The recent case of tension in India involves Bal Thackeray's
former follower, Chagan Bhujbal who served Bal the boss very
well but got disenchanted and left his political outfit, Shiv
Sena. Chagan Bhujbal carries this quest to get even with his
former boss and mentor.

Bal Thackeray cultivated criminal elements like Arun Gawli
whose criminal empire was threatened by other criminal gangs
headed by Muslims. Once someone fails to pay Bal Thackeray
tributes or disobeys him he is called a traitor and banished,
sometimes brutally murdered in broad daylight to create panic
among his followers not to break the unwritten rule that Bal
Thackeray cannot be crossed.

Bal Thackeray, as a big criminal, big politician, ally in a
criminal cabal ruling Delhi, capital of India refuses to see the
reason and threatens anyone, including his allies, local police,
local government and the last but not the least the very
government of India with promise of more violence.

Bal Thackeray is not the first neither is he the last
political gangster who takes advantage of his political clout.
Almost all politicians do the same. They make the files on them
kept by various agencies vanish. They intimidate the arresting
authorities, witnesses with grave reprisals and use their
political connections to reach as high a person as the prime
minister of India, Atal Behari Vajpayee and force him to issue
directives to ward the evil off.

The prime minister's office is not a place to discuss or
debate criminal case. He has no jurisdiction on local disputes.
He says so. Yet he or his chosen ministers pontificate on
criminal cases pending or as yet not initiated, as in case of
Bal Thackeray's imminent arrest and prosecution.

Srikrishna commission appointed under a political pressure
found Bal Thackeray and many of his criminal disciples guilty as
charged but the then chief minister in collusion with the prime
minister dismissed the specific charges.

Manohar Joshi, Bal Thackeray's friend and one of the foremost
disciple took oath of office to preserve, protect and defend the
constitution of India and the governing laws of the land.
Manohar Joshi declared that he would violate the constitutional
obligation and obey only Bal Thackeray's diktats, in public.

The prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, home minister Lal
Kishenchand Advani and bunch of other top level ministers have
been charged as criminal conspirators in Babri demolition/
murder/mayhem case. They refuse to comply Allahabad high court
orders or summons to present themselves to hear the charges.

If this is not a moral meltdown what is?

Sid Harth..."Filthy Hindu criminals of north America should be
banished as potential trouble makers whose criminal acts would
destroy the country."

http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/20000722/ina22061.html

If there's violence, we can help -- Govt. to Sena
DEVESH KUMAR

NEW DELHI, JULY 21: The Vajpayee Government today reserved the
right to intervene if the current face-off between the
Maharashtra Government and the Shiv Sena spirals out of control.

In a clear bid to mollify ally Shiv Sena, a high-level meeting
at the Prime Minister's residence this evening took the view
that the Centre could not remain a mute spectator if a serious
law and order problem developed either in Maharashtra or in any
other part of the country as a result of the State Government's
decision to prosecute Bal Thackeray. Ironically, it's the Sena
which has threatened violence if its chief is arrested.

But armed with this sop, the two Sena union ministers, Suresh
Prabhu and Manohar Joshi, softened on their resignation and said
it was up to the Prime Minister to decide what to do with their
letters. The PM has already rejected their resignations and the
Government seemed optimistic that by the time Parliament reopens
next week, the Sena ministers will be back in the saddle.

Attorney General Soli Sorabjee clarified to correspondents after
the meeting that the new affidavit to be filed by the Government
in the Supreme Court in six weeks would be the same as the old
one which states that the Centre had no locus standi in the
decisions taken by the Maharashtra Government regarding the
implementation of the Srikrishna Commission Report.

The Government seems to be attempting to draw a distinction
between the ongoing hearings on the Srikrishna Commission Report
and the fallout of Thackeray's possible prosecution.

The distinction was reiterated by Law Minister Ram Jethmalani
today in a sharp reaction to the Court's criticism of his
statements. In Mumbai, he said his comments related specifically
to the move of the Maharashtra Government to arrest Bal
Thackeray. He said that this does not form part of the Court
proceedings.

``The learned Chief Justice should at least have realized that
he was making comments about a minister who knows his law as
well as anyone else,'' Jethmalani declared.

Incidentally, the case against Thackeray which the state
government has decided to re-open deals with charges covered by
the Srikrishna Commission as well.

By indicating it had a right to intervene, the Centre seems to
be sending a warning to the Maharashtra Government to ensure
that there is no trouble in the State because it has threatened
to prosecute Thackeray. At the same time, official sources
maintained that a similar admonishment has been given to the
Sena as well.

This evening's meeting also took the view that all matters
relating to the move to prosecute Thackeray should be referred
to the courts which would rule on their legal status.

Sorabjee and Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley
were called to the meeting, also attended by Prabhu and Joshi,
to ascertain the legal position of the demand from the Sena for
central intervention, particularly after the Supreme Court's
interim ruling.

The two Sena ministers made out a strong legal and political
case against the Congress-NCP combine's action. ``They gave to
the Prime Minister the details of why they felt that the
sanction given by the Maharashtra government for Thackeray's
prosecution is not in conformity with the law,'' Jaitley told
reporters after the meeting.

``The Prime Minister heard their arguments at length. He would
be consulting his colleagues on the matter. He has not accepted
their resignations,'' he added.

The two Sena ministers disclosed that they would not be
attending tonight's Cabinet meeting as they had fly back to
Mumbai. Asked whether they would press for the acceptance of
their resignations, Joshi responded by saying that a final
decision after consulting `Balasaheb' and other senior leaders.

But the tone and tenor of their voice indicated a considerable
softening in their stance ``The Centre should do whatever it
feels is right. We have said anything from our side. I is for
the Prime Minister to decide. After all, he is the leader of the
entire coalition,'' Joshi said.

Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.

http://www.india-today.com/ntoday/newsarchives/100/7/21/n10.shtml

A hot diary in Ahmedabad, incriminating evidence in Mumbai

Aaj Tak @2000 hrs

NEWS TODAY EXCLUSIVE

By Ravi S. Jha, Ahmedabad/ Anjali Cordeiro, Mumbai India's
cricket world quaked as income-tax officials took stock of their
spoils the day after.

Thursday's raids at nearly 90 houses and offices of cricketers,
cricket officials and bookies across nine cities uncovered piles
of documents and records that officials are now sifting through.
The indications are there could incriminating, even sensational,
evidence.

In Ahmedabad, a diary seized from from Hiren Hathi—who manages
Kapil Dev’s business operations in Gujarat and a ‘key operations
man’—is likely to prove a major blow for many prominent
cricketers, according to income-tax department sources.

And in Mumbai, the incriminating evidence has reportedly turned
up against the cricketer raided on Thursday. The taxmen won't
say who, but it could be Mohammed Azharuddin.

In Ahmedabad

“A bookies’ diary was found at Hathi's residence; it has details
of names of prominent cricketers and money transactions made
through them,” said an official. The diary is one of the many
important documents that has details of money involved in
various transactions held during the past few years.
IT officials who were part of the raids at Hathi’s residence
told NEWS TODAY about Rs 8 crore of unaccounted income and
incriminating documents were also seized.

Hathi is alleged to be an Ahmedabad-based cricket bookie. His
name has figured in match-fixing scandal during the
interrogation of some top cricket celebrities in New Delhi.

However, the officials are tightlipped about the transactions
and refused to mention whether it was related directly to match
fixing or just a business operation of Kapil Dev. The raids were
conducted from early morning on Thursday till late night.

Some sources said Hathi looked after Kapil Dev's business
dealings in Gujarat. Ajay Jadeja’s name also figures. Both of
them have been in close touch with Hathi, according to CBI.

Hathi is said to have known Jadeja for long owing to his
Saurashtra connections. Jadeja belongs to Saurashtra and his
family is said to be pretty close with Hathi's family.

In Mumbai

The Income Tax department has found incriminating evidence to
show that the cricketer they raided on Wednesday has had benami
sources of income, P.K. Sarma, director general of IT
(investigation) told NEWS TODAY.

Incriminating evidence had been found against his family members
too, Sarma said.

While Sarma had stated on Wednesday that two cricketers had been
raided, he said on Thursday morning that raids had been
conducted on the home of only one cricketer and other members of
his family. Since reporters were present while the IT officials
entered the home of former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin in
Mumbai it would not be wrong to surmise that the cricketer Sarma
is talking about could in fact be Mohammad Azharuddin.

The home of his wife Sangeeta Bijlani was also raided. Sarma has
however said that he is not yet in a position to give any
names. “I can only say that the cricketer we raided in Mumbai
was not present yesterday when the raid was on,” Sarma said.

“We have found incriminating evidence against this Mumbai
cricketer. At the moment, however, it is all prima facie
evidence. We have received information that he is returning to
Mumbai immediately. This means that he is in a mood to cooperate
with us,” Sarma said.

Raids are still on in the home of the Mumbai bookie Shobhan
Mehta.

Tell us what you think of this story

NEWS TODAY EXCLUSIVE:

Crackdown on Cricket World: 90 Raids in 9 Cities, with video and
audio reports.

Cricket in Turmoil

With accusations of match-fixing, furtive deals and ill-gotten
wealth, Indian cricket is going through its worst days. It's the
same all over the world. Get the latest news breaks, exclusive
audio and video reports and more.

Read exclusive interview by India Today with Ajay Sharma, former
India cricketer and self-professed friend of Azharuddin.

Day of the Wrong 'Un

Embattled coach. Clueless administrators. Players under tax
scrutiny. Indian cricket never had it so bad.

The Hansie Inquiry

The list of team mates of South Africa's disgraced cricket
captain Hansie Cronje who now say he made match-fixing offers to
them is growing. Read the South African viewpoint.

Read the complete Justice Y.V. Chandrachud report on match-
fixing in Indian cricket.

http://www.the-week.com/20jul23/events9.htm

End of a nightmare

Bihar: A Dalit survives 32 days of torture
inflicted by a Bihar minister, for whom crime
was getting to be a way of life

Kanhaiah Bhelari

Deenanath Baitha had lost all hopes of making it to his
daughter's wedding on July 12. For 32 days, he lay confined in a
room at the official residence of Minister of State for
Cooperatives Lalit Kumar Yadav in Patna, living out his worst
nightmare. The truck driver was starved and beaten and his
toenails were pulled out. His truck cleaner Karo Ram received
the same treatment.

Chained misery: Karo Ram (left) and Deenanath Baitha sit
handcuffed at the police station, with Baitha displaying his
torture scars

When the two were finally rescued, it cost the minister his job.
A criminal case under the Atrocities Act was slapped on Lalit,
his brother Surendra Prasad Yadav and five others. But they were
yet to be arrested. "The minister is so powerful," said Baitha,
55, at the Secretariat police station on July 11. "He won't
spare us."

Baitha, a Dalit from Nagari village in Bhojpur district, had
been working for Surendra Yadav for seven years. On June 6, he
and Karo Ram were driving down from Sasaram carrying a load of
stone chips. At Hajipur they halted near a petrol bunk for a
drink, only to find their truck missing when they returned.
After a futile two-day search, says Baitha, he called Surendra
and informed him about the theft. He was told to come to Patna.

Their ordeal began the day they reached the city. They were
accused of conspiring to steal the truck, and pleas that they
were innocent only enraged the Yadav brothers more. "Lalit pried
out my nails, urinated in my mouth and beat me with bamboo
sticks," said Baitha displaying his scars. They were locked up
in the minister's outhouse and security guards posted to watch
them. "We were not served food for a week," said Baitha. "We
survived on dirty water and urine."

So certain were they that Baitha and Karo Ram were behind the
theft that Lalit and Surendra waited till June 15 to file a
report with the police at Hajipur, from where the truck had
vanished. Four days later, the police recovered the truck at
Kanti, 100 km from Muzaffarpur. It was lying outside the house
of two brothers, Samim Ahmed Rehmani and Mohammad Wasim Akhtar,
who were regular truck-lifters. The brothers were arrested two
days later, but one of them managed to escape while the police
were taking them to the Hajipur court.

Truck driver Deenanath Baitha says Minister of State for
Cooperatives Lalit Kumar Yadav (extreme left in pic with Laloo
Yadav) pried out his nails and urinated in his mouth.

The truck's recovery didn't mean the end to Baitha's and Karo
Ram's torture. Lalit and Surendra insisted they knew the
thieves. It was only when a TV news reporter, tipped off by a
policeman, went on air with the report that the two were finally
freed.

Their sense of relief was short-lived. They were handcuffed and
branded "truck lifters" by the officer in charge of the
Secretariat police station where they were taken and kept in
custody for two days. According to sources, the officer was
acting on the instructions of Director-General of Police K.A.
Jacob who had been told by Rashtriya Janata Dal president Laloo
Prasad Yadav to play down the affair.

Declaring the minister innocent, the officer said: "They have
stolen the minister's truck, and a case has been filed against
them at Hajipur." However, a look at the FIR at Hajipur revealed
that no one had been named as the main accused. When the officer
was confronted once again with the fact, he retorted: "Write
what you want, I only know the minister is innocent."

According to sources, Laloo was forced to take a tough line once
Congress president Sonia Gandhi demanded that the minister be
sacked immediately. Laloo tried appealing to AICC spokesman Ajit
Jogi to win time, but was turned down. On the evening of July
10, Laloo held a press conference at the chief minister's
official residence to announce that the police had been asked to
file a criminal case against the minister. He said stern action
would be taken if he was found guilty.

Laloo hoped this would appease Sonia. But according to a
minister who was with Laloo that night, "Sonia refused to speak
to him on the issue unless he dismissed the minister." When a
senior minister, too, supported her demand, Laloo seemed to have
no way out. He tried providing Lalit a face-saver by asking him
to tender his resignation, but the latter refused.

For Lalit Kumar Yadav, who represents the Manigachhi assembly
segment in Darbhanga district, criminal charges are nothing new.
He has been charge-sheeted in two criminal cases. Starting off
as a contractor in the early eighties, he entered the liquor
business, and soon acquired a monopoly over the trade. Even
today he holds licence to sell foreign and country liquor in the
district, and runs a dozen retail shops in Darbhanga town alone.

Former health minister Mahavir Prasad, then an influential
politician in the region, assumed the role of his godfather. In
1993, Lalit beat up a reporter, who had published an
uncomplimentary story on Prasad. A criminal case was filed. In
1994, Lalit was charged with stabbing Samshad Ali, an employee
of C.M. College in Darbhanga. An arrest warrant was issued on
February 16, 1994. The police, however, declared him an
absconder.

In 1995, the "absconder" won his first election as an
independent candidate, joined the Janata Dal soon after, and
became vice-chairman of the anti-corruption bureau of the State
Vigilance Committee. He rapidly gained prominence within Laloo's
inner circle, and is reportedly close to Sadhu Yadav, Laloo's
brother-in-law.

It looks like Lalit is finally running out of luck. Rival
parties, intent on making political capital out of the issue,
are baying for his blood. "I have information that Laloo has
hidden him in the chief minister's house," said opposition
leader Sushil Kumar Modi.

A report submitted by Sunil Kumar, SSP investigating the case,
has upheld Baitha's allegations against the minister. Meanwhile,
the National Human Rights Commission has asked the government to
submit a report on the incident.

For Baitha's family, however, it is time for a reunion. "The
almighty showed pity on my brother by saving him in time for his
daughter's wedding," said Ramnath Baitha, who had come to escort
Baitha home. And among the wedding guests were a dozen MLAs led
by Sushil Kumar Modi.

http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/20000722/ied22049.html

Twelfth man

To say that the extensive raids at far-flung establishments of
some of current Indian cricket's greatest names have come as
anything of a surprise would be overstating it. And to wail that
the income tax and CBI searches at 85 premises have heralded
Indian cricket's darkest hour would be a gross misrepresentation
of facts. The Dark Ages began far too long ago -- to be precise,
on the day Hansie Cronje's salesman-like conversations became
public knowledge -- to occasion disconsolate wails. And yet, it
would be naive to declare Thursday, when the unprecedented seal-
and-search operations commenced, just another manic monsoon day.
No, there is a message and it is hopelessly depressing. Given
the list of cricketing personalities now under income tax -- and
consequently public -- scrutiny, it seems that the much desired
rescue of India's most loved game is a near impossibility. It is
a sad thing to say, extremely cynical, but given the
circumstances very realistic.

It is traumatic indeed when leading players in sport that till
yesterday was a religion come under a shadow; but when the men
who are supposed to be minding them and who have been self-
righteously drafting codes and policies to combat the match-
fixing menace themselves become subjects of intensive
investigation and allegations, drastic action is in order. Ajay
Jadeja, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Mohammed Azharuddin... which cricket
lover is not saddened by their seemingly imminent fall from
grace? Still, it has been repeatedly demanded that a thorough
probe be undertaken to once and for all establish each
protagonist's guilt or innocence, as the case may be. Hence, the
raids are entirely in order; but why did they take so long in
coming? Ever since the worms started squirming out of the can
after the Cronje bombshell, everyone and her grandfather have
been speculating on the timing of the seemingly imminent raids.
Nit-picking aside, it is the curious spectacle of national team
coach Kapil Dev, BCCI treasurer KishoreRungta and the de facto
boss of Indian cricket, Jagmohan Dalmiya, being asked to sing in
their own defence that threatens to nudge matters beyond repair.

Seeking government intervention is clearly against the tenor of
our times; but it is clear that cricket administrators are
simply not up to the crisis at hand. The modalities of a
stronger governmental involvement in cleansing cricket will no
doubt require extensive debate before a consensus can be arrived
at. Should changes be made in the structure of the BCCI? Should
there be a one-shot amnesty for anyone anxious to unload a heavy
conscience? Sure, there will be much talk before concrete action
can be initiated; but at least that debate will bring back
disillusioned fans. And disillusioned and repulsed they
are. "You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements,"
said American adman Norman Douglas way back in
1917. Scan the ads today, compare them with those just six
months ago, and it will be clear where cricket and its leading
lights stand in public perception. In the meantime, the raids
are all very well. But if follow-up investigation is not swift,
they will remain just a distraction to help Department of
Revenue officials pass time.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.

http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/20000722/ied22050.html

Damning the violated

Twenty years ago, the Supreme Court acquitted two policemen from
Maharashtra for raping a young tribal woman in a police station.
The case, better known as the Mathura rape case, led to a storm
of protest and serious attempts to redefine, or at least
clarify, concepts like ``consent'' and ``custodial rape''. The
case proved how difficult it was to ensure that justice is done
in a crime like rape, which occurs largely in the private sphere
and has serious social consequences for the violated person.
Thursday's Supreme Court judgment, acquitting two teachers of
Bengaon, Maharashtra, of raping their colleague six years ago,
therefore, evoked a strong sense of deja vu. Twenty years may
have gone by, but the inadequacies of the country's criminal
justice system in addressing crimes like rape are patently
obvious.

The justices, in their recent verdict, were convinced that the
prosecution had failed to prove its case against the appellants
``beyond reasonable doubt''. That the raped woman had chosen not
to inform her parents about the incident and had delayed lodging
an FIR for 10 days after it had occurred were factors that
seemed to have weighed heavily on their minds. Yet, given the
social odium attached to a crime of this kind -- in this case,
the raped woman chose to commit suicide five months later,
evidently unable to bear the stigma -- such a pattern of
behaviour may not be considered unusual. Interestingly, both the
trial court and the Bombay High Court had chosen to discount
these factors in their own judgments and preferred to go by the
circumstantial evidence presented to them, as well as eye-
witness accounts and medical reports. Be this as it may, there
is no getting away from the fact that crucial evidence of the
crime was indeed lost because of the delay in lodging the FIR
and the Supreme Court judges preferred to go strictly by the
evidence at hand. It is this aspect of the case that demands the
utmost introspection from law enforcers, social activists and,
indeed, society at large.

The conviction rate in rape cases, most of which are not
reported at all, is abysmally low precisely because the
necessary investigations are not conducted with any degree of
accuracy. One of the factors is, of course, ignorance. The
violated woman is unaware of the crucial importance attached to
the FIR and the medical examination in such cases. Her
hesitation in coming forward with her complaint is often
buttressed by the apathy and lack of sensitivity the local
police and medical authorities display in dealing with her case.
Precious time and valuable evidence is lost in the process and
the violator invariably goes unpunished. Some months ago, the
Union home minister had suggested that rapists be awarded the
death penalty. But, as was pointed out then, it is not the
severity of the punishment that ensures that justice is done,
but the surety of it. The latest judgment provides sufficient
indication that the system is still largely unable to ensure
that a rapist does, indeed, get his just desserts.

Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.

Got questions? Get answers over the phone at Keen.com.
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Posted by sidH at 2:37 AM 0 comments

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bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 10, 2010, 3:36:35 PM1/10/10
to
It’s a coincidence that he is from Nagpur, says Bhagwat
‘Gadkari not appointed by RSS’
Lucknow, Jan 10, DHNS:

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Sunday made
it clear that the new BJP national president Nitin Gadkari was not
appointed by the outfit.

“Just because Gadkari hails from Nagpur, where RSS headquarters is
situated, he cannot be said be an RSS appointee .... his being from
Nagpur is just a coincidence,” Bhagwat said while speaking at a
meeting of RSS workers here.

“We are not into active politics nor do we try to put individuals into
important posts though we are in the politics of nationalism and
Hindutva,” he said. Bhagwat said the RSS had in the past been
subjected to all kinds of “wrong interpretations about its open and
hidden agenda. There is nothing hidden in the organisation,” he
remarked.

“We are involved in the politics of nationalism, of uniting the
country, and there is nothing to feel ashamed in doing so,” Bhagwat,
who visibly appeared to be upset with the recent media reports about
the RSS hand in the appointment of BJP office-bearers, said.

Though Bhagwat admitted that a number of RSS workers had entered
politics, he went on to add that joining politics was an individual’s
personal decision and had nothing to do with the RSS.

He asked the people join the RSS to know about the organisation. “If
people join the organisation for a year or six months they will come
to know about RSS... they will not have any misconceptions about
Sangh,” he said.

Bhagwat expressed concern over the prevailing political scenario in
the country and said that people “enter into politics only to grab
power.” He rued that the political leadership, instead of trying to
unite the country, take recourse to issues related to caste, creed and
religion only to incite passion.

The RSS chief also called for adopting the philosophy of Hindutva
rather than castes. Hindutva has answers to many of the prevailing
social ills, he added.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/46166/gadkari-not-appointed-rss.html

bademiyansubhanallah

unread,
Jan 11, 2010, 1:13:16 AM1/11/10
to
Rashtraniti not Rajniti interests RSS: Bhagwat
Express News Service
Posted: Monday , Jan 11, 2010 at 0157 hrs

Lucknow:

Mohan Bhagwat addresses the special session in Lucknow on Sunday

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat said on Sunday
that the Sangh was not involved in politics and had no role in the
appointment of the new BJP national president Nitin Gadkari.

“I have said it several times that we have not been instrumental in
the appointment of the new (BJP) president. He (Gadkari) has also said
it. Yet people say that since we belong to same place (Nagpur), so the
Sangh must have a role in his appointment,” Bhagwat said in Lucknow.

Stating that RSS is concerned about “Rashtra Niti” (national policy)
and not the “Rajniti” (politics), he said, “The RSS works to expand
its organisation.”

“Door se dekhenge, galatfahami hogi. Andar aakar anubhav karna parega
(From a distance, there could be misconception (about the RSS). So
join the organisation to experience it),” he added.

Expressing his unhappiness over the hoardings that have been put
across the city to welcome him, Bhagawat said, “I am supposed to stay
in different parts of the country. So this visit is part of the same
tradition. The RSS never seeks popularity. It works to expand its
base.”

Bhagwat is in Lucknow since Friday evening. This is his first visit to
the city after becoming the RSS chief.

Terming all Indians as Hindu by origin, Bhagwat said the society will
never tolerate atrocities against the innocent and attacks on centres
of faith.

“Our huge society has one ethos and culture and that is why we are a
nation. All Indians are Hindus on the basis of traditions and
ancestors,” he said. The RSS was working on the basis of this very
ideology, Bhagwat added.

“Keeping in view the fact that we are all Hindus, we should interact
and work unitedly for the uplift of the society,” the RSS chief said.
He claimed that it has been scientifically proved that the DNA of
people living in the Indo-Iranian era has been similar for the last
40,000 years.

“Therefore, we should live like brethren and complement each other.
This harmony should come from the heart, words and action,” Bhagwat
said.

He asked the people to celebrate anniversaries of all great
personalities and invite each other in family functions like marriage.
“This process of building a discrimination-free society should start
from our homes. We should move together and make this society a better
place,” he added. “Our motto is Vasudhev Kutumbakam (the whole world
is a family) and we are working with this spirit,” Bhagwat said.

‘End to racial attack is a powerful India’

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Sunday expressed concern over the attack on
Indian students in Australia and said, “We are weak and our children
face attack. If we become powerful, such incidents will not take
place.”

On the foreign policy front, he said the country should use its
political diplomacy to strengthen its position among the neighbouring
countries and termed infiltration of Bangladeshis into Indian
territories as a threat to internal security.

He also spoke about China’s claim over Arunachal and said that the
Communist country was trying to influence Nepal through the Maoists
who have become politically strong in Kathmandu.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/rashtraniti-not-rajniti-interests-rss-bhagwat/565790/0

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 11, 2010, 1:16:00 AM1/11/10
to
RSS may go against J&K autonomy
Kiran Tare / DNA
Monday, January 11, 2010 2:10 IST

Mumbai: The right-wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) may announce
an action plan against the recommendations of justice Shagir Ahmed
committee, which has advised an autonomous status for Jammu and
Kashmir. A decision in this regard is expected at a meeting of top RSS
officials to be held on January 20 in Mumbai.

The RSS’s student wing, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), has
already launched demonstrations all over the country against the
committee’s recommendations. Once the parent organisation approves a
movement on the issue, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will also
throw in its hat with the ABVP. BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley has
already criticised the recommendations.

Political observers believe that the committee report has handed over
an opportunity to the rightists. “Last year, J&K was on fire over the
Amarnath temple land issue, which united the Hindus in Jammu for the
first time in the last 60 years. The BJP will try to use the report to
expand its base in the region,” an observer said.

The RSS is in favour of trifurcation of J&K into Jammu, Kashmir and
Ladakh. However, senior BJP leader LK Advani had opposed the
trifurcation when he was the union home minister.

Meanwhile, ABVP chief Ajay Bhide said the student wing is gearing up
to intensify its agitation over the report’s

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_rss-may-go-against-j-and-k-autonomy_1333238

bademiyansubhanallah

unread,
Jan 11, 2010, 1:18:54 AM1/11/10
to
People's lives interlinked with nation's status: RSS chief
PTI Sunday, January 10, 2010 21:40 IST

Lucknow: "If a country is not strong, its citizen face a weak position
overseas," Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat said today,
referring to attacks on Indians in Australia.

Addressing a convention of RSS workers here, he said "people's lives
depend on the life of the nation."

"Like inflation and unemployment which hit us hard, if a country turns
weak, we all will be affected."

Flaying developed countries like the United States, the RSS head said
their "dominating policies" were responsible for the global imbalance.

"For its citizens which constitute only four per cent of the global
population, the US wants to control 80 per cent resources of the
world," he said.

Turning to Hinduism, Bhagwat said its expansion was was important for
a strong India.

"Strengthening Hinduism by rising above caste, sect and linguistic
barriers is important for making India a powerful nation," he said.

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_people-s-lives-interlinked-with-nation-s-status-rss-chief_1333204

bademiyansubhanallah

unread,
Jan 11, 2010, 3:25:25 PM1/11/10
to
INTO THE MIND OF THE LAWKEEPERS
Saheli Mitra

Khaki and the Ethnic Violence in India By Omar Khalidi, Three Essays,
Rs 350

Communal and ethnic violence has always played a major role in the
history of our nation. That there might be a link between such
violence and the ethnic composition of our armed and police forces has
been mostly overlooked in the past. Omar Khalidi sees the problem from
a new perspective. He suggests that the ethno-religious composition of
the forces gave birth to communal feelings at times. Although
delegated the responsibility of maintaining peace and harmony, the
forces suffered from communal bias and hence at times were used by the
state as an instrument of legitimate coercion.

Drawing his data from interviews given by officers in the armed,
paramilitary and police forces, Khalidi presents a comparative study
of the forces in different states of India to suggest how political
interference and recruitment policies have nurtured these communal
feelings. He gives examples of discrimination in the armed forces
where representation of the minority community has been terribly low.
“Muslims in the Army are deprived of Friday prayers and even from
growing beards, though their Sikh counterparts are allowed to follow
their religious customs”, says Khalidi.

Sometimes senior army officers’ comments have provoked communal
sentiments. General B.C. Joshi, chief of army staff, had once exhorted
his troops to “follow the path of Dharma” and the “normal obligations
enshrined in the two Vedas”. General K.M. Cariappa had openly accused
Muslims of being loyal only to Pakistan. He was echoed by the defence
minister, George Fernandes, in 1985: “Whether we want to admit it or
not, most Indians consider Muslims a fifth column for Pakistan.”
Khalidi tries to explain the low percentage of Muslims in the armed
forces by way of this mistrust. Muslims, for example, have been
accused of cheering Pakistani athletes and mourning their defeats.

However, Khalidi’s statements seem a bit exaggerated as his sole
intention appears to be to highlight only areas where Muslims have
been the victims of gross injustice and discrimination. He tries to
prove that some groups are over-represented in the armed forces at the
cost of other groups. This, he suggests, has nothing to do with
efficiency but is mainly a fallout of the coercive state policy.
Khalidi also hints that Muslims in the forces have never been allowed
to rise beyond a certain level. Non-representation of Muslims in the
national security guards and special protection group is another
lapse. Perhaps Khalidi’s suggestions need to be pondered on.

SAHELI MITRA

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1031003/asp/opinion/story_2417653.asp

bademiyansubhanallah

unread,
Jan 11, 2010, 3:26:38 PM1/11/10
to
BHARAT RAKSHAK MONITOR - Volume 6(4) January-February 2004

Book Review

“Khaki and Ethnic Violence in India”, Omar Khalidi, Three Essays
Collective, September 2003, Pages 126, Price: Rs 150 (India);
Elsewhere $15.

The book consists of 126 pages including the references. The points
that Omar Khalidi tries to make in the book are:

1)Muslims are under-represented in the Armed Forces and Police forces
in comparison to their percentage in the population. The reasons range
from lack of education among Muslims to perceived or real
discrimination.

2)The Armed Forces and Central police forces generally have a better
record of impartiality than the State Police forces.

3)The political masters of the Police force are the key factor in
biased or unbiased police behavior.

4)Representation of all ethnic minorities in proportion to their
numbers in the population is desirable.

5)No matter who or what started a communal riot, Muslims have
allegedly "suffered most deaths, injuries, and loss of property" (page
91)

6) No police officials have ever been brought to justice after reports
of their negligence or complicity in ethnic violence.

Where the book falls far below expectation is in the actual contents
of the 126 pages, which have a errors of commission, omission, strange
theories, contradictions, misinformation, and bias.

One major problem with the book lies in its almost complete
concentration of the situation of Muslims. Khalidi refers to "ethnic
minorities" with the following sentence in the Preface: "Throughout
the book I have referred to "ethnic" to encompass religious groups
(Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs), tribe and caste groups
( Scheduled castes and groups and Hindu upper castes), as well as
racial groups such as the Gurkhas."

There is no mention of Dalits in this classification, but within the
book, Khalidi speaks of violence against Dalits. "Dalits" are a name
that Khalidi mentions in isolation, in reference to ethnic violence
with no clue offered as to whom they may be. No mention is made of the
fact that Dalits are, in fact represented among the Scheduled castes.
On the other hand he acknowledges that the scheduled castes, by virtue
of the policy of reservation as well as by merit are represented in
the Police and other forces in numbers that reflect their proportion
in the population. No analysis is made of the effect of the
representation of scheduled castes in the forces on the question of
violence against the scheduled castes whom Khalidi represents as a
separate "ethnic group" other than Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and
Christians. This is a glaring omission in a book that defines the
scheduled castes as a separate ethnic minority and purports to be a
study of "Khaki and the ethnic violence in India ".

The situation of Sikhs is dealt with in brief, mainly to note that
Sikhs are somewhat over-represented in the forces with respect to
their percentage in the population, and references to riots targeting
Sikhs after the assassination of Mrs. Indira Gandhi.

By far the greatest part of the book deals with the situation of
Muslims and the book is by no means a comprehensive study of all
groups as suggested by its title.

A lot is said about discrimination against Muslims, and that is where
the second great weakness of the book lies. An impartial study must
not appear to work with a bias; in this book there is a constant
undercurrent of projecting Muslims as the victim. The big tragedy in
this is that it is easy to pick out these instances and trash the
whole work as being biased, ignoring even the little useful
information that is presented. That is exactly what will be done with
this book. The author could have avoided the "Muslims as victim" tone
in the book. Examples abound:

One constant theme in the book is the under-representation of Muslims
in the armed and police forces. However, the author considers
Maharajas of Mysore as "enlightened", not biased while having a police
force with 50% Muslims, far in excess of the population percentage
(page 83). The fact that the Nizam of Hyderabad had predominantly
Muslims in his police force (page 80), including a unit of Arab
guards, is mentioned only to describe the allegedly shabby manner in
which this force was disbanded after independence.

On page 56, Khalidi says "India has experienced more than two
centuries of violence involving its major communities: Hindus, Dalits,
Sikhs, Christians and Muslims". The author would do well to remember
that if he speaks of India before 1947, its history goes back several
millennia, and a civilizational memory and historical records of
pogroms dating from Islamic invasions into India do play a role in
attitudes. Attempting to wish them away rather than addressing them
directly is an act of unpardonable academic negligence.

On the other hand, time limits do not seem to be much of a problem
when highlighting other information. Some references as old as reports
in the Indian media in 1973 (page 64) and 1969 (page 66) are used to
paint a picture of unremitting bias against Muslims.

The book is full of other examples of questionable statements:

On page 33 Khalidi describes Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as a "known
bigot"

On page 67 Khalidi states that Police in India carry "lathis, bamboo
staffs tipped with iron". That is wrong, lathis are not tipped with
iron and are made according to certain specifications. Many are now
made of fiberglass.

On page 103 Khalidi says: "More than one observer has noticed the
appearance of Hindu temples and Hindu religious images in police
stations to the exclusion of those of the minority faiths". It is not
clear whether the author objects to Hindu icons in police stations, or
whether he is objecting to the lack of non-Hindu religious icons.
Khalidi himself says why there are few Muslims in many police forces,
and under the circumstances, a police station manned largely by Hindus
cannot be expected to set up icons for those who are not present.
Khalidi makes no attempt to ask if police personnel of religious
minorities are prevented from performing minor acts of religious
significance in the few police stations that do have them, such as the
wearing of a cross or observance of an afternoon prayer or religious
fast.

Khalidi says that an expectation of discrimination and lack of
education are two important reasons for the low percentage of Muslims
in the police forces. In addition he speaks of a "linguistic barrier"
to the recruitment of Muslims. The suggestion is that Muslims are
somehow confronted with a barrier against recruitment. The barrier is
their lack of a working knowledge of the local language, such as
Kannada in Karnataka, and Marathi in Maharashtra. Ignorance of a local
language means lack of education, rather than a "barrier" that has
been imposed and references to a barrier could be termed as motivated,
at best. Khalidi is either ignorant or attempting to propagate
misinformation in this regard, because every Indian State has
linguistic minorities living in domicile who make every effort to
learn the local language to improve their employment opportunities.
For example the state of Karnataka has people whose language at home
may be as different from the official Kannada as Tulu, Konkani,
Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Sindhi, Gujarati, Urdu or Hindi.
Khalidi has expended no effort in assessing how people with such
linguistic backgrounds fare.

A few strange beliefs are evident in the book. It appears that Khalidi
considers Gurkhas a separate "race", although he does not specify why
he says that, in the preface. The author is also ambiguous about the
now defunct "martial races" theory.

A final quibble. The book ends with a "comparative perspective"
comparing the nations of "South Asia". Ethnic violence between
Pashtuns and others in Afghanistan gets a mention, as does the Sinhala-
Tamil violence in Sri Lanka. Pakistan is mentioned only for the
violence against Bengalis in 1971. There is no mention of the ethnic
cleansing of religious minorities in Pakistan from 1947 leading to a
decrease in the population of minorities from over 15% in 1947 to 3%
now. Bangladesh is not even mentioned. Pakistan and Bangladesh, with a
culture and history similar to that of India make ideal nations for
comparison with India not to mention the fact that they make up over
20% of the population of "South Asia"

All in all it seems that the intent of the book is ostensibly noble,
but its execution leaves too many loose ends and biases that can and
definitely will be picked up to trash the work, and negate the few
useful facts or suggestions that may be gleaned from this incomplete
and controversial study. This is not a book you would read for either
comprehensive or unbiased information on the subject.

Shivshankar Sastry

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/MONITOR/ISSUE6-4/nandv2.html

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Muslims In The Forces

By A.G. Noorani

Frontline/Book Review
13 October, 2003

Khaki and the Ethnic Violence in India: Army, Police and Paramilitary
Forces during communal riots by Omar Khalidi; Three Essays Collective,
New Delhi; pages 126, Rs.350 hardback, Rs.150 paperback.

The presence, absence rather, of Muslims in India's public services
and also in the private sector has been the subject of much comment.
Even over half a century after Partition, communal prejudice continues
to blight their hopes of economic advancement. Not that the
community's "leaders", such as they are, have not been at fault. Their
efforts for communal mobilisation in politics are aimed at personal
advancement, even if it be at the expense of the community's welfare.
If in some respects its conditions show signs of improvement, in
others it has deteriorated markedly.

The enormity of the Gujarat pogrom has, in a sense, affected
sensitivity about the continued post-pogrom programme of the Narendra
Modi government (vide the reports in Frontline, August 29, 2003). The
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre looks on
as if it is none of its concern. It is vain to expect any redress at
its hands. Fortunately, there is growing empathy and concern about the
lot of Muslims in the media and in institutes of repute like the
National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) in Delhi. A
working paper, which the NCAER will soon publish, puts forth ably "A
case for Empowerment of Muslims" by Azra Razzack and Anil Gumber.
Another study by Abusaleh Sharif is in draft. It is entitled "State
strategy for development and welfare of Muslims in India: Focus on
Education, Employment, Credit Flow and Empowerment". It has also
reprinted his article in Economic and Political Weekly (November 18,
1995) on "Socio-economic and demographic differentials between Hindus
and Muslims in India".

There remains a neglected subject rather like a dark family secret
known to all but which is seldom mentioned - Muslims in the Indian
Army. This was unwise and unjust to the Army, a great institution of
which every Indian should be proud. Like other institutions, it has
inherited a past that needs to be shaken off.

Omar Khalidi has written two scholarly and excellently researched
essays on this and a related theme. They are entitled "Ethnic
Composition of the Indian Armed Forces and its Impact on Performance
During Riots and Pogroms" and "Ethnic Composition of the Indian Police
and Central Paramilitary forces and its Impact on Performance During
Riots and Pogroms."

Born in Hyderabad, he is on the staff of the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT), author of Indian Muslims since Independence
(1996) and a good few scholarly writings. He edited a collection of
essays entitled Hyderabad After the Fall. The highly respected journal
Pacific Affairs published in early 2002 his article entitled "Ethnic
Group Recruitment in the Indian Army; the Contrasting Cases of Sikhs,
Muslims, Gurkhas and others". This book covers the wider theme of the
religious composition of the armed forces, the paramilitary and the
police in six States - Uttar Pradesh, including its notorious
provincial armed constabulary, Delhi and Bihar, Andhra Pradesh,
Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

The author poses these questions: "Does the composition of the
military personnel mirror the religious and ethnic diversity of the
Indian national population? If so, to what extent over time? If not,
why not and to what extent? What has been the impact on the Army of
the increasing communalisation of Indian society and the religious
divide between Hindus, Muslims and the Sikhs, particularly in the last
two decades?" He attempts to answer these questions based on
conversations with and writings of military officers, published
accounts of Defence Ministers, politicians, and informed journalists.
Every factual statement is backed by a full reference. Khalidi
interviewed, among others, Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, the late
Gen.K. Sundarji, Lt.Gen. M.L. Chibber and Maj Gen. Indarjit Rikhye. He
also interacted with R.K. Raghavan, former Director of the Central
Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Julio Ribeiro the "super cop", and two
former Directors of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police
Academy in Hyderabad, Aftab Ahmad Ali and Mahmoob B. Mahammad.

This is not a denunciatory tract. While exposing the grim realities
that few care to discuss, it also shows the way out, acknowledging
readily whatever ameliorative steps that have been taken. Muslims'
backwardness in education is not overlooked.

The Indian Army comprised 30-36 per cent Muslims at the time of
Partition. Since then, it came down to 2 per cent. Only two Muslims
rose to the rank of Lieutenant Generals; only six became Major
Generals. The Armed Forces Reconstitution committee, which divided
them at the time of Partition, "assumed' that Muslims would opt for
Pakistan. "But as many as 215 Muslim commissioned officers and 339
VCOs (Viceroy's Commissioned Officers, later called Junior
Commissioned Officers) chose India, according to the Ministry of
Defence. Notable among those who decided to remain in India were
officers like Brigadiers Muhammad Usman and Muhammad Anis Ahmad Khan,
and Lt.Col. Enayat Habibullah."

General K.M. Cariappa , the first Indian Army Chief, wrote an article,
significantly in the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) mouthpiece
Organiser (August 15, 1964), 17 years after Partition alleging that
"(Muslim) loyalty seems to be primarily to Pakistan. This is a crime
unpardonable. This is also the impression of a large percentage of non-
Muslim intellectuals in India. Here is the root cause for there being
a none-too-happy feeling towards Muslims by a large percentage of the
majority... . This is understandable." The author reminds us that
Cariappa contested an election to the Lok Sabha from the Bombay
Northwest Constituency with Shiv Sena support and lost. What needs to
be added is that he was supported also by some business houses and,
indeed advocated military rule in India.

Raju Thomas, an India-born American academic, who has written able
studies, interviewed Army officers. He found that: "When the (India-
Pakistan) war began in September 1965, a Muslim majority battalion of
the Rajput Regiment stationed in the crucial Poonch sector of Jammu
and Kashmir, far from being hastily withdrawn was allowed to play its
part in the execution of the Army's forward actions. According to
several high-ranking Indian Army officers, the fact that the battalion
did not flinch and carried out its assigned role with considerable
credit, sufficiently dispelled worry at least within the military -
about the loyalty of Indian Muslim soldiers."

In a letter to Chief Ministers dated September 20, 1953, Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru noted that the "position relating to
minority groups in India is deteriorating". It bears quotation in
extenso: "Our Constitution is good and we do not make any distinction
in our rules and regulations or laws. But, in effect, changes creep in
because of administrative practices or officers. Often these changes
are not deliberate, sometimes they are so.

"In the Services, generally speaking, the representation of the
minority communities is lessening. In some cases, it is very poor
indeed. It is true that some of the highest offices in the land are
occupied by members of these minority communities. They occupy high
places also in our foreign missions. But in looking through Central
government figures, as well as some others, I am distressed to find
that the position is very disadvantageous to them, chiefly to Muslims
and sometimes others also.

"In our Defence Services, there are hardly any Muslims left. In the
vast Central Secretariat of Delhi, there are very few Muslims.
Probably the position is somewhat better in the province, but not much
more so. What concerns me most is that there is no effort being made
to improve this situation, which is likely to grow worse unless
checked" (Jawaharlal Nehru; Letters to Chief Ministers 1947-1964; vol.
3 1952-54; pages 375-376). The prophecy came true. His Minister of
State for Defence, Mahavir Tyagi, disclosed that in 1953, "the
percentage of Muslims in the Armed Forces which was 32 per cent at the
time of Partition has come down to two. To correct this state of
affairs, I have instructed that due regard should be paid to their
recruitment."

The situation was little better in the erstwhile Indian States. Both
in the Army and in the police, the Nizam's government in Hyderabad
discriminated studiously in favour of Muslims. In Kashmir Muslims were
excluded altogether from the state force. What Sheikh Abdullah wrote
in his memoirs Atish-e-Chinar reveals the rot.

Khalidi translated the passage from Urdu text: "As a result of
Kashmir's accession to India, I had hoped that previous restriction on
the recruitment of Kashmir Muslims would be lifted and they will be
given adequate representation in the Army. I was taken aback when a
secret circular came to my attention that directed recruitment
officers not to enlist Muslims in the Army. Word about this circular
spread among the young men who took out a procession to Mujahid Manzil
(the Sheikh's headquarters). When the Defence Minister Gopalaswami
Ayyangar came to Jammu, I took up the matter with him. He vehemently
denied any such circular could have been issued in the first place. I
asked Gen. K.M. Cariappa why Kargil Muslims were not recruited, to
which he replied that their loyalty to India was suspect."

The author adds, "shockingly, a handout issued by the army through the
defence wing of the Press Information Bureau in Jammu on 1 April 2001,
reads: `No vacancy for Muslims and tradesmen.' Despite protests in the
Kashmir Legislative Assembly, and by the then Chief Minister, Farooq
Abdullah, the Army did not deny its statement."

Decades later, in 1985 George Fernandes, now Defence Minister,
admitted "the Muslim is not wanted in the Armed Forces because he is
always suspect - whether we want to admit it or not. Most Indians
consider Muslims a fifth column for Pakistan." Whether he has done
anything in redress remains one of his better kept secrets. The
situation is no better in the Air Force or the Navy. The former Chief
of the Naval Staff, Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, a man of integrity, noted:
"There are hardly any Muslim officers in the Navy and none of them
holds posts of any consequence."

Readers of this journal need not be reminded of attempts by the Sangh
Parivar to suborn the loyalty of the armed forces. They have failed.
The heart of our forces is in the right place. The author does an
honest job of candid exposure. His comments on improving the situation
are constructive: "The ability to develop an Army culture through
common celebration of religious and cultural festivals, and respect
for diverse beliefs, certainly serves as ethnic cross pressure,
preventing stereotyping and prejudice among the troops. But this
necessarily implies recruitment of all ethnic and religious groups in
India into the armed forces, as absence of particular groups from its
rank and file may lead to biases based on ignorance. The Army's goals
in this regard are worthy of civilian emulation. If the different
ethnic and religious groups in India and elsewhere can be integrated
within schools, trade unions, sports, NGOs, and the like, the
likelihood of negative socialisation through prejudice may
decrease."It must be recognised that, whether in the Army or the
police force, such a situation fosters the "them" and "us" feeling.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad recorded in his memoirs, how alike in India
and Pakistan, members of the armed forces participated in the
killings. He added: "We therefore took measures to bring more soldiers
from the south. They had not been affected by the Partition of the
country and retained their sense of soldierly discipline. The soldiers
of the south played a great part in bringing the situation under
control and restoring order in the capital."

It is to the credit of the Army that its help is sought consistently
to quell communal riots. "The Army's role has been particularly
welcomed by the Muslim leadership, who contrast the Army's neutral
role to that of the police and the paramilitary's partisanship (and
sometimes actual initiation of aggression) against them. The Army's
neutrality and professionalism in inter-communal riots is consistent
with its historical record even outside India."

However, Ayodhya imposed a severe strain. "According to the press,
during the campaign against the Babri mosque in Ayodhya, the `army
signalled its unwillingness to step in and take drastic action',
against Hindu gangs determined to harm the mosque. In fact, the then
Chief of the Army Staff Gen. S.F. Rodrigues, `refused government pleas
to take over security arrangements at the Babri mosque'." Reports by
journalists of repute are cited. Jaswant Singh, now Union Finance
Minister, told India Abroad (March 5, 1993) that "a Hindu
confrontation with the government could affect India's largely Hindu
Army. Religion is a key element in a soldier's mental make up... I
dread to think of a Hindu confrontation with the government over an
emotive issue."

The author cannot be faulted for commenting that "the government's
willingness to use the Army in the case of the Golden Temple in
Amritsar in 1984 and the Charar-e-Sharif in Kashmir in 1995, but not
against the Ayodhya mob in 1992 bent on the destruction of the mosque,
appears inexplicable."

Manekshaw told the author that two Defence Ministers "Swaran Singh and
Babu Jagjivan Ram opposed the cases of two Muslim officers whom he
wanted promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General."

What is sad is that, as the Opposition to Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat
showed, some members of the armed forces began seeking political
support for their promotion. The Akali Dal has been, reportedly, a
serial offender.

Such an exclusion of one minority is bound to foster unhealthy
feelings. "The Indian political leadership's successful subordination
of the military to civilian control is one of the exceptional
achievements of the country, in shining contrast to neighbouring
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and the like. As long as politicians
share the vision of India as a multi-religious and secular state, the
minorities have nothing to fear from a military composed of any one or
more ethnic or caste groups. After all, there is practically no
country in the world where the armed forces completely mirror society.
However, if groups representing extreme views of homogeneity come to
power - even through democratic means they can pose a clear and
manifest danger to the physical security of the minorities." This has
come to pass. India's most powerful hate group, the RSS, is in power
through its political arm, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The behaviour of the police in communal riots has been appalling.
(vide the reviewer's essay "Communal riots and the police in Communal
Riots, the State and Law in India"; ed. Iqbal A. Ansari, Institute of
Objective Studies, New Delhi, 1997, pages 3-13, based on Reports of
Commissions of Inquiry 1961-1989.) The author's survey of the police
force in six States reveals a distressing state of affairs, especially
in U.P.

A deep feeling of hostile discrimination is a crippling depressant, it
demoralises the victim. "The lack of role models and few Muslims in
the IPS may lead to a self-perpetuating cycle in which Muslims are
dissuaded from qualifying/entering the UPSC examinations. It is now
being increasingly recognised by some Muslim educators that the
community should improve its educational standards in order to compete
with others, rather than blame the State or the larger society. Some
of the successful Muslim IPS officers point to their own careers as
examples for others to emulate, such as the cases of T.T.P. Abdullah
in Tamil Nadu and Mahmood B. Muhammad in Andhra Pradesh, both of whom
rose to be India's Ambassadors to Saudi Arabia."

By 1958 the proportion of Muslims among senior police officers dropped
from 40 per cent before Partition to 7 per cent.

Two serving police officers in U.P. explained: "While it is true that
Muslim educational standard is low, it is not so low that they cannot
be selected even as constables. Nepotism, casteism, and corruption
explain the absence of Muslims from the U.P. police, augmented by
Muslims' loss of faith in the fairness of the state system. Even
meritorious Muslims are hesitant to apply. They have a strong feeling
that even if they apply, they will be discriminated against and not
selected."

However, while exclusion of Muslims from the police force explains its
communal behaviour during the riots, it is not the sole factor. The
Left Front government in West Bengal is a contrast to the B.C. Roy
regime's behaviour during communal riots. Jyoti Basu saw to it that
the vice was eradicated. So did Laloo Prasad Yadav in Bihar. The
author draws interesting lessons from this.

Aftab Ahmad Ali, former Director of the SVPN Police Academy,
explained: "The security of the minorities during communal
disturbances depends largely on the attitude of the political party in
power in the State. The police chief - the Director-General - has to
act according to the dictates of the Chief Minister, being entirely at
the latter's mercy for the position in the force. If the direction to
him, explicitly or implicitly, is not to interfere with rioters, the
DGP cannot but comply because to do so otherwise will entail instant
removal - by transfer - to an equal but inconsequential position. No
protection is provided under the law or procedure to arbitrary removal
by way of transfer. In the IPS, the police have a corps of officers
who are, with very few exceptions, by the very manner of their
selection from the educational elite, liberal in their values and free
of caste or creed biases. If allowed to perform their duties as
enjoined by the law and (there is) the removal of political
interferences as suggested by the National Police Commission, the IPS
have the capability to make the police under their command provide
security to all."

In this there is a lesson for Muslims. Improvement of their lot is
part of a wider secular agenda for reform.

Diversification of the armed forces and the police is imperative. But
it will be of little avail if those in power are hostile to the
minorities. A communal mobilisation will only exacerbate the
situation. Muslims must join hands with secular forces against the
hate groups and Muslim intellectuals must concern themselves with yet
greater efforts to devising solutions to the community's pressing
problems. Muslim leaders who act as "sarkari Musalmans", the Uncle
Toms of India, and beat their breasts pledging loyalty to India, and
fulsome support to India's case on Kashmir as if it is a test of
loyalty and denouncing Pakistan ritually.

The distinguished filmstar Farooq Sheikh rendered high service when at
a meeting of Muslims in Mumbai on August 26 to condemn the blasts, he
angrily questioned the need to convene such meetings as if Muslims
were made accountable for the conduct of any of their co-
religionists.

Neglect of the "Muslim problem" will be a betrayal of the secular
ideal. But exclusive concentration on it will be harmful. It must be
treated urgently and seriously as one of the national problems.
Discrimination against Muslims has been a blot on India's record as a
democracy. That blot must be erased with determination and speed by
all Indians who cherish the Great Indian Ideal.

© Copyright 2000 - 2003 The Hindu

http://www.countercurrents.org/comm-noorani131003.htm

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For Plurality's Sake
Reviewed by Maqbool Ahmed Siraj

Khaki and the Ethnic Violence in India

BY Omar Khalidi
Three Essays Collective
57 C LIG, Motia Khan,
New Delhi - 110055.
Pages 126, Price Rs. 150

Years ago, during an informal chat, former union minister Rasheed
Masood (who was not a minister then, but just the Member of Lok Sabha
representing Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh) told me that he was
instrumental in getting 50 Muslim youth from his constituency
recruited into the Central Reserve Police Force. It was the outcome of
fortuitous circumstances as his childhood buddy was a commandant
general of the Force. But it did not even take six months for 35
Muslim youth to flee back to their villages. Reason: Rigmarole of
training in a desert in Rajasthan. So disgusted was the commandant,
that he blacklisted those villages for future recruitment.

Asim Raza from some village near Varanasi met me around 1991 in Delhi.
He was with Assam Rifles, a paramilitary force guarding India’s
borders with Bangladesh. Asim belonged to an Ahle Hadees family and
was up against ‘insurmountable difficulties’ given the punishing
schedules of training what with skipping namaz at least three times a
day, having to forgo Friday prayers, running six kms with a loaded
rifle on the back and choosing to be vegetarian due to uncertainty of
the mode of slaughter. My counselling with him to stay with the force
met with no success. Asim dropped out.

Juxtaposing these instances with oft-repeated Muslim grievance of
being discriminated against in matters of recruitment, I find the
Muslims short on action and loud on rhetoric of bias. Omar Khalidi
delves deep into the issue and has generated a rich fund of
information on the subject, enough to substantiate under-
representation of ethnic minorities in India’s security forces and
police forces that fall under the jurisdiction of states. Official
denials and secular and non-partisan character of the Indian forces
notwithstanding, Khalidi finds enough evidence to suggest a deliberate
policy of keeping the Muslims away from armed forces. Muslims
constituted as much as 38 per cent of armed personnel before
independence. But that was mostly because the military in those days
drew its personnel mainly from martial races, i.e., Sikhs, Pathans,
Jats, Rajput and Dogras. Following independence, this policy underwent
some alteration. A good number of Muslim personnel opted for Pakistan.
The founders of India took upon themselves to impart wider
representation of social demography. Though Sikhs still retained a
high representation, Muslim loyalties came to be suspected and hence
unfit for recruitment on previous level. Constant military engagement
with Pakistan too came in the way of ‘Indian Muslims’ patriotism being
taken at the face value’. Yet the instances such as use of armed
forces in storming the Golden Temple and Charar e Shariff dargah in
Jammu and Kashmir and refusal to deploy it during Ayodhya crisis
serves as an index of the State policy on internal deployment of these
forces.

But military’s professionalism and distance from people – life in
cantonments – has ensured that its personnel developed impartiality
and fairness in their approach. Same cannot be said of police who have
to deal with people on a day- to- day basis and who are amenable to
societal influences just as any common individual.

A lot of data from secondary sources talks about the policy of barring
entry of Muslims into the police force, though no concrete evidence
has been marshaled. Accounts of circulation of a secret GO in this
regard have been legion. Khalidi too talks about it and the closest he
gets is a quotation from former Madras Home Minister P. Subbaroyan
which refers to a secret GO asking to restrict recruitment of Muslims.
The statement was made on the floor of the Madras State Assembly.

But wider social represen tational character is no guarantee that
police would operate in a totally non-partisan manner. Andhra Pradesh
has nearly 16 per cent personnel of the police force drawn from the
Muslim community and Delhi had as many as 22 per cent Sikh personnel.
Yet there had been extreme bias in their operation as seen by police
attitude during frequent riots in Hyderabad in the 80s and massacre of
Sikhs in Delhi in 1984. Contrary to this, the police force in Kerala
and West Bengal and even under Mulayam and Laloo Yadav have behaved in
the most secular manner . This speaks of political orientation of the
state government. Ethnic balance is therefore less likely to impart
some modicom of fairness if the powers that be were bent upon using
the police force as a tool of suppression of people.

Flawlessly written and impeccably edited, the book is highly
recommended for researchers on the subject of attitude of India’s
security and law and order forces in maintaining communal harmony and
amity in the society. It is a valuable addition on the subject.

http://www.islamicvoice.com/june.2004/book.htm

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Jan 11, 2010, 3:30:07 PM1/11/10
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Saffronised History under the Scanner
History in the New NCERT Text Books.

A Report and an Index of Errors,
By Irfan Habib, Suvira Jaiswal and Aditya Mukherjee

Indian History Congress,
Netaji Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata - 700020.
Page 130, Price Rs.50

Empires could be defeated, but their legacies linger long after they
have quit the scene. The Sangh Parivar was humiliated at the hustings,
but the venomous history, it’s historiographers have scripted, would
continue to poison the young minds thereby fuelling hatred against
minorities. The six-year reign of Hindutva historians at the academic
bodies such as NCERT is likely to be felt for several years to come. A
generation of youth has been fed upon biased and fictitious history.
The book under review is a compendium of inaccuracies, distortions,
omission of contributions by what they dub alien rulers and
exaggerations of their lapses and lies, falsehoods and half-truths by
a clique of pseudo-historians who were at the helms in the 1998-2004
interregnum. The scrutiny was carried out on four books of history
released by the NCERT viz, Makkhan Lal, India and the World for 6th
standard, Makkhan Lal, Ancient World for 11th standard, Meenakshi
Jain, Medieval India for 11th standard and Hari Om, Contemporary India
for 9th standard. The three historians who took up the assignment,
agree that it is a version of history that could only promote Hindutva
agenda in India. It is sought to be done by downgrading the
contributions of civilizations, notably the Dravidian, which preceded
the Aryans’. Several notable contributions of India are attributed to
Vedic civilisation which has been doled out antiquity by bucketloads.
Abhorrent practices such as sati and jauhar come in for appreciation
and rigidities of casteism (not inequities) draw mild criticism.
Muslim contributed nothing to India and Muslim separatism has been
projected as the bugbear. There is no mention of reformers such as
Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Jyotiba Phule, Keshav Chandra Sen and there is
deliberate effort to present Jawaharlal Nehru in unfavourable light in
order to devalue his personality. Modern values such as secularism,
gender equality, human rights do not get even a passing reference. The
work is marvellous though it just touches upon the inaccuracies and
briefly etches to relief the hedging, fudging of facts and deployment
of subterfuges. It is recommended that the book finds wider
circulation in order to know as to how the Hindutva forces utilised
the six-year opportunity to taint the history with their own biases.
n

http://www.islamicvoice.com/june.2004/book.htm#shs

bademiyansubhanallah

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Ethnic Violence

Conflicts between ethnic, religious and cultural groups claim many
thousands of lives every year and displace and cause suffering to
millions. Using complex systems concepts, NECSI has developed a
mathematical model that can predict where violence is likely to occur
based upon the spatial distribution of populations. According to this
model, when different groups are well mixed, or are well separated
violence is unlikely to occur. Violence is likely when groups are
partially separated and therefore overlap in their domains of desired
authority. This approach has been tested on the former Yugoslavia and
India with the ability to predict the distance to violence with 90% or
better correlation. Social and economic factors are important in
violence, still, our model shows that the distribution of the
population can be the underlying condition that fosters conflict and
violence. Our work can inform policy makers that strive to anticipate
or prevent ethnic violence.

NECSI's ethnic violence research demonstrates an overall approach to
understanding social behaviors based upon the collective patterns of
human interactions. This is a real world version of the Isaac Asimov's
"Psychohistory" --- the science of understanding how groups of
individuals interact. While specific concepts that Asimov developed
are not necessarily valid, the idea that such a science can exist has
now been demonstrated. Many people feel that human freedom requires
unpredictability, however, to understand how group behavior can lead
to violence is an important opportunity to intervene in critical
problems of the human condition.

We are hopeful that our work will help enable relief of the severe
problems of dislocation, suffering and tragic death that accompanies
etnic, cultural and religious conflict.

Please see the links below for more information

http://www.necsi.edu/research/ethnicviolence/

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Science 14 September 2007:
Vol. 317. no. 5844, pp. 1540 - 1544
DOI: 10.1126/science.1142734

Reports

Global Pattern Formation and Ethnic/Cultural Violence
May Lim,1,2 Richard Metzler,1,3 Yaneer Bar-Yam1*

We identify a process of global pattern formation that causes regions
to differentiate by culture. Violence arises at boundaries between
regions that are not sufficiently well defined. We model cultural
differentiation as a separation of groups whose members prefer similar
neighbors, with a characteristic group size at which violence occurs.
Application of this model to the area of the former Yugoslavia and to
India accurately predicts the locations of reported conflict. This
model also points to imposed mixing or boundary clarification as
mechanisms for promoting peace.

1 New England Complex Systems Institute, 24 Mt. Auburn Street,
Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
2 Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454, USA.
3 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
yan...@necsi.edu

Over the past 100 years, more than 100 million people have died in
violent conflicts (1). Of these deaths, a great number are
attributable to ongoing local conflict between culturally or
ethnically distinct groups. A scientific understanding of the
underlying causes of ethnic violence could lead to policy changes that
may help stop or prevent it. The existing literature (2–13) [see also
bibliography of ethnic and cultural conflict in the supporting online
materials (14)] generally considers (i) the process by which ethno-
religious identity is established and if interventions could diminish
its importance relative to more inclusive identities, and (ii) control
mechanisms of the state and of organizations of ethnic groups and if
interventions could strengthen the state while subsuming or
accommodating ethnic groups within state authority. More specific
social and economic factors identified in the literature as
contributing to violence include oppression of minorities, economic
grievances, historical precedents, competition for resources,
favoritism, availability of resources for violence, security fears,
mobilization by elites, weak social ties, national ethnic diversity,
territorial claims, religious or political polarization, incendiary
media, and international influences. Although most of these studies
consider national conditions, a few consider local violence to
identify the role of local socio-economic or geographic factors (7–9).
Here, we focus on an aspect of spatial population structure that has
been neglected so far; we analyze the global pattern of violence and
propose that many instances are consistent with the natural dynamics
of type separation (15–18), a form of pattern formation (19) also seen
in physical or chemical phase separation. Violence arises due to the
structure of boundaries between groups rather than as a result of
inherent conflicts between the groups themselves. In this approach,
diverse social and economic causal factors trigger violence when the
spatial population structure creates a propensity to conflict, so that
spatial heterogeneity itself is predictive of local violence. The
local ethnic patch size serves as an "order parameter," a measure of
the degree of order of collective behavior, to which other aspects of
behavior are coupled. The importance of collective behavior implies
that ethnic violence can be studied in the universal context of
collective dynamics, where models can identify how individual and
collective behavior are related.

A simple model of type separation is shown in Fig. 1, A to E. The
dynamics of this model assume that individuals preferentially move to
areas where more individuals of the same type reside (14). The
resulting dynamics lead to progressively larger patches ("islands" or
"peninsulas") of each type. The average size of patches at a
particular time can be obtained by a number of different methods. We
used overlapping spatial waves that represent the spatial variation of
the population density. Each wave makes a contribution proportional to
its correlation with the population density (the structure factor or
Fourier transform). The wavelength of the wave that has the maximum
amplitude gives the average size of the patches. Other methods of
obtaining the size of patches give similar results. The size of the
patches grows as a characteristic power of time (Fig. 1F, inset). This
behavior has been proven (20) to be a "universal behavior" that does
not depend on many of the details of the model and therefore may be
relied on to describe a large variety of systems of interacting
elements; in particular, similar models have been used to describe the
relation of chemical interaction energies and chemical precipitation
or phase separation (21, 22). The universal properties of the patterns
upon rescaling of length and time also imply that a number of
individual agents of the model can be aggregated into a single agent
if time is rescaled correspondingly without changing the behavior at
the larger scales (Fig. 1F). Thus, it is possible to consider a model
agent to represent a local population, and it is not necessary to
model the behavior of each individual—an impractical undertaking.

Fig. 1. Simulation of type separation with two types of agents [(A) to
(E) show the system at 8, 64, 512, 4096, and 32768 attempted moves per
particle, respectively]. The shape of domains (as characterized by the
rescaled structure factor amplitude squared) remains constant after an
initial transient (F), and the average size of clusters grows as a
power law [inset of (F)] (14). Patches of a certain size that are
surrounded by the other type are highlighted by red shading overlay in
(A) to (E). We identify such regions with a high likelihood of
conflict. [View Larger Version of this Image (115K GIF file)]

To model violence, we assume that highly mixed regions do not engage
in violence, and neither do well-segregated groups, an intuitive
hypothesis with empirical support (7). The analysis is applicable to
communal violence and not to criminal activity or interstate warfare.
In highly mixed regions, groups of the same type are not large enough
to develop strong collective identities, or to identify public spaces
as associated with one or another cultural group. They are neither
imposed upon nor impose upon other groups, and are not perceived as a
threat to the cultural values or social/political self-determination
of other groups. Partial separation with poorly defined boundaries
fosters conflict. Violence arises when groups are of a size that they
are able to impose cultural norms on public spaces, but where there
are still intermittent violations of these rules due to the overlap of
cultural domains. When groups are larger than the critical size, they
typically form self-sufficient entities that enjoy local sovereignty.
Hence, we expect violence to arise when groups of a certain
characteristic size are formed, and not when groups are much smaller
or larger than this size. The model of violence depends on the
distribution of the population and not on the specific mechanism by
which the population achieves this structure, which may include
internally or externally directed migrations. By focusing on the
geographic distribution of the population, the model seeks a predictor
of conflict that can be easily determined by census. This may work
well because geography is an important aspect of the dimensions of
social space, the dynamic coarsening process is universal, and other
aspects of social behavior (e.g., isolationism, conformity, as well as
violence) are correlated to it.

The predictor that we identify based on spatial census data need not
describe the immediate social or institutional triggers of violence,
only the conditions under which violence becomes likely. Previous
research aiming to characterize ethnic conflict by census data has
focused on measures of ethnic or religious "fragmentation" (23–27).
Such measures characterize the diversity of a country without
reference to its spatial structure, i.e., the overall proportions of
ethnically distinct groups in a country. They are therefore distinct
from the spatial characterization of our study. The literature is
divided about whether or which correlations exist with measures of
national ethnic composition. We find, however, that the spatial
distribution of ethnic groups is a strong predictor of locations of
violence.

Mathematically, the expected violence was determined by detecting
patches consisting of islands or peninsulas of one type surrounded by
populations of other types. We detected these features by correlation
of the population for each population type with a template that has a
positive center and a negative surround. To illustrate the effect of
this correlation, for a particular template size, the maximum
correlation over population types is superimposed as a red overlay in
Fig. 1, A to E. Over time in this simulation, the patch size starts
smaller, then passes through and becomes larger than the template size
chosen. The specific template that we used is based on a wavelet
filter (14, 28–30). Wavelets are designed to obtain a local measure of
the degree to which a certain scale of variation (wavelength) is
present. Outcomes are highly robust, and other templates give similar
results. Given the universality of the dynamic behavior, the diameter
of the positive region of the wavelet, i.e., the size of the local
population patches that are likely to experience violence, is the only
essential parameter of the model. The parameter is to be determined by
agreement of the model with reports of violence, though as we will
see, the agreement is robust to variation of the parameter. The
quality of the agreement provides a measure of the validity of the
model.

To test the predictive ability of the model, we performed simulations
based on census data for the former Yugoslavia and India. We assigned
areas of pixelated geographic maps pixel by pixel to ethnic groups at
random, but in proportion to their relative population census in the
region. Although this does not reflect the physical geography or local
mixing of groups in buildings and villages, over an area of multiple
pixels it captures the regional composition of the census. The
pixelated map serves as the beginning state for the agent model. For
Yugoslavia, census data from the early 1990s before the outbreak of
conflict (31, 32), as shown in Fig. 2A, were captured into an agent
simulation (Fig. 2B), which was used to obtain the regions of expected
violence shown in Fig. 2C.

Fig. 2. (A) Census data from 1991 shown here in map form were
converted into a spatial representation and used in an agent-based
simulation shown in (B). Our prediction of populations likely to be in
conflict with neighboring groups [red overlay, (C) and (D)] agrees
well with the location of cities reported as sites of major fights and
massacres [yellow dots, (D)]. [View Larger Version of this Image (81K
GIF file)]

We then obtained from books (2), newspapers, and Internet sources (see
supporting online text) the locations of reported violence for the
area of the former Yugoslavia. Multiple independent sources were used
to provide validation for each location of violence (14). We consider
these reports as indicators of areas of actual violence, keeping in
mind possible bias and incompleteness and that areas of widespread
violence are identified only by local urban centers. In comparing such
reports with model predictions, we note that the model identifies
locations of groups of a particular size, but the location of the
actual violence should occur somewhere in the area between adjacent
groups. Despite these caveats, overlaying the locations of reported
and predicted violence in Fig. 2D demonstrates a significant ability
of our simple model to identify regions of reported violence. We
performed statistical analyses comparing the predicted to the reported
violence, evaluating the ability of the model to determine both where
violence occurs and where violence does not occur. For comparison, we
randomized the locations of reported violence. We defined "conflict
proximity" as the distance between a given position and the nearest
location of violence (predicted, reported, or randomized). We
calculated Pearson's correlation and other statistical measures
between the proximities of predicted and reported violence, and
compared them with the same measures in relation to randomized
reports. We found that the model has a correlation of 0.9 with reports
(0.89 to two significant digits), a level of agreement not reached in
any of 100,000 randomized trials. Moreover, the predicted results are
highly robust to parameter variation, with essentially equivalent
agreement obtained for filter diameters ranging from 18 to 60 km, a
range that is in agreement with intuition about the size of conflict
areas. Below or above this range, poorer agreement occurs. Details are
provided in the supporting online text.

We studied conflict in India as a second case study of the ethnic
violence model. We constructed a spatial representation of India on a
district level from maps at www.censusindia.net and obtained the
distribution of ethno-cultural groups from the 2001 Census data at
www.indiastat.com. The result can be seen in the form of three-color
maps in Fig. 3, A and B, representing the relative densities of
Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Others (primarily
Jains). The agent model is shown in Fig. 3C and the prediction of
ethnic violence is indicated in Fig. 3D. Predictions correspond very
well to the primary locations of "extremist" violence of government
reports as given by indiastat.com (Fig. 3E) and confirmed by
independent sources (14), particularly in Kashmir, Punjab, and the
states of Northeast India. Some additional areas of lesser violence
were also predicted by the model, particularly Jharkhand—an eastern
state created in 2000 that has recently experienced some violence (14,
33). Consistent with predicted results, the violence in this region is
not as prevalent as in other violence-prone areas of India.
Statistical correlation measures of conflict proximity yield a
correlation of 0.998 when the threshold is set above the value of
predicted violence in Jharkhand. If the threshold is set lower, so
that violence in Jharkhand is included in predicted but not in
reported cases, the correlation falls to 0.92. Including reported
violence in Jharkhand when comparing at the lower threshold increases
the correlation to 0.98. Additional details are provided in the
supporting online text. The range of filter diameter values for which
good agreement was obtained overlaps that of the former Yugoslavia.
However, it is shifted to larger values, up to 100 km. This may
reflect not only the larger granularity of data, but perhaps also the
effect of violence itself on separation. Unlike Yugoslavia, in India
the census was performed during ongoing violence. Because violence
accelerates the process of separation, groups in conflict are likely
to have separated substantially and reflect the high end of group
sizes susceptible to violence.

Fig. 3. (A and B) Spatial representation of Indian census data from
2001 of six indicated groups was converted into an agent-based
simulation shown in (C). Our prediction of conflict-prone areas [red
areas in (D)] agrees with states where major ethnic violence has been
reported [red areas in (E)] between 1999 and 2002, with the red
shading intensity corresponding to the rank order of states by number
of incidents. [View Larger Version of this Image (35K GIF file)]

Governmental and nongovernmental organizations are devoting increasing
attention to the prevention of major conflict (34). Under some
circumstances, social and institutional factors that affect violence
might serve to suppress the triggering of violence without changing
the spatial structure of the population. However, influencing the
spatial structure might address the conditions that promote violence
described here. Such approaches have been and are being considered.
For example, in Singapore, where 84% of the population lives in public
housing (35), regulations that explicitly recognize the role of
spatial segregation in sectarianism specify the percentage of ethnic
groups to occupy housing blocks (36). This legally compels ethnic
mixing at a scale finer than that which our study finds likely to lead
to violence. Given the natural tendency toward social separation,
maintaining such mixing requires a level of authoritarianism that
might not be entertained in other locations. Still, despite social
tensions (37), the current absence of violence provides some support
to our analysis. The alternative approach—aiding in the separation
process by establishing clear boundaries between cultural groups to
prevent violence—has also gained recent attention (38, 39). Although
further studies are needed, there exist assessments (39) of the impact
of historical partitions in Ireland, Cyprus, the Indian subcontinent,
and the Middle East that may be consistent with the understanding of
type separation and a critical scale of mixing or separation presented
here.

The insight provided by this study may help inform policy debates by
guiding our understanding of the consequences of policy alternatives.
The purpose of this paper does not include promoting specific policy
options. Although our work reinforces suggestions to consider
separation, we are not diminishing the relevance of concerns about the
desirability of separation or its process. Even where separation may
be indicated as a way of preventing violence, caution is warranted to
ensure that the goal of preventing violence does not become a
justification for violence. Moreover, even a peaceful process of
separation is likely to be objectionable. There may be ways to
positively motivate separation using incentives, as well as to
mitigate negative aspects of separation that often include
displacement of populations and mobility barriers.

Our results for the range of filter diameters that provide good
statistical agreement between reported and predicted violence in the
former Yugoslavia and India suggest that regions of width less than 10
km or greater than 100 km may provide sufficient mixing or isolation
to reduce the chance of violence. These bounds may be affected by a
variety of secondary factors including social and economic conditions;
the simulation resolution may limit the accuracy of the lower limit;
and boundaries such as rivers, other physical barriers, or political
divisions will surely play a role. Still, this may provide initial
guidance for strategic planning. Identifying the nature of boundaries
to be established and the means for ensuring their stability, however,
must reflect local issues.

Our approach does not consider the relative merits of cultures,
individual acts, or immediate causes of violence, but rather the
conditions that may promote violence. It is worth considering whether,
in places where cultural differentiation is taking place, conflict
might be prevented or minimized by political acts that create
appropriate boundaries suited to the current geocultural regions
rather than the existing historically based state boundaries. Such
boundaries need not inhibit trade and commerce and need not mark the
boundaries of states, but should allow each cultural group to adopt
independent behaviors in separate domains. Peaceful coexistence need
not require complete integration.

References and Notes

1. M. White, Deaths by Mass Unpleasantness: Estimated Total for the
Entire 20th Century, http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat8.htm
(September 2005).
2. D. L. Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict (Univ. of California
Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, ed. 2, 2000).
3. B. Harff, T. R. Gurr, Ethnic Conflict in World Politics (Westview,
Boulder, ed. 2, 2004).
4. S. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World
Order (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1996).
5. D. Chirot, M. E. P. Seligman, Eds., Ethnopolitical Warfare: Causes,
Consequences, and Possible Solutions (American Psychological
Association, Washington, DC, 2001).
6. M. Reynal-Querol, J. Conflict Resolut. 46, 29 (2002). [CrossRef]
7. T. R. Gulden, Politics Life Sciences 21, 26 (2002). [Medline]
8. H. Buhaug, S. Gates, J. Peace Res. 39, 417 (2002).[Abstract/Free
Full Text]
9. A. Varshney, Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in
India (Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, CT, 2003).
10. M. D. Toft, The Geography of Ethnic Violence: Identity, Interests,
and the Indivisibility of Territory (Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton,
NJ, 2003).
11. J. Fox, Religion, Civilization, and Civil War: 1945 through the
New Millennium (Lexington Books, Lanham, MD, 2004).
12. M. Mann, The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing
(Cambridge Univ. Press, New York, 2004).
13. I. Lustick, Am. Polit. Sci. Rev. 98, 209 (2004). [CrossRef] [Web
of Science]
14. Materials and methods are available as supporting material on
Science Online.
15. T. C. Schelling, J. Math. Sociol. 1, 143 (1971). [Web of Science]
16. J. Mimkes, J. Therm. Anal. 43, 521 (1995). [CrossRef]
17. H. P. Young, Individual Strategy and Social Structure (Princeton
Univ. Press, Princeton, NJ, 1998).
18. R. Van Kempen, A. S. Ozuekren, Urban Stud. 35, 1631 (1998).
[Abstract/Free Full Text]
19. Y. Bar-Yam, in Dynamics of Complex Systems (Perseus Press,
Cambridge, MA, 1997), chap. 7.
20. A. J. Bray, Adv. Phys. 43, 357 (1994). [CrossRef]
21. I. M. Lifshitz, V. V. Slyozov, J. Phys. Chem. Solids 19, 35
(1961). [CrossRef]
22. D. A. Huse, Phys. Rev. B 34, 7845 (1986). [CrossRef]
23. W. Easterly, R. Levine, Q. J. Econ. 112, 1203 (1997). [CrossRef]
[Web of Science]
24. P. Collier, A. Hoeffler, Oxf. Econ. Pap. 50, 563 (1998).[Abstract/
Free Full Text]
25. R. H. Bates, Am. Econ. Rev. 90, 131 (2000). [Web of Science]
26. J. D. Fearon, D. D. Laitin, Am. Pol. Sci. Rev. 97, 75(2003).
27. D. N. Posner, Am. J. Pol. Sci. 48, 849 (2004). [CrossRef] [Web of
Science]
28. I. Daubechies, Ten Lectures on Wavelets, (SIAM, Philadelphia,
1992).
29. A. Arneodo, E. Bacry, P. V. Graves, J. F. Muzy, Phys. Rev. Lett.
74, 3293 (1995). [CrossRef] [Web of Science] [Medline]
30. P. Ch. Ivanov et al., Nature 383, 323 (1996). [CrossRef] [Medline]
31. Map of Yugoslavia, Courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries.,
www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/europe/yugoslav.jpg.
32. R. Petrovic, Yugosl. Surv. 33, 3 (1992). [Medline]
33. K. Chaudhuri, Frontline 18 (no. 2), www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1802/18020330.htm.
34. Final Report, Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict,
www.wilsoncenter.org/subsites/ccpdc/pubs/rept97/finfr.htm.
35. A. Brief Background, Housing and Development Board, Singapore
Government, www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10296p.nsf/WPDis/About%20UsA%20Brief%20Background%20-%20HDB's%20Beginnings.
36. Ethnic Integration Policy, Housing and Development Board,
Singapore Government, www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10201p.nsf/WPDis/Buying%20A%20Resale%20FlatEthnic%20Group%20Eligibility.
37. D. Murphy, Christian Science Monitor, 5 February 2002,
www.csmonitor.com/2002/0205/p07s01-woap.html.
38. J. Tullberg, B. S. Tullberg, Politics Life Sciences 16, 237
(1997). [Web of Science]
39. C. Kaufmann, Int. Secur. 23, 120 (1998). [CrossRef] [Web of
Science]
40. We thank G. Wolfe, M. Woolsey, and L. Burlingame for editing the
manuscript; B. Wang for assistance with figures; M. Nguyen and Z. Bar-
Yam for assistance with identifying data; and I. Epstein, S. Pimm, F.
Schwartz, E. Downs, and S. Frey for helpful comments. We acknowledge
internal support by the New England Complex Systems Institute and the
U.S. government for support of preliminary results.

Supporting Online Material
www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/317/5844/1540/DC1

Methods

Figs. S1.1 to S4.3

SOM Text

Table S1

References

Bibliography

Received for publication 30 November 2006. Accepted for publication 13
August 2007.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/317/5844/1540?ijkey=S.Kb5wAK45Q5.&keytype=ref&siteid=sci

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Ethnic Polarization, Ethnic Salience, and Civil War.
R. Bhavnani and D. Miodownik (2009)
Journal of Conflict Resolution 53, 30-49

Ethnic Polarization, Ethnic Salience, and Civil War
Ravi Bhavnani
Department of Political Science, Michigan State University, East
Lansing

Dan Miodownik

Departments of Political Science and International Relations, Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus

This article examines how the relationship between ethnic polarization
and civil war could be moderated by different degrees of ethnic
salience. Using an agent-based computational model, we analyze the
polarization—conflict relationship when ethnic salience is ``fixed''—
high for every member of two nominally rival ethnic groups— and
``variable''—permitted to vary across individuals as a function of
relative income. We find that (1) when salience is fixed, conflict
onset is twice as high at low levels of polarization compared to when
salience is permitted to vary, with the difference decreasing at high
levels of polarization; (2) the relationship between conflict onset
and the range over which we calculate variable salience is positive
and robust for low and moderate levels of polarization; (3) the
relationship between polarization and conflict onset is robust even
under minority domination, if one holds salience fixed; and (4)
holding ethnic salience fixed effectively amplifies the negative
effect of polarization on economic performance.

This version was published on February 1, 2009

Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 53, No. 1, 30-49 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0022002708325945

E-Letter responses to:
reports:

May Lim, Richard Metzler, and Yaneer Bar-Yam


Global Pattern Formation and Ethnic/Cultural Violence

Science 2007; 317: 1540-1544

Published E-Letter responses:

Response to S. T. Hussain and W. Shearer's E-Letters
Yaneer Bar-Yam (12 March 2008)
Determine Indicators for Conflict Avoidance

Walter Shearer (12 March 2008)
Solutions for Ethnic/Cultural Violence

Syed Taffazull Hussain (12 March 2008)

Response to S. T. Hussain and W. Shearer's E-Letters 12 March 2008

Yaneer Bar-Yam
New England Complex Systems Institute, 24 Mount Auburn Street,
Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Respond to this E-Letter:
Re: Response to S. T. Hussain and W. Shearer's E-Letters

Hussain suggests that the effects of separating ethnic groups might
be worse than the violence that results from existing conditions of
partial mixing. Conflict, mass refugees and social disruption around
the world demonstrate the risks inherent in current conditions, and
the de facto partitioning in the wake of violence. Consistent with our
study, policy-imposed alternatives include either more complete mixing
or separation. Singapore (1) restricts personal choice by compelling
mixed ethnicities in public housing. Meanwhile, historical partitions
and population displacements have occurred in Cyprus (1974), Indian
Subcontinent (1947), Ireland (1921), Palestine (1947) and the Former
Yugoslavia (1991). Consistent with our study indicating that
partitions can decrease violence, analyses suggest that violence
following partitions occurred primarily in those areas that were not
well partitioned, rather than the ones that were (2). Acknowledging
that the use of partitions can lead to other problems, we suggested
ways to mitigate impacts on the population, such as incentives and
subnational autonomy that would make a process of partition less
problematic. Based on our research, we believe that increasing contact
between groups to promote homogeneity, as Hussein suggests, would be
difficult to achieve in areas where populations are already separated
at the level we find characteristic of violence. If, however, contact
were promoted when populations are mixed in smaller groups, we agree
that the potential homogenizing influence of enhanced social
interactions (3) could conceivably prevent the separation and
violence.

Shearer makes two interesting suggestions for additional case studies.
Switzerland is known as a country of great stability, without major
internal conflict despite multiple languages and religions. The
stability that Switzerland enjoys may be due to economic and social
factors that distinguish it from conflict-prone countries. However,
the causal role of geographical boundaries such as the Alps (which
separate the Italian speaking areas from the other language areas) as
well as political boundaries may indeed be worthy of investigation. An
investigation of Spain, which lacks such boundaries and has a history
of internal conflicts, could serve as a useful contrast.

Yaneer Bar-Yam

New England Complex Systems Institute, 24 Mount Auburn Street,
Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.

References

1. Ethnic Integration Policy, Housing and Development Board, Singapore
Government, www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10201p.nsf/WPDis/Buying%20A%20Resale%20FlatEthnic%20Group%20Eligibility.

2. C. Kaufmann, Int. Secur. 23, 120 (1998).

3. D. Chinellato, M. de Aguiar, I. Epstein, D. Braha, Y. Bar Yam,
arXiv:0705.4607v2.

Determine Indicators for Conflict Avoidance 12 March 2008

Walter Shearer
Hartsdale, NY, USA
Respond to this E-Letter:
Re: Determine Indicators for Conflict Avoidance

The article "Global pattern formation and ethnic/cultural
violence" (Reports, M. Lim et al., 14 September 2007, p. 1540) is
striking in its reported ability to identify areas of potential
conflict on the basis of the spatial patterns of distribution of
members of ethnic/cultural groups. In the fields of conflict
prevention and sustainable peace-building, the need for a universal
"quick-and-dirty" indicator of potential conflict areas is great.
Whether or not the authors have found it, their work should surely
stimulate rethinking this issue and the development of such an
indicator. Their conclusions contribute to validating ideas—considered
controversial—for which I sought support in the United Nations
Secretariat before my recent mandatory retirement from its Department
of Economic and Social Affairs.

However, I would like to see the approach be tested more widely to
identify limits to its applicability. The analysis in the authors'
example of India is limited to religion, which is only one of several
ethnic/cultural dimensions that distinguish inhabitants who speak
between 300 and 400 different languages. Would the picture be
different if the other factors were used in the analysis? Thus, it
would be instructive to see the results for Switzerland and Spain.
Moreover, the authors might want to test the approach's predictive
power using the immigration situation currently unfolding in the
United States.

Walter Shearer

Hartsdale, NY, USA.

Solutions for Ethnic/Cultural Violence 12 March 2008

Syed Taffazull Hussain
Department of Biochemistry, Government Medical College Srinagar,
Srinagar, Kashmir 190010, India
Respond to this E-Letter:
Re: Solutions for Ethnic/Cultural Violence

I read with great interest the article "Global pattern formation and
ethnic/cultural violence" (Reports, M. Lim et al., 14 September 2007,
p. 1540), which as a resident of Srinagar Kashmir was of greater than
usual interest for me.

Superficially, the results presented in the paper support the argument
for segregations of different ethnic groups into homelands as demanded
by some ethnic organizations (like "Panun Kashmir" in Kashmir) as well
as ghettoizing, but solutions for complex societies can never be
simplistic.

Clustered diverse cultural groups may be the tinder for conflict but
cutting off the head to cure the headache can not be the accepted
treatment for headaches. Perhaps the same purpose can be achieved by
increasing interactions and by so doing decrease ethnic/cultural
differences between groups so that a more homogeneous society is
produced.

After all, cultural differences, unlike thermodynamic properties, are
not rigidly fixed but can be smoothed out—provided the controlling
powers do not find their ends better served by fishing in troubled
waters.

Syed Taffazull Hussain

Department of Biochemistry, Government Medical College Srinagar,
Srinagar Kashmir, Kashmir 190010, India.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/eletters/317/5844/1540#10633

bademiyansubhanallah

unread,
Jan 11, 2010, 4:03:45 PM1/11/10
to
Muslims in the Army: A dangerous census
Last updated on: February 20, 2006 20:18 IST

After its projects to change Indian history to 'secular' history, the
United Progressive Alliance [ Images ] govt seems to have launched a
project to make the army 'secular'.

The Indian Army [ Images ] is an apolitical, professional body that is
extremely proud of its dharma of loyalty to the nation and its
Constitution. It does not believe in practising discrimination on the
basis of religion, caste or colour.

I felt a tremendous sense of pride when at an Independence Day
function in Pune in 2002 (in the aftermath of the horrible Gujarat
riots) Qutubuddin Ansari, the tailor from Ahmedabad [ Images ] who
became famous as the face of that tragedy, told me it was the Indian
Army's timely arrival that had saved him and his family.

In an emotion choked voice, he said throughout his life he would pray
for the success of the Indian Army. Many officers and men have told me
how Muslims greeted the army's arrival by showering them with flowers.
The army's impartial conduct in quelling riots is a matter of great
pride to all soldiers.

'We are an apolitical and secular force'

The Indian Army is a traditional force and many battalions are
organised on the basis of regions and caste. Thus we have the Sikh
regiment, the Marathas, the Gorkhas etc. But this does not apply at
the officer level. So it is no surprise to see a Mohammed Zaki
commanding Garhwali troops or a Y N Sharma as commanding officer of
the Grenadiers(which incidentally has Muslim soldiers).

As head of the family, which is what a commanding officer is, it is
common for Zaki to conduct the puja on Janmashtami, celebrating the
birth of Lord Krishna, or for Sharma to lead the namaz on Id Ul Fitr
after Ramzan.

Faced with an insurgency in Kashmir [ Images ] that freely uses
religion as a motivating factor, the army has has constructed combined
prayer halls, called Sarva Dharma Sthal ( All Religion Place of
Worship) where you have all the gods and symbols of all religions
under one roof. These can be found at in Anantnag in Kashmir and even
in Pune.

It is undoubtedly true that the number of Muslims in the Army is less
than their proportion in the population. This is a historical legacy
as the recruitment of Muslims in the armed forces in pre-Independence
India was concentrated in Punjab [ Images ], North West Frontier and
Balochistan, all part of Pakistan today.

A similar argument can be also made on the basis of region. The states
of Orissa or Gujarat or even Andhra Pradesh are not represented in
proportion to their population. To assume any bias on this basis is to
see evil where none exists.

The all-wise Sachar Committee has initiated an exercise that is
fraught with great danger as it hits at the very notion of fair play.
The basis on which this exercise is being carried out is a book by an
American citizen, Omar Khalidi, (Khaki and Ethnic Violence in India).
Khalidi works at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the
United States. As a matter of record, he had got in touch with me
about two years ago seeking data on the Indian Army. It is another
matter that seeing his intention, I and my colleagues refused any
cooperation. But he obviously has won over Sachar and party.

We ought to smell a rat when the Sachar Committee approvingly quotes
from Khalidi's book and makes it as the basis for its 'work.'

What every soldier finds most objectionable in the exercise is
Sachar's notion of equating the armed forces with any other department
of the central government. Could Mr Sachar please tell us in which
other organisation is dying for the country part of the 'job'?

The committee also had the gall to say that the army made 'unnecessary
fuss about this on grounds of regimental spirit and cohesion.' Do the
Sachar committee members realise that the two factors -- regimental
spirit and cohesion -- are the very soul of any army?

These are the factors that bind soldiers and officers to each other.
People sacrifice their lives on the battlefield for the izzat
(respect) of the regiment and save their comrades at the risk of their
own lives.

Without these an army is merely a mob of armed violent men which would
melt at the first sign of danger. When someone terms this as
'frivolous', it betrays a mindset that is not merely stupid, but
dangerous.

Diary: Soldiers' God

Finally, a word about desertion during Hyderabad action (in 1948-1949)
and Turtuk problem during the Kargil operations in 1999.

During the Hyderabad action, the Indian Army was in process of
division between India and Pakistan on grounds of religion. To call
these acts as desertion would label the entire Pakistani army as
'deserters.'

During the Kargil [ Images ] operations, the small population of
Turtuk area was a complex issue. This area, right till 1971, was part
of Pakistan and was captured during that war. The area had many ex-
soldiers of the Pakistani army, still receiving pension. To expect
them to become pro-India was not fair. So what was proposed (possibly)
during the Kargil war, was not evacuation of Muslims, but evacuation
of ex-Pakistanis from a sensitive battle zone. Are there any such
reports regarding the Muslim population of Kargil, Dras etc?

Many former and serving soldiers believe that this data collection is
the thin end of the wedge of introducing religion or caste-based
reservations in the armed forces.

The Sachar Committee's bias has been clearly shown by their reliance
on foreign research. It is time the government prohibits the Sachar
Committee from dealing with the armed forces.

This does not mean that the government should not ask the army to
conduct an exercise as to why the proportion of Muslims or Christians
or Gujaratis is less in the armed forces.

Finally a counter question to the Sachar Committee: What is the
proportion of Muslim employees in Muslim-owned companies like Wipro
[ Get Quote ] and Cipla? If it is less than their proportion in
population, do we take it that the Muslim owners of these companies
are also against the minorities?

Is there no limit to 'vote bank' politics, for the sake of which a
government is prepared to destroy the efficiency and cohesion of its
armed forces and jeopardise the nation's security?

Colonel (Dr) Anil Athale (retd)

Discussion Board

Anybody can join the army
by pavan surana on Jan 20, 2009 04:43 PM

This article tells that anybody from any religion can join Army.This
should hold true for all other things also. Then only our country can
be called TRULY SECULAR. But our politicians should understand this
some day.Politicians have so many other important issues to look after
but these old people are so narrow-minded that they only think about
appeasing a few people and forget the larger picture.

VIRUS ATTACK....TIME FOR ANTI VIRUS TREATMENT IN ALL FIELDS.OTHERWISE
INDI
by GRJ on Oct 12, 2008 01:12 PM

KEEP WATCHING...THE VIRUS IS SPREADING !!!

WAKE UP INDIA.....!!!

IF DELAYED, INDIA WILL NEVER LIVE TO WAKE UP AGAIN !!!

Col.Dr. Athale's article
by harishanker on Sep 28, 2008 08:25 PM

The Col. has said it all. There were surreptious attempts to monitor
the head count of Muslims in the Indian Army which the Govt. had to
deny in the face of stiff resistance from the Army Top Brass. By
bringing reservations for Muslims and others in the Army the whole
unity of the force will be destroyed.

Indian Army is the most secular of all !!!!!
by Abhay on Sep 06, 2008 11:19 AM

Of all the organizations in India, Indian Army is perhaps the most
secular and most disciplined.... India exists as a single political
entity just because of this million strong organization....This is
perhaps one organization which trancends all regional and religious
diffrences, and is a very professional force .....
The politicians must understand that tampering with the army in such a
blatant way would kill the professional spirit and would force it
dabble in politics just like in Pakistan.... Indian army proudly
stands aloof from politics and politicians. If there is no strong
dicipliced army to defend India's secular polity then there would be
no united India and of cource no politicians.....

Sachar Committee Report
by Govind Srivastava on May 11, 2008 10:46 AM

Senile people like Sachar should have been long back sent to Sanyas
Ashram.Their decayed grey cells refuses to regiter that they are no
longer of any relevence to society. He was mandated by UPA Govt. to
prepare a report favouring muslims so that UPA could pursue it's
muslim appeasmant policy.
-Govind Swaroop Srivastava

Let us have a Muslim regiment!
by nandu rajurikar on Sep 08, 2007 01:02 PM

Justice Sachar committee report has clearly shown the pathetic
condition of Muslims in education, govt jobs, private jobs and in
judiciary. Sachar was not allowed to collect statistics in army
because of big shouts by BJP. They consider army as holy cow.

For action, we can start from army itself!

India has a Sikh regiment (religion based) & it has done fine. India
has a Maratha regiment (caste based)& it too has done fine.

India has a Jat regiment, Ahir regiment, Mahar regiment, Rajput
regiment and all of them have done proud to this country.

India has a Gorkha regiment, consisting of people who are not Indian
nationals. It too has done well for the country.

Then what is the harm in having a Muslim regiment? Afterall, Muslims
is a warrior race! They must get a chance to do good for their
country. We have to bring the Muslims in mainstream as equal
partners.

All the regiments (Sikh, Maratha, Mahar, Jat etc) were initially
purely based on religion & catse. Slowly they changed their nature &
became composite culture. The same philosophy can be followed for a
Muslim regiment.

Some of our retired Generals are crying out & objecting. These
Generals have never objected to the religion & caste based regiments,
why should they object now? What is their defense?

Re: Let us have a Muslim regiment!
by piyush tiwari on Dec 18, 2009 09:52 AM
Mr Nandu = half baked cake
get urself updated , though the regiments name are on caste /region
wise but in army no castiesm is practiced, and the recruitments are
only done on basis of merits.
Study more abt Indian Army strucutre

RE:Let us have a Muslim regiment!
by desh on Sep 10, 2007 07:02 PM
Why you afraid of giving your real name...some x mohmmed
khan.....thats why we cant have the muslim regiment in india.

RE:Let us have a Muslim regiment!
by Saugata Banerjee on Apr 28, 2008 03:01 PM
THIS IS A GOOD IDEA. THEN WE CAN PUT ALL CAPTIVE TERRORISTS IN MUSLIM
REGIMENT TO FACE COURT MARSHAL IN FUTURE!

Re: Let us have a Muslim regiment!
by Pradeesh Kumar on Jun 23, 2009 01:22 PM
Indian Army have muslim majority Regiments ..

Grenadiers is an example

Forward | 'Report abuse' disabled by moderator

Scrap it all!
by Shamla Kanta on Sep 06, 2007 07:47 PM

Scrap the Sachar committee!
Scrap the anti-Indian Congress Party!
Scrap the unseen hand of the Italian Mafia!

On the first day Dr. Manmohan Singh started to work against Indian
people. How?
by Sahadevan KK on Aug 31, 2007 01:46 PM

On the first day Dr. Manmohan Singh started to work against Indian
people. How?

On Sept. 30, 2004, The Planning Commission included foreign experts
from World Bank and Mc Cancy as business consultants.

Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister signed a defense agreement with the
US on July 2005.

July 18 2005 Held India-US Joint Press Conference.

U.S.-India Agricultural Knowledge Initiative Board included Wal-Mart
and Monsanto members India-US agreed on agricultural collaborative
research projects.

Signed in crores of arms deals.

UPA government left their independent foreign policy and voted two
times in IAEA against Iran, even they have mentioned a free foreign
policy in CMP.

Four Left parties suspended the UPA-Left coordination committee on
share selling of Navratna PSUs. Then Sonia Gandhi made it cleared that
it is halted.

Even then they have started to sell the shares of Nalco, Orissa and
Lignite Corporation, Tamilnadu. Left and DMK's massive strikes were
fruitful. DMK was ready to recall their ministers from Union Cabinet.

After Left's opposition in Pension Fund privatisation and 49% FDI in
insurance sector could not implement till today.

He told a newspaper that He is going to resign. He told another
newspaper that Left can withdraw support.

Left's outside support is crucial, even then Manmohan Singh try to
avoid them. He thinks it is a child's play to lead coalition
government.

Message deleted by moderator. | Hide replies

RE:Wake up Indians
by PREM KUMAR on Sep 06, 2007 06:26 PM
NO BODY EVER READ YOUR ARTICLE. you guys are paid employees of sangh
parivar to write against minorities. you are real threat to indian
society. you 2% should be deported to nepal. then all our problems
will be solved. the hindus, muslims, christians, sikhs etc will live
peacefully. long live india, long live secularism.

RE:RE:Wake up Indians
by desh on Sep 10, 2007 07:10 PM
@prem kumar
And what you are...A paid indian muslim from pakistan....

Message deleted by moderator. | Hide replies

RE:Sacchar Comission Report
by PREM KUMAR on Sep 06, 2007 06:31 PM
YOU KILLED OUR FATHER OF NATION MAHATMA GANDHI. you guys on discussion
board are paid employees of sangh parivar to write against minorities.
you are real threat to indian society. you 2% should be deported to
nepal. then all our problems will be solved. the hindus, muslims,
christians, sikhs etc will live peacefully. long live india, long live
secularism.

Message deleted by moderator. | Hide replies

RE:Wake Up Nationalists-Retailiate and strive to fight
by PREM KUMAR on Sep 06, 2007 06:20 PM
Dr. Praveen Bhai Togadia is a terrorist and a threat to indian
society. his hands choacked with blood. he always incite voilent
against minorities and he is responsible for the death of thousands of
innocent people. he deserve more punishment than a simple arrest.

Message deleted by moderator. | Hide replies

RE:India soon to become an Islamic Republic, if no one acts
by PREM KUMAR on Sep 06, 2007 06:16 PM
all you guys are paid employees of sangh parivar to write against
minorities. you are real threat to indian society. you 2% should be
deported to nepal. long live india, long live secularism.

RE:RE:India soon to become an Islamic Republic, if no one acts
by eshank bahuguna on Sep 06, 2007 08:14 PM
what nonsense , try to think logically and they are quite logical.

RE:India soon to become an Islamic Republic, if no one acts
by Shamla Kanta on Sep 06, 2007 07:49 PM
What a prem you have for the Muslims!

RE:RE:India soon to become an Islamic Republic, if no one acts
by desh on Sep 10, 2007 07:06 PM
No prem for Muslims!
He is a muslims who afraid of writing his name...using a hindu name.

RE:RE:India soon to become an Islamic Republic, if no one acts
by on Sep 25, 2007 12:53 PM
u r the great terrrorist from sanghparivar,thatswhat u r speaking like
this

. . . . . Dangerous sensus . . . . .
by on Mar 02, 2007 12:11 PM

While the army is doing a great job as a National Force with its own
principles, code of ethics and belief system necessary for its
functions, it must be left alone with its style of business. The
backwardness of Indian muslims is mostly our own doing. It is time,
that we, the muslim leaders open our eyes and start performing in the
generally free and open environment available in our nation, where
logic and rational approach prevail. It is high time the muslim
communities needs of leadership be fulfilled by the good educated
muslims. The muslims just need focus on practising the principles of
guiding our less educated brothers to educate and support them as
directed by God in the Qur'an and demonstrated by example of the
Prophet [peace be upon him and his followers].
The rest will fall in place automatically much to the satisfaction of
all Indians, the most peace loving citizens in the world. No other
country in the world has set examples of harmony between communities
as we do. Extremes like Gujarat are eye openers. As muslims, we need
to accept the will of Allah and heed His instructions.

A secular army ???
by Abhinav on Jan 26, 2007 05:43 PM

I totally agree with this article and the spirit that it is written
with ! I would go a step futher to tell the people concerned that
"maybe" reservations have some benevolent role to play in the
industrial scenario or the educational field and maybe justifiable
there to a "Certain" extent . But the motive for the formation of the
Indian Army is totally different from that of the establishment of
commercial or educational units . Their main aim is to protect the
country against any kind of threat !! And I dont see any reason as to
why this report had to be bought out in the first place as there are
no economic benifits imparted to the "minorities" nor do they reap any
other benifits other than that of an "ego" satisfaction !!(reason : A
stupid report like this was given so much of a hype) Even the
intelligent people in the minority community may not be able to make
any sense of this report ( other than political motivations of
course ) ....... So please the readers of this article and the
worshippers of secularism ..look at the Army as a viable exception to
your endeavours !!! Thank you !

RE:A secular army ???
by PREM KUMAR on Sep 06, 2007 06:13 PM
all you guys are paid employees of sangh parivar to write against
minorities. you are real threat to indian society. you 2% should be
deported to nepal. long live india, long live secularism.

RE:A secular army ???
by desh on Sep 10, 2007 07:08 PM
And what you are...A paid indian muslim from pakistan....

A genuine report
by Krishna Angeras on Dec 10, 2006 02:06 AM

Indian army is the best army in the world....
no room for reservation here.. Sick congress!!
Im jus waitin for the elections!!

A dangerous census
by Manmadhan Pillai on Nov 30, 2006 03:40 PM

Hypocracy thy name is Indian democracy. Sixty years passed after
independence to our beloved motherland and not a single poitical
leader ceased to poli-tic in their actions. They did not rule the
country for the sake of the country. In every moment of their breath
it is always their Kurucy. It is actually the bane of the nation and I
am sorry to say we dont have a nationalist leader. Either we should
change the politicians or they should change for the best.

reservations for muslims
by Vijay on Nov 30, 2006 02:55 PM

I wish the Sonia Gandhi controlled, manmohan singh led "Secular"
government all the best in the endeveour to appease our highly
patriotic muslim countrymen so that history is repeated....India being
again divided

dangerous census
by amul on Nov 30, 2006 02:37 PM

to manage something there are different dimensions. Iraq is an example
what can happen in crisis, if we counter the fact that the
representation should be a reasonable good number . Then in future we
can be relieved for the possible crisis.

we should not forget even the police swear in the name of god that
they will be truthful even doctors do that. unfortunately it didnt
happen in Gujarath.

Its an eye opener for all of us, our country has recongnised this fact
and we should support it for its grater stability and its pleural
culture.For the people who say only jawans give their life for the
sake of country then I would say its a professional thing , even an
intelectual and many more talented guy loose their battle in their
quest to achieve success and they die both physically and mentally.
Good example is a heart attack which is occuring at so young age, this
doesnt happen to Army Jawans.

There is no politics in this, once again man mohan singh and his
company are showing their far sightedness.
thank you

I totally agree
by Benson Rajan on Apr 06, 2006 05:38 PM

I think its high time we stop all this scrap and nonsense happening in
our country. Do these politicians really understand what they are
doing. Taking a cencus of the number of Muslim soliders in the army is
surely going to cause a great harm to the moral of all the soliders.
Indian Army is a family and in a family there cannot be any
distinctions as to who ate more or who talked more on the phone. These
men leave their houses and family back and are in the front facing all
the challenges that come across the way, so that we can do our daily
routine without any fear or hindrance. Leave these men alone with the
happiness, joy and bond that they share with one another

social justice
by sunny on Feb 26, 2006 03:25 PM

social justice and reservation benefit should be extended to all
fields depite uproar by manuvadis.Social justice should also be
extended to private sector.Similarly social justice and reservation
benefit should be extended to other areas like cricket

Head count in army
by ritesh Kumar on Feb 23, 2006 07:36 AM

Enough of vote bank poitics, the leaders must understand defence is
not any political out fit nor it is a communal force ,it is an entity
which is defending our motherland.this kind of irrseponsible steps
will put our nation into great divide.

This article is no more than bull shit.
by Hemant Sharma on Feb 22, 2006 06:15 AM

This person is trying to avoid a truth not to be uncovered. I won't be
surprised if he has "Khaki Shorts" under his pants. He tried to
touched our patriotic sentiments and used them against a religion. It
is a very cleverly written article and he should be appreciated by Ram
Madhav. It is possible that we will see him on BJP platform soon.
These kind of people works silently and keep trying polarising the
votes of a particular community. They always want Muslim to be treated
the second citizen of the country. He didn't mention what kind of
threat he feels if this report uncover the truth. He didn't mention
how Army's efficiency would be affected if muslims gets the job?
Infact he has some kind of muslimphoebia and I think he should come
over of it with the help of a psychatrist. He mentioned only two
companies owned by muslims but never mentioned companies where there
is no muslim employee. He is really a smart man(?). If he was honest
the he would have made a complete survey of each company. Because I am
a student of Muslim college I have muslim friends. They're cooperative
and has same feeling for the country same as I do. There's nothing in
Country we should be afraid. JaiHind

Let it be a ''INDIAN'' Army!
by Noor AHMED on Feb 22, 2006 02:04 AM

This is a very critical issue and a matter of concern to we all
Indians. I pity on our Govt. for having thought of such a ridiculous
census. I strongly feel that let there be "INDIANS" in our Army and
not Hindus or Muslims or someone else. Its high time now & we should
start thinking above all this dirt and senseless stuff and start
contributing to the strenthening our beloved Nation. This is
applicable for all the fields and Army being the top priorit. I'm very
happy to kno that most of the friends are in favour of this and
condemning the irrational thought of the Govt. Many friends are
talking about the mainstream. But, first of all do we have so called
mainstream?? We should be sincere enough to accept the hard fact that,
we lack sense of belongingness to our motherland. Our patriotism gets
provoked and limited to the times of Indo-Pak cricket seasons.We
all,specially the young generation should work,to build and promote
the mainstream which has a national cause. Most importanlty any
Govt.should promote and emphasise on Nationalisation(Indianisation) of
all the departments and not on communalisation, if we wanna see our
India to emerge as a superpower on the international front.

Do the census
by Rajesh Kumar on Feb 21, 2006 11:24 PM

The best way to do this census is to hand a sheet of paper to every
soilder in the indian army and ask them to select what religion do
they identify themself with. Give five options - a) Indian b) Hindu c)
Muslim c) Sikh d) Christian e) others

Let each soilder respond to this survey and the committee should
compile the result and see for themself. The result should be made
public.

I am very sure, all soilders will identify themselves with a) Indian -
all 100% of them.

Their result should be a big slap on the face of UPA government and
the very next moment army should stage a coup and kill all UPA
politicians, Sonia Gandhi being the first and Manmohan singh the
second person to be shot, for their divisive techniques and causing
public unrest in the nation.

This is the only way to stop UPA givernment from destroying the nation
that we know today as India.

Final thoughts!!
by Vin on Feb 21, 2006 09:38 PM

Now that the defense minister has spared the army from conducting the
census, the crisis has been dealt with. I wish the government carried
out a census based on criminal offences committed by various
communities too. The picture will then become more clear.

census need of the hour
by BARATHI on Feb 21, 2006 01:17 PM

dear colonel it is really surprising to see u blaming sachar commitee
on the hypocritical response of the army establishment.i will fully
agree if the hue and cry had been raised by airforce and navy but not
army where caste and reservations play a very important role.the
indian army has fixed reserved seats of around 30000(more than the no
of muslims)for people of a diferent country(nepal).there are separate
regiments for dalit sikhs and high caste sikhs and the army had never
dared to change it.the presence of sikhli batalion invokes derisive
comments from army personel as they are from dalits.the attempt by
some forward thinking army officers to make the regiments mixed of
people from all castes had been stoped and the atempt has been
aborted.there are certain regiments where muslims and rajputs,gujars
coexist.here the promotion is purely caste based as one muslim will
become subedar major(top post among jawans)after 3 rajputs irespective
of merit and the no of muslim subedars will nevr cross 1/3 of the no
of qualified.i kindly requests the retired army officers who are
crying loudly to explain the merit in this.merit is the last word
which can be associated

Hats of to Colonel
by Srinivas on Feb 21, 2006 03:37 AM

Dear Sir,

I am very much happy to read your article and completely agreed with
your feelings. I doubt as the days go on, these politicians may do few
things as:

1. They will push the reservation for Muslims in Army.
2. They will push the reservation for granting param veer chakras.
3. They will push the reservation for sending the troops for army
operations.
4. At the end, they may even declare that they are going to give
KASHMIR to Pakisthan to attract native Muslims in the country.

God only can save this country.

Srinivas

census
by sgpal on Feb 20, 2006 05:32 PM

Hi
If 80% of the seats are reserved based on caste lines whats wrong in
muslims and christians asking for resrevation? Why only inferior
quality hindus shud fill all the posts in all positions? why not
inferior quality people from other religions as well.Are they not
Indians? Stop this hypocisy.Stop reservations to one and all.Or else
there shuld not be any merit seat any where.Bloody incompetent fools.

muslims
by Mustafa kamal on Feb 20, 2006 02:13 PM

Colonel (Dr) Anil Athale (retd) is nothing but an anti-muslim
who belongs to muslim haters party.
There are people like him who supported the genocide of muslims in
Gujrat in 2002, and other killings of muslims & minorities.

Beat the Heat
by Ahamed on Feb 18, 2006 10:05 PM

Nationality doesn't Speaks on Religion,it only speaks on Vision &
Growth of a country...Vision & Growth should be balanced for a
countries Economy & Development...According to me the govt takes the
right vision to balance the growth of a Democratic country.tHE Census
Count is right

Census in Army???
by hari on Feb 18, 2006 03:10 PM

This idiotic trend will creative divisive politics and will finish the
India. Such politics will only help division of India. If there is no
hindu majority, India will disintegrate into the worlds majority
religions like Christians and Muslims. It can be evident from the
North East experience where the hindu majority has got converted and
has become the hot bed of terrorism. The Indian minorities never
bother for India, but they are bothered for their world majority
religions. So the hindus world minority religion, should protect their
religion and the country from the world majority religions
onslaught.

Non(Census) in Indian Army??
by BG Sundar Dravid on Feb 17, 2006 06:05 PM

Yes; it is clear shame to everyone...the proud to be Indian
Nationals...I don't know where the ruling UPA want to dig their
Nationals...[[ofcourse, the major partner in UPA is calling themselves
as having heritage & culture for centuries.. steered of Mahathma
Gandhiji to Nehruji...& always willing to declare themselves alone
Agmark (ISI..?) secular]]...REALLY ISI TESTS THEY WILL FAIL.Might be I
am a Hindu by birth........ I never feel unhappy when any Armed Forces
Chief originated from different religions other than Hindu...... let
it was One Mr. Vaidya Or One Mr. Singh Or One Mr. Singh from Sikh or
One Mr.Sundarji from South India......... they are / were serving my
proud the Great Indian Army as a Chief...... I am happy about
it...that's all..Our politicans mixed up every where in the post
independance era otherthan Army..but now they wnat to put their devil
hand here too?it is unlucky to see all these bad happenings at
present..let the Armed Forces be Armed Forces alone. Finally, to stop
this (non)census immediately, our Honorable Supreme Court / High
Courts have to take their own PIL to close this matter once for
all.It's for the sake of our Country/Citizens/Army.Sundar Dravid

Quit the idea!!!!
by Rai on Feb 17, 2006 05:58 PM

Dear All,
Does the reservation in the armed forces on the basis of caste or
religion promise that a soldier would remain loyal and faithful to the
nation? I think that\'s the primary requirement of anyone joining the
forces. Selection has to be purely on the merit basis and any such
idea of introducing men from certain minority must be disdained.

pain
by mohannl on Feb 17, 2006 05:16 PM

Congress and left are virtually following what britishers did during
their rule, for more than 200 years. britishers literally sown the
seeds of hatred, and divided on religious lines and finally the
country was partitioned. this fire is still continuing and spreadingon
this soil. indian faght for freedom. now people will be forced to
fight with congree and left for freedom.
congress and left think that the wisdom of writer from MIT, USA, is
far far ... far superior than billion people of this country and
therefore bury our wisdom and borrow others.
the only objective of this congress and left is some how thrive on
vote bank politics, and ruin the society and the country.

muslims in army
by sgpal on Feb 17, 2006 05:15 PM

Hindus are already hopelessly divided in to thousands of sects.The
only way hindus can unite is by removal of this obnoxious caste based
reservation and stopping the second generation from getting the
reservation.Let ther be equality.This can be considered as communal
statement.Look at it objectively.we are all human beings and where
does the question of caste or rekigion fit in? Its a political and
personal gain that matter and so the division goes on and on.
Are muslims patriotic? the book says otherwise, but a coomon muslim is
as patriotic as his Hindu counter part.Nether Mulayam nor Bukhari are
examples to be quoted!one way or the other.

muslims in the army
by sgpal on Feb 17, 2006 05:10 PM

Dear sir
It is perception of the majority Hindus that India is a secular
country.Take look at the MLAs in Karnataka.

45% of them are Gowdas and 40% OF THEM ARE lINGAYATS AND RESERVED
CONSTITUENTENCY candidates are of course SC/STS and afew other
castes.This is nothing but casteist line of voting by the citizen,This
is inspite of the abysmal record of the respective caste people
administration.The so called educated people are not far from this
casteist truth.To talk loudly they are secularists!The people from
other castes are taken for a royal ride and have been taken for a rdie
for 65 years since independence.I would rather trust an honest muslim
than these casteist bandicoots

RE:muslims in the army
by pramod nair on Feb 23, 2006 03:00 AM
hey calm down!And about which honest muslim are you talking about
dawood?chhotta shakeel?timber smugglers of north kerala?isi agents?
kashmirir separtists or the one in UP who proposed a bounty on
cartoonists head?
every religion has got its share of scoundrels so before blurting out
crap plz take care its not a "pot calls the kettle black case".

the mootpoint
by mohan on Feb 17, 2006 04:33 PM

The colonels comments are accurate-but he doesnt touch the moot point.
-censuses are impartial and are meant to correct any defecencies we
have
-if there is a possibility of a fault, lets do one and adress a fault
but there is absolutely no need for the results to be splashed all
over the newspapers to be exploited by all political parties which has
become a dependable tradition
-the day we do that, we will lose probably the only apolitical
institution we have(one of the best in the world-inspite of our
politicians)
a debatable library political analyser! from USA talking about indian
army and getting such a response to him-ALAS!! THE POWER OF FREE
SPEECH

A dangerous census
by Aakash on Feb 17, 2006 04:21 PM

This another attempt by our so called secular "Netas"to divide and
rule by luring the countryman on the basis of casteism.

army
by Nishant on Feb 17, 2006 03:33 PM

I can't believe anybody in India would dare question the integrity of
its armed forces. To actually have a judge do it and have the power to
order a census is abhorrable.

Has he ever fought for the country? The armed forces are the only
institution that commands repsect from all sections of the society in
India and making it a subject of communal politics shows the quality
of our nation's leadership and the utter lack of respect for the men
who die for us.

http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/feb/14guest.htm

chhotemianinshallah

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Jan 12, 2010, 7:20:02 AM1/12/10
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Three Mumbaikars likely to book berths in Gadkari's team
Kiran Tare / DNA
Tuesday, January 12, 2010 0:12 IST

At least three Mumbai politicians may get prominent portfolios in the
new national executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under the
leadership of Nitin Gadkari, a source in the party said.

“Bal Apte, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, and Piyush Goyal, all residents of
Mumbai, are set to play an important role in the BJP at the national
level,” the source said. “Apte will be vice-president, Sahasrabuddhe
will be secretary, and Goyal will be the treasurer.”

Apte is already a vice-president of the party and is likely to be
retained in the new president’s team. Sahasrabuddhe is currently
director of the Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini at Uttan in Thane, a think
tank of the BJP which also conducts training workshops for party
workers.

Goyal is treasurer of the BJP’s state unit and one of the handlers of
Friends of the BJP, a non-governmental organisation that works to
induct influential people into the party.

“Apte is a dedicated worker,” the source said. “Gadkari will not drop
him. Sahasrabuddhe has his origins in the RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh], parent organisation of the BJP. He may be asked to work as
political adviser to Gadkari.

“Goyal was keen to contest the elections to the Rajya Sabha two years
ago. But he was denied an opportunity at that time. So he will be made
party treasurer. As the son of the late BJP treasurer Vedprakash
Goyal, he has strong backing in the party for the post.”

Apart from these three politicians, another leader from Mumbai, former
Lok Sabha member Kirit Somaiya, is also trying to get inducted at the
national level of the party. But his chances are believed to be slim.

“Somaiya is pressing hard to become secretary or general secretary,”
the source said. “But Gadkari may keep him away because he does not
want too many leaders from Maharashtra at the national level.”

There are indications that Gopinath Munde, Gadkari’s rival in the
state, may be dropped as general secretary. Munde has been elected the
party’s deputy leader in Lok Sabha. “Vasundhara Raje and Vinay Katiyar
may be the new general secretaries,” the source said.

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_three-mumbaikars-likely-to-book-berths-in-gadkari-s-team_1333712

Sid Harth

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Jan 12, 2010, 11:54:35 AM1/12/10
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COMMUNALISM

Love and hate
VIKHAR AHMED SAYEED
in Mangalore

The Hindu right wing in Karnataka says jehadis are now trying the love
trap, but senior police officers deny this.

R. ESWARRAJ

Hindu Janajagruti Samiti members holding a demonstration against ‘love
jehad’, in Mangalore on October 15.

NEWSPAPERS across Karnataka had two important reports on October 22.
The first was the story of the arrest, in Mangalore, of a 45-year-old
serial killer, Mohan Kumar, who confessed to having killed at least 19
women (and counting as this story is being written). His modus
operandi, which he used for well over five years, was chillingly
simple. He lured young women with a promise to marry them and gave
them cyanide pills after having sex with them.

The second story, relegated to the inner pages of most newspapers, was
that the Karnataka High Court had ordered an investigation, to be
conducted jointly by the Karnataka and Kerala police, into the “love
jehad movement” – the alleged conversion of young women to Islam after
being lured into marriage by Muslim men.

The court order came after a petition of habeas corpus was filed by
the parents of a girl who left home in August 2008 and converted to
Islam. When presented in court, she averred that she had converted of
her own free will. Despite her statement, however, the court linked
the case with the cases of missing girls across the State and ordered
the investigation to be conducted by the Director-General and
Inspector-General of Police along with the Kerala Police. The girl, a
resident of Chamarajnagar district in southern Karnataka, has been
directed to live with her parents until the report is submitted on
November 13.

While on the face of it the story of the serial killer and the court
order did not have any connection, it was not very difficult for
journalists in the coastal district of Dakshina Kannada to draw a
link. A Kannada daily with a large circulation in coastal Karnataka
was one of the first to point out that one of the girls who had gone
missing on July 17 in the area was one of Mohan Kumar’s unfortunate
victims; Hindu right-wing groups had alleged that she was missing
because she had been a victim of ‘love jehad’. This revelation
heightened the irony of the court order, which linked the cases of
missing girls in the State on the basis of the propaganda about ‘love
jehad’.

An advocate who was present in court when the habeas corpus petition
was being heard spoke to Frontline. He said: “The girl was produced in
court. She is in her early twenties and is a student of engineering.
The girl openly stated that there had not been any pressure on her to
convert and she had gone to a madrassa in Kerala of her own free will.
In the morning judgment, the court also directed the advocate to
present the Kerala High Court order of September 29, 2009. Thereafter
the matter was adjourned until an appropriate report was submitted by
the State government. In the afternoon session, the Assistant Advocate
General filed several statements with regard to the cases of missing
women across the State in the six months until June 2009.”

The Kerala High Court judgment was later produced, and it was clear
that the Karnataka court was influenced by this judgment. On a similar
habeas corpus petition, the Kerala High Court had returned two runaway
girls to their parents. However, the two girls in the Kerala case had
stated that they wanted to go back to their parents. The girl produced
in the Karnataka High Court, however, went to the extent of saying
that even after the November 13 report she would continue to state
that she had converted of her own free will.

According to Ravi Verma Kumar, a senior lawyer based in Bangalore, the
premise of the habeas corpus petition was flawed as a petition of this
nature could be heard only when a missing person was in illegal
custody. In this case, the girl, who was an adult, had left home
willingly, so “there is no question of entertaining the habeas corpus
at all”. The petitioner’s advocate had claimed that the girl was
living with a young man out of wedlock. “Who is the Karnataka High
Court to pass a moral judgment on the status of a relationship between
two parties who are competent to contract”, Ravi Verma Kumar asked.

He also said that the High Court order was an infringement upon the
right to life (Article 21) and right of religion (Article 25) as
guaranteed in the Constitution. He cited the 2006 Supreme Court case
of Lata Singh versus the State of Uttar Pradesh, in which the court
came down heavily on efforts to restrict inter-caste and inter-
religious marriages, adding that the High Court order violated the
Supreme Court order.

Many of the allegations of ‘love jehad’ by right-wing organisations
have come from Dakshina Kannada district, which is well known as the
laboratory of Hindutva in the State. The manner in which this highly
literate and prosperous part of coastal Karnataka has developed
strained communal relations is well chronicled. A significant
proportion of the population here consists of Muslims and Christians
and the economy of the district is partly based on massive remittances
from other parts of the country as well as from migrants in the
countries around the Persian Gulf. The worrying inter-religious
relations are a cumulative effect of sustained communal propaganda
since the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. Such propaganda was
effective because of the changes in the political economy of the
region over the 1970s and 1980s, with poorer Muslims prospering from
employment opportunities in the Gulf countries.

There have been frequent communal riots in the region since the riot
of Suratkal in 1998, in which nine people died. Many of these
disturbances were sparked by cases of inter-communal fraternising by
young men and women. There have been attacks by vigilante groups of
all religious persuasions over the past few years. In 2009, at least
15 cases were reported of young people being attacked while talking to
girls or boys of other religions. Hindutva vigilante groups have also
taken upon themselves the task of defining the cultural space in which
Hindu women have the freedom to operate. The pub attack in Mangalore
in January led by the cadre of the Sri Rama Sene is the most notorious
case in point.

SUDIPTO MONDAL

Students of The Government Composite Pre-University College in
Dakshina Kannada district's Panja village. The ABVP has slapped a
"ban" on the burqa on college campuses.

More recently, communal policing has reached undergraduate colleges
across the district, which is an educational hub. The student wing of
the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi
Parishad (ABVP), has been particularly active in this moral policing,
restricting the social space for the meeting of students from
different communities even in classrooms. Pattabhi Somiahji, a
lecturer in English at the University College in Mangalore, said:
“Over the past few years the seating in colleges is happening in a
certain segregated manner, with Hindus and Muslims sitting in separate
parts of a classroom.”

The allegation of ‘love jehad’ in the region is not of recent origin –
only the phrase is new and has caught on very fast. It was first used
by a Kannada evening tabloid on September 7 while reporting on certain
incidents in northern Kerala and linking them up with incidents in
Dakshina Kannada. After this, the evening supplement of a mainstream
newspaper picked up the phrase. By early October, prominent Kannada
newspapers were using the phrase without really conducting any serious
investigation into the validity of the allegations.

Gopal Hosur, the Deputy Inspector General of Police of the Western
Range (which means he is responsible for the policing duties in the
four districts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada and
Chickmagalur), told Frontline that not a single police complaint had
been received from the region about Muslim youth luring non-Muslim
women in order to convert them to Islam.

The Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) has been leading the propaganda
about ‘love jehad’. In a press release dated October 15, the HJS
announced a massive protest against ‘love jehad’. In this vituperative
public document, the HJS described Muslim youth as “sexual wolves” who
were on the prowl for Hindu women and announced the formation of a
self-defence women’s wing called Ranaragini. It also claimed that
roughly three women fell victim to ‘love jehad’ every day in Dakshina
Kannada district and that more than 30,000 women had been converted to
Islam across the State. Interestingly, the HJS press release lists the
Sanatana Samstha as an allied organisation. The Samstha is the prime
accused in the case relating to the blasts that took place in Goa on
October 16.

The phrase ‘love jehad’ entered mainstream discourse through the High
Court orders in Karnataka and Kerala, but it had been used earlier on
right-wing Hindu websites, including the website of the HJS
( www.hindujagruti.org). There is a reference to the phrase even in
the 2007 documentary Morality TV and Loving Jehad, directed by
Paromita Vohra. The film looks at the way the media intervene in the
romantic space of Meerut, in the light of ‘Operation Majnu’, in which
the police swooped down on couples in Meerut’s public parks in 2005.
In the film, there is a quote by an activist of the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad (VHP) who uses the phrase ‘love jehad’, describing it as a
calculated strategy of ‘jehadis’ to lure Hindu women and convert them.
Thus, the phrase has been in parlance for several years now in the
propaganda discourse of Hindutva groups.

M.B. Puranik, a senior VHP leader in Karnataka, explained to Frontline
how ‘love jehad’ works. “Muslim boys are usually idle and are loafing
near colleges and malls and work in mobile shops, and they lure girls.
When a Hindu girl comes to a mobile shop to get her phone recharged,
these boys get hold of her number and start calling her and trap her
in their ‘love jehad’.” On being asked whether this did not appear
like a perfectly valid consensual romantic liaison, he responded, “I
agree that this may be consensual, but Muslim women are usually in
burqas and they do not have freedom. Why do these boys target our
women who have freedom?” (Incidentally, over the past one year various
Hindutva groups have run a consistent campaign against allowing Muslim
women to attend educational institutions wearing burqas.) Puranik went
on to add that Muslims were being trained by schools that specialised
in ‘love jehad’ and that these organisations were funded by Al Qaeda.

Senior police officers in the State, however, have denied that there
is any organised conversion racket of the ‘love jehad’ sort in the
State. One of the few people to have taken these allegations seriously
is State Home Minister V.S. Acharya. He has ordered an inquiry by the
Criminal Investigation Department into the allegations, though he
refused to order a judicial inquiry, as demanded by the Opposition
parties in the State, into the communal riot in Mysore in July which
claimed three lives. (The riot began after the carcass of a pig was
found in a mosque; later, investigations pointed an accusing finger at
the Sri Rama Sene.) When churches were attacked in Dakshina Kannada
last year, Acharya described the attacks as a response to the
religious conversions that were supposedly being conducted by
Christians.

Still, young people belonging to different communities in the coastal
districts continue to meet and socialise. Of course, such meetings are
common in most parts of the country, but in Dakshina Kannada a boy and
a girl belonging to different communities run the risk of being
publicly humiliated and beaten up if they meet in public spaces.

That young people here still reach out across communal boundaries
shows that the propaganda of hate has not been a complete success.

Volume 26 - Issue 23 :: Nov. 07-20, 2009


INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU

http://frontlineonnet.com/fl2623/stories/20091120262302500.htm

Sid Harth

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Jan 12, 2010, 11:57:05 AM1/12/10
to
COMMUNALISM

Divisive debate
R. KRISHNAKUMAR
in Thiruvananthapuram

Kerala has been caught unawares and is at a loss about the dangerous
portents of the ‘love jehad’ controversy.

THULASI KAKKAT

Young people at workplaces and in educational institutions now have
more opportunities to meet and stay in touch. Here, the campus of MES
College, Marampilly, Kochi.

THEY may sound silly, the oxymoronic phrase ‘Love Jehad’ and its twin
‘Romeo Jehad’, but within a short time religious fundamentalist forces
in Kerala have built a unique playhouse on them and started enacting a
highly divisive drama. For sure, Kerala has been caught unawares and
is at a loss about its dangerous portents.

Since it was first used, perhaps tongue-in-cheek then in the context
of the arrival in Kottayam of Silja, a Hindu girl from south Karnataka
who had left her parents to marry her lover Ashkar, a Muslim youth
originally from Kannur, the term ‘love jehad’ has become a potent
weapon, capable of slicing through the secular fabric of Kerala
society.

The proponents of the expression are, in addition to the Rashtriya
Swayamsewak Sangh, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad, the Sri Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam,
representing the Hindu Ezhava community, and the Kerala Catholic
Bishops’ Council (KCBC). As intended by these groups, it refers to the
delicate issue of mostly campus and workplace romances involving young
Muslim men and non-Muslim women. It has eventually come to be used as
a metaphor for the highly sensitive allegation that “Muslim
fundamentalist groups with funds from abroad are using the services of
motivated young men from the community to woo non-Muslim women as a
religious strategy for forced conversion to Islam”. When Silja’s
parents arrived in Kottayam with a group of people and the Karnataka
Police in tow, all hell broke loose, with allegations in the local
media that “Ashkar had kidnapped her with the intention of cheating
her into forcible conversion, as he had done with 22 other women
earlier”.

A complaint was filed by Silja’s relatives at the Gandhi Nagar police
station in Kottayam, and, notwithstanding the repeated denial of the
accusations by Silja herself, the Hindu Aikya Vedi organised a dharna
in front of the Islamic study centre at Vaarisseri near Kottayam where
the girl, by then living with Ashkar in a rented home, was undergoing
religious training. The commotion died down only after Silja
convincingly stuck to her stand before the police and at the Kottayam
Press Club, where she addressed a press conference on September 8
jointly with Ashkar. She said she was marrying Ashkar of her own free
will and no one had compelled her to convert to Islam. But by then an
uproar had seemingly begun in Karnataka, with similar allegations
being raised by Hindutva organisations there and a habeas corpus
petition being filed in the High Court by her father.

Case of two MBA students

The phrase ‘love jehad’ soon acquired menacing overtones in the local
media when habeas corpus petitions were filed at the Kerala High Court
by the relatives of two other girls who were MBA students at St.
John’s College in Pathanamthitta.

The girls, both staying in the college hostel and hailing from
Christian and Hindu families in Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam
districts respectively, had reportedly grown a fascination for Shahan
Sha, the dynamic leader of the Muslim Students’ Federation (MSF, the
students’ wing of the Indian Union Muslim League), who was at the
forefront of the agitations against the self-financing college
management, demanding proper facilities for students. Following this,
fellow students began to notice a visible change in the manner,
appearance and religious orientation of the two girls, and soon, as
the college authorities notified their parents, the girls disappeared,
along with Shahan Sha. The former MSF leader had by then reportedly
started associating himself with the Popular Front of India, an
organisation with close links with the National Development Front
(NDF) in Kerala, a radical Islamist organisation known for its
aggressive propagation of Islam.

In response to the petitions filed by their parents, the girls
appeared before the High Court on August 21 seeking its permission to
live with their “husbands”, Shahan Sha and Sirajudeen. The latter was
a bus conductor who had seemingly (and rather spontaneously) “married”
one of the girls following her “conversion to Islam”. But as the High
Court found that the marriages were not registered properly, it turned
down their requests and asked them to be with their parents until the
next hearing on August 18.

However, at the next hearing, held two days in advance at the behest
of the two men, the girls made a dramatic volte-face. They told the
court that they had indeed walked into a trap of religious
indoctrination, forced conversion and eventual marriage with the men.
Both the girls then said that they did not want to go back with the
men and instead wanted to live with their parents.

Kerala was perplexed as to what to make of their sorry tale. For a
section of the media and several non-Muslim organisations, however, it
seemed to be the cue that they had been waiting for to launch a
widespread campaign to back their claim of “large-scale forced
conversions”, which they alleged were “being undertaken in Kerala by
Muslim fundamentalist groups” using such “love jehadis” as motivated
agents.

Church position

The most unexpected statement came from the Church, which itself had
often been the target of Hindu fundamentalists for growing
evangelistic activities in the State. The KCBC’s Commission for Social
Harmony and Vigilance made the startling allegation that a survey
conducted in all the parishes under it had found that 2,866 Catholic
women had been converted to Islam by the ‘Romeo Jehadis’. It also gave
a detailed break-up of the women who converted to Islam in each of the
14 districts of the State. Similarly, the SNDP Yogam alleged that the
Ezhava community, too, was being targeted by such forces and that
nearly 500 women had been converted to Islam in recent years.
According to leaders of the RSS and the BJP, “nearly 4,000 non-Muslim
women have so far been tricked into conversion by such ‘love
jehadis’”.

An impression soon gained ground that an organisation by the very name
‘Love Jehad’ or ‘Romeo Jehad’ had started functioning in Kerala and
that it was receiving funds from abroad. There were also wild,
unsubstantiated accusations that young Muslim men were being offered
money, bikes, trendy attire and other support systems “to woo several
non-Muslim women into marriage and beget children” and that these
women were later being forced into illegal activities, including “drug
trafficking, smuggling, and terrorism”.

It is a reflection of the competitive communal atmosphere sought to be
created in the State through the ‘love jehad’ controversy that an
excerpt from an editorial in the NDF organ Tejas was promptly quoted
in a subsequent article in the pro-BJP Janmabhoomi, arguably to raise
the ire of its own loyal readers.

The Tejas editorial was quoted as saying: “If young men embrace Islam,
it is for terrorist activities; if young women do it, it is for ‘Love
Jehad’. This propaganda is part of a well-planned secret strategy.
Here, the police, certain sections of the media, even the courts are
becoming tools in the hands of certain vested interests, for
implementing their secret agendas. It is part of an evil design indeed
that when Islam embraces, it becomes the singular cause for
restlessness for some sections and they try to put an end to it.
Muslims are mere victims of Hindu fascists. Even then, we are
portrayed as the aggressors. Our aim is only to defend [ourselves]
against aggression by Hindu fascists. The religious conversions
undertaken by us are similar to those carried out by other religious
sections. But Hindu fascists are hunting down and attacking those who
come to Islam. World over, those who embrace Islam after studying its
tenets in depth and being convinced about their higher value are on
the increase. The enemies who have understood this fact are the ones
who are generating such baseless reports.”

The Janmabhoomi article, under the title “The victims of love jihad”
and carrying a byline “Sayed Muhammed”, then went on to exhort its
readers to stay clear of the new trap being laid for them by Muslim
fundamentalism and the untruths that it was trying to propagate. It
also said provocatively that the late novelist and writer Kamala Das,
who had converted to Islam in her later years, was also a victim of
‘love jehad’ in Kerala.

With their activities suddenly in the spotlight, fundamentalist Muslim
organisations such as the NDF and the Popular Front of India (PFI)
launched a counter-offensive in Kerala through public statements,
articles, posters and seminars and generally asking the question,
“What is wrong with religious conversions?” At many places in Kerala,
a poster offensive launched by the PFI defending religious conversions
met with a counter poster stream appearing on behalf of the RSS,
leading to isolated incidents. Police officers said there were signs
that such continuous sparring could lead to trouble soon in the State.

It was in the context of all this that, while hearing the anticipatory
bail application of Shahan Sha and Sirajudeen (in the cases filed by
the girls’ parents), the Kerala High Court asked the State’s Director-
General of Police to submit a statement providing answers to the
questions it had raised on the alleged ‘love jehad’ activities.

DGP’s report

In the report filed before the court on October 18, DGP Jacob Punnose
said that no organisation or movement called ‘Love Jehad’ or ‘Romeo
Jehad’ “is so far identified as working in Kerala”; “there is no clear
evidence regarding the operation of such an organisation”; “it is not
established that any particular organisation is actively engaged in
such compulsive religious conversions”; and that there is no clear
evidence regarding “financial support from abroad” for any such
organisation, or “connection between ‘Love Jehad’ movement and
counterfeiting, smuggling, drug trafficking and terrorist
activities”.

To the question “how many school and college students and youngsters
were thus converted to Islam in the last three years?” the DGP said:
“Except for the two cases under consideration now, no specific
complaints have been received regarding such compulsive love-based
conversions” and that in the two cases, “the police have registered
cases and are actively investigating the matter”.

The DGP further said that though “certain allegations have recently
cropped up indicating that some organisations have devised plans for
compulsive or deceitful religious conversions by winning over girls,
no actionable information has been received by the police so far to
confirm the fact that any organisation is indulging in such
activities”.

He, however, informed the court that “a very large number of inter-
religious marriages are taking place every year” in the State and that
“many conversions are taking place on that basis” even though “the
exact details or the exact numbers of such marriages are not readily
available with any police agency”. Significantly, then, the police
chief went on to say in conclusion: “At the same time, there are
reasons to suspect that there are concerted attempts to persuade girls
to change their religion after they fall in love with Muslim boys.
There is also unconfirmed source information received by the
department that some groups are actively working among youngsters
encouraging conversions by such techniques; that young men who are
engaged in such pursuits are said to be receiving funds from abroad
directly or indirectly for purchasing clothes and vehicles and for
availing legal help etc; and that they have links with other places in
India also.”

The two parts of the DGP’s report seemed to contradict each other.
Indeed, the High Court said that it was “vague” and that “there is no
reconciliation” between the statements. The court has asked the DGP to
file another report with supporting evidence and has sought reports
from District Superintendents of Police and others by November 11,
when the case next comes up for hearing.

Despite the apparent inconsistency, the DGP’s “preliminary statement”
seemed to have been drafted carefully and was perhaps deliberately
left vague in order to reflect the complexity of the situation on the
ground ever since the ‘love jehad’ allegation came to the fore and
mainstream political parties retreated from the scene to avoid burning
their fingers on a sensitive issue.

As the controversy has proved now, several sections of mainstream
Kerala society are yet to reconcile themselves to the radical changes
that have been happening on the campuses in the State, especially with
the mushrooming of self-financing professional colleges since the
early 1990s (a strict no-no in frequently Left-ruled Kerala earlier)
and the advent of more resources, mobile phones, computers and other
high-tech communication tools that have changed the outlook of an
entire generation of students. There are ample opportunities for a
multi-religious, multifaceted student community and for young
professionals at workplaces to get acquainted, stay in touch with or
even fall in love with their campus mates or colleagues.

However, along with such a transformation has come a worrying trend of
de-politicisation of campuses. In recent years, in the context of
frequent agitations affecting the academic atmosphere in schools and
colleges, the courts have been imposing several restrictions on
political activity by students and have even allowed private college
managements to ban student unions. But the vacuum left by mainstream
student unions is now increasingly being occupied by organisations of
various fundamentalist hues.

On the campuses of many colleges in Kerala, including those of
government colleges, the Students Federation of India, the student
wing of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) and until
recently the reigning organisation, is being offered a stiff challenge
by emerging groups such as the Campus Front, with their umbilical
links to a non-secular and fundamentalist ideology.

This tendency has coincided with the decline of secular organisations
of many other mainstream parties that were once very active on
campuses, and the rise of a new generation of apolitical, educated and
skilled young men and women. Many of them are from communities that
have long been in the shadows in terms of educational, vocational or
social opportunities and are now rallying themselves behind adamantly
non-secular and divisive religious forces.

“Inter-religious romances leading to conversion and marriage could be
on the rise in the State. But we have no reliable statistics to show
how many, or whether there is an increasing trend, or from which
community to the other and so on. But wherever religious
fundamentalist groups are active on campuses or where these youngsters
come under the influence of such forces outside the campuses or
workplaces, there are reports that they do face informal compulsion,
especially on issues like marrying out of their fold. It could be
happening in a few cases, or a few more. In certain instances, over-
enthusiastic individuals take things a bit far, when informal
compulsion takes the form of coercion. That is it. There is no
discernible pattern in all this. And we do not really know what
happens to the women who change their religion for love, whether they
are living happily ever after or how many of them return to their
parents and so on, until there are complaints. And complaints are
rare. The allegations being raised now are definitely not based on
facts and are highly exaggerated,” a senior police officer told
Frontline.

The mischief is out of the bag. The effort of the forces on both sides
of the ‘love jehad’ divide is to create such conflicts by promoting
fundamentalist positions, projecting isolated incidents as the norm,
distorting facts and events, and presenting rumours and falsehood as
the truth. It is in fact a ‘loveless jehad’ that civil society is now
witnessing, and it could turn worse rapidly if secular discourse gets
submerged and the communal cause wins the stage.

Volume 26 - Issue 23 :: Nov. 07-20, 2009
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU

http://frontlineonnet.com/fl2623/stories/20091120262302800.htm

chhotemianinshallah

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Jan 12, 2010, 6:59:29 PM1/12/10
to
‘We now hope to get justice’
Syed Khalique Ahmed

Posted: Wednesday, Jan 13, 2010 at 0040 hrs

Ahmedabad:

Australian Anarchism!Impulsive kids and ADHDStress symptoms &
TreatmentBehavioral Problems in Children The family of Sohrabuddin
Sheikh, who was killed in a fake encounter in November 2005 in
Ahmedabad, has welcomed the Supreme Court’s order for a CBI probe into
the incident. Speaking to The Indian Express over the phone from his
native village Jharaniya, about 50 km from Ujjain, Sohrabuddin’s
younger brother Rubabuddin said, “We now hope to get justice with the
apex court transferring the investigation to the CBI.”

Emphasising the importance of the handing over of the case to the CBI,
the 37-year-old Rubabuddin said the policemen in the case were not the
only people responsible for the killing of his brother. “In fact, the
encounter was done at the behest of certain politicians and ministers
from Gujarat and Rajasthan and they can be identified and arrested
only with the CBI handling the case,” he said.

He, however, stopped short of naming the politicians and ministers
allegedly linked with the case. “I am confident that the CBI
investigation will expose them and nail the whole truth in the case,”
Rubabuddin said. “Besides, there are police and some government
officials from Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh
connected with the conspiracy behind the fake encounter and only a
central agency can do justice in such a complicated case,” Rubabuddin
said.

It was because of these reasons, he said, that he had been demanding a
CBI probe into the episode. Moreover, he said, it was not possible for
Gujarat cops working under the Narendra Modi dispensation to do full
justice in the case. He said this was was quite evident from the
loopholes left in the investigation by the Gujarat police in spite of
the arrest of 13 policemen, including three IPS officers — D G
Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandian and Dinesh Kumar.

Elaborating on the alleged loopholes, he said that the chargesheet
prepared by Gujarat police failed to mention the owner of the bike
used by Sohrabuddin at the time of encounter. According to the police,
the owner had also been involved in the encounter, he said. The
chargesheet, he said, also failed to mention why and how Kausar Bi,
Sohrabuddin’s wife, was killed. It also did not mention his
(Rubabuddin’s) call on the cellphone of Sohrabuddin on November 23 and
24, 2005, after Sohrabuddin was picked up by the Gujarat police in
Andhra Pradesh.

“These loopholes were left in the chargesheet to weaken the case and
ensure the accused went scotfree,” he said.

He also pointed out how former investigator and IPS officer Geetha
Johri was given a “prize posting as Commissioner of Police at Rajkot
and also favoured by the Modi government in a land deal issue in
Gandhinagar”.

“All this shows that Gujarat police investigator were not being free
and fair in the case,” he stressed.

Rubabuddin said that he was also pressured by the Modi government to
back out from the case and a false case pertaining to extortion was
registered against him by the Ujjain police when he refused to comply.
He said that more than four dozen policemen in plainclothes surrounded
his house on the night of January 29, 2009 to arrest him though there
was no case against him. However, the cops went back when the
villagers protested and offered resistance.

Rubabuddin, who got his right leg amputated due to gangrene in July
last year, said, “After I sent a telegram to the apex court about
police trying to arrest me without any charges against me, I was told
by the Nagda police that my two brothers, my 80-year-old father and me
were wanted in a case of threat and intimidation lodged by a tenant of
my friend Virendra Jojoria.”

Rubabuddin and his family members have now secured anticipatory bail
in the case. “It was a fake complaint because neither I nor any of my
family members ever threatened Jojoria’s tenant,” he said.

According to Rubabuddin, it was part of the pressure tactics to force
him to withdraw from the case the proper investigation of which was
sure to expose the role of top politicians of Gujarat and neighbouring
Rajasthan in the fake encounter of Sohrabuddin and the cold-blooded
murder of his wife Kausar Bi. However, despite all this, Rubabuddin
and his family continue to maintain their connection with the BJP.
While his father Anwaruddin, the biggest landlord of his village and a
one-time district president of the Jan Sangh had later joined the BJP,
his elder brother Shahnawazuddin is the existing vice president of the
Ujjain unit of the party.

Who was Sohrabuddin Sheikh?

Sohrabuddin Sheikh, who was 35 years old when killed by Gujarat police
in fake encounter, did have a criminal record but no terror-related
charges as had been claimed by the Gujarat police as a reason for the
encounter. Sheikh, a resident of Jharaniya village in Madhya Pradesh,
had cases pending against him in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and
Rajasthan. The cases ranged from drug peddling to extortion, and there
were some related to kidnapping and murder as well. The first case
reported against Sohrabuddin with Gujarat police was in 1994 after
they seized arms, including AK-47s, from his farm in Jharaniya.

D G Vanzara, who was the Gujarat ATS chief, had said after the
encounter that they had received intelligence input from the Rajasthan
police that Sohrabuddin was on a mission to assassinate Narendra Modi.
Vanzara had added that it was an ISI-LeT plot and the tipoff said that
he was headed towards Ahmedabad from Surat on a motorbike. He was
killed near Vishala Cross Roads on the morning of November 25, 2005.
encounter speak Veerappa Moily, Union Law Minister: “The rule of law
applies to every territory and territory of Gujarat is not exempted
from the enforcement of the rule of law.” Moily said that the Gujarat
government was mistaken in thinking that “you can kill anybody in the
name of encounter”.

Jay Narayan Vyas, Gujarat government spokesperson : The government was
yet to receive a copy of the order “but we will take an appropriate
action after studying the order”, said Vyas. “There is nothing for the
state to hide or worry about because this is not the first case where
investigation was transferred from the state police to a supreme court
appointed SIT.”

Gujarat Congress: Reacting to the development, Leader of Opposition in
the Assembly Shaktsinh Gohil said that the order was a “victory of
truth” and has “exposed” the Gujarat government. “The CBI is neither a
central nor state government agency and its impartial probe will get
get justice,” said Gohil. He said that the apex court would not have
ordered a CBI probe had the gujarat government not acted “like a
criminal”.

Jan Sangharsh Manch: At a press conference Tuesday evening, Mukul
Sinha of JSM, an NGO which is fighting the case, said they were
satisfied with the SC order. “The SC order will have implication on
other encounter cases including Ishrat Jahan, Sadiq Jamal and other
such cases.” Sinha added: “The CBI will be able to find out the bias
of the Gujarat police as well as the inter-state operations which were
carried out. We will use the order in this case to secure transfer of
other cases to the CBI for investigations. The CBI will be able to
find out the bias of the Gujarat police as well as the inter-state
operations which were carried out.”

The case: how it unfolded November 21, 2005 : Sohrabuddin, his wife
and friend Tulsi Prajapati were picked up from a bus in Andhra Pradesh
by Gujarat police.

November 26, 2005 : Sohrabuddin gunned down near Vishala Circle on the
outskirts of Ahmedabad. Police claim he had come to kill Chief
Minister Narendra Modi and VHP leader Pravin Togadia.

November 29, 2005: Sohrabuddin’s wife Kausar Bi killed and her body
burnt and disposed of in Ilol, D G Vanzara’s village. After
Sohrabuddin was gunned down, investigation was conducted by Anti
Terrorist Squad (ATS). But it was closed down by filing A-summary,
saying that the two other accused including Rasool Parti, were not
traceable.

December 2005: Rubabuddin, Sohrabuddin’s brother , moves the Supreme
court, suspecting the encounter to be a case of murder and also
questioning the disappearance of his sister-in-law.

July 2006: Following Supreme Court order, CID (Crime) begins
investigation.

December 29, 2006: Tulsiram Prajapati, the lone witness, killed in
encounter at Banaskantha.

April 2007: CID (Crime) submits its report in September 2006, proving
it to be case of murder and not an encounter, opening a can of worms,
leading to arrest of three IPS officials.

April 25, 2007: Rajnish Rai of CID (Crime) arrests Vanzara, Rajkumar
Pandian and Dinesh Kumar.

April 30, 2007 : Gujarat government concedes that Kasur Bi, wife of
Sohrabuddin, could have been liquidated by cops concerned in an action
taken report submitted to the Supreme Court.

May 3, 2007: The Supreme Court admits petition seeking CBI inquiry
into the fake encounter killing.

May 4, 2007: Inquiry taken from Rajnish Rai and handed over once again
to Geetha Johri who was heading the probe initially.

May 14, 2007: One of the police officers arrested in connection with
fake encounter killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh has confessed before
magistrate, says Guj govt to SC.

July 12, 2007: Gujarat CID rules out role of politicians in fake
encounter.

July 16, 2007: CID (Crime) files first chargesheet against the 13
policemen.

October 1, 2008: The Supreme Court stays the trial in the Sohrabuddin
fake encounter case against three former senior cops and 10 other
policemen after Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium punched
holes in the chargesheet terming it a deliberate attempt by the state
DGP to obliterate the case trail leading to big guns.

August 3, 2009: SC asks Gujarat why case not be entrusted to SIT.

August 4, 2009: SC asks Gujarat government to pay damage to
Sohrabuddin brother.

August 11, 2009: Supreme Court directs Gujarat to pay an “interim ex
gratia” of Rs 10 lakh to the family even as the state

government opposed any move to entrust

investigations of the killings to the Special

Investigation Team.

September 17, 2009: Sohrabuddin probe should be given to CBI, says
Solicitor General - Gopal Subramanium

January 12, 2010: SC orders that the

investigation be handed over to CBI.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/we-now-hope-to-get-justice/566722/0

chhotemianinshallah

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Jan 12, 2010, 8:01:16 PM1/12/10
to
Draupadi’s nights heat up Andhra
Backlash on award book
G.S. RADHAKRISHNA

A sketch portraying Draupadi's vastraharan by the Kauravas

Hyderabad, Jan. 12: Amid the lull in the Telangana storm, passions in
Andhra Pradesh have been incited yet again, this time by Draupadi.

Draupadi, a book in Telugu that has been chosen for the Sahitya
Akademi award, has earned the wrath of the moral police because it has
portions depicting Draupadi’s “amorous nights” with her Pandava
husbands.

Pragnya Bharathi, a cultural organisation that owes allegiance to the
RSS, has filed a petition before the Andhra Pradesh State Human Rights
Commission saying the book penned by Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad has
“desecrated” the character of Draupadi, a revered figure from the
Mahabharat.

The commission has directed the secretary of the Union information and
broadcasting ministry to submit a report on the selection of Draupadi
for the Sahitya Akademi award and ordered a stay on the presentation.
The awards are to be handed out in New Delhi on February 16.

Commission chairman Justice B.S. Reddy said excerpts from the book,
presented by the petitioners, had been taken up for investigation.

“I have directed the information and broadcasting ministry to keep the
award presentation event, and also the process to translate the novel
into 24 Indian languages, pending” he said.

The stay can be challenged in a court of law.

The petitioners have objected to the author’s portrayal of Draupadi as
a “sex maniac”. The book shows Draupadi as a woman who relishes sex
with some partners but dislikes physical intimacy with others, to the
extent that she isn’t even willing to kiss them.

Prasad, a former Telugu Desam Rajya Sabha member and present chairman
of the Dakshin Hindi Prachar Sabha, also portrays in the book
Draupadi’s desire to marry and have sex with Karna, the great
Mahabharat warrior who was, like the three eldest Pandavas, Kunti’s
son but fought against them.

“I have been watching him practising the display of swords and other
weapons. My body and mind craves his strong embrace,” Draupadi says in
the book.

In the epic, however, Draupadi prevents Karna, who was one of her
suitors at her swayamvara, from attempting to hit the fish-eye target
with an arrow by saying she wouldn’t marry a “sootaputra (son of a
charioteer)”.

Prasad’s book also shows Draupadi luring Bheema with her charms to
rise against his brothers and depicts her manipulating the powerful
brother to fulfil her needs.

The novel had first appeared in serialised form in the Telugu weekly
Andhra Jyothi a decade ago. It had then sparked a controversy for its
portrayal of Draupadi in a new light, culling her personality from
five sensual nights she spends with each of the five Pandavas.

Contending that such a book questions the credibility of the Sahitya
Akademi award, V. Nageshwar, one of the petitioners, said: “The author
has distorted the mythological and historical events to his own
advantage and to sensationalise the character.”

Prasad, the author of 33 works in Telugu and Hindi, said he was
unfazed by the criticism.

“Such outbursts are natural when a character is interpreted from a new
angle. More so if it is a strong and epic character like Draupadi for
whom people have unquestioned veneration and of whom they have formed
a certain image of their own,” he said.

But, Prasad insisted, he had had no intention of belittling Draupadi
or hurting the religious sentiments of any community.

“One should take it as one takes the interpretations of the epics by
the celluloid world,” he said.

The depiction of Draupadi in modern times has often triggered
controversy.

Oriya writer Pratibha Ray, in her award-winning novel Yajnaseni
(originally written in Oriya and translated into Malayalam) had come
under fire for her depiction of Draupadi.

M.F. Husain had triggered a storm of protest with his nude painting of
Draupadi.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100113/jsp/nation/story_11977896.jsp

chhotemianinshallah

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Jan 12, 2010, 8:13:59 PM1/12/10
to
SC queries Gujarat police honesty
OUR BUREAU
New Delhi/Ahmedabad, Jan. 12:

The Supreme Court today said Gujarat police had been less than
“honest” in identifying policemen responsible for the 2005 fake
encounter death of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, before handing over the case to
the CBI for a fresh investigation.

Sheikh, his wife Kausar Bi and another eyewitness were travelling in a
bus from Hyderabad to Sangli (Maharashtra) in November 2005 when they
were picked up by the police.

They were kept in a farmhouse for a few days after which Sheikh was
killed in an alleged staged encounter carried out by the Anti-
Terrorist Squad led by now jailed IPS officer D.G. Vanzara on November
26, 2005, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

It was billed as a “joint operation” by Gujarat and Rajasthan police.
Vanzara had claimed that Sohrabuddin, a “dreaded terrorist”, had come
on a two-wheeler to kill chief minister Narendra Modi.

Three IPS officers — Vanzara, R.K. Pandian and M.N. Dinesh — and
deputy superintendent Narendra Amin were held responsible for the
death of Sheikh. All four were arrested and are lodged in the
Sabarmati central jail.

“Investigation shall be transferred to the CBI authorities for proper
and thorough investigation,” a two-judge bench said.

The court picked several holes in the chargesheet, saying it did not
reveal the identity of police personnel of Andhra who were with
Gujarat police when Sohrabuddin was picked up and nor did it say what
happened to Kausar Bi.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100113/jsp/nation/story_11977958.jsp

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 13, 2010, 1:49:07 AM1/13/10
to
Deepda Darwaza riot: Plea filed to include 2 BJP leaders as accused

Posted: Wednesday, Jan 13, 2010 at 0529 hrs

The victims in the Deepda Darwaza riot case of 2002 have filed an
application in the Mehsana special court to include two BJP leaders as
accused.

At least two eyewitnesses had named Prahlad Gosa, the then BJP
legislator from Visnagar, and Dayabhai Patel, the then Vishnagar
taluka panchayat member, for inciting the mob to torch houses during
the communal violence. Ayaz Memon, advocate for the victims, said, “We
have today filed the application to include two BJP leaders as accused
in the case based on eyewitness statements.”

Mohammed Hanif Dalubhai, one of the eyewitnesses in the case, had
named the two leaders.

According to the eyewitnesses, both Gosa and Patel were present when
the mob had started gathering to torch a house.

The duo encouraged the mob to go ahead and torch the entire mohalla
(society) and not just one house.

The witnesses further said that Gosa and Patel were also present when
some of the victims’ relatives, later in the evening, went to the
police station to register the complaint.

The witnesses had earlier said that both persons interfered and asked
the police to register complaints only for rioting and not for
murder.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Deepda-Darwaza-riot--Plea-filed-to-include-2-BJP-leaders-as-accused/566868

chhotemianinshallah

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Jan 13, 2010, 5:31:06 AM1/13/10
to
Catholic Council concerned over violation of rights
STAFF WRITER 12:53 HRS IST

Nagpur, Jan 13 (PTI) The Catholic Council of India (CCI), the second-
highest decision making body after Catholic Bishops Conference of
India (CBCI), has expressed its grave concern over violation of
Constitutional rights by some state governments.

The CCI which concluded its 10th general body meeting here last night
passed a resolution which expressed great anxiety and concern over
systematic attempts by certain state governments to dilute the
Constitutional Rights of religious minorities on issues concerning
land and conduct of educational institutions.

"These acts are against the vision of founding fathers of Constitution
and CCI regrets to note that Constitutional history is being
deliberately ignored and trespassed upon," a release from CCI said
today.

http://www.ptinews.com/news/465955_Catholic-Council-concerned-over-violation-of-rights

Sid Harth

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Jan 13, 2010, 11:14:52 AM1/13/10
to
Books / Opinion Web | Oct 28, 2009

Response
Oh, But You Do Get It Wrong!

Wendy Doniger (1) falsely and unfairly brands all of her critics as
right-wing Hindutva fundamentalists, and (2) grossly mischaracterizes
(and misquotes) the text of the Valmiki Ramayana
Aditi Banerjee

Wendy Doniger (Mircea Eliade Distinguished Professor of the History of
Religions in the Divinity School and in the Department of South Asian
Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago) was recently
interviewed in Outlook with reference to her new book, The Hindus: An
Alternative History. In the interview, she (1) falsely and unfairly
brands all of her critics as right-wing Hindutva fundamentalists, and
(2) grossly mischaracterizes (and misquotes) the text of the Valmiki
Ramayana, calling into question her “alternative” version not just of
the Ramayana, but also of Hinduism and Hindu history as a whole.

Doniger’s prominence and clout as a “definitive” authority in the
discourse on Indian traditions and history give her views considerable
significance. For, it is Doniger’s (and her colleagues’) versions of
Hinduism and Hindu history (which are often at serious variance with
traditional Hinduism as practised and understood by Hindus themselves)
that form the curriculum of university courses, line the bookshelves
of the “Hinduism” sections of bookstores (physical and virtual), and
are given play in the Western and Indian mainstream press.

Accordingly, this latest “alternative” history could easily become
known as the “canonical” history of Hinduism, because of the imbalance
of power between the Western academy and the traditional institutions
for learning about Hinduism (which have been marginalized and largely
rendered inaccessible under British colonialism.)

Defamation of Critics

The introduction to the interview begins with a misleading quote:

“[Doniger] has continued to infuriate the Hindutva brigade with her
unorthodox views on Hinduism and its sacred texts, earning for herself
the epithet: “crude, lewd and very rude in the hallowed portals of
Sanskrit academics.””

The quote implicitly attributed to the “Hindutva brigade” is actually
from the BBC web site:

Professor Wendy Doniger is known for being rude, crude and very lewd
in the hallowed portals of Sanskrit Academics. All her special works
have revolved around the subject of sex in Sanskrit texts ranging from
Siva: The Erotic Ascetic to Tales of Sex and Violence...Never one to
shy away from sex, she threw herself into the job of translating the
[Kama Sutra] ... She was particularly interested by the parts that
justify adultery and the list of ways to get rid of a man ... When she
was translating it (over a period of a few years and numerous Sanskrit
classes), she frequently found herself having to take cold showers.
[1]

The misleading use of this quote sets the tone for the rest of the
interview —heaping blame on a nebulous, undefined, straw man “Hindutva
Internet Brigade” for the whole continuum of criticism of Doniger’s
work—criticism that has come mostly from moderate and liberal Hindus,
secularists, non-Hindu scholars and even one prominent Harvard
Indologist who is not known for being friendly towards Hindus. Rather
than confront the actual criticisms, Doniger pretends that her only
critics are Hindu extremists, and by rebuking this “enemy” she tries
to deflect any criticism of her work.

Just as some politicians resort to picking on their weakest critic to
discredit all of their critics, Doniger picks one stray comment on the
Amazon web site to characterize all of her critics—when asked to
describe the Hindu-American response to her book, Doniger exclaims,
“My favourite one on Amazon accuses me of being a Christian
fundamentalist and my book a defence of Christianity against Hinduism.
And of course, I’m not a Christian, I’m a Jew!”

Doniger ignores the prolific response to her work by the American
Hindu community, including dozens of published articles, countless
public conferences, repeated calls for debate and dialogue between the
academy and the Hindu-American community, and a recently published
book analysing the representation of Hinduism in American
universities. It is totally irresponsible for such a prominent
professor, whose career is built on writing about Hinduism, to
stereotype and vilify the entire Hindu-American community on the basis
of the actions of a few.

Doniger’s refusal to address her critics only worsens as the interview
proceeds. When asked why Hindus object to her writings, she
flippantly replies:

You’ll have to ask them why. It doesn’t seem to me to have much to do
with the book. They don’t say, “Look here, you said this on page 200,
and that’s a terrible thing to say.” Instead, they say things not
related to the book: you hate Hindus, you are sex-obsessed, you don’t
know anything about the Hindus, you got it all wrong.

This is a bald lie. The first Part of the book, Invading the Sacred,
documents and refutes dozens of statements by Doniger, as illustrated
by the following:

•“Holi, the spring carnival, when members of all castes mingle and let
down their hair, sprinkling one another with cascades of red powder
and liquid, symbolic of the blood that was probably used in past
centuries.” (from Doniger’s article about Hinduism in the Microsoft
Encarta Encyclopaedia—Microsoft Encarta subsequently removed her entry
in 2004; while we do not know this for a fact, one can reasonably
conclude that Microsoft Encarta came to an internal conclusion about
Doniger’s lack of scholarship and objectivity).
•From a newspaper article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, dated November
19, 2000, entitled "Big-screen caddy is Hindu hero in disguise"
written by David O'Reilly, Inquirer Staff Writer:
"Myth scholar Wendy Doniger of the University of Chicago was on hand
earlier this month to lecture on the Gita. “The Bhagavad Gita is not
as nice a book as some Americans think,” she said, in a lecture titled
“The Complicity of God in the Destruction of the Human Race.”
“Throughout the Mahabharata, the enormous Hindu epic of which the Gita
is a small part, Krishna goads human beings into all sorts of
murderous and self-destructive behaviors such as war in order to
relieve "mother Earth" of its burdensome human population and the many
demons disguised as humans … The Gita is a dishonest book; it
justifies war,” Doniger told the audience of about 150” (emphasis
added).

Doniger may now claim that she was misquoted, but she has failed to
obtain a retraction from the Philadelphia Inquirer.

•Prof. Michael Witzel, Wales Professor of Sanskrit in the Department
of Sanskrit and Indian Studies at Harvard University posted the
following remarks about Doniger's translations to a mailing list and
called her translations "UNREALIABLE" [sic] and "idiosyncratic:"
•Doniger's “rendering of even the first two paadas [of the Rg Veda] is
more of a paraphrase than a translation;”
•“In this hymn (of 18 stanzas) alone I have counted 43 instances which
are wrong or where others would easily disagree.”
•“Note that all 3 translations are Re-translations. Mistakes of the
type mentioned above could easily have been avoided if the work of our
19th century predecessors (and contemporaries!) had been consulted
more carefully … Last point: Looking at the various new translations
that have appeared in the past decade or so: Why always to Re-
translate something done 'several' times over already --- and why not
to take up one of the zillion Un-translated Skt. texts?” [2]
Is that specific enough?

Nor can Doniger claim ignorance of these examples, having been made
aware of them through emails, various conferences, journals and
mailing lists by many people, including university professors, fellow
scholars, and students.

As a scapegoat tactic to discredit her critics, Doniger plays both the
sex card and the race card, without offering any evidence for being
discriminated against on the grounds of her gender or her race:

I think I have a double disadvantage among the Hindutva types. One is
that I’m not a Hindu and the other is that I am not a male. I suppose
the third is that I’m not a Brahmin, but I don’t even get there
because I’m not a Hindu! I think it’s considered unseemly in the
conservative Hindu view for a woman to talk about sex—that’s something
men talk about among themselves (emphasis added).

But her critics have been concerned not with her gender or race but
only with the content of her scholarship. Race and sex bias are the
“cards” Doniger uses to distract readers who are unfamiliar with the
details of the substance of the critiques against her.

Hindu society acknowledges and celebrates any genuine scholars of
Hinduism, irrespective of their gender, race or caste. For example,
the late Sir John Woodroffe / Arthur Avalon is regarded by even the
most traditional and orthodox of Hindu acharyas, including the late
Shankaracharya of Sringeri, as one of the great Tantric scholars of
modern times—despite his being neither Hindu nor Brahmin-born. In
addition, Dr. Klaus Klostermaier, University Distinguished Professor
in the Department of Religion at the University of Manitoba (Canada),
is highly respected in Hindu circles. Linda Johnsen, neither male,
Hindu, nor Brahmin-born, author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to
Hinduism (2002) among several other books, is also highly regarded for
her knowledge about Hinduism.

This respect is not just academic—non-Indian spiritual gurus have been
revered by Hindus as well. Daya Mata (Faye Wright), another female,
non-Hindu, non-Brahmin (by birth) of the Self-Realization Fellowship
(SRF) was highly regarded by the most traditional and orthodox of
Hindu leaders, including (I have been told) the late Shankaracharya of
Sringeri, a great scholar and authority on Hinduism. Similarly,
Sister Nivedita (Margaret Elizabeth Noble), female, non-Hindu, non
Brahmin-born, perhaps the most prominent of Swami Vivekananda’s
disciples, has been revered as a true Hindu saint by many orthodox
Hindus, including Brahmins; so also has Mother (Mira Alfassa), the
Frenchwoman closely associated with (and successor to) Sri Aurobindo.
I could go on with a list of lesser known women of foreign birth who
are equally acknowledged as true representatives of Hinduism. I have
not even touched upon the scores of Indian women who have been revered
by Hindus from the Vedic times to the modern day—e.g., Gargi, whose
open debate with the great sage Yajnavalkya is prominently featured in
the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad.

Moreover, the idea that “it’s considered unseemly in the conservative
Hindu view for a woman to talk about sex--that’s something men talk
about among themselves” is another blatantly false stereotype by
Doniger.

Doniger’s contention that traditional Hindu women are not allowed to
talk about sex is directly refuted by the celebrated account of the
debate between Ubhaya-Bharati and Adi Shankara, one of the great
intellects of the world, sage from the 8th Century CE, and father of
Advaita Vedanta as known today. Adi Shankara was challenged to a
debate by Mandana Misra, a learned and well-known Purva Mimamsa
scholar. They agreed that Mandana’s wife, Ubhaya-Bharati, a renowned
scholar in her own right, would be the referee and that the loser of
the debate would become the disciple of the winner. After debating
for many days, Mandana Misra lost and was about to become the disciple
of Adi Shankara. However, Ubhaya-Bharati then challenged Adi Shankara
to debate her, on the grounds that since she and her husband were one
person upon being married, he would have to defeat both of them in
order to win the debate.

Adi Shankara accepted her challenge. The debate went well for Adi
Shankara until Ubhaya-Bharati began posing intricate questions on the
science of erotics (well-accepted, in the appropriate context, as a
topic of sacred discourse and knowledge in Hinduism). If it was
“considered unseemly” per traditional Hinduism for women to talk about
sex, the official version of the Shankara Digvijaya (accepted as
authentic by the Sringeri Shankaracharya Matha) would never have
mentioned Ubhaya-Bharati’s questioning of Adi Shankara. (Adi Shankara
ended up satisfactorily answering the questions on eroticism, and
Ubhaya-Bharati accepted her defeat.)

There is also the celebrated account given in the Yoga Vasistha of
Queen Chudalai, an advanced yogini, who initiates her husband, King
Sikhidvaja, as her disciple; she tests his renunciation repeatedly and
instructs him on the proper attitude towards sexual union and sensual
pleasure. Similarly, the famous Tripura Rahasya narrates Princess
Hemalata’s initiation of her husband, Prince Hemachuda, into the
secrets of samadhi and moksha. Finally, the Mahabharata recounts the
famous interaction between Arjuna and Urvashi—when Arjuna rejected
Urvashi’s frank invitation for sexual union, she pronounced the
following curse: “Since thou disregardest a woman come to thy mansion
… of her own motion—a woman, besides, who is pierced by the shafts of
Kama, therefore, O Partha, thou shalt have to pass thy time among
females … destitute of manhood and scorned as a eunuch."

As these examples show, not only were women allowed to discuss sex,
they had the authority and scriptural and social standing to challenge
and teach the greatest of sages and the most royal of men with respect
to all subject matters, including sex and eroticism.

Of course, it is unfortunate that the puritanical mores of Victorian
British rule have corrupted modern Hindu society, restricting the open
acceptance of sex and sexuality. However, the holistic acceptance of
sex and sexuality (without gender or orientation bias) inherent to
Hinduism is still vibrant and alive in traditional Hinduism.

In a personal context, I can say unequivocally that despite my birth
and upbringing as an American and my liberal schooling in Boston and
at Yale Law School, my most honest and open discussions of sex have
been with the most orthodox and “traditional” of Hindu swamis and
acharyas. They helped me unlearn the associative guilt and sexual
repression of Western mores. They also taught me that sexual desire
is, in the appropriate context, an integral part of life and that
there is nothing sinful or shameful about it, and that heightened
sexual energies are not antithetical to, but can be an integral part
of, spiritual development for people qualified (adhikaris) for those
types of sadhana or spiritual practice.

In short, playing this race and sex card may be an attempt by Doniger
to elicit sympathy—but this cannot substitute for sound scholarship.
In the traditions of true academic scholarship, Doniger should let her
work stand or fall on its own merits and not hide behind false
victimhood.

Misrepresentations of Valmiki Ramayana

Apart from unfairly stereotyping and insulting her critics, most of
the rest of the interview concerns Doniger’s take on the Valmiki
Ramayana.

The “Interpolation” of Ravana’s Curse

According to Doniger:

Things were added on in Ramayana’s first and seventh book later on.
For instance, in the seventh book we have a story long before the
story of Rama and Sita about how Ravana raped one of the great
apsaras, Rambha ... [Her husband] curses Ravana that if he ever
touches a woman against her will, his head will shatter into a
thousand pieces. So that story is then told in the Ramayana to explain
why Ravana didn’t force himself on Sita despite keeping her in his
house all those years. In the earlier Ramayana, there’s nothing about
this ... This is a later idea that creeps in.”

It is incorrect for Doniger to say that the curse upon Ravana was a
“later idea that [crept in]” to explain Ravana’s unwillingness to rape
Sita. The relevant incident is found in Book 6 (Yuddha Kanda), almost
universally recognized as part of the original Valmiki Ramayana. (It
is the first part of Book 1 (Bala Kanda) and all of Book 7 (Uttara
Kanda) that are, debatably, later interpolations.)

The account is given by Ravana in Sarga (Canto) 13 of Book 6 (Yuddha
Kanda):

Once I beheld (a celestial nymph) Punjikasthala (by name) ... She was
stripped of her garment and ravished by me. She then reached the
abode of Brahma ... Highly enraged, the creator forthwith addressed
the following words to me: “If you (happen to) violate any other woman
hence forward, your head will be forthwith split into a hundred
pieces; there is no doubt about it.” Hence, afraid (as I am) of his
curse, I do not violently put Sita, a princess of the Videha
territory, on my charming bed by force. [3]

There is an account of Ravana’s rape of Rambha in Book 7 (Uttara Kanda)
—but it is the incident recounted in Book 6 (accepted as part of the
original Valmiki Ramayana) that is explicitly offered as the reason
why Ravana did not rape Sita. The effect of the rape of Rambha is
more generic: “[Ravana] felt inclined no more to copulate with women
who were unwilling to approach him." [4]

This is not mere nitpicking—the citation of the rape of Punjikasthala
in Book 6 discredits Doniger’s contention that the curse on Ravana was
a later interpolation interjected to conveniently explain why Ravana
never raped Sita.

Rama as a “Sex-Addict”

According to Doniger, the concept of a “sex-addict” is introduced into
the Valmiki Ramayana by Lakshmana calling Dasaratha kama-sakta, which
she defines as “hopelessly attached to lust.”

It is not clear where Doniger picks up the term ‘kama-sakta’—the term
does not appear upon a search of the text of the Valmiki Ramayana as
given in the Titus online database, which is based on the following
version of the text: G.H. Bhatt e.a., The Valmiki Ramayana, (Baroda
1960-1975), prepared by Muneo Tokunaga, March 12, 1993 (adaptations by
John D. Smith, Cambridge, 1995.)

Further, neither the term nor its variants appear in the most logical
place where Lakshmana would have used the words to describe Dasaratha,
the passage in Book 2 (Ayodhya Kanda) when Lakshmana disparages the
character of Dasaratha for banishing Rama. The relevant phrases that
Lakshmana uses here are the following: nripah vipariitasheha (king
with perverted mind), pradharshhitaH vishhayaiH (who is outraged by
sensual enjoyments) and samanimadhaH (who is possessed of passion).
[5] None of these terms translates even remotely as “sex addict /
addiction”. Addiction is something more than just being overcome by
lust: addiction is a “compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming
substance…characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological
symptoms upon withdrawal." [6]

However, for the sake of argument, I will give the benefit of the
doubt to Doniger and assume that the term kama-sakta has been used by
Lakshmana to describe Dasaratha in the Valmiki-Ramayana. That in and
of itself does not imply that Dasaratha was “hopelessly addicted to
lust.” Kama-sakta simply means an attachment (sakta) to desire
(kama). Kama does not itself necessarily refer to sexual desire, or
even erotic or romantic desire. Dasaratha’s reluctance to allow Rama
to serve as guard over Vishwamitra’s yajna, for example, or
Lakshmana’s unwillingness to be parted from Rama, could equally be
characterized as kama-sakta. To assume it to mean “attachment to
lust” is another in a pattern of Doniger’s ex-cathedra translations in
variance with traditional Sanskrit nirukta (etymology) for which she
has been repudiated before.

It has been brought to my attention that, subsequent to the original
interview, as published in print and on this website, Doniger’s
statements were corrected to carry the following version of Doniger’s
quote on October 20: “Lakshman is the one who actually says it. He
says the king is hopelessly attached to sensual objects. But Rama
himself says (at 2.47.8) that the king is kama-atma, entirely consumed
by kama.” The deletion of the term kama-sakta and the addition of the
new reference is not explained, other than as a "typo".

To offer Doniger leeway that she almost never offers her critics, I
will accept the “corrected” statement—but her argument still fails.
The relevant reference—found in Sarga 53 of the Gita Press, Gorakhpur
version and in Sarga 47 of the Titus database version (mentioned above)
—is part of a scene where Rama reminisces about his father to
Lakshmana during the first night of his banishment from Ayodhya. Here
is the exact reference:

anaathaH caiva vRiddhaH ca mayaa caiva vinaakRitaH | kim kariSyati
kaama aatmaa kaikeyyaa vasham aagataH ||

vRiddhascha (aged); anaathashcha ((and therefore) helpless);
mayaarinaacha (deprived of my presence); kim karishhyati (what will he
do); kRitaH (dominated as he is); kaamaatmaa (by his passion (for
Kaikeyi)); aagataH (and who has fallen); kaikeyiivasham (into clutches
of Kaikeyi).

“Aged and (therefore) helpless, deprived of my presence, what will he
do, dominated as he is by his passion for Kaikeyi and who has fallen
into the clutches of Kaikeyi.”

As with the phrases described above (uttered by Lakshmana in anger),
Kama-atma does not necessarily mean “entirely consumed by kama.” For
example, the illustrious commentary on the Ramayana by Sivasahaya,
Raamayana Siromani¸ gives the following example of using the term kama-
atma in a non-sexual context: kaama aathmaa: kaama - abhishEka
vishayiNi ichchhaa (desiring the matter of crowning) aathmaa -
aathmani manasyEva yasya sah (one who had this in mind)—i.e., “the
king who desired in his mind the crowning [of Rama]." [7]

Falling prey to love (Rama’s description) or being overcome by lust
(Lakshmana’s description) does not make one a sex addict; if it did,
then any of us could be accused of the same! Sex was explicitly
discussed and celebrated in ancient Indian / Hindu texts, as an
accepted integral part of life—discussions of being overcome by
desire, therefore, do not automatically translate into one being
characterized or condemned as a sex-addict. These epithets were
uttered in anger and anguish by Dasaratha’s sons at the time of their
separation from their family and kingdom—the epithets are indicative
of their pain and anger and are not meant to be psychoanalytical
judgements of Dasaratha’s character, particularly in a socio-cultural
context where intense sexual enjoyment was not viewed as a vice—c.f.,
the accounts of Karadama rishi and Devahuti in the Srimad Bhagavatam,
Yayati and Sarmishta in the Mahabharata, and Kacha and Devyani in the
Mahabharata, where long periods of intense sexual union were described
without any condemnation or sense of shame.

In any case, it is not necessary to get entangled into the
technicality of semantics to challenge Doniger’s central thesis, which
is summarized in the following excerpt from the interview:

You also suggest that because Rama is afraid of turning into a sex
addict like his father, he throws Sita out after enjoying sex with
her?

You have a chapter in Valmiki’s Ramayana where Rama was so happy with
Sita, they drank wine together, they were alone, enjoying themselves
in every way, indulging in various ways, not just the sexual act. And
in the very next chapter he says I’ve got to throw you out. So I’m
suggesting: what is the connection between those two things? And what
does it mean that Rama knows that Dasaratha, his father, disgraced
himself because of his attachment to his young and beautiful wife. So
I’m taking pieces of the Ramayana and putting them together and saying
these are not disconnected.

So you are saying his fear of following in his father’s footsteps is
making him betray his own sexuality?

Yes, I am. Or even of being perceived that way.

Note the internal contradiction in Doniger’s position—her
characterization of Rama hinges on a passage found in Book 7 (Uttara
Kanda), and she has elsewhere in the interview dismissed that same
Book 7 as a later interpolation!

In any event, the passage describing Rama and Sita’s “indulgence” is
from Sarga 42 of Book 7 (Uttara Kanda), where Rama and Sita are
enjoying their reunion after Sita’s abduction. As described therein,
during this period of two winters (i.e., two years, although in some
versions, an additional half-shloka is included providing that this
interlude lasted 10,000 years), Rama and Sita would spend the second
half of every day together in Rama’s Ashoka-grove, enjoying heavenly
music and dance and partaking of gourmet food and intoxicating
drinks. Rama and Sita are compared to other divine couples:

Taking in his hand the pure nectar of flowers as intoxicating as the
Maireyaka wine, Sri Rama … made Sri Sita drink it, just as Indra does
Sachi ... Seated in the company of the celebrated Sita, [Rama] shone
with splendour like Vasishta seated along with Arundhati. Sri Rama,
steeped in joy like gods, afforded delight thus day after day to …
Sita, who resembled a divine damsel. [8]

Doniger conveniently leaves out the fact that it is in this chapter
that Rama discovers that Sita is pregnant. Delighted at this
revelation, Rama asks her to tell him which desire of hers he should
fulfil. This is Sita’s response: “O Raghava! I wish to visit the
holy penance-groves and to stay, O Lord!, at the feet of sages ...
living on the banks of the Ganga ... This is my greatest wish that I
should stay even for one night in the penance-grove of those who live
only on fruits and (edible) roots." [9] Rama readily acquiesces to
this wish, promising that she will be taken for a visit there the very
next day.

Doniger claims that “in the very next chapter [Rama] says [to Sita]
I’ve got to throw you out.” This is another totally false statement
by Doniger. It is in Sarga 45 (after two intervening sargas /
chapters, wherein Rama learns of the negative gossip surrounding Sita
and thus decides to banish her) that Rama orders Lakshmana to take
Sita to the forest and leave her there. This is just one more
instance of Doniger’s casual disregard of the facts, unbecoming of a
distinguished professor with a named chair at the University of
Chicago.

Of course, it is the two sargas / chapters that Doniger skips over in
her “alternative” narrative that provide the reason for Rama banishing
Sita: Rama is informed that he is being rebuked by the people of
Ayodhya as follows: “Why does not Sri Rama censure [Sita], who
formerly had been forcibly carried away by Ravana? ... Such conduct of
our wives shall have to be suffered by us also, since whatever a king
does, the subjects follow." [10] The pernicious rumours are about
Sita’s chastity / purity, not about Rama’s excessive lust.

When this gossip is confirmed by others, Rama summons his brothers to
him, and informs them of his decision to leave Sita, providing the
following explanation for his decision: “As long as the word of infamy
circulates, so long one does fall in the lower regions (hell). Infamy
is censured even by the gods and fame gains credence in the
world." [11] It is the fear of losing his good name (as the result of
the infamy surrounding Sita’s chastity by the gossip-mongers of
Ayodhya) that impels Rama, not fear of being chastised as a sex-
addict.

Nowhere is it mentioned that Rama feared he might fall victim to the
“vice” of sex and that he therefore abandoned Sita – this again
appears to be an example of the kind of fanciful creation for which
Doniger and many of her students, now academicians at leading American
universities, have become well-known. There is no connotation of
illicit or excessive indulgence in the description of Rama and Sita’s
blissful interlude together in Sarga 42—to the contrary, Rama and Sita
are depicted as a divine couple with the dignity and radiance of Indra
and Sachi, Vasishta and Arundhati. Rama is full of tenderness for
Sita upon discovering her pregnancy. It clearly breaks his heart to
send Sita away—after giving Lakshmana the command, “[Rama] the noble
one with His eyes closed, taking leave of His brothers, entered His
own apartment, with his heart agitated by sorrow, deeply sighed as an
elephant." [12]

In Doniger’s own words, she is “taking pieces of the Ramayana and
putting them together” to come up with this far-fetched explanation.
But, one cannot play connect-the-dots with various scenes from a vast
text such as the Valmiki Ramayana, stripping out the proper sequence
and removing the contextual background of the critical passages, and
then call it a valid textual interpretation.

Even if Doniger is reading into the text certain psychological
motivations she wants to attribute to the characters, her
characterization appears to be illogical--if Rama sent Sita away
simply because he didn’t want to become / be characterized as a sex
addict, why did he not make arrangements to claim his future heir(s),
whom he knew Sita carried in her womb?

Construction of Hindu Temples

Doniger suggests that Hindus did not have a prominent temple-building
movement—because building temples requires “a lot of money, land, a
whole system of building temples, which the Hindus did not have at
first”—until the Bhakti movement gathered momentum “to organize Rama
or Shiva worship.” She makes a superfluous reference to the fact that
the Kama Sutra does not discuss temple worship—one wonders why the
Kama Sutra would be a relevant reference for discussion of temple
construction, but then one recalls the BBC quote at the beginning of
this note about Doniger’s strange predilection for the Kama Sutra.

This is really the topic for another article, but it is worth quickly
noting here that the Sathapatha Brahmana portion of the Shukla Yajur
Veda, dating back to at least 1500 BCE, describes a special form of
tabernacle, distinct from the Agni-shala of the household, for which a
special fire-priest, the Agnidhra, was designated. Through the
kindling of the fire, the tabernacle became the dwelling place of the
Vishvedevas (all the gods). This is a prototype for later Hindu
temples, where icons replaced the sacred fire as the focus of
worship. In other words, if one wants to be polemical, one can
definitely argue that the genesis of formal temple construction vidhis
– rules and methods – certainly pre-dates the advent of Buddhism.

Further, details of (at least Vaishnava) temple construction, the
consecration of images for worship, and the actual procedures and
rituals for temple worship are set forth in the ancient Vaikhanasa and
Paancharatra Agamas. The Vaikhanasa Agama dates back to at least the
3rd or 4th century CE, and its Kriyaa Paadha discusses temple
construction and image consecration while its Charyaa Padhaa focuses
on the associated rituals of worship.

There are many examples of temples from these ancient times. A few
are quickly identified here: The early phase of Chalukyan temple
building began in the last quarter of the 6th century and resulted in
many cave temples, including a Vaishnava temple dating back to 578
CE. The second phase of Chalukyan temple building at Aihole,
celebrated as one of the cradles of Indian temple architecture, dates
back to approximately 600 CE. Similarly, the Pallavas constructed
rock-cut temples dating from 610–690 AD and structural temples between
690–900 AD, including the rock-cut temples at Mahabalipuram, the
Kailasanatha temple in Kanchipuram, and the Shore Temple built by
Narasimhavarman II.

Doniger’s Larger Narrative about Hinduism

The story Doniger wants to tell about the Ramayana fits into her
larger narrative about the character of Hinduism. Her overarching
narrative is captured in her statement: “That’s why Hinduism is such a
wonderful religion. It’s because people are allowed to have their own
texts … there was no one who said there was only one way to tell the
Ramayana ... And no one would say that you got it wrong.”

Of course, there is great diversity in Hinduism—after all, over three
hundred versions of the Ramayana co-exist peaceably within the
pantheon of Hindu literature. There are no unnecessary battles about
which version is the definitive version—Hinduism does not subscribe to
the notion of One Book or One Prophet, which is the predominant
characteristic of the Semitic religions – Judaism, Christianity and
Islam.

It is misleading to say, in a scholarly context, that just because
multiple versions of a story exist, “no one [can] say that you got it
wrong.” For, there is a significant difference between creating a new
version of a story—e.g., Tulsidas retelling the Ramayana in his Sri
Ramacharitamanasa, which does not purport to be the “original” or
“corrected” version of the Valmiki Ramayana—and offering an academic
explanation or interpretation of an existing story (the Valmiki
Ramayana) that takes liberties with and/or misquotes the text. It is
the difference between artistic interpretation and scholarly rigour.
For a scholar, it is not sufficient to demonstrate that a constructed
narrative or story is possible by stringing together disparate phrases
and passages; rather, a scholar must show why her preferred version is
more persuasive than other versions—why it is a more coherent
narrative or a more insightful explanation. This is particularly
important when the scholar’s preferred version sharply diverges from
the canonical traditions of interpretation. This is not fundamentalism—
this is what it means to be a scholar!

The diversity within Hinduism and Hindu society is one of its greatest
strengths, but the danger of saying that there is no one Hindu
identity is concluding that therefore there isn’t any Hindu identity.
Diversity should not be falsely treated as a lack of unity; to the
contrary, e pluribus unum (from many, one). Actually, in the Hindu
framework, it would be from one, many—c.f., Bhagavad Gita (15:1):
“There is a banyan tree which has its roots upward and its branches
down and whose leaves are the Vedic hymns. One who knows this tree is
the knower of the Vedas.” In other words, from One Truth flower many
expressions of that same truth, from one root of dharma flower the
hymns, traditions, philosophical doctrines and sacred lore that
comprise the tree of Hinduism. Or, to give a musical analogy, within
one scale or raaga, many variations may be improvised.

In concrete fact, unity underlies every instance of diversity in
Hinduism over the eons—that is why, for example, Adi Shankara
Bhagavadpada, spiritual titan and amongst the greatest intellects of
the world established the four seats of his monastic order on the four
corners of India—Jyotirmath / Badrinath in the North, Puri in the
East, Dwaraka in the West and Sringeri in the South—he also installed
Namboodris from the deep south of Kerala as officiating priests in the
Himalayan temple of Badrinath (a practice that continues to this day).

In closing, there does exist an easily recognizable non-fundamentalist
Hindu identity, built upon a body of history, sacred texts and
philosophical and ritualistic traditions that span several thousands
of years. This Hindu identity is diverse and multidimensional but
also internally consistent—a consistent scale, as it were, upon which
millions of Hindus improvise their own variations.

Aditi Banerjee received a B.A. in International Relations, magna cum
laude, from Tufts University, and a J.D. from Yale Law School. She is
a practicing attorney in London and also co-editor, Invading the
Sacred: An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America (Rupa & Co., June
2007)

Notes:

[1] Interview with Wendy Doniger, March 27, 2002,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/asianlife/tv/network_east_late/biogs/wendy_doniger.shtml,
available at http://web.archive.org/web/20020911134952/......biogs/wendy_doniger.shtml.

[2] Krishnan Ramaswamy, Antonio de Nicolas and Aditi Banerjee, eds.,
Invading The Sacred: An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America (Rupa
& Co., June 2007), p. 66. See also Ailes, Gregory D., Religious
Studies: a Global View (Routledge 2007), p. 260.

[3] See Srimad Valmiki-Ramayana (With Sanskrit Text and English
Translation), Gita Press, Gorakhpur (Sixth Edition 2001), Book Six,
Canto 13, verses 4-15, (Volume 2, pp. 266-267).

[4] Srimad Valmiki-Ramayana (With Sanskrit Text and English
Translation), Gita Press, Gorakhpur (Sixth Edition 2001), Book 7,
Canto 26, Verse 58 (Volume 2, p. 769).

[5] Srimad Valmiki-Ramayana Book 2, Canto 21, Verse 3.

[6] See the Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition at
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/addiction.

[7] 'See Sivasahaya,Raamayana Siromani, Parimal Publications, New
Delhi, Volume 2, p. 722.

[8] See Srimad Valmiki-Ramayana (With Sanskrit Text and English
Translation), Gita Press, Gorakhpur (Sixth Edition 2001), Book 7,
Canto 42, Verse 19 and 24, (Volume 2, p. 819).

[9] Id. , Verses 33-34, (Volume 2, p. 820).

[10] Id., Canto 43, (Volume 2, p. 821).

[11] Id., Canto 45, Verse 13 (Volume 2, p. 825).

[12] Id.Canto 45, Verse 24-25 (Volume 2, p. 825).

This article has been prepared with valuable inputs from:

His Holiness Swami Sarvananda Saraswati, Vedantacharya of the Shankara
Advaita sampradaya; Chancellor, Bhartishreepeetham University, New
Delhi; President, All India Quami Ekta Committee, New Delhi; Board of
Directors, OISCA International, Tokyo, Japan; Chairman, Bhajan
Sukhsewa Mission, U.S.A., U.K., Canada, France; Devi Upasaka, Sri
Vidya authority, and orator.

Swami Sanmayananda Saraswati, sannyasin in the Shankara Advaita
tradition, founder of Nallepilly Narayanalayam Ashramam in Kerala, and
ardent devotee of Guruvayoor Krishna.

Bhagwat Bhaskara Sri Krishna Chandra Shastri (Thakurji), renowned
Vaishnavism and Sanskrit scholar from the Sri Vaishnava (Ramanuja)
sampradaya, world-renowned orator on Hinduism regularly featured on
Aastha TV with audiences of 10,000 – 100,000 for his public discourses
on Hinduism (Bhagwat Saptah)—Sri Thakurji is saddened both at the tone
and nature of the contents of Prof. Doniger’s interview and will soon
publish a rejoinder in the media.

Dr. Oppiliappan Koil Varadachari Sadagopan, President, Networked
Multimedia Services; retired executive IBM Research; Kaimkarya Ratnam
and Sri VaishNav Srinidhi, recognized exponent / authority of Sri
Vaishnavism (Ramanuja sampradaya) known for his knowledge of Carnatic
music, author of innumerable e-books on Sri Vaishnavism and diverse
Hindu spiritual topics.

Nagendra S. Rao, spiritual advisor / counsellor (to many, including
me); community resource with a syncretistic Advaita and multicultural
perspective; long-time close disciple of the late Shankaracharya of
Sringeri, Jagadguru Sri Abhinava Vidyatheertha Mahaswamigal; co-
founder and former Director of the Hindu American Foundation (HAF);
sometime executive consultant on global strategy planning with IBM.

Dr. MG Vasudevan, retired engineer; Sanskrit and Ramayana scholar;
freelance writer on the Ramayana, including an e-book on “The Roles of
Lakshmana,”—he has provided many of the citations in this paper.

Rajiv Malhotra, renowned intellectual on Hinduism and traditional
Indian culture; prolific author of scholarly studies on academic
Hinduism programs at leading US universities; founder and president of
Infinity Foundation; appointee to the Asian-American Commission for
the State of New Jersey, where he serves as the Chairman for the
Education Committee.

Dr. Prabhu Shastry, teacher of scriptures and spiritual texts at
Bharata Vidya Bhavan, London; freelance Sanskrit teacher in London.

Sri K. Balasubramanian, Devi Upasaka; renowned practitioner / exponent
of Sri Vidya & Sri Chakra puja.

Please visit www.invadingthesacred.com to learn more about the larger
issues discussed in this note.

Typos fixed with the author's consent on October 29, 10:14 PM

Daily Mail

COMMENTS : Latest First Oldest First

Nov 07, 2009 06:36 AM

115 Apologies to the Moderator. He or she has not deleted my earlier
comments as I thought. I overlooked them. In fact, I see a welcome
liberalness in the Moderator's current policy. Debate has to be frank
and even contemptuous to be worthwhile.
Momeen Rashid
Delhi, India
Nov 07, 2009 04:32 AM

114 AUGUSTUS:

I wonder how you can believe that, let us say, Christianity, is "non-
mystical"? All religions are mythological and mystical. It is unfair
to brand only Hinduism with these traits.
Momeen Rashid
Delhi, India
Nov 07, 2009 04:29 AM

113 AUGUSTUS AAA:

All religions change with social and economic changes.

Christianity today is very far from the versions known in pre-
industrial ages.

Hinduism, too, cannot eternally stand still. Only
people completely without a sense of history would expect it to.

Hinduism needs to meet the challenge of far more aggressive religions,
organised to take over - Islam and Christianity. Like an army that
adopts the superior arms of its enemies to beat them, Hinduism is
adopting some of the traits of Islam and Christianity. That does not
mean Hinmduism will not continue to differ from these enemies. It
will, for instance, remain polytheistic.

So, don't be surprised by these natural changes.
Momeen Rashid
Delhi, India
Nov 06, 2009 08:17 PM

112 As far as intelligent postings go, Ms. Namratha's post is right up
at the top of this thread.

I agree with Ms. Namratha that Banerjee probably didn't read the book.
After all, for a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of Doniger's
views on Ramayana and Hinduism, reading her book is a logical starting
point. However, if the intent were to promote Banerjee's own book then
reading Doniger isn't necessary. Consequently, any attempt at
substantive criticism of Doniger's idea ends up sounding tinny.

Ms. Namratha writes, Hinduism "embodies many contradictions,
oppositions and paradoxes. This is the beauty of it." While Hinduism's
appeal to her seems to be mainly aesthetic, I suspect the Chaddi
intuition is probably right. For their grim project, they need
something more than aesthetics. They need a comprehensive, solid and
internally consistent theology/philosophy that can explain the past,
deal with the present and promise a future for all humanity in
primarily non-mystical terms. That burden Hinduism cannot bear. So, we
are treated to a comical spectacle of history-challenged Chaddis
pushing a round peg into a square hole and deforming Hinduism in the
process.
Augustus AAA
Pune, India
Nov 06, 2009 05:10 AM

111 'firm grip on reality...' blahblahnonsense

Best to leave the delusional padre wallowing in his own vomit
Ajit Tendulkar
Seattle, United States
Nov 06, 2009 04:34 AM

110 AUGUSTUS

Sorry about the typos below.
Momeen Rashid
Delhi, India
Nov 06, 2009 04:32 AM

109 AUGUSTUS AAA:

To my amazement the Moderator has removed a message to you that by any
standars was moderately put.

All I said was that the hullaballoo about Doniger's depiction of
Hindua compsrable way. deities in ways that many Hindus see as vulgar
is understab=dable if we remember that the mainline Indian media
rarely gives the same publicity to thoise who depct the heroes of
other religions a comparably"shocking" way....

That said, Doniger has a right to her views. But so do others about
other faiths, who don't get the same exposure.
Momeen Rashid
Delhi, India
Nov 06, 2009 03:13 AM

108 >>>>you lose what little credibility you have with such calumnious
nonsense....

>>Hurts, does it, when you are paid back in your own coin?

You couldn't payback if you could steal coins...

>>>>all characterising is done on the substantive basis (or lack of) of the protest itself....

>>At least I see no substantive basis for reading Aditi as Hindutva

like the wailing and moaning on imperialism of western scholarship and
blaming the lack of "traditional institutions for learning about
Hinduism (which have been marginalized and largely rendered
inaccessible under British colonialism)" blah blah blah? If that isn't
a tell tale sign of Hindutva response to analysis of Hindu texts, then
I don't know what is...

>>That is exactly the point, that Doniger despite all her avowed claims is actually quite an ignoramus,

Oooom......beammmmmm.....busssssss....there! you said it and the
magical power of your word makes it true! I know kindergartners with a
more firm grip on reality...

>>and thus says the biggest Sanskritist, Michael Witzel

Witzel's criticism is her translation of Rig Veda is
idiosyncratic....but such criticism is lost upon knuckleheads who
don't know the difference between vedic sanskirt and classical
sanskirt...

>>>>The problem is the entire book is an angry rant of people who know very little about their own religious texts and resent the fact that others know more about it than they do.

>>And you say that because you have read the book?

I was providing you with a synopsis of the review since your basic
reading and comprehension skills are quite iffy.

>>Exactly, but one hasn't seen any substantive rebuttal other than whines and accusations!

like the first 12,000 words of her 30,000 word sleep inducing
ventfest?

>>>>what holes?

>>No point trying to converse with one all of whose orifices seem to be filled with horse manure

predictable response of he whose ass has been handed to him repeatedly
on a plethora of issues...
Augustus AAA
Pune, India
Nov 06, 2009 12:08 AM

107 To "Namratha"

>>I have Wendy Doniger's book in entirety,

Didn't realise the book could be had not in its entirety as well

>>and after reading Banerjee's piece suspect that she HASN'T EVEN READ Doniger's book,

Suspect? So the rest of your post can easily be ignored.

>>and is ONLY responding to the earlier interview outlook published. This isn't fair. If she is going to critcize Doniger's work or research, she should read the work, in question (here it is the THE HINDUS) to draw an informed conclusion. It isn't right or ethical to do otherwise.

Oh, wow! It's fair for Outlook to publish her interview but not fair
for someone to point out the stupidities in what Doniger has to say?!

>>Page 509 of Doniger's book, The Hindus, talks about the Bharati Madanamishra episode thaat Bannerjee also alludes to. 520 - Queen Chulala and her husband King Shikihidvaja. Bannerjee in this article makes it sound like Doniger is unaware of these examples - in fact she carefully discusses these in her work.

Irrelevant. In fact, these then disprove Doniger's whines about not
being taken seriously because she is a woman!

>>Doniger's point is that there may be scriptural references to women discussing sex with men, but Doniger's point is that these scriptural refs exist - but do NOT translate into social realities/ socially acceptable norms.

That is not relevant vis-a-vis the interview, as DOniger is whinining
that "Hindutva" crowd doesn't take her seriously because she is a
woman blahsobblah

>>Regarding the 'canonical valmiki Ramayana' and the Rambha-Ravana incident, I have to say that there are MANY manuscripts of even the Valmiki Ramayana out there, with intriguing differences (in one, apparently, in Book 5 (sundara Kanda) Hanuman 'ejaculates' when seeing the beautiful women in Ravana's harem) - is that a scribe's mistake? or an interpolation, perhaps a detail in a folklore/oral Ramayana that crept into the text?

Let Doniger specify what she is basing her fast and loose remarks on.

>>It seems like the writer of this article, - an 'american..educated in Boston' is part of the Diaspora. She doesn't live in India, it appears. Lots of people write about hinduism and come to generalizations - and many of them are Hindus who know far less about hinduism than Doniger does. Just because Doniger is not a hindu or an Indian, others attack her work. This isn't fair. The hindu corpus is large enough to defend or attack ANY viewpoint.

Oh, come off it! What a load of horse manure!

>>Bannerjee is nitpicking on the sex addict front. I think most of us agree that Dasaratha was consumed with lust for Kaikeyi, and made some rather unwise decisions on that front - so what is the writer's issue with? Simply Doniger's use of the term 'sex addict' in characterizing Dasaratha? Perhaps the epic it self doesn't use the term, but it definately comes close. What issue does Bannerjee have with Dasaratha having negative traits? The epic clearly makes him out to be a flawed character. Why does Bannerjee want to whitewash him and not acknowledge his flaws?

Oh, but where is Doniger's textual evidence? First she cleverly makes
up Kama-sakta. And even there, the clear multi-valence of the word
disproves her very thesis!

>>Ram also ditches Sita in Uttara Kanda - so if anyone has to to talk about Sita's banishment, one is going ot have to cite the Uttara kanda. Doniger isn't arguing about an ur-text, or canonical, original, authentic Ramayana - that isn't the issue in her scholarship at all! So she wouldn't have any issues in pointing out that Uttara Kanda is (and this is accepted by most scholars) is a later addition, while discussing the literary characteristics of the same - she ISN'T contradicting herself, as this reviewer suggests.

Oh, but she uses it very conveniently! Why does she not recognise that
it can be a double-edged sword that can cut her too?

>>Lastly, Hinduism isn't consistent. It may be so for the diaspora, but for me (and many others) who live in India, it embodies many contradictions, oppositions and paradoxes. This is the beauty of it. For example dualism and non-dualism (dvaita and advaita) schools of thought both exist in Hinduism, but result in very different conceptions of the universe and of the individual's relationship to God - and you can't get more fundamentally different.

There is no dispute on that!

>>I am Hindu, raised in India and living in India and I think, even if one doesn't agree with all of Doniger's conclusions one has to respect her knowledge and scholarship - which is immense and far exceeds that of many practicing Hindus, including myself.

You are welcome to respect her knowledge, whether or not you are a
psuedonym for her, or one of her acolytes, but please don't tell us
what to do. We'd deal with her on merit.
Ajit Tendulkar
Seattle, United States
Nov 05, 2009 11:58 PM

106 >> Just because Doniger is not a hindu or an Indian, others attack
her work. This isn't fair. The hindu corpus is large enough to defend
or attack ANY viewpoint.

>>This is true. Thanks for writing a sensible post on the subject.

What a sucker and a suck-up!
Ajit Tendulkar
Seattle, United States
Nov 05, 2009 11:57 PM

105 >>you lose what little credibility you have with such calumnious
nonsense....

Hurts, does it, when you are paid back in your own coin?

>>all characterising is done on the substantive basis (or lack of) of the protest itself....

At least I see no substantive basis for reading Aditi as Hindutva

>>This is about proper understanding of texts that are a literary treasure and a heritage of human understanding...people who see these texts as more than that are welcome to their views as long as they don't interfere with the intellectual feast they present to others...

That is exactly the point, that Doniger despite all her avowed claims
is actually quite an ignoramus, and thus says the biggest Sanskritist,
Michael Witzel (which puts paid to all of "Anwaar"'s effusions as
well, since Witzel is no Hindu and far from being a Hindutva
supporter)

>>The problem is the entire book is an angry rant of people who know very little about their own religious texts and resent the fact that others know more about it than they do.

And you say that because you have read the book?

>>Nobody argues with Ms. Banerjee's right to her view point. But the moment she shares her viewpoint in public, she invites comment and criticism of her viewpoint.

Exactly, but one hasn't seen any substantive rebuttal other than
whines and accusations!

>>what holes?

No point trying to converse with one all of whose orifices seem to be
filled with horse manure
Ajit Tendulkar
Seattle, United States
Nov 05, 2009 11:11 PM

104 Namratha,

>> Just because Doniger is not a hindu or an Indian, others attack her work. This isn't fair. The hindu corpus is large enough to defend or attack ANY viewpoint.

This is true. Thanks for writing a sensible post on the subject.
Anwaar
Dallas, United States
Nov 05, 2009 08:23 PM

103 "Lastly, Hinduism isn't consistent. It may be so for the diaspora,
but for me (and many others) who live in India, it embodies many
contradictions, oppositions and paradoxes. This is the beauty of it."

Modern Hindus, including perhaps NRI's and PIO's most of all, are
interested in the devotional, cultural and meditative/contemplative
character of Hinduism as a way of giving balance and spirituality to
their lives. They are not interested in all these intellectual
wranglings about the many versions of the Ramayana or the absolute
correct definition of a particular word or phrase in a particular
chapter of a certain book.
Varun Shekhar
Toronto, CANADA
Nov 05, 2009 08:19 PM

102 " would Vinod Mehta do a piece on the Mallu sleaze movies that
Kerala is producing. I heard that Mallus in gulf offer their wives to
sheikhs so that they win favors from them..."

Mommy, look at me, I'm a great secular progressive. I defend Moslems
all day long, even going to the extent of defending Pakistani ideology
and the Pakistani military's actions in East Pakistan. But I also
ridicule South Indians to show off how fair minded and secular I am.

Good show!
Varun Shekhar
Toronto, CANADA
Nov 05, 2009 07:36 PM

101 I have Wendy Doniger's book in entirety, and after reading
Banerjee's piece suspect that she HASN'T EVEN READ Doniger's book, and
is ONLY responding to the earlier interview outlook published. This
isn't fair. If she is going to critcize Doniger's work or research,
she should read the work, in question (here it is the THE HINDUS) to
draw an informed conclusion. It isn't right or ethical to do
otherwise.

Page 509 of Doniger's book, The Hindus, talks about the Bharati
Madanamishra episode thaat Bannerjee also alludes to. 520 - Queen
Chulala and her husband King Shikihidvaja. Bannerjee in this article
makes it sound like Doniger is unaware of these examples - in fact she
carefully discusses these in her work.
Doniger's point is that there may be scriptural references to women
discussing sex with men, but Doniger's point is that these scriptural
refs exist - but do NOT translate into social realities/ socially
acceptable norms.

- Regarding the 'canonical valmiki Ramayana' and the Rambha-Ravana
incident, I have to say that there are MANY manuscripts of even the
Valmiki Ramayana out there, with intriguing differences (in one,
apparently, in Book 5 (sundara Kanda) Hanuman 'ejaculates' when seeing
the beautiful women in Ravana's harem) - is that a scribe's mistake?
or an interpolation, perhaps a detail in a folklore/oral Ramayana that
crept into the text?

- It seems like the writer of this article, - an 'american..educated
in Boston' is part of the Diaspora. She doesn't live in India, it
appears. Lots of people write about hinduism and come to
generalizations - and many of them are Hindus who know far less about
hinduism than Doniger does. Just because Doniger is not a hindu or an
Indian, others attack her work. This isn't fair. The hindu corpus is
large enough to defend or attack ANY viewpoint.

- Bannerjee is nitpicking on the sex addict front. I think most of us
agree that Dasaratha was consumed with lust for Kaikeyi, and made some
rather unwise decisions on that front - so what is the writer's issue
with? Simply Doniger's use of the term 'sex addict' in characterizing
Dasaratha? Perhaps the epic it self doesn't use the term, but it
definately comes close. What issue does Bannerjee have with Dasaratha
having negative traits? The epic clearly makes him out to be a flawed
character. Why does Bannerjee want to whitewash him and not
acknowledge his flaws?

- Ram also ditches Sita in Uttara Kanda - so if anyone has to to talk
about Sita's banishment, one is going ot have to cite the Uttara
kanda. Doniger isn't arguing about an ur-text, or canonical, original,
authentic Ramayana - that isn't the issue in her scholarship at all!
So she wouldn't have any issues in pointing out that Uttara Kanda is
(and this is accepted by most scholars) is a later addition, while
discussing the literary characteristics of the same - she ISN'T
contradicting herself, as this reviewer suggests.

- Lastly, Hinduism isn't consistent. It may be so for the diaspora,
but for me (and many others) who live in India, it embodies many
contradictions, oppositions and paradoxes. This is the beauty of it.
For example dualism and non-dualism (dvaita and advaita) schools of
thought both exist in Hinduism, but result in very different
conceptions of the universe and of the individual's relationship to
God - and you can't get more fundamentally different.

I am Hindu, raised in India and living in India and I think, even if
one doesn't agree with all of Doniger's conclusions one has to respect
her knowledge and scholarship - which is immense and far exceeds that
of many practicing Hindus, including myself.
Namratha K
Bangalore, India
Nov 05, 2009 04:35 PM

100 AUGUSTUS:

I mean, would Vinod Mehta be equally ready to give space to Ibn
Warraq, a stern critic of Islam and its founder?
Momeen Rashid
Delhi, India
Nov 05, 2009 04:10 PM

99 AUGUSTUS AAA:

The reql problem is not Doniger, who, as you say, surely has a right
to her interpretation of any text, but the imbalance in the Indian
media's presentation of her views.

Her interpretation clearly seems to many Hindus to show disrespect to
Hindu deities. That is her business. But the Indian media is ever-
ready to publicise such writers. They are on the other hand extremely
wary of giving space to those who interpret the founder of Islam in a
disrespectful way.

So you get a marked bias in the way Hinduism and Islam are portrayed
in India. Given that India is a country where the two religious
communities are often in conflict, and where Hindus are also in
conflict with Christian missionaries, this bias provokes anger.

Hence all this hullaballoo.

Let the Indian media be more even-handed in its attitudes to the two
faiths and things would be calmer.
Momeen Rashid
Delhi, India
Nov 05, 2009 10:50 AM

98 >>"Augustus", the defender of paedophile padres on this very site
in the past,

you lose what little credibility you have with such calumnious
nonsense....

>>shows once again why people like him and Kumar are the biggerst supporters of the 'Hindutvawadis'.

as proved by the warm hugs and wishes from such quarters!

>>By characterising all who protest the likes of Doniger as "Hindutva" or "Chaddis" or "saffron"

all characterising is done on the substantive basis (or lack of) of
the protest itself....

>>they actually allow the Hindutvawadis to appropriate all such opposition and claim to be the defenders of the faith, about which they actually have not more than a clue.

This is about proper understanding of texts that are a literary
treasure and a heritage of human understanding...people who see these
texts as more than that are welcome to their views as long as they
don't interfere with the intellectual feast they present to others...

>>The review in the Hindustan Times was of the same piece. It did not take up any one specific instance from the book to show the problems with it, if any.

The problem is the entire book is an angry rant of people who know
very little about their own religious texts and resent the fact that
others know more about it than they do.

>>On the other hand, this article by Aditi Banerjee actually joins issue with the specifics mentioned by Doniger in her interview.

Nobody argues with Ms. Banerjee's right to her view point. But the
moment she shares her viewpoint in public, she invites comment and
criticism of her viewpoint.

>>Frankly, Doniger comes across as just someone interested in sensationalising things for the sake of selling her book. As a strategy, it has been perfectly executed.

Her talents extend beyond deep knowledge of ancient texts and a lively
style of communicating it...

>>Her opponents have played right into her hands. At the best, they would get dismissed as "Hindutvawadis" despite having punched big holes in her so-called "scholarship".

what holes?
Augustus AAA
Pune, India
Nov 05, 2009 02:36 AM

97 "Augustus", the defender of paedophile padres on this very site in
the past, shows once again why people like him and Kumar are the
biggerst supporters of the 'Hindutvawadis'. By characterising all who
protest the likes of Doniger as "Hindutva" or "Chaddis" or "saffron"
they actually allow the Hindutvawadis to appropriate all such
opposition and claim to be the defenders of the faith, about which
they actually have not more than a clue. The review in the Hindustan
Times was of the same piece. It did not take up any one specific
instance from the book to show the problems with it, if any. On the
other hand, this article by Aditi Banerjee actually joins issue with
the specifics mentioned by Doniger in her interview. Frankly, Doniger
comes across as just someone interested in sensationalising things for
the sake of selling her book. As a strategy, it has been perfectly
executed. Her opponents have played right into her hands. At the best,
they would get dismissed as "Hindutvawadis" despite having punched big
holes in her so-called "scholarship".
Ajit Tendulkar
Seattle, United States
Nov 04, 2009 10:07 AM

96 Then we should be as quick to label people red, green, white or
black, depending on what they say. Pejoratively, of course.
Varun Shekhar
Toronto, CANADA
Nov 04, 2009 04:19 AM

95 >>Just because a few people think criticism of Doniger is evidence
of 'right wing Hindu saffron etc' , doesn't mean it is.

Under what objective circumstances would you agree it is 'right wing
Hindu saffron"?

>>Also, since when did 'saffron' become a pejorative term?

Ever since it was co-opted by those who deserve pejoration...
Augustus AAA
Pune, India
Nov 03, 2009 11:48 PM

94 >> since when did 'saffron' become a pejorative term? Saffron is
the colour of the Buddhist monks' robes, for one

It is also the color of some people who believe in violence in the
name of religion mixed with politics.
Kumar
Bangalore, India
Nov 03, 2009 11:34 PM

93 "Second, the link shows others think Banerjee's book is also the
work of the "right-wing Hindutva." game, set & match."

How so? And game, set and match to whom? Just because a few people
think criticism of Doniger is evidence of 'right wing Hindu saffron
etc' , doesn't mean it is.

Also, since when did 'saffron' become a pejorative term? Saffron is
the colour of the Buddhist monks' robes, for one.
Varun Shekhar
Toronto, CANADA
Nov 03, 2009 08:33 PM

92 >>Typical pinko strategy: when they lose an argument, they start
name-calling:

such as "pinko"?

>>Witness the pathetic review of the book in the Hindustan Times that is nothing other than a string of ad hominem and insinuations.

And the safro strategy is: claiming ad hominem (surprised at use of
such big words) is "some great refutation"! The world awaits with
bated breath for your learned safro review.

>>And now by posting a link to that,'Augustus' and 'Anwaar' insinuate and imply as if that is some major refutation!

Banerjee claims Doniger "falsely and unfairly brands all of her
critics as right-wing Hindutva fundamentalists." First, Doniger never
characterized "all of her critics." Second, the link shows others
think Banerjee's book is also the work of the "right-wing Hindutva."
game, set & match.

>>What a bunch of immature and prejudiced losers.

Next to a mature and prejudiced loser like you, I stand in awe.
Augustus AAA
Pune, India
Nov 03, 2009 08:16 PM

91 >>but your twisted,crooked words are very clear to read.

I am afraid I cannot return the complement since your words are very
circular and self-serving on those brief occasions they are clear to
read.

>>you wrote:

I didn't write it. Instead, I quoted from a respectable translation to
show Banerjee's claim that she quotes from a Canto in Book 6 doesn't
appear in the Dutt edition of Ramayana. The quote allegedly goes into
great deal of specificity of "Hence, afraid (as I am) of his curse, I
do not violently put Sita, a princess of the Videha territory, on my
charming bed by force."

So your own translation of "humiliation" for "outrage" doesn't solve
anything. However it is translated, Banerjee shows no evidence that
this sloka was part of Book 6 as written by Valmiki with no subsequent
redactions and Banerjee's alleged quote doesn't appear in Book 6.

As for the passage I quoted, as you noted, it was Ravana speaking. And
he was speculating (perchance) whether Vedavati was born daughter of
Janaka. He doesn't know for sure and neither do we.
Augustus AAA
Pune, India
Nov 03, 2009 04:33 PM

90 AUGUSTUS AAA

YOUR name may not be augustus
but your twisted,crooked words are very clear to read.

you wrote:
“And I was also cursed by Vedavati, who was formerly outraged by me.
And she is (perchance) born as the exalted daughter of Janaka. And
what had also been uttered by Uma and Nandiswara and Rambha and
Varuna’s daughter hath come to pass.”

Read the following sloka.

shapto.aham vedavatyaa cha yadaa saa dharSitaa puraa ||
seyam siitaa mahaabhaagaa jaataa janakanandinii |
6-60-10

10. aham= I; shaptaH= was cursed; vedavatyaa= by Vedavati; yadaa=
when; saa= she; dharSitaa= was humiliated; puraa= before; saa= that;
iyam= same Vedavati; jaataa= is born; siitaa= as Seetha; mahaabhaagaa=
the highly fortunate one; janakanandinii= and the daughter of Janaka.

" I (RAVANA) was formerly cursed by Vedavati when she was humiliated
by me. The same Vedavati is born as the highly fortunate Seetha the
daughter of Janaka."

the word "humiliation" means insulting . Ravana insulted Vedavati who
was conducting a ritual , She was pulled by her hair. She was being
harassed by Ravana for some time before.

She felt terribly bad that Ravana touched her hair , so much that she
cuts off her hair and throws it into ritual fire.
She curses that she would take birth again and in her next birth she
would be the cause of his burning city and his death and then jumps in
to fire and dies.
According to puranic story ,Vedavati took birth as Sita.
But this sloka as I quoted above, is only from the introspection of
Ravana as to what might be his most humiliating defeat in the hands of
simple man RAMA.
(ravana spoke that sloka)
Rakshas Ravan returns from battle field ,terribly bruised,humiliated .
But he was also surprised as to how an ordinary man with one
arrow ,could defeat him.
And then he starts remembering many curses and one of that is above
sloka.
bowenpalle venuraja gopal rao.
warangal, india
Nov 03, 2009 03:15 PM

89 Typical pinko strategy: when they lose an argument, they start name-
calling: 'Chaddi' and 'Sanghi'. Witness the pathetic review of the
book in the Hindustan Times that is nothing other than a string of ad
hominem and insinuations. And now by posting a link to that,'Augustus'
and 'Anwaar' insinuate and imply as if that is some major refutation!
What a bunch of immature and prejudiced losers.
Ajit Tendulkar
Seattle, United States
Nov 03, 2009 11:21 AM

88 Shyamal, whatever the etymology of the word "Hindu", the underlying
reality of what the word signifies or represents is in the here and
now. And that reality is the representation of the divine as Ram,
Krishna, Vishnu, Shiva et al. There's nothing unreal or alien about
that. "Vaishnava" and "Saiva" or Saivite are certainly legitimate, as
words to describe people who revere God as Vishnu or Shiva, as opposed
to Allah or Christ. Thanks.
Varun Shekhar
Toronto, CANADA
Nov 03, 2009 05:41 AM

87 Ganapathy Wrote: >> the oft repeated caste and twice born comedies
not by birth as again started commencing and can any one say who in
history r the lowercastes who became brahmins. is it adisankara/
dronacharya/ramanuja or any of the sankaracharyas till date. kindly
list the temples were brahmins who were born as dalits but became
brahmins or priests.>>>>
Sandy replied:: Ganapathy, So who was Valmiki who wrote the Ramayana
which the Brahmins revere? Was he not from the supposed lower castes?
What about Vyasa who was from fishing community, again from one of the
supposed lower castes?

##The Ramayana was copied by Valmiki from Dasharath Jataka of the
Buddha, whom the Brahmins made the tenth avataar of Vishnu, just like
they had included thousands of other tribal gods into their fold to
reap benefit of preisthood confined to thier class. The word Hindu was
not a religious word. It was secular in origin. Indeed¤ there is no
such word as "hindu" in the entire Vedic literature. The word “hindu”
occurs for the first time in the Avesta of the ancient Iranians. To
start with¤ the word seems to have been used for provinces and the
people in the vicinity of the Sindhu. It is derived from the word
Sindhu¤ which is the name of a major river that flows in the
northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. In the southeast asian
countries indians were known as "shin-tu". However¤ the word "hindu"
was not in vogue among indians until the advent of muslim rule. Until
then it was the outsiders¿ word for indians. It was the muslims who
first began to use the word both in a descriptive sense and a
religious sense. And it was only during the muslim rule indians began
to call themselves hindus. Later¤ when the British established their
rule¤ they started calling the local religions collectively under the
name of Brahminic Hinduism. It is merely a complex and contradictory
body of utterances, writings and mythology. The so-called caste system
is well doped inside Hinduism as a perfect complex network of
interdependent,inter-woven yet separated heriditary, endogamous,
occupationally specialized and hierarchically ordered social groups.
One neither chek in nor check out, but it gets automatically alloted
by birth.Only option is to get rid of Hinduism to get rid of caste.
Thats the uniquness of caste mechanism.
If Hindu belief system expects to emerge as a modern panacea for the
ills of Indian society.. it has to make a concerted effort, starting
with its so-called pontiffs Sankaracharyas,the conservative
Vaishnavite Brahmins and above all,the three spokes of the Trishool:
RSS-VHP-Bajrang Dal to educate their followers,their devotees to shed
their cate appendage, throw away the so-called sacred thread, allow
all castes to produce priests who can perform pooja,allow castes to
inter-marry.The so-called caste system is well doped inside Hinduism
as a perfect complex network of interdependent inter-woven yet
separated heriditary¤ endogamous occupationally specialized¤ and
hierarchically ordered social groups.
One neither chek in nor check out¤but it gets automatically alloted by
birth.Only option is to get rid of Hinduism to get rid of caste. Thats
the uniquness of caste mechanism.

Wendy Doniger'r earlier books like "The Origins of Evil in Hindu
Mythology" published in 1976 deals with lot of such heady cocktails of
sex and perversions in Brahminic Hinduism but her later day
publications are more of a compromise, after she was confronted by a
lot of Brahminic Hindu lobbies in U.S. and other parts of the world...
Shyamal Barua
kolkata, India
Nov 03, 2009 01:51 AM

86 Criticizing and observing the flaws in an argument, are quite
different from 'muzzling'. Muzzling implies attempting strongly to
silence, short of using violence, but not always excluding violence,
either.
Varun Shekhar
Toronto, CANADA
Nov 03, 2009 01:39 AM

85 Varun,

>> How is Aditi 'muzzling' anybody? Neither she nor Malhotra are associated with the so called Sanghis.

http://www.hindustan...Article1-235591.aspx
Anwaar
Dallas, United States
Nov 02, 2009 10:43 PM

84 ADITI BANERJEE exposed the pseudo-scholarship of the self-styled
Indologist / historian. It is a pity this scholarly rebuttal will not
make it to the print edition.
U. Narayana Das
Hyderabad, India
Nov 02, 2009 08:57 PM

83 "Muzzling" -what a joke. Just try having this open discussion in
Saudi, Iran or Pakistan, and that too with a fraction of the detail
( of personages or books) that take place in India. And see how far
you get.
Varun Shekhar
Toronto, CANADA
Nov 02, 2009 08:42 PM

82 "The trouble is, Western academics looking for a fast buck and
academic notoriety think it is safe to insult Hindus, but are
extremely careful to flatter Muslims."

Very astute observation. The Moslems are larger in number, many Moslem
majority countries have oil, and at least one Moslem majority country,
Pakistan, plays a key role as proxy, arms conduit, arms testing
country. Don't look for lofty principles in this grotesque game.
Varun Shekhar
Toronto, CANADA
Nov 02, 2009 08:37 PM

81 "this group of 'muzzlers' led by Rajiv Malhotra, Aditi Banerjee and
others. It seems that the same war between the JNU scholars and the
sanghi writers that is going on in India is being replicated in the
U.S."

How is Aditi 'muzzling' anybody? Neither she nor Malhotra are
associated with the so called Sanghis.
Varun Shekhar
Toronto, CANADA
Nov 02, 2009 05:35 PM

80 Thank you, Ms. ADITI. Wish all these Wendy Donigers who masquerade
as scholars and researchers were as thorough as you in their homework.
More important, wish they had some moral fibre.
Ramana
Hyderabad, India
Nov 02, 2009 02:10 PM

79 Were these books ever meant to be religious scriptures,if so do
they meet the standard of being called so?
Did these books provided any guidlines to bring social changes inthe
society and get rid of many of the prevailing evils?
Take the example of a place Warangal. A village , Wangapad is totally
dependent on flesh trade for generations and they do not have a shame
for it.Did any social worker worked there to get rid of this evil?
ahmad pasha
long island, United States
Nov 02, 2009 10:49 AM

78 >>>>>>>>If foreigners and non-Hindus like Doniger make fast bucks
by putting an obscene interpretation on anything Hindu, then only the
Hindus are to blame.
No well-off Hindu family wants to let their son or daughter specialize
in Sanskrit studies.
There is nothing in the least surprising about that.

Middle class Hindus want Hinduism respected but do not want to make
the least sacrifice to ensure that.

All they are capable of is the throwing of one egg at some elderly
Jewish lady.
Momeen Rashid
Delhi, India<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Mr.Momeen Rashid ,I think you should first come out with your real
name. You don't need fictious name because you are speaking truth
here, first get rid of fear.

Now, as I read in TOI ,I have understood that Intelligence agencies
are particularly going through these vituperative, scandalous,
blasphemy of Gods because Intelligence agencies feel that terrorist
gangs are communicating each other through these blogs,chats,comments
of blasphemy, in coded sentences or double meaning language.

Without motive nobody is going to the tiresome work of
blasphemy ,since it is not pleasant even to their own conscience.

First let the Hindus read their own itihasas RAMAYAN and MAHABHARAT in
English at least let alone learning Sanskrit. So that at east they
will be able to perceive where exactly incidents are misrepresented,
quoted out of context , pulled out of a situation and dressed up in an
entirely different scenario to boost up their argument. A criminal
mind, corrupted to the core , speaks evil language once you feed it
with money.
bowenpalle venuraja gopal rao.
warangal, india
Nov 02, 2009 09:23 AM

77 >>>>>>You are completely wrong. Ms Doniger refused to have a debate
with Rajiv Malhotra. It your high priestess who is turning away from
an open forum debate where neither side can censor each other.

Dear Mr President, Let me first express my warm but belated
congratulations to you for getting the Nobel Peace Prize. While many
think that you do not deserve it, I think that you deserve it more
than several others who got it earlier. I also thank you for
celebrating the Indian festival Diwali in the White House as it boosts
the morale of many Indian-Hindus living in the United States and other
Euro-American countries.

However, I would have liked it if you had sought the presence of a
Dalit Shaivite priest along with a Brahmin Vaishnavaite priest (who
was present with three Vaishnava namams on his forehead, a clean
shaven head and pattu vastram) to promote race and caste equality.

Diwali is celebrated in south India as a festival of lamps because a
so-called rakshasa, Narakasura, was killed by Krishna’s wife
Satyabhama on that day. The Hindus believe that Narakasura represents
darkness (even the blacks of America and Dalit-Bahujans of India were
believed to have represented darkness historically), his death gets
celebrated by lighting lamps.

Indian environmentalists, many of whom acquired their scientific
degrees from the best universities of your country, do not want to
study the consequences of Diwali celebrations and firecracker on the
health, environment and infrastructure of the nation. They all seem to
think that all these firecrackers are meant to destroy Narakasura who,
incidentally, happens to be dark-skinned, like you and me.

http://www.asianage....the-white-house.aspx
B Prabhu
Mangalore, India
Nov 02, 2009 02:04 AM

76 If foreigners and non-Hindus like Doniger make fast bucks by
putting an obscene interpretation on anything Hindu, then only the
Hindus are to blame.

No well-off Hindu family wants to let their son or daughter specialise
in Sanskrit studies. That would only lower their value in the marriage
market. No, they want their offspring to go to USA to study medicine
or computing.

Naturally, that means Hindu studies in prestigious universities are
monopolised by non-Hindus, who sometimes try to sensationalise their
work by claiming Hinduism is all about sex.

There is nothing in the least surprising about that.

Middle class Hindus want Hinduism respected but do not want to make
the least sacrifice to ensure that.

All they are capable of is the throwing of one egg at some elderly
Jewish lady.
Momeen Rashid
Delhi, India
Nov 01, 2009 04:54 PM

75 ". It seems that the same war between the JNU scholars and the
sanghi writers that is going on in India is being replicated in the
U.S."
Anwaar

Windy casts aspersions on Hindu Dieties.So any body criticising Windy
is a Sanghi ? Well you profess to be a Secular .
happy ram ambalvi
Ambala Cantt, India
Nov 01, 2009 12:59 PM

74 >>>Hare Rama Hare Krishna
I would have like to post on the main article, but ....to write here
about Ramayana.

Ramayana has all aspects of faith.

Yoga Vashishta, where Rama goes to Vashishta for sagely advice is the
foundation of Advaita. The surrender of Vibhishana is the like
Ramanujas call for surrender to Vishnu or the Supreme God. Hanuman's
devotion is the true Dvaitic devotion...........
….... if you have not bathed in Sanskrit language right from
childhood. Will write later.
krishnadas
Adelaide, Australia<<<<<<<<<<<<


Your post is one of the good posts I have read here,

where so much spleen is vented out to satisfy the inferiority complex
that one is suffering from being frustrated with one own life.

You have totally omitted Sita.

Swami Vivekananda once said as part of a lecture that if human beings
are terminated from this earth...... and survived only in some remote
island by chance...., even these groups of people would talk about
greatness of Sita.
Such is the intensity of the story of Sita,
due to her unflinching faith in herself, her stead fastness, her
chastity,purity of mind and purpose , her total disinterest in
material possessions of life.....".

Sita has a boon from the God of Fire,
this can burn anyone who even touches her with lust and if that were
against her will.
But that is not important this boon can prove to be a curse,if her own
mind is polluted by thoughts of lust , God of Fire will burn her body
to ashes if she touches fire.

Sita was subjected to extreme torture.

The first one to try to abduct Sita and run away was
Rakshasa Viradha.

Rakshashas are not demons. Though the term "demon" could be used to
describe their actions. Rakshas in many cases were well read and were
devotees of Shiva and to posses what they want they go to any extent.
Simply put they were attracted by women and Gold and hence they were
not "demons" exactly.

In Aranayakanda, in the very first few sargas, Viradha makes an
attempt and lifting Sita up ,he runs for some distance.
When finally overpowered by Rama and Laxmana , he reveals that he was
a devotee of Goddess Laxmi in his past birth(he remembers his past
life briefly when Rama sets his foot on his throat) and due to curse
from Kubera he was now a Rakshas.
He begs Rama to bury him alive and Rama buries him alive !!! , The
boons from Gods, makes Viradha,recover from any wound from any
weapon,so he would not die.

The next attempt is well known because it was Rakshasha King Ravana
who lifted Sita in his arms , exactly the way Viradha , did in the
beginning of Aranya Kanda.

Ravana also was cursed in heavens and now a rakshasha Kinng in Lanka.
He also suffered from greed , the tendencies from past birth, just as
Viradha suffered.

Just before, death Viradha realized his past birth and explains, how
he was very late in attending to a sacrifice for Goddess Laxmi, and
ensuing Kubera's curse, which was performing those Vedic rites.

Now, Ravana knew the powers of Sita, all his ideas were to turn the
mind of Sita.
In his first conversation with Sita on reaching Lanka he was terribly
frustrated, finally says " You shall understand, I can cut you in to
pieces with my sword and eat you !!!

He contrives through a best magician in the world, a trick that worked
but in the end, only tormented Sita.

He contrived a beheaded RAMA, put the head of Raman in a box and shows
this to Sita, personally (along with magician).
Sita sees, believes it was the head of RAMA and lets out a heart
rending cry. She sobs and sobs without any help from rashasha women
surrounding her.
Then says to Ravan, that now he should kill her also, since she wants
to unite with her husband above in the heavens.
Ravana thus , disappointed goes away.
But the magic trick disappears the moment Rakshas Ravan goes away from
the scene.

Next Ravana's son Indrajit contrives another plan.

This time it was a night war. Indrajit lights torches on his chariot.
He makes a doll of Sita, uses all his mimicry gift and he himself was
a magician, well learnt in the arts.
He pulls Sita up by her hair, (a doll) in the front part of the
chariot, and for Hanuman and other monkeys to see, he stabbed her
several times with a long sword. She (doll) cries "Rama ! Rama!! "
sobbing her death cries.
Finally he cuts her from left shoulder to the right side of her
abdomen and pushes the dead body, from Chariot.
Even Hanuman with his extraordinary powers to see objects lost, or
sees them from great distances, with a disciplined and controlled
mind, lost his cool, breaks down.
The rumour that Sita was dead , spread fast. It reaches Rama. They
searched for the dead body, in the din and dan of battle field.

This finally leads to weakness of Rama and falls down in the battle
unable to withstand the onslought of Indrajit with best weapons
supported by hundreds of armoured commendos.
Rama falls down much before , Laxman fell.
Both Rama and Laxmana were as good as dead.

Ravana again tries to change her mind :

He orders the Rakshas women to take Sita, to battle field, to show
RAMA's dead body.

This time, Ravana ,indeed, believed that Rama was dead.
In the battle field , early in the morning,
for Sita's cries and sobs there was no end.

Her guard Rakshas Trijata, with her ugly face, meant to abuse Sita,
also starts weeping.
It was Trijata , who says that Rama seems to be still alive. She finds
that he was still breathing ,though a it was very slow and very low
one.
In Sita's own words, that there was not an inch of space where her
husband's body was not pierced by darts,arrows and weapons.

Thus goes on the story of Sita.

The fire in to which Sita walked finally at the end of Ramayan,
after which she comes back, only when God of Fire Agni, himself
accompanies her back to her husband, who was weeping over his
misfortune.

The story of Sita, survives across nations ,across cultures in spite
of a great difference in the perception of womanhood .
bowenpalle venuraja gopal rao.
warangal, india
Nov 01, 2009 12:12 PM

73 Augustus,

Thanks for the link to HT's review of the book co-authored by Aditi
banerjee. The reviewer says, "You must support academic freedom.
Scholarly debate is only enriching; muzzling is dehumanising." She
seems to specially single out Wendy Doniger as one of the scholars of
Hinduism who is targetted by this group of 'muzzlers' led by Rajiv
Malhotra, Aditi Banerjee and others. It seems that the same war
between the JNU scholars and the sanghi writers that is going on in
India is being replicated in the U.S.
Anwaar
Dallas, United States
Nov 01, 2009 08:42 AM

72 AUGUSTUS AAA:

Circuses are fun. Much better than Masses.

By "you all" I meant the rather dreary, pedantic, unimaginative
followers of the proseletysing Jewish cults called Christianity and
Islam.
Momeen Rashid
Delhi, India
Nov 01, 2009 08:22 AM

71 >>No Hindu who copies aspects of other religions will say that WHAT
HE IS COPYING is inferior.

Of course! thus, inferiority is determined by an ex post facto
decision to copy as opposed to a coherent theory or merit (or lack of
it).

>>We Hindus are too flexible for you all.

little too flexible to withstand a stiff breeze; but who is this
mysterious "you all"?

>>That is why it's fun to be a Hindu: the others are always less flexible, always easy to catch out and make fools of.

I agree flexibility is extremely important...for circus performers!
Augustus AAA
Pune, India
Nov 01, 2009 08:04 AM

70 How nice of the British to go to the trouble of inventing Hinduism
circa 1850 so that Augustus AAA is completely baffled and frustrated
by it in 2009 !!!!

A big hug for you, O British.
Momeen Rashid
Delhi, India
Nov 01, 2009 07:56 AM

69 AUGUSTUS AAA:

No Hindu who copies aspects of other religions will say that WHAT HE
IS COPYING is inferior.

Pick and choose, baby, pick and mix.

We Hindus are too flexible for you all.

That is why it's fun to be a Hindu: the others are always less
flexible, always easy to catch out and make fools of.

Heh heh heh
Momeen Rashid
Delhi, India
Nov 01, 2009 07:44 AM

68 >>Why should Hindus not copy Christianity and Islam if they feel
like it?

Nothing....although copying something inferior seems rather
strange.....
Augustus AAA
Pune, India
Nov 01, 2009 07:40 AM

67 AUGUSTUS AAA:

Many thanks for the reference.

But I do not worry about Hindu nationalists making their case for
Hinduism. So what?

Speaking up for your religion does not make YOU right wing; so why are
Hindus rightwing if they defend Hinduism?

I agree there should be freedom of debate. The trouble is, Western
academics looking for a fast buck and academic notoriety think it is
safe to insult Hindus, but are extremely careful to flatter Muslims.
This is self-interested cowardice. They earn no sympathy from me.

I see no reason at all why Hindus should not unite and robustly fight
to keep India. Christians and Muslims have scores of countries that
are officially Christian.

It's happening whether you like it or not. It's the wave of the
future.
Momeen Rashid
Delhi, India
Nov 01, 2009 07:22 AM

66 http://www.hindustan...Article1-235591.aspx

Here's a review of the book this author coedited....
Augustus AAA
Pune, India
Nov 01, 2009 06:20 AM

65 AuGUSTUS:

As for half-educated twits inventing Hinduism,according to Doniger it
was the British who invented it. Were they half-wits?

May I note that Mohammed was illiterate and Jesus' first follwers were
fishermen?
Momeen Rashid
Delhi, India
Nov 01, 2009 06:12 AM

64 AUGUSTUS:

If certain Hindu schools get more following at any one time, then that
is the right and business of the Hindus.

They may claim to be authoritative. The real test is, what sort of
following they get. In Hinduism, every school claims authority, but,
typically (and maddeningly for Jewish religionists like Muslims and
Christians) they all tend to get along with each other, and even make
a united front against outside Judaics.

Even Nehru, suppoosedly an agnostic, recommends the Vedantic ideal to
India in 1960.
Momeen Rashid
Delhi, India
Nov 01, 2009 06:04 AM

63 AUGUSTUS:

Why should Hindus not copy Christianity and Islam if they feel like
it? It seems very anti-Christian and anti-Islamic to forbid Hindus to
copy thise religions. It is what one expects from the likes of Bal
Thackeray.
Momeen Rashid
Delhi, India
Nov 01, 2009 06:03 AM

62 >>I am not sure what your problem with that is?
>>So what?

Nothing...they should be upfront about it rather than have some
pretensions to more authoritative and scholarly literary criticism.

>>>Even if Hinduism started this very day, it will have to be respected as a serious religion when a billion people profess it.

Regardless how many people follow it, the ideas it contains and their
implications and its internal coherence is of intellectual interest to
me.

>>It has many versions, but its follwers accept a unity in diversity.

If so, claiming to have one authoritative version run counter to
history and facts...

>>Incidentally, what is wrong if Chaddi boys and girls start Hinduism?

because Hinduism has enough problems on its own...without half
educated twits adding more problems to it.

>>And why should Hindus be "right wing" if they speak for their religion?

they can speak....and I can point out why they speak nonsense
Augustus AAA
Pune, India
Nov 01, 2009 05:55 AM

61 AUGUSTUS:

The varieties of the Ramayana may bewilder you. So what?

They are all variants of the same story.

Hindus have a right to their different stories. The fact that it
surprises followers of pedantic Judaic religions is neither here nor
there.

One can question if Americans have the right to call themselves one
nation. After all, they are so bewideringly different.

But they think they are united, and that is their decision.

The fact that Hindus believing they are united frustrates your
missionary hopes of taking over India are neither here nor there.

Hard luck.
Momeen Rashid
Delhi, India
Nov 01, 2009 05:49 AM

60 AUGUSTUS AAA:

Why should Hindus not be allowed to "stich together an identity" in
order to prevent India's takeover by Islam or Christianity?

I am not sure what your problem with that is?

So what?

Even if Hinduism started this very day, it will have to be respected
as a serious religion when a billion people profess it. It has many
versions, but its follwers accept a unity in diversity.

Incidentally, what is wrong if Chaddi boys and girls start Hinduism?
Who started Chtrstianity? Did they not wear chaddis? Just curious.

And why should Hindus be "right wing" if they speak for their
religion? You defend Christianity. Are you "right wing"?

What is your gripe?
Momeen Rashid
Delhi, India
Nov 01, 2009 05:32 AM

59 >>This Aditi bannerjee is an apologist for right wing Hindus

If true, she's a bad apologist. The first alleged misrepresentation is
Doniger’s claim Ravana’s curse in Book 7 was an idea that later crept
into Ramayana. The criticism is premised on an unproven assumption
that Book 6 as we have it NOW was EXACTLY as Valmiki wrote it with no
subsequent redactions AND that there was supposedly a quote in Book 6
relating to Ravana’s curse. Whenever a right wing hindu apologist
starts “almost universally recognized as part..,” one’s skeptical
antennae should go up.

First, in the 1893 version edited by Manmatha Nath Dutt (rector,
Keshub academy) doesn’t even mention the alleged quote of Book 6. The
closest thing is:

“And I was also cursed by Vedavati, who was formerly outraged by me.
And she is (perchance) born as the exalted daughter of Janaka. And
what had also been uttered by Uma and Nandiswara and Rambha and
Varuna’s daughter hath come to pass.”

Buried in a footnote, Varuna’s daughter is “Punjikasthala” and
respective curses by these women. Banerjee shows no proof that Book 6
we have now is exactly as Valmiki wrote it without any redactions.
Based on such weak reasoning, Banerjee claims to uncover a great
contradiction when it actually doesn’t even rise to the level of
nitpicking.

As for the sex-addict claims, Banerjee disputes existence of the word
“kama-sakta.” Assuming it exists, she reads numerous other
interpretations into it. Banerjee seems to allow Books 1 and 7 (in
their entirety) as interpolations while Doniger claims (in the
interview at least) the curse of Ravana was added later to provide a
motivation why he may not have molested Sita while she was his guest.

Here’s an example of Banerjee’s amateurish handling of textual
criticism. She quotes the following translation:

“Aged and (therefore) helpless, deprived of my presence, what will he
do, dominated as he is by his passion for Kaikeyi and who has fallen
into the clutches of Kaikeyi.”

Banerjee’s says, “As with the phrases described above (uttered by
Lakshmana in anger), Kama-atma does not necessarily mean “entirely
consumed by kama.” What about the word right before it? “dominated”?
So, Banerjee focuses on a word and chooses an alternative
lexicographical meaning without relating the word to a previous word
“dominated.” Doesn’t the dictionary definition of “dominated” means
being under the control of?

Then, Banerjee opines, “Falling prey to love (Rama’s description) or
being overcome by lust (Lakshmana’s description) does not make one a
sex addict; if it did, then any of us could be accused of the same!”
If the context of the text were a single lustful incident, then that’s
a plausible interpretation. However, the context is a general
relationship that Lakshmana’s absence can’t counteract. Given phrases
from Book 2 of Lakshmana (who himself was reincarnation of ¼ of Vishnu
via Sumitra) that “king with perverted mind,” “who is outraged by
sensual enjoyments” and “who is possessed of passion,” a non-clinical
description of sex addiction is perfectly defensible.

Next, her discussion about temple construction is as confused and
convoluted as it can get. Doniger was answering the chronological
disconnect between when Ramayana was allegedly composed and when
temples dedicated to Rama began appearing. Doninger claims, Ramayana
became more straight-laced and puritanical with its text being emended
to neutralize ayodhyan suspicions and give a plausible reason why
Ravana couldn’t have had sex with Sita etc. A more raw description of
Sita’s sexuality wouldn’t jibe in a public place like a temple with a
deified Rama.

Next, Banerjee states, “It is misleading to say, in a scholarly
context, that just because multiple versions of a story exist, “no one
[can] say that you got it wrong.”” She’s relating to historical fact
of multiple versions of Ramayana (one version where Sita is Ravana’s
daughter!) and there was never an early claim of a definitive and
canonical version of Ramayana within Hinduism…..that is until the
Chaddi boys and girls came along.

Finally, Banerjee’s ideological motive is laid bare, “but the danger
of saying that there is no one Hindu identity is concluding that
therefore there isn’t any Hindu identity.” Avoiding that conclusion
seems to be the Hindutva Brigade’s ultimate project…. stitch together
a unified Hindu identity (given the bewildering diversity of versions
surrounding just Ramayana) for all Hindus since they feel to be at a
disadvantage relative to Islam, Judaism and Christianity.
Augustus AAA
Pune, India
Oct 31, 2009 11:12 PM

58 Please visit Outlook more often, Aditi(if I may call you that)! I
am happy now.

Ganesan, you'll see all her articles in outlook if you search by
author. An interesting aspect of the reader responses to one of her
articles was the overwhelmingly positive response that she got.
Narasimhan M.G
Bangalore, India
Oct 31, 2009 10:26 PM

57 As long as we have food to eat, we can indulge in reading the
fables of Prof. Doniger and her likes in Indology (who get plenty of
food to eat and engage in what they do). As long as we don't know
Samskrit to understand the Ramayana or the Gita ourselves (and falsely
believe and publicize the fables written by the likes of Dr. Doniger),
some of us will become likewise - shivO BhootvA shivam yajEt, except
in a Satanic sense! The sage of the Mundaka Upanishad would have
laughed off our pitiable Wendy and her likes with this:
"avidyaayaamantare vartamaanaaH svayam dhiiraaH panditam manyamaanaaH
| janghanyamaanaaH pariyanti mooDaa andhEnaiva niiyamaanaa
yathaandhaaH |", viz., "Drowned in the midst of ignorance, but
thinking themselves great and learned, the deluded ones, attacked from
all sides by decay, disease and death and several other miseries, turn
round and round in the wheel of Samsara like blind men guided by blind
men (mantra 1-2-8)." Except here the case is that of a really sick
Jewish woman steeped in zero knowledge of Samskrit and the purpose of
life. We, not knowing much Samskrit or Wendy's childhood, are the real
fools to believe in her "scholarship". This indeed is the pity of
English "educated" India. And the Outlook is apting displaying this
outlook!
Lakshmithanaya
Kasaragodu, India
Oct 31, 2009 01:11 PM

56 Hare Rama Hare Krishna
I would have like to post on the main article, but seeing a lesser
number of posts here. I would like to write here about Ramayana.

Ramayana has all aspects of faith.
Yoga Vashishta, where Rama goes to Vashishta for sagely advice is the
foundation of Advaita. The surrender of Vibhishana is the like
Ramanujas call for surrender to Vishnu or the Supreme God. Hanuman's
devotion is the true Dvaitic devotion. Then for highest form of non-
action towards material desires is the conversation between Rishi
Ashtavakara and King Janaka , Sita's father. Any seeker will find that
Ramayana embodies all aspects of spirituality.

About translations of Sanskrit to English , you can take people for a
ride if you have not bathed in Sanskrit language right from childhood.
Will write later.
krishnadas
Adelaide, Australia
Oct 31, 2009 03:21 AM

55 It's a great pity Outlook India is censoring people like Gyatri
Devi and Augustus AAA who have kept this website so lively with their
forthright comments.

I too am surprised that ANWAAR is not censored even when he uses the
foulest language.
Momeen Rashid
Delhi, India
Oct 31, 2009 01:17 AM

54 Professor Wendy Doniger, just like a fanatical Pakistani muslim,
does not understand Hindu mind and culture. It is unfortunate that she
spent her energy and precious time on reinventing Ramayan and other
legends.
vemuri reddy
ashland, United States
Oct 30, 2009 11:13 PM

53 ---------------------------------
sandilya

Your pains taking response on Wendy's not so scholastic work is
commendable. I found your write up sounding more scholarly than
Wendy's manipulative work. It gave me boundless satisfaction that some
one could challenge Wendy's claims authentically. You are aptly named.
Your insight is very impressive and you have endeared to me . May God
bless you.
It would be interesting to know what Wndy has to say on your
response.
---------------------------------------

** Sarcasm ON **

How dare you can call Wendy not so-scholastic....

You are a evil yindoo...
You upper caste blah blah blah ...
You are fascist to call a Jew not so-scholastic ....
You are racist to call a Jew not so-scholastic
You sexist pig... you call the greatest sanskrit expert evenr to set a
foot on this earth not so-scholastic...

You are a hindu fascist right wing sexist ding dong... How dare you?

You write a note on Internet. You Internet Hindu brigade fascist,
sexists, right wing blah blah ....

** SARCASM MODE OFF **

On a serious note, Ms. Banerjee made a great rebuttal. Too smart for
lowly scholastic left wing rabid commies.
VIvek
Hyderabad, India
Oct 30, 2009 08:17 PM

52 "How can a individual or a group debate and win over irrationality
and immorality ?"

Yes, let's make India into just another Philippines or Pakistan with
people chanting "Praise da Lawd, only Jesus saves" or "Allah Akbar,
Islam in danger". That would be very rational and moral.
Varun Shekhar
Toronto, CANADA
Oct 30, 2009 08:13 PM

51 "just 14% of the votes cast in the recent Maharastra elections -
which clearly reflects the decline in the influence of the Hindu
religious belief system on the people groups of India."

But why is this necessarily a good thing? It could be a good thing if
those perpetuating it are totally inegalitarian, anti-modern and anti-
democratic. Also, the general perception of the RSS is that they are
more a political( rightly or wrongly) organisation than a religious
one. So why would you associate the 'Hindu belief system' with them.
There are lots of people who could represent the belief system.
Varun Shekhar
Toronto, CANADA
Oct 30, 2009 05:06 PM

50 @ Seshadriji

Actually I was expecting you to come up with a great write up to put
Wndy in the dock. But I have not seen any worthy post from You yet on
this topic.
sandilya
Chennai, India
Oct 30, 2009 05:01 PM

49 I deeply appreciate 'Outlook' for publishing this response. Thank
you.
sandilya
Chennai, India
Oct 30, 2009 05:00 PM

48 Dear Aditi

Your pains taking response on Wendy's not so scholastic work is
commendable. I found your write up sounding more scholarly than
Wendy's manipulative work. It gave me boundless satisfaction that some
one could challenge Wendy's claims authentically. You are aptly named.
Your insight is very impressive and you have endeared to me . May God
bless you.
It would be interesting to know what Wndy has to say on your response.
sandilya
Chennai, India
Oct 30, 2009 03:24 PM

47 Ganapathy said: >>DEAR SANDY i was just replying to the lies that
anyone can become a brahmin. whatever stage he reached valmiki and
vyasa remain in the caste in which they were born.that is my point.my
point is caste is determined by accident of birth and all this
sugarcoating of anyone can become twiceborn /gayatri mantra chanter
etc are pure bakwas.caste is like race and a reality which has to be
fought with all available means>>
I agree that it has to be fought. The current caste system is ugly. It
is not what it was meant to be. The system needs to be eradicated.But
it can be done without the mudslinging on Hinduism. Since the
moderator does not want caste to be discussed here. I will leave it at
that.
Sandy
bristol, United Kingdom
Oct 30, 2009 02:32 PM

46 Rama and Sita would spend the second half of every day together in
Rama’s Ashoka-grove, enjoying heavenly music and dance and partaking
of gourmet food and intoxicating drinks. Rama and Sita are compared to
other divine couples:
aditi banerjee
thanks aditi for proving karunanidhi right that according to valmiki
ramayana ram was a drunkard(drinking intoxicating drinks evry day )
ganapathi
chennai, India
Oct 30, 2009 01:53 PM

45 I had pointed out her infamous misquotes, earlier in my comments to
her interview. I gave the actual slokas as spoken by Lakshmana and
pointed her lack of understanding, misquote, and her superficial
knowledge etc.,.

Gorakhpur editions of VALMIKI RAMAYAMNA is too big a book to read and
many readers have complained about it according to company's own web
site.
And it is not an authoritative edition as it is a commercial
enterprise.
There is a very good research done by Sanskrit scholars and they put
RAMAYANA on the internet at
http://www.valmikiramayan.net

I pointed out earlier, in response to her interview, along with her
mistakes, and her lack of understanding for the word "Kama" with an
obvious intention to spread false propaganda and hence I do not want
to repeat.

What I want to point out here is that, "Uttara Rama Charitham"
probably written for the first time by BHAVA BHUTI should not be
considered as part of Ramayana and the fact that Bhava Bhuti himself
explaines that he had taken the characters from Valmiki Ramaya should
settle the matter. Bhavabhuti's Utta ramacharitham is available in
book shops with English translations.
I strictly believe that no discussion should have been allowed as
Wendy herself made clear that book 7 (Uttarakhanda) were later
additions !! and yet she quotes as part of valmiki Ramayana !! what
sort of Sanskrit research scholar she is ??
and no discussion should have been written by you in your arguments,
the fact that he derived his characters from Valmiki Ramayana
settles the matter.

Ramayana is "Rama's journey" and it ends with Rama's self realization
as "himself" the God.

The words like "rape" ,Sita etc., are most disgusting to read or
discuss simply because the central theme, of Ramayana is not
understood by a person like Wendy Doniger.
It was Ravana who first realised that Sita was Goddess Laxmi and that
was the primary motive behind his idea of "stealing" Sita.
Otherwise there was no reason for Ravana to take such a great risk to
his life. The primary motivation for Ravana Brahma was not revenge
against Rama or that of his lust or that of Sita's beauty.
Sundara Kanda makes it clear that Ravana's wife Mandodari also was as
much beautiful if not more beautiful than Sita.
As witnessed by Hanuman inside Ravana's palace, he had plenty of most
beautiful women in his palace chambers sleeping semi-naked, after
probably drinking wine.

Ravana ,considered to have written SamaVeda and a Shiva's devotee ,
wanted to be richest in all the worlds by possessing Laxmi herself ,
is the central idea of his part of Ramayana.
That Ravana was a greedy person., his terrible desire for material
wealth and possession was the crucial factor dictating his behaviors
should be understood, by anyone who diligently reads Ramayana.

As we read Puranas we become clear that it was NOT for the first time
that Vishnu lost his wife, or she was "stolen", and not for first time
we read about how he searched for her, in all the three worlds !!!,
Actually these three worlds are: conscious, sub conscious, super
conscious states one's own being;.
the word for example "thripurantha kaya" does not mean Lord Shiva goes
to Tripura in north east of India every time you chant his "Rudram"
and destroys it , or you are praying for it.

The moral of Ravana's failure also tells us that no one can really
possess heavenly wealth .
That is the reason, that "Uttra Rama Charitha" ,which was written some
time in 1st century A.D. by Bhavabhuti, who explained that he took the
characters from Valmiki Ramayana , should never be considered as part
of Valmiki Ramayana and a discussion should never ensue on it,whatever
style later scholars injected to suit the style,slokas of Valmiki's
RAMAYANA.

Wendy's misquotes could not be construed as another version of
Ramayana. A misquote is a misquote and not a version of Ramayana !!!

So, Wendy Doniger took so many cold baths while reading Kama Sutra???
I do not know that. But what I can with certain accuracy can tell is
that she did not understand even Vatsyana's Kama Sutra at all,let
alone Ramayana or even Bhagavad Gita .

Why Kama Sutra survived if it is simply about sex postures ?? since
that does not pertain to subject under discussion I do not want to
write on Kama Sutra here for the benefit of Wendy.
bowenpalle venuraja gopal rao.
warangal, india
Oct 30, 2009 11:01 AM

44 typo:
People who read Outlook hardcopy will not be able to see this
rebuttal.
Kiran Bagachi
mumbai, India
Oct 30, 2009 10:58 AM

43 Akil,

Don’t rush to thank Outlook so soon. Please note that Wendy's
interview was published in the print edition where as the rebuttal is
published only on this site. Manu who read Outlook hardcopy will not
be able to see this rebuttal.
Kiran Bagachi
mumbai, India
Oct 30, 2009 10:34 AM

42 B Prabhu from Mangalore, India said:

"I am certain that neither the RSS nor these so called ' illuminaries
' will turn up for this debate. How can a individual or a group debate
and win over irrationality and immorality ?"

You are completely wrong. Ms Doniger refused to have a debate with
Rajiv Malhotra. It your high priestess who is turning away from an
open forum debate where neither side can censor each other.
Malavika
san jose, United States
Oct 30, 2009 09:50 AM

41 An excellent and well researched rebuttal by ADITI. Thank YOU
OUTLOOK for publishing it. Doniger wouldn't dare to write the way she
has written about RAM and SITA, denigrating respected religious
figures in CHRISTIANITY or ISLAM, because she would have faced "threat
to her life" and streets the world over would have gone up in flames.
Akil
Bangalore, India
Oct 30, 2009 08:22 AM

40 I strongly believe that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( RSS )
should ask Wendy Doniger to participate in a nationally televised
debate on the content of her book . For there is a lot at stake for
the RSS in the emerging India - it's political arm the BJP managed to
get just 14% of the votes cast in the recent Maharastra elections -
which clearly reflects the decline in the influence of the Hindu
religious belief system on the people groups of India. The RSS can
assemble all the ' illuminaries ' referenced in this article by Aditi
Banerjee to participate in this nationally televised debate with the
sole Wendy Doniger - to shore up their fortunes by debates and not by
communal genocide as happened in Gujarat and in Babri masjid
demolition. I am certain that neither the RSS nor these so called '
illuminaries ' will turn up for this debate. How can a individual or a
group debate and win over irrationality and immorality ?
B Prabhu
Mangalore, India
Oct 30, 2009 07:57 AM

39 I was particularly dissappointed with Professor's Doniger's
statement about the significance of Bhagavad-Gita in Hindu Theology.
For the past twenty years, I have been a student of commentaries on
Bhagavad Gita by Hindu theologians, and I disagree with her comments
on Gita highlighted below:

"The Gita has always been well-known and well-loved in Hinduism but it
is by no means the most important book for most Hindus for most of
Hindu history. Most Hindus have other books that were important to
them than the Gita like the Upanishads, the Puranas, Tulsidas’s and
Kamban’s Ramayana. But the British loved the Gita—it was the first
book to be translated from Sanskrit to English. And ever since the
British period, many Hindus have believed that the Gita is their most
important book. It has become a very important book but it was made
central. "

It is absurd to say that only in recent years (and because of the
influence of the British), Hindus have placed Gita as a central piece
of theology. Professor Doniger may want to read the introduction by
Sri Shankara Charya himself in his commentary on Bhagavad-Gita. Here
is a translation of some of the writings of Sri Shankara Charya in the
introductory chapter [translated by Swami Gambhirananda] .

""This scripture called the Gita, which is such, is the collection of
the quintessence of all the teachings of the Vedas, and its meaning is
difficult to understand." .....

"This scripture, viz the Gita, while particularly revealing the
twofold dharma having Liberation (Moksha) as its goal and the supreme
Reality, Brahman, called Vasudeva, as its subject-matter, comes to
have a special purpose (prayojana), relationship (sambhandha) , and
subject matter (vishaya). Since from a clear knowledge of its purport
all the human ends become fulfilled, therefore an effort being made by
me to expound it." ......

Moreover, Sri Shakara Charya (historians place him in seventh to
eighth century CE) alludes to the fact that he is not the first one to
write a commentary on the Gita.

"Finding that although its words, meanings of words, meanings of
sentences and arguments have been expounded by many for the sake of
discovering its import, still because of the multiplicity and extreme
contradictoriness of the expositions it is not comprehended by people,
I shall explain it briefly with a view to determining its meaning
distinctly."

Claiming that Bhagavad-Gita became the central piece of Hindu theology
because of some British or European influence is analogous to claiming
that Indians took interest in number theory because British brought
the western university system to India!

Mysore N. Prakash, Ph.D.,
Author, "The Courtesan and the Sadhu, A Noveal about Maya, Dharma, and
God"
www.dharmavision.com
Mysore N. Prakash
Dallas, United States
Oct 30, 2009 07:45 AM

38 It is a very well commented article about how a person can totally
mislead student community and put a black-eye on a religion without
studying to the depth. These academic studies of religions are
undoubtedly done by reading other peoples writing. The knowledge of
original scripts and context of the scripts are not understood to the
extent of following the steps. Several times, even for head of a Mutt,
it gets difficult to explain every aspect of the believes. If someone
reads 3rd or 4th translation/interpretation of a religion this is what
happens.

Thanks to Aditi for explaining several controversial statements in the
work.
sathya
Dallas, United States
Oct 30, 2009 07:38 AM

37 Aditi deserves more.At least she is clear,precise and transparent
in her thoughts and aware of what she is writing.I am not supporting
her because she is defending anything but because she has satisfied
those who are unwary of the evil designs of the so called Sanskrit
scholars like Wendy.
vijay
Bangalore, India
Oct 30, 2009 02:59 AM

36 Moderator's Note: Please read the comments policy. Thank you.
gayatri devi
delhi, India
Oct 30, 2009 01:13 AM

35 Moderator's Note: Please refrain from personal attacks and abuse.
Please read the comments policy. Thank you.
VIvek
Hyderabad, India
Oct 30, 2009 12:09 AM

34 Moderator's Note: Please refrain from personal attacks and abuse.
Please read the comments policy. Thank you.
Augustus AAA
Pune, India
Oct 29, 2009 10:18 PM

33 Moderator's note: Here's a request: if you really wish to discuss
caste, please find the right thread for it. Perhaps this:
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?213165

Please use this thread only for feedback to the article under
question. Thank you.

***

DEAR SANDY i was just replying to the lies that anyone can become a
brahmin. whatever stage he reached valmiki and vyasa remain in the
caste in which they were born.that is my point.my point is caste is
determined by accident of birth and all this sugarcoating of anyone
can become twiceborn /gayatri mantra chanter etc are pure bakwas.caste
is like race and a reality which has to be fought with all available
means.

ganapathi
chennai, India
Oct 29, 2009 10:17 PM

32 Moderator's note: Please keep your responses topical. Thank you.
v.seshadri
chennai, india
Oct 29, 2009 08:04 PM

31 Ganapathy,
Valmiki and Vyasa were above Brahmins. I really don't know how to make
you understand the difference between a sage and an ordinary Brahmin.
Sages are considered equal to God. Why would Vyasa and Valmiki want to
become an ordinary Brahmin? Their writings are revered and used as
prayers by ordinary Brahmins. Valmiki and Vyasa are from supposed
lower castes. Rama was a Kshatriya, Krishna was from the current OBC
community. Siva is sometimes referred as Chandala(considered as Dalit
today). We have people from all castes as Sages/ Gods. Do you know
that according to the scriptures, Brahmins are not supposed to earn
any money? They are supposed to beg for food, that too only from 5
houses in a day. Since Brahmins’ job was to worship God for the whole
community, it is considered as their right to beg for food for
subsistence. No wonder that our Puranas are full of stories of
destitute Brahmins including Krishna’s friend Sudama. Even the
Sankaracharya, who was a Brahmin used to follow the same principle. I
agree that later, Brahmins used their knowledge of the scriptures to
their advantage and started enjoying all privileges. But your hatred
towards Brahmins defies all logic
Sandy
bristol, United Kingdom
Oct 29, 2009 07:14 PM

30 It is the fear of losing his good name (as the result of the infamy
surrounding Sita’s chastity by the gossip-mongers of Ayodhya) that
impels Rama, not fear of being chastised as a sex-addict.
it sounds like jagdish tytler worried about being implicated in
antisikh riots.for me its better if he felt its better to leave his
wife as being a ruler he cannot be so much addicted to sita which will
result in less time for governance(the pracharaks too dont marry and
its no surprise their hero felt the same about sex).we have people who
praise kamaraj rule which happened 50 yrs back as great and without
faults while in reality it may be different if u research. the same
with the saying that bihar was the best administered state till lalu
spolied it and it was flowing milk and honey in uttarpradesh under
pant and tiwaris and mayawathi has spolied it.we have hundreds of
mishras who write mayawathi puranas like a valmiki writing
ranmpurana.both has to be taken with a pinch of salt.if mishras views
of mayawathi is sacrosanct than one can agree with the pure gold
maryada purushottam comedies.
valmiki was not converted to a brahmin nor vyasa became a brahmin.if
becoming brahmins was not by birth than how come they are not
brahmins.who r the brahmins in history who were born in lower castes
but because of their knowledge and saying gayatri mantra became
mantra.was it the same for rajputs too.its surprising that people can
be so naive.
who is the authority on ramayana and if anyone in this forum names
someone kindly clarify why.its a interesting story with several
authors over thousands of yrs presenting them to the taste of their
audiences.
ganapathi
chennai, India
Oct 29, 2009 06:12 PM

29 Thank you for providing such a well-researched follow-up to Ms.
Doniger's interview. You have done us all a great favour.
Raveesh Varma
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
Oct 29, 2009 05:10 PM

28 Aditi has written a wonderful response, but at times it tends to be
on the personal brigade. I assume she is not patrt of the internet
Hindutvadi brigade that keeps rioting on keyboards!! At some point in
the article, Aditi too seems to join the internet Hindutva mobsters
which plague every discussion forum and every news site!!
However, all in all a good response. Cheers !!
Amit
A, India
Oct 29, 2009 04:54 PM
27 in my previous post I
meant national integration. sorry for the typo.
Sandy
bristol, United Kingdom
Oct 29, 2009 04:52 PM

26 Ganapathy Wrote: >>>>there were arguments that a doctor is needed
to treat the patients but making only kerala brahmin doctors fit to
work in aiims is nothing but absolute reservation(may be divine
reservation).the oft repeated caste and twice born comedies not by
birth as again started commencing and can any one say who in history r
the lowercastes who became brahmins. is it adisankara/dronacharya/
ramanuja or any of the sankaracharyas till date. kindly list the
temples were brahmins who were born as dalits but became brahmins r
priests.>>>>
Ganapathy, So who was Valmiki who wrote the Ramayana which the
Brahmins revere? Was he not from the supposed lower castes? What about
Vyasa who was from fishing community, again from one of the supposed
lower castes? What Brahmin unity are you talking about? It is
unfortunate that you fail to see national inegration in establishing
Mutts in furthest corners of India. According to you Sankaracharya
wanted reservation for Brahmins from Kerala all over India? For God's
sake, it is a Mutt-a spiritual centre, not the Parliament. As I
explained before and given more clarity by V.Sheshadri from Chennai,
becoming(not by birth) a Brahmin is mandatory for becoming a Hindu
priest. All these allegations will fade away, once the so called
Daliths start becoming head priests in main temples. Unfortunately,
these sections of the society are injected with so much anti Hindu
Venom now a days that few people among them want to learn Vedanta.

A welcome change is happenning in Kerala though. From the 'Thanthra
Vidya Peetam', many people from all sections of Hindus are becoming
priests. But then, who would want to become Brahmin now a days? One of
my friends who is a Brahmin, was lamenting about how he was struggling
to find a match as nobody wanted to marry him since he was a Priest.
He has to wake up early morning in 'Brahma muhoortham-3.30 am' start
the pooja, which continues till 11.30am. Then again at 3.30pm till
8pm. He goes to bed at 9pm to wake up early. All this for 3000 RS a
month! Still, he considers himself lucky as some of his friends are
getting less than that.
Sandy
bristol, United Kingdom
Oct 29, 2009 03:49 PM

25 its comical to see aditi using the negative points to defend
diversity of hinduism by pointing to the facts that namboodiris from
kerala r the chief priests in distant badrinath.this was meant for
pure brahmin supremacy and brahmin unity and nothing to do with hindu
unity.when it comes to untouchability and orthodoxy namboodiris are
unrivalled and by making absolute reservation for them adisankara can
be called the father of reservation policy.
there were arguments that a doctor is needed to treat the patients but
making only kerala brahmin doctors fit to work in aiims is nothing but
absolute reservation(may be divine reservation).the oft repeated caste
and twice born comedies not by birth as again started commencing and
can any one say who in history r the lowercastes who became brahmins.
is it adisankara/dronacharya/ramanuja or any of the sankaracharyas
till date. kindly list the temples were brahmins who were born as
dalits but became brahmins r priests.
this is a very subjective topic and its funny to see concrete denials/
rebuttals and i find none in this artcle which strongly denies the
points of wendy.i have read some parts of ramayana translations of
valmiki ramayana and it says rama had may wives and sita was one among
them.its a story which keeps changing with evry author to suit their
audiences.the current refined victorian moral vegetarian groups now
paint rama was never a sex maniac. tomorrow menaka gandhi will come
with sanskrit translation of ramayana quoting rama was a pure
vegetarian(she may allow milk was drunk by him because her main
audience will be upset if she says its nonvegetarian)and since it
suits the b---n lobby it will become authentic supported by all
acharyas and any different opinion will be derided.
ganapathi
chennai, India
Oct 29, 2009 01:26 PM

24 upekha = ignore / be indifferent. And, they will die a natural
death.
Gopi Maliwal
If I am right it is 'Upeksha' not upekha.
sandilya
Chennai, India
Oct 29, 2009 01:09 PM

23 Aditi Banerjee- thank you for the rather enlightening rebuttal to
Wendy Doniger's rantings.
One always had a nagging suspicion that the so called experts on
religions, based in the universities of the West, have views and
opinions that are far fetched and indeed far removed from reality.Your
educated remarks about the studies of Hinduism by Wendy Doniger and
her ilk have indeed shed light on the absolutely cavalier approach
followed by these so called doctors of Divinity.That these dubious
writings are actually the foundation for research in religious studies
by students and scholars, is an absolute shocker. It was indeed an
unfortunate day for India when Wendy doniger and her ilk decided to
take up the study of Sanskrit and Vedic texts.Religion and emotion
indeed go together and the two play a major role in making the
follower a believer.Wendy, by her own admission refers to herself as a
Jew - making her a pure translator of text in sofar as her so called
expertise in Vedic studies goes.In the way, a person with rich
vocabulary does not necessarily become a good writer, mere knowledge
of the Sanskrit language and script does not make Wendy an expert in
Vedic studies.
Wendy's superficiality and lack of depth comes through in her
especially puerile responses to questions.
We can only bemoan the strokes of fate that have led to America's
rather lethal contributions to the world at large - weapons of mass
destruction, the MBA program and the Divity programs.---- the latter
two being slow killers.
Shiv Adiseshan
Chennai, India
Oct 29, 2009 11:52 AM

22 Wendy has used many words to say many things in a hefty book.
I find it interesting because of the compendium it has become.
As for her views, as of any other author and scholar, they come to us
through a prism of her prejudices and biases.

Interesting exercise in toto.
Bindu Tandon
Mumbai, India
Oct 29, 2009 11:27 AM

21 >She is not a Periyar trashing Hinduism nor a Spencer >trashing
Islam. In spite of the errors and the >controversies, she is well
within the ambit of >academia.

just because you have a degree and have written a couple of books
doesn't make you a scholar. wendy doniger has for long attracted too
many criticisms from too many reputable quarters, for her to be really
considered a scholar. a sensationalist is more like it.
nandakumar
chennai, india
Oct 29, 2009 11:24 AM

20 Only (A)vivekis can accept crap as Ramayan scholarship of someone
who does't have even basic knowledge of Sanskrit (another "eminent"
expert - Ms Thapr who, according to Madhu Kishwar, can not read any
Indian language and still pretends to be THE expert on ancient India)!
That reminds me of a comment by sri Aurobindo that why should Hindus
not put more weight on Dayanand than translations by some motivated
Englishmen. Here, it is not even translation but use of translations!
What Hindus should do to the like of WD is follow Patanjali's advice
about Apunyas (unvirtuous) - upekha = ignore / be indifferent. And,
they will die a natural death.
Gopi Maliwal
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Oct 29, 2009 09:10 AM

19 Sandy:>>” anyone can become Brahmin. It is true that this concept
got associated with birth in the later stages of Hinduism. This has
changed a lot now. In kerala, at 'Thanthravidyapeetam', Mantras are
taught to students by people who were not born as Brahmins. Anyone who
learns Vedas and lead a Vedic lifestyle is a Brahmin”.

I am in agreement with you. The very fact that only those who took
gayatri, they alone, thereafter, were called dvijas, twice-born,
indicates that all humans were considered only born equally as NBs
only in Hinduism, including the off-spring of yagjnopaveetins also.
Taking gayatri was only optional, for pursuing a spiritual co-segment
in life, useful for enhancing the professional achievements of
knowledge-based occupations, like teaching, research, medicine, law,
mgmt etc., to benefit by intuitive in-lighten-ments from sun light’s
nano-wave contents. True for all castes, creeds, even these days.

yasmin api mate kaashTe jaato jigjnaasur aastikah
[whatever the born creed, caste; the knowlgde-seeking god-believers]
upa-veetas-tu gaayatryaam dvijo braamhaNa ucyate.
[brought into gayatri chanting, become twice-born god-minded
spirituals]

Strongly vegetarian habits do amplify the realizn of full spiritual
benefits from gaayatri-mentations.
Proclaimed by sage vasishTa, ram’s guru, himself.
v.seshadri
chennai, india
Oct 29, 2009 08:04 AM

18 Gaurav,

>> re: Hinduism the Jew Wendy Doniger...

Her Jewishness is not relevant. She has to be accepted as a scholar
even if she may have made errors and may be somewhat paranoid about
the right-wing Hindutva fundamentalists. Some of her critics may be
moderate and sober Hindus, but the vast majority, especially the most
vitriolic ones, are Hindutvadis as can be seen from the posts in this
forum. She is not a Periyar trashing Hinduism nor a Spencer trashing
Islam. In spite of the errors and the controversies, she is well
within the ambit of academia.
Anwaar
Dallas, United States
Oct 29, 2009 07:00 AM

17 Moderator's Note: Please refrain from personal attacks and abuse.
Please read the comments policy. Thank you.
aravindan neelakandan
Nagercoil, India
Oct 29, 2009 05:43 AM

16 Wendy Doniger is made to look like the filmi Lalita Pawar among
scholars.
gajanan
Sydney, Australia
Oct 29, 2009 04:53 AM

15 A well reasoned, hard-hitting response. More than Doniger really
deserves but useful nonetheless for many Hindus may not be aware of
some of the details. I certainly learned something.

Well done, Aditi!
sanjay
boston, USA
Oct 29, 2009 04:11 AM

14 Undue importance is given to Western scholars by the Indian media.
Two points should be noted about Wendy Doniger: she does not know
Sanskrit; and she is obsessed with sex almost to a pathological
degree. Her claim of being a Jew is questionable. she used to call
herself O'Flaherty, an Irish Catholic name. It is also irrelevant.
What matters is her scholarship which is based entirely on highly
whimsical readings of translations and not original texts.
N.S. Rajaram
Bangalore, India
Oct 29, 2009 04:05 AM

13 the common thread in all these gratuitous insults to non Judeo -
Christian religions are the Jews. That was the case for the infamous
Danish cartoons ( Flemings Rose is a Jew ) as is the case with these
disrectful, throwway "scholarship" re: Hinduism the Jew Wendy Doniger.
It is merely an expression of the power they have garnered by
exploiting their real and inflated persecution at the hands of
Christian Europe and the Nazis. Hindus should take note that Christian
America too is sufferinga t the hands of Jew. Most of the Hollywood
pornographers, Wall St. scammers and Insurance manipulators are Jews.
Gau_Rav1
nowhereland, Japan
Oct 29, 2009 04:04 AM

12 Instead of

"...that their representation"

please read;

"...that their representation is problematic"
Ajit Tendulkar
Seattle, United States
Oct 29, 2009 04:02 AM

11 Momeen Rashid, I like the Muslim names you choose in your various
avatars, which is fitting enough in a discussion about the various
versions of Ramayana. I am afraid Anwaar's reasons for agreeing are
only because he is a wuss and he likes to pretend that he is
consistent when it comes to Islam as well. He is as regressive as it
comes when it comes to representation of religions and will start
screaming blue murder if we as much as talk about the right of Danish
newspapers to publish those cartoons.

On the more serious question of Dalits, I think they have all the
right in the world to protest whichever way they want: that they are
not included, that their representation. Also, despite all that this
piece argues, the fact remains that our mythologies do have much to
upset women and the underprivileged. Sita is not the only one wronged
in Ramayana and Mahabharata too has its own share of problems with
Eklavya and Krishna's chaalupanti in general. The more interesting
point, though, is that our texts actually do provide enough complexity
and nuance and scope for reinterpretation for all sorts of peopole to
find the meanings they are looking for.
Ajit Tendulkar
Seattle, United States
Oct 29, 2009 03:51 AM

10 I must admit ANWAAR is right for once. I can agree with him that
the values of a religion are not what some academics claim they are,
but what its believers think they are.

But what about the Dalits?
Momeen Rashid
Delhi, India
Oct 29, 2009 03:13 AM

9 Ganapathy,

I presume the thread you were referring to is Yajnopavitha. The
tradition of selecting somebody at a young age and grooming them to be
head of the Mutt has many other reasons. In Hindu society Brahmins
learn about Mantras and Vedas at a very young age. They have been
doing it since ages. Think of it this way. We only let Doctors operate
on a patient. Anyone can become a doctor. Similarly, anyone can become
Brahmin. It is true that this concept got associated with birth in the
later stages of Hinduism. This has changed a lot now. In kerala, at
'Thanthravidyapeetam', Mantras are taught to students by people who
were not born as Brahmins. Anyone who learns Vedas and lead a Vedic
lifestyle is a Brahmin.
Sandy
bristol, United Kingdom
Oct 29, 2009 01:40 AM

8 Moderator's note: Please note that this is not the space for
discussing the print magazine's editorial discretion as to what to
publish when. For print magazine related complaints, please send a
letter to the editor at letters AT outlookindia DOT com and for
website related complaints please send a mail to mail AT outlookindia
DOT com instead of derailing the discussion in this area. Thank you.

Selvan
Boston, United States
Oct 29, 2009 01:02 AM

7 Moderator's Note: Message deleted for unnecessarily bringing in
repeated irrelevant references to the moderator. Please stay on topic
and no post will ever need to be deleted. Please read the Comments
Policy carefully. Thank you and have a good day.
Selvan
Boston, United States
Oct 29, 2009 12:59 AM

6 Just because someone alleges that the "sringeri acharyas r selected
at a very yuoung age", does not automatically mean that Doniger is
correct. Doniger's scholarship - such as it is - has to stand up to
detailed scrutiny quite irrespective of irrelevancies like the age of
sringeri acharyas, why the pope is always white or even why the half
white obama is labeled black. Aditi's carefully reasoned, thoughtful
and well presented rebuttal makes a mockery of Doniger's
"scholarship".
sanjay
boston, USA
Oct 29, 2009 12:48 AM

5 "heaping blame on a nebulous, undefined, straw man “Hindutva
Internet Brigade” for the whole continuum of criticism of Doniger’s
work—criticism that has come mostly from moderate and liberal Hindus,
secularists, non-Hindu scholars and even one prominent Harvard
Indologist who is not known for being friendly towards Hindus. Rather
than confront the actual criticisms, Doniger pretends that her only
critics are Hindu extremists, and by rebuking this “enemy” she tries
to deflect any criticism of her work."

Hindutva Internet Brigade is alive and kicking. One has to follow the
threads in this forum. No Matter what is the subject of discussion
they keep spewing venom like a struck record. Or for that matter Just
visit the Amazon site where this notorious group has taken over and
crapped on the review site of this book. Not one of them has read this
book. Or you could go to myriad blogs on Internet where you would find
them selling silly old ideas. The author has in the beginning of
article tried to (in an indirect way) negate that there is anything
such as paid Hindutva Internet Brigade.

Bottom line is that Doniger's book has initiated a debate on a subject
that is considered taboo. Imagine somebody asking these questions in
India ?
JayKay Chraborty
Kolkatta, India
Oct 29, 2009 12:42 AM

4 Aditi ji, Thank you for articulating this clearly. The notion that
once a person has been successfully. albeit falsely stereotyped , it
is unnecessary to rebut his or her arguments, is a reductionist
approach that is rampant. However, the only thing that will likely
stop her is a law suit.
042170
Pleasanton, USA
Oct 29, 2009 12:06 AM

3 > "Doniger’s (and her colleagues’) versions of Hinduism and Hindu
history (which are often at serious variance with traditional Hinduism
as practised and understood by Hindus themselves)...."

This is true of other religions also. What the followers practice and
understand is the best depiction of a religion. Good article by Aditi
Banerjee. Lucid and well argued.
Anwaar
Dallas, United States
Oct 28, 2009 11:57 PM

2 there is a common thread connecting the author and all her
references and the people who will now shower praises on her and its
the same thread which she refuts is not needed in the beginning of the
article.
the sringeri acharyas r selected at a very yuoung age not because of
any knlkwedge but because they r born into a specific community. wendy
with her education and research is any day 1000 times better than
them.hinduism and sanskrit and all gods whether rama or his father had
done wonders for the brahins and i find no wrong in they getting
annoyed and deriling wendy but the trouble starts when they start
saying and forcing that they were good to eklavya and vaali too.why
should i feel proud of sringeri mutt and get annoyed about wendy?.i
will buy her books and will present it whenever i am needed to buy
gifts.i have no objection if someone prints this rebuttal and
distributes in thousands but feel annoyed when one talks with
authority on issues which r subjective to say the least
ganapathi
chennai, India
Oct 28, 2009 10:59 PM

1 A fantastic rebuttal!!

I do not recall reading anything by the writer before. But I hope she
writes more. There is excellent clarity and research.
Ganesan
Nj, USA

http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?262511

M. Ranjit Mathews

unread,
Jan 13, 2010, 2:09:31 PM1/13/10
to
This unicorn bull was created by a biologist.
http://www.weirduniverse.net/blog/permalink/dr_doves_unicorn_bull/

On Jan 5, 7:27 pm, chhotemianinshallah <citad...@gmx.com> wrote:
> Horseplay In Harappa - The Indus Valley Decipherment Hoax
> Author: Michael Witzel, Steve Farmer
> Publication: Frontline
> Date: October 13, 2000
>
> MICHAEL WITZEL, a Harvard University Indologist, and STEVE FARMER, a
> comparative historian, report on media hype, faked data, and Hindutva
> propaganda in recent claims that the Indus Valley script has been
> decoded.

> Chaos followed.  Within weeks, the two of us demonstrated that
> Rajaram's "horse seal" was a fraud, created from a computer distortion
> of a broken "unicorn bull" seal.  This led Indologist wags to dub it
> the Indus Valley "Piltdown horse" - a comic allusion to the "Piltdown
> man" hoax of the early twentieth century.  The comparison was, in
> fact, apt, since the "Piltdown man" was created to fill the missing
> link between ape and man - just as Rajaram's "horse seal" was intended
> to fill a gap between Harappa and Vedic cultures.

If the Harappans had no unicorns and if the animal on the seal has
exactly one horn, it was a chimeron created by an artist. So, it was
either a two horned animal with a horn removed or it was a hornless
animal with a horn added, unless it was two horned with one of its
horns masking the other. The lack of a hump in that animal makes it
looks quite unlike bull representations made in India over the last
few centuries (last couple of millenia?). Are Witzel and Farmer
certain that this seal is based on just a bull (a chimeron can be a
combo of multiple animals) or are they arguing just for the sake of
upsetting a Hindutvavadin argument?

bademiyansubhanallah

unread,
Jan 13, 2010, 2:43:40 PM1/13/10
to
The man charting BJP’s revival roadmap
Suman K Jha

Posted: Thursday , Jan 14, 2010 at 2330 hrs

New Delhi: Related

The name of Vinay Prabhakar Sahasrabuddhe hardly rings a bell in the
corridors of power in the capital. So it was with much surprise that
new BJP president Nitin Gadkari’s introduction of Sahasrabuddhe as a
part of his future team was greeted. Gadkari had announced at his
inaugural press conference in the capital on December 24 that he had
requested Sahasrabuddhe to assist him on policy issues and related
matters in the party. While a formal announcement shall have to wait
till the BJP’s national council meets in Indore in mid-February,
Sahasrabuddhe is clearly geared to play an important role in the BJP
under Gadkari’s stewardship.

He may be a relatively new face in Delhi, but Sahasrabuddhe is held in
high esteem, both by the BJP top brass as well as the RSS leadership.
Last year, for instance, senior BJP leader L K Advani asked him to
design a training module for the party cadres. A few months later, the
RSS leadership asked him to help organise the yearly “thinkers’ meet”
which was then convened at Mumbai’s Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini — where
some 25 thinkers sympathetic to the Sangh Parivar engaged in a
“brainstorming meet” with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat also present.

Sahasrabuddhe, likely to be designated the political adviser to the
new BJP chief, has been associated with the Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini
since 1987. Currently its Director General, Sahasrabuddhe has often
been involved in designing training modules for “school principals”,
“mayors”, “tribal youth” or even “personal assistants to legislators
(MPs/MLAs)”. Prior to his joining the Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini — its
website describes Prabodhini as “India’s only training and research
institute for voluntary social workers and elected representatives” —
Sahasrabuddhe was an active member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi
Parishad (ABVP). His contemporaries in the ABVP constitute the who’s
who of today’s BJP and RSS. Consider this: Dattatreya Hosabale is the
joint general secretary in the RSS; V Satish is the sah sangathan
mantri (joint general secretary in central BJP); several others, like
Sushil Kumar Modi, hold important positions in states. All of them are
Sahasrabuddhe’s contemporaries since his ABVP days. Gadkari, too, cut
his political teeth in the ABVP.

In his new role now, Sahasrabuddhe is expected to help Gadkari design
a revival roadmap for the party.

The first document, with the stamp of the Gadkari-Sahasrabuddhe duo’s
vision, exhorting party workers “to take to social service”, shall be
unveiled in the capital on February 11. Gadkari has already said that
he expects party workers to lead seva parakalps (service cells) in
every Assembly constituency of the country. The document, said to be
under preparation, will offer party workers more than 20 options to
choose from — including “promoting literacy drive”, “opening of
reading rooms in slums”, “water conservation”, “promoting healthcare
drive among the poor”, and even “promotion of cooperatives among
farmers”.

Asked about the new initiative, Sahasrabuddhe, drawing parallels with
the USA of the 80s, says that political parties in India today must
not become used to a culture of ‘machine politics’, and running for
elections must not be the parties’ sole reason of existence. “We are
interested in politics of development via social entrepreneurship,” he
told The Indian Express.

While the interface of politics and social entrepreneurship has been
the new buzzword in Indian politics — Congress general secretary Rahul
Gandhi, for instance, is known to have roped in social entrepreneurs
for developmental initiatives in his constituency of Amethi — Gadkari
is probably the first mainline politician who describes himself as a
social entrepreneur. Asked if his party is taking a cue from others,
including the Congress, Sahasrabuddhe says: “The BJP president,
through this initiative, is taking the idea of politics of development
via social entrepreneurship to the entire country. Also, the BJP
president has already said anyone doing good work should we
welcomed.”

There are more similarities in the approaches of the two mainstream
national political parties. If the Congress general secretary has
chosen “democratisation of the Indian Youth Congress and the NSUI” as
his central project, Sahasrabuddhe, in his Ph D thesis, titled
Political Parties as Victims of Populism and Electoral Compulsions: A
Quest for

Systemic Solutions (with special reference to India) has interesting
observations to make on “democratisation of the Indian political
system”.

Sahasrabuddhe, for instance, says that “mandatory holding of elections
for party office-bearers under the supervision of Election Commission
at least once in every five years”; “mandatory establishment of an
internal training, research and development department for every
national party”, and “mandatory training for all first-time elected
people’s representatives and party office bearers”, among other
things, will go a long way in strengthening the party system in the
country.

Sahasrabuddhe, however, asserts that his Ph D work is essentially an
academic’s perspective on the country’s political system, even as he
makes light of the charge of the growing RSS role in the BJP.

“The BJP is the only non-dynasty based national political party in the
country in the country today. There are some 50 serious political
parties out of the existing 1,000 political parties. Out of those 50,
45 are dynasty-based. The five non-dynasty based-parties are the CPM,
CPI, the AGP, JD (U) and the BJP. Ours, then, is the only (genuinely)
non-dynasty based national political party in the country,”
Sahasrabuddhe says.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/the-man-charting-bjps-revival-roadmap/567069/0

bademiyansubhanallah

unread,
Jan 13, 2010, 2:47:29 PM1/13/10
to
Indus Valley Civilization.

The earliest traces of civilization in the Indian subcontinent are to
be found in places along, or close, to the Indus river. Excavations
first conducted in 1921-22, in the ancient cities of Harappa and
Mohenjodaro, both now in Pakistan, pointed to a highly complex
civilization that first developed some 4,500-5,000 years ago, and
subsequent archaeological and historical research has now furnished us
with a more detailed picture of the Indus Valley Civilization and its
inhabitants. The Indus Valley people were most likely Dravidians, who
may have been pushed down into south India when the Aryans, with their
more advanced military technology, commenced their migrations to India
around 2,000 BCE. Though the Indus Valley script remains undeciphered
down to the present day, the numerous seals discovered during the
excavations, as well as statuary and pottery, not to mention the ruins
of numerous Indus Valley cities, have enabled scholars to construct a
reasonably plausible account of the Indus Valley Civilization.

Some kind of centralized state, and certainly fairly extensive town
planning, is suggested by the layout of the great cities of Harappa
and Mohenjodaro. The same kind of burnt brick appears to have been
used in the construction of buildings in cities that were as much as
several hundred miles apart. The weights and measures show a very
considerable regularity. The Indus Valley people domesticated animals,
and harvested various crops, such as cotton, sesame, peas, barley, and
cotton. They may also have been a sea-faring people, and it is rather
interesting that Indus Valley seals have been dug up in such places as
Sumer. In most respects, the Indus Valley Civilization appears to have
been urban, defying both the predominant idea of India as an eternally
and essentially agricultural civilization, as well as the notion that
the change from ‘rural’ to ‘urban’ represents something of a logical
progression. The Indus Valley people had a merchant class that,
evidence suggests, engaged in extensive trading.

Neither Harappa nor Mohenjodaro show any evidence of fire altars, and
consequently one can reasonably conjecture that the various rituals
around the fire which are so critical in Hinduism were introduced
later by the Aryans. The Indus Valley people do not appear to have
been in possession of the horse: there is no osteological evidence of
horse remains in the Indian sub-continent before 2,000 BCE, when the
Aryans first came to India, and on Harappan seals and terracotta
figures, horses do not appear. Other than the archaeological ruins of
Harappa and Mohenjodaro, these seals provide the most detailed clues
about the character of the Indus Valley people. Bulls and elephants do
appear on these seals, but the horned bull, most scholars are agreed,
should not be taken to be congruent with Nandi, or Shiva’s bull. The
horned bull appears in numerous Central Asian figures as well; it is
also important to note that Shiva is not one of the gods invoked in
the Rig Veda. The revered cow of the Hindus also does not appear on
the seals. The women portrayed on the seals are shown with elaborate
coiffures, sporting heavy jewelry, suggesting that the Indus Valley
people were an urbane people with cultivated tastes and a refined
aesthetic sensibility. A few thousand seals have been discovered in
Indus Valley cities, showing some 400 pictographs: too few in number
for the language to have been ideographic, and too many for the
language to have been phonetic.

The Indus Valley civilization raises a great many, largely unresolved,
questions. Why did this civilization, considering its sophistication,
not spread beyond the Indus Valley? In general, the area where the
Indus valley cities developed is arid, and one can surmise that urban
development took place along a river that flew through a virtual
desert. The Indus Valley people did not develop agriculture on any
large scale, and consequently did not have to clear away a heavy
growth of forest. Nor did they have the technology for that, since
they were confined to using bronze or stone implements. They did not
practice canal irrigation and did not have the heavy plough. Most
significantly, under what circumstances did the Indus Valley cities
undergo a decline? The first attacks on outlying villages by Aryans
appear to have taken place around 2,000 BCE near Baluchistan, and of
the major cities, at least Harappa was quite likely over-run by the
Aryans. In the Rig Veda there is mention of a Vedic war god, Indra,
destroying some forts and citadels, which could have included Harappa
and some other Indus Valley cities. The conventional historical
narrative speaks of a cataclysmic blow that struck the Indus Valley
Civilization around 1,600 BCE, but that would not explain why
settlements at a distance of several hundred miles from each other
were all eradicated. The most compelling historical narrative still
suggests that the demise and eventual disappearance of the Indus
Valley Civilization, which owed something to internal decline,
nonetheless was facilitated by the arrival in India of the Aryans.

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Ancient/Indus2.html

hari....@indero.com

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Jan 13, 2010, 2:51:37 PM1/13/10
to
"> Rajaram's "horse seal" was a fraud, created from a computer
distortion
> of a broken "unicorn bull" seal. =A0This led Indologist wags to dub it

"Are Witzel and Farmer
certain that this seal is based on just a bull (a chimeron can be a
combo of multiple animals) or are they arguing just for the sake of"

None of the above. The historical revisionists desperately want to find
evidence of horse culture in the indus complex culture. They need this
to tie vedic era as a direct line. Here is some information about
seals. It also discusses the absence of other kinds of evidence for
presence of horse:

'Manas: History and Politics, Indus Valley'

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Ancient/Indus2.html
upsetting a Hindutvavadin argument?

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 13, 2010, 2:52:42 PM1/13/10
to
Veer Savarkar: Ideologue of Hindutva

Vinay Lal

Vinayak Damodar (“Veer”) Savarkar can, with some justice, be described
as the inspirational force behind the resurgence of militant Hinduism
in contemporary India. His fame has been on the ascendancy since the
Hindu right captured power in India less than a decade ago, and lately
he has been lionized in the film “Veer Savarkar” by the filmmaker
Sudhir Phadke, a fellow Maharashtrian. In May 2002, L. K. Advani spoke
glowingly of Savarkar and Hedgewar, the founder of the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh [RSS], as men who had “kindled fierce nationalistic
spirit that contributed to India’s liberation.” Savarkar’s advocates
view him as a luminous visionary, a supreme patriot who sacrificed
much for the defense of Mother India, a great revolutionary and even
social reformer; his opponents, who generally do not question his
patriotism, nevertheless point to his political conservatism, his
support of reactionary movements, and his advocacy of a communal-based
politics verging on fascism.

Savarkar was born in Bhagur village in Nasik district of present-day
Maharashtra on 28 May 1883 into a Chitpavan Brahmin family. His early
exposure to the political activities of the Maharashtrian elite who
were opposed to British rule may have come at the hands of his elder
brother, Ganesh [Babarao], who is said to have been greatly inspired
by the actions of Lokmanya Tilak, the Chapekar Brothers, and other
revolutionaries. The Savarkar brothers were active in the Mitra Mela,
a secret society formed with the aim of liberating, through the use of
armed force, India from British rule. Veer Savarkar attended Fergusson
College in Pune: his biographer, Dhananjay Keer, notes that Savarkar
gathered around him a group of students who debated European political
texts, discussed revolution, and championed swadeshi [self-reliance].
In 1906, Savarkar left for London to get credentialed in law; his
passage was paid for by Shyam Krishnavarma, an Indian patriot settled
in London who used his journal, The Indian Sociologist, to make a case
for Indian independence. The journal was advocating violent revolution
by 1909; but before then, in 1907, Savarkar had published a Marathi
translation of Mazzini’s autobiography which did very well. By early
1909, according to the senior intelligence officer James Campbell Ker,
author of Political Trouble in India 1907-1917 [1917, reprinted 1973
by Oriental Publishers, Delhi], Savarkar had taken charge of India
House, the London headquarters of those Indians who claimed
revolutionary credentials (p. 177). That year, on July 1, Madan Lal
Dhingra assassinated Sir William Curzon-Wyllie at the Imperial
Institute. This assassination, less than a month after Ganesh Savarkar
was convicted on the charge of sedition and sentenced to
transportation for life, is said to have been instigated by Savarkar’s
orders; yet Savarkar himself never wielded any arms. His critics,
quite rightly, describe this cowardice as typical of Savarkar’s
conduct; and it is striking, of course, that nearly 40 years later
Savarkar was again thought to have encouraged and instigated Nathuram
Godse to murder Mahatma Gandhi, without himself having taken up arms.
It is more than likely that Savarkar became a master at manipulating
those who looked up to him, and sought to conduct his violent
activities without explicitly implicating himself in gruesome deeds of
murder.

A steady stream of publications emerged from Savarkar’s pen over a
course of five decades, and his first substantial work, the Indian War
of Independence, appeared in 1908, or fifty years after the rebellion
of 1857-58 had been crushed. Though in this work Savarkar argued that
Hindus and Muslims had stood together in resistance to the British, in
later works he showed himself much less enamored of Hindu-Muslim
unity, and for most of his adult life he would, in fact, become known
for his advocacy of the rights of Hindus. Hindu Pad-Padashahi [1925],
a treatise on Hindu Kingship, or more particularly on the glories of
India under Maratha rule, showed as well the impact of political
events on Savarkar’s thinking: both the Khilafat movement, as well as
the Moplah Rebellion, doubtless played a part in turning Savarkar
against Muslims. However, his signature piece, in this respect, was a
“treatise” he penned in 1922, “Essentials of Hindutva”, a more
elaborate version of which appeared in 1928 as Hindutva: Who is a
Hindu? (Nagpur, 1928). Savarkar vigorously set forth the idea that
Hindus constituted a nation, bound together by common blood, and that
Hindus were united “by the tie of a common heritage we pay to our
great civilization -- our Hindu culture”. Savarkar eschewed the word
“Hinduism”; to him, Hindutva represented the essence of the Hindu way
of life. As he wrote, “If there be any word of alien growth it is this
word Hinduism and so we should not allow our thoughts to get confused
by this new fangled term.” The Hindus’ devotion to their motherland
was supreme; indeed, whosoever was devoted to Hindustan, and
considered it his or her holy land (punyabhoomi), was a Hindu.

The most elaborate legend, vigorously promoted by Savarkar’s friends
and admirers, has developed around his supposed bravery. In 1910, as
Savarkar was being taken to India after a warrant had been issued for
his arrest on charges of sedition and treason, he escaped as his ship
docked at Marseilles. Upon being recaptured, Savarkar challenged the
legality of his arrest in France, but the international court at
Hague, though it took the view that an illegality had been committed
when Savarkar was handed over to the British police, nonetheless ruled
against Savarkar. Savarkar was, at his trial in Bombay, sentenced to
imprisonment for life, and transported to the Andamans. In 1922, he
was sent back to India, but confined to Ratnagiri District until 1937.
Yet, to put it mildly, there are serious reasons to doubt whether
Savarkar was deserving of the epithet of “Veer” [brave] that was
bestowed on him. The indisputable fact remains that throughout his
political life, Savarkar showed himself perfectly capable of not
merely negotiating with the British, but serving as an active
collaborator. When confined to jail in the Andamans, Savarkar
negotiated with the British to have himself set free. Moreover, when
Congress refused to form a government in the Central Provinces and
Bengal, the Hindu Mahasabha under Savarkar’s guidance opted to
collaborate with the British. He thought it a God-given opportunity
for the Mahasabha to flex its muscles while the Congress was in
hibernation. Similarly, though the Congress declared itself opposed to
offering the British any assistance during World War II, Savarkar was
keen that Hindus should acquire experience in the use of firearms.
Savarkar saw in World War II an opportunity for Hindus, who had been
emasculated (in Savarkar’s view) by centuries of oppression under
Muslim and British rule, and rendered incapable of even elementary
knowledge in the discharge of firearms by virtue of legislation that
forbid ownership of guns among Indians. to become versed in fighting
strategies. Not only did the Hindu Mahasabha, whose presidency
Savarkar assumed in 1937 upon the rescission of the order which
confined him to Ratnagiri District, not oppose the British position in
World War II, but the Mahasabha played no role in the Quit India
movement and indeed even assisted the British in its suppression.

In the last analysis, Savarkar appears as an extraordinary embodiment
of utter mediocrity. In the large corpus of his writings, there is
barely anything to suggest a creative mind at work, and one searches
in vain for any original idea. Savarkar imbibed the worst of Western
political and social traditions, and his warped ideas about race
superiority, the survival of the fittest, and the nation as a “blood
entity”, so to speak, were derived from the most objectionable strands
of Western thinking. In his avid desire to militarize the Hindus, he
showed himself hostage to crude notions of realpolitik. He perfected
the art of assassination and political intrigue by remote control, and
his true disciple in this respect is Bal Thackeray. It is no surprise
that he should appeal to the leadership of the present generation of
Hindu extremists, who are similarly bereft of intellectual ideas,
moral sentiments, and the barest standards of truth in public life,
and whose idea of bravery entails murderous onslaught upon religious
minorities. If Savarkar is at all to be remembered, let it not be
forgotten that as Nathuram Godse plotted to take Mahatma Gandhi’s
life, Savarkar blessed him and wished him success in his God-given
task.


Further Reading:

Keer, Dhananjay. Veer Savarkar. Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1966.

Savarkar, Vinayak Damodar. The Indian War of Independence, 1857. New
Delhi: Rajdhani Granthnagar, 1970; 1st ed., 1908.

Savarkar, Vinayak Damodar. Hindutva: Who is a Hindu? Nagpur, 1928.

Savarkar, Vinayak Damodar. Hindu Rashtra Darshan: A Collection of
Presidential Speeches Delivered from the Hindu Mahasabha Platform.
Bombay: Khare, 1949.

Savarkar, Vinayak Damodar. Six Glorious Epochs of Indian History.
Trans. and ed. S. T. Godbole. Bombay: Veer Savarkar Prakashan, 1985.

Savarkar, Vinayak Damodar. My Transportation for Life. Trans. V. N.
Naik. Bombay: Veer Savarkar Prakashan, 1984; 1st ed., 1949.

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Hindu_Rashtra/veer.html

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 13, 2010, 2:54:49 PM1/13/10
to
Nathuram Godse, the RSS, and the Murder of Gandhi

Vinay Lal

On 30 January 1948, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, known around the world
as Mahatma Gandhi, and to his countrymen and women as Bapu, the
“Father of the Nation”, was shot dead by Nathuram Vinayak Godse, a
Chitpavan Brahmin from Pune. Much ink has been spilled on determining
whether Godse was, at that time, a member of the RSS, or indeed of the
Hindu Mahasabha, or perhaps of neither organization. Though Godse
single-handedly carried out the execution of Gandhi, others were
implicated in the assassination plot, and among those against whom the
Indian government filed charges was Veer Savarkar. Godse, as
investigations after Gandhi’s murder were to reveal, appears to have
been close to Savarkar, a prominent leader of the Hindu Mahasabha.
Godse was certainly a frequent visitor to Savarkar’s residence, and he
did not, in the time that intervened between his arrest on January 30
and his execution upon conviction of the charge of murder nearly two
years later, ever disown his association with the Mahasabha.

The general consensus appears to be that Nathuram, who saw himself as
a passionate and ardent defender of the Hindu motherland against the
depredations of Muslims, was at one point active in the RSS but
resigned his membership in the early 1930s. This mere fact, if fact it
be, has been pounced upon by the RSS in the five decades following
Gandhi’s assassination to argue that Godse had no association with the
RSS, and curiously Nathuram’s younger brother, Gopal Godse, who was
convicted of partaking in the conspiracy to murder Gandhi and served a
fifteen-year jail term and still speaks in the most bitter terms of
Gandhi as the betrayer of India, has himself on more than one occasion
had to issue a strong rejoinder to the RSS, with whose ideological
outlook he is otherwise in complete sympathy, for attempting to
disguise his brother’s long-term association with the RSS. Thus,
shortly after releasing Nathuram’s book, Why I Assassinated Mahatma
Gandhi, in December 1993, Gopal Godse in an interview with Frontline
magazine stated: “All the [Godse] brothers were in the RSS. Nathuram,
Dattatreya, myself and Govind. You can say we grew up in the RSS
rather than in our home. It was like a family to us. Nathuram had
become a baudhik karyavah [intellectual worker] in the RSS. He has
said in his statement that he left the RSS. He said it because [Madhav
Sadashiv] Golwalkar and the RSS were in a lot of trouble after the
murder of Gandhi. But he did not leave the RSS.” [See issue of 28
January 1994]

Whether Godse formally remained a member of the RSS is much less
important than the fact that though the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS
had some ideological differences, both organizations were united in
their extreme hostility to Gandhi as well as to Muslims. Golwalkar and
Savarkar shared a platform in Pune in 1952, as Sitaram Yechury’s What
Is This Hindu Rashtra (Madras: Frontline Publications, 1993) has
recently documented, and it is a little-known fact that at one point
the RSS, eager to foment the impression that it did not stand by the
virulently anti-Muslim sentiments expressed in Golwalkar’s influential
book, We or Our Nationhood Defined (1938), claimed that the author of
the book was Babarao Savarkar, the brother of Veer Savarkar. Sardar
Patel, the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister in Nehru’s Cabinet,
was himself inclined to view the Mahasabha and the RSS as
organizations that had together created an atmosphere in which, as he
wrote on 18 July 1848 to the Hindu Mahasabha leader, Shyam Prasad
Mookerjee, “such a ghastly tragedy [Gandhi’s assassination] became
possible. There is no doubt in my mind that the extreme section of the
Hindu Mahasabha was involved in this conspiracy.” Yet, as Patel added,
in terms that leave no room to doubt that from his standpoint the RSS
also stood implicated in Gandhi’s assassination, “The activities of
the RSS constituted a clear threat to the existence of Government and
the State. Our reports show that those activities, despite the ban,
have not died down. Indeed, as time has marched on, the RSS circles
are becoming more defiant and are indulging in their subversive
activities in an increasing measure.” Two months later, on September
11th, Patel was again unequivocal in his denunciation of the role
played by the RSS in Gandhi’s assassination: addressing Golwalkar,
Patel spoke about the “poison” spread by the RSS. Following Gandhi’s
murder, “Even an iota of the sympathy of the Government or of the
people no more remained for the RSS. In fact opposition grew.
Opposition turned more severe, when the RSS men expressed joy and
distributed sweets after Gandhiji’s death.”

It scarcely matters, then, whether Nathuram Godse retained membership
in the RSS when he shot Gandhi dead. Godse was involved in Hindu
extremist organizations, including the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha,
his entire adult life, and the continuing attempts by RSS to evade
responsibility for Gandhi’s assassination are characteristic of that
extreme pusillanimity and tendency to falsehood which have always been
the signal trademarks of an organization that is determined to bring
the idea of Hindu Rashtra to fruition.

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Hindu_Rashtra/nathuram.html

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 13, 2010, 2:56:49 PM1/13/10
to
The Mughal Empire

The great grandson of Tamerlane, Babar, who on his mother's side was
descended from the famous Genghiz Khan, came to India in 1526 at the
request of an Indian governor who sought Babar's help in his fight
against Ibrahim Lodi, the last head of the Delhi Sultanate. Babar
defeated Lodi at Panipat, not far from Delhi, and so came to establish
the Mughal Empire in India. Babar ruled until 1530, and was succeeded
by his son Humayun, who gave the empire its first distinctive
features. But it is Humayun's son, Akbar the Great, who is
conventionally described as the glory of the empire. Akbar reigned
from 1556 to 1605, and extended his empire as far to the west as
Afghanistan, and as far south as the Godavari river. Akbar, though a
Muslim, is remembered as a tolerant ruler, and he even started a new
faith, Din-i-Ilahi, which was an attempt to blend Islam with Hinduism,
Christianity, Jainism, and other faiths. He won over the Hindus by
naming them to important military and civil positions, by conferring
honors upon them, and by marrying a Hindu princess.

Rejoicing at birth of Prince Salim (Jahangir). Mughal, c. 1590.

(Click for a large image view.)

Akbar was succeeded by his son Salim, who took the title of Jahangir.
In his reign (1605-1627), Jahangir consolidated the gains made by his
father. The courtly culture of the Mughals flourished under his rule;
like his great grand-father, Babar, he had an interest in gardens, and
Mughal painting probably reached its zenith in Jahangir's time.
Jahangir married Nur Jahan, "Light of the World", in 1611. Shortly
after his death in October 1627, his son, Shah Jahan, succeeded to the
throne. He inherited a vast and rich empire; and at mid-century this
was perhaps the greatest empire in the world, exhibiting a degree of
centralized control rarely matched before. Shah Jahan left behind an
extraordinarily rich architectural legacy, which includes the Taj
Mahal and the old city of Delhi, Shahjahanabad. As he apparently lay
dying in 1658, a war of succession broke out between his four sons.
The two principal claimants to the throne were Dara Shikoh, who was
championed by the those nobles and officers who were committed to the
eclectic policies of previous rulers, and Aurangzeb, who was favored
by powerful men more inclined to turn the Mughal Empire into an
Islamic state subject to the laws of the Sharia. It is Aurangzeb who
triumphed, and though the Mughal Empire saw yet further expansion in
the early years of his long reign (1658-1707), by the later part of
the seventeenth century the empire was beginning to disintegrate.

Aurangzeb remains a highly controversial figure, and no monarch has
been more subjected to the communalist reading of Indian history. He
is admired by Muslim historians for enforcing the law of the Sharia
and for disavowing the policies pursued by Akbar; among Hindus, laymen
and historians alike, he is remembered as a Muslim fanatic and bigot.
In the event, Aurangzeb's far-flung empire eventually eluded his
grasp, and considerable disaffection appears to have been created
among the peasantry. After Aurangzeb's death in 1707, many of his
vassals established themselves as sovereign rulers, and so began the
period of what are called "successor states". The Mughal Empire
survived until 1857, but its rulers were, after 1803, pensioners of
the East India Company. The last emperor, the senile Bahadur Shah
Zafar, was put on trial for allegedly leading the rebels of the 1857
mutiny and for fomenting sedition. He was convicted and transported to
Rangoon, to spend the remainder of his life on alien soil.

The Mughal Empire, 1526 to 1707
Source: F. Robinson, Atlas of the Islamic World since 1500 (Oxford,
19822), p.59.

Further Reading:

Habib, Irfan. The Agrarian System of Mughal India. London, 1963.

Habib, Irfan. An Atlas of the Mughal Empire. Delhi, 1982.

Qureshi, I. H. The Administration of the Mughal Empire. Karachi, 1966.

Richard, John F. The Mughal Empire. Vol. I, Part 5, of the New
Cambridge History of India. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1993.

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Mughals/mughals.html

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 13, 2010, 2:59:09 PM1/13/10
to
Aurangzeb: A Political History

[See also "Aurangzeb: Religious Policies"; "Aurangzeb, Akbar, and the
Communalization of History"; Mughal Empire; Shivaji; "Shivaji and the
Politics of History"]

Shuja, Aurangzeb, and Murad Bakhsh: Mughal Miniature,
38.7 x 26 cm. c. 1637. Attributed to Balchand. Coll: British Museum.

(Click image for a large view.)

The four sons of the Mughal Emperor , Shah Jahan, all laid claim to
the throne when their father fell seriously ill in 1658. Each had
considerable administrative experience and military skills, each
commanded a considerable military force, and each had a loyal
following. Dara Shikoh (1615-58), the eldest son, was resident at Shah
Jahan's court as the designated heir; Shuja was Governor of Bengal,
Bihar, and Orissa; Aurangzeb governed the Deccan; and Murad was
Governor of Gujarat and Malwa. Dara's forces were defeated by
Aurangzeb, who occupied the imperial capital of Agra; and Aurangzeb
took his own father prisoner. Shuja's army was routed in battle; and
Murad was lured into a false agreement and taken prisoner. Dara
eventually collected together another force, suffered defeat as
before, and once again he fled; but soon he was betrayed by one of his
allies, and handed over to his brother. Accused of idolatry and
apostasy from Islam, Dara was condemned to death, and the sentence was
carried out on the night of 30 August 1659, one year after Aurangzeb
took over the Fort at Agra and assumed the throne. Aurangzeb delivered
the head of his brother to their father.

Aurangzeb Alamgir ("World Conqueror"), whose reign lasted for forty-
nine years until his death in 1707, conducted vigorous military
campaigns to extend the frontiers of the vast Mughal empire which he
had inherited. Both in the northwest and northeast, the imperial
armies gained ground, but the losses, which were very considerable,
drained the treasury. Already under his father, the revenue of the
crops had been raised from a third to a half, and the extensive and
interminably long military campaigns he waged required him to keep the
peasantry heavily taxed. Some notable victories were likewise achieved
in the Deccan. Aurangzeb retained Shahjahanabad as his capital, but
after some two decades the capital, in a manner of speaking, shifted
to wherever Aurangzeb would set camp during his long military
campaigns, which in the Deccan alone lasted some 26 years and perhaps
cost him his life. Aurangzeb's mobile army consisted of some 500,000
camp followers, 50,000 camels, and 30,000 war elephants; and when this
gargantuan force moved, bands of Maratha guerrillas would strike the
rear, attacking the stragglers and fleeing with booty.

A considerable part of Aurangzeb's energies were consumed in keeping
his numerous opponents at bay, and he had to deal with the Rajputs,
the disloyalty of his son Akbar, and the Sikhs, whose leader, Guru
Tegh Bahadur Singh, was killed at Aurangzeb's command when he refused
to convert to Islam. Neither could Aurangzeb forgive the Sikhs for
having supported his brother and principal rival, Dara. The most
effective opposition to his rule, however, came from the Marathas,
whose chief, Shivaji, could not be contained. Only Shivaji's premature
death at the age of 53, in 1680, appeared to offer the Mughal Emperor
some relief, but that very year the Rajputs of Jodhpur and Mewar
forged an alliance against Aurangzeb and declared themselves free from
his sovereignty. The army that Aurangzeb sent under his son Akbar to
subdue them was formidable, but the emperor had perhaps not reckoned
with his son's traitorous conduct. However, Akbar, who had rather
vainly declared himself the emperor, was compelled to flee to the
Deccan, where he enlisted the help of Shivaji's son, Sambhaji.
Aurangzeb decided to take to the field himself, and eventually drove
his own son into exile in Persia, from where Akbar never returned. The
Sultanates of Bijapur and Golconda were also reduced to utter
submission, and Sambhaji was captured in 1689 and tortured before
being murdered.

Towards the end of his reign, Aurangzeb's empire began to
disintegrate, a process which would be considerably accelerated in the
years after his death, when "successor states" came into existence.
Aurangzeb's harsh treatment of Hindus, and the reversal of the liberal
religious policies of his predecessors, particularly Akbar, have been
cited as principal reasons for the disintegration of his empire. [For
a more detailed consideration, see the accompanying article on
"Aurangzeb and the Encounter with Religion."] More likely, the
peasantry was bled to death, and the system of political alliances
established by Akbar was allowed to go to seed. The empire had become
far too large and unwieldy, and Aurangzeb did not have enough
trustworthy men at his command to be able to manage the more far-flung
parts of the empire. Many of the his political appointees broke loose
and declared themselves independent, and Aurangzeb's preoccupation
with affairs in the Deccan prevented him from meeting political
challenges emanating from other parts of the empire. Shortly after the
death of Aurangzeb, the Mughal Empire ceased to be an effective force
in the political life of India, but it was not until 1857-58, when the
Indian Rebellion was crushed and the Emperor Bahadur Shah was put on
trial for sedition and treason, that the Mughal Empire was formally
rendered extinct.

Further Reading:

Richards, John. The Muhgal Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1993; Indian ed., Delhi: Foundations Books, 1995. New Cambridge
History of India, I:5.

See also the notes to the accompanying piece, "Aurangzeb, Akbar, and
the Communalization of History".

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Mughals/Aurang.html

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 13, 2010, 3:01:06 PM1/13/10
to
AURANGZEB: RELIGIOUS POLICIES

[See also "Aurangzeb: A Political History"; "Aurangzeb, Akbar, and the
Communalization of History"; Mughal Empire]

The disintegration of the Mughal Empire followed rapidly after the
death of Aurangzeb in 1707. During his long reign of 49 years,
Aurangzeb had done much to extend the frontiers of the empire he had
inherited from his father, Shah Jahan, but the extensive military
campaigns he conducted, particularly in the Deccan, created a severe
financial drain on his resources. The burden of oppressive taxation
fell on the peasantry, and political feudatories who owed their
positions to Aurangzeb were constantly breaking loose from the
emperor's control. But more often than not, it is the religious
policies pursued by Aurangzeb that have been cited as one of the
principal reasons for Aurangzeb's undoing, and among many Hindus the
name of Aurangzeb evokes the same passionate hatred as do the names of
Mahmud of Ghazni and Muhammad of Ghori. With the ascent of the Hindu
right to political power in India, a great many people have been
emboldened to further attack Aurangzeb. A brief consideration of
Aurangzeb's policies, consequently, is in order, but not only to
understand the nature of his reign, or the state of Hindu-Muslim
relations in India over a period of time, important as are these
questions; it is also imperative to ask questions about how our
histories are written and how notions of 'minority' and 'majority' get
constructed and become part of the political vocabulary.

A year after he assumed power in 1658, Aurangzeb appointed muhtasaibs,
or censors of public morals, from the ranks of the ulema or clergy in
every large city. He was keen that the sharia or Islamic law be
followed everywhere, and that practices abhorrent to Islam, such as
the consumption of alcohol and gambling, be disallowed in public. But
he was at the outset faced with one problem, namely that the treatment
he had meted out to his own father, subjecting him to imprisonment,
was scarcely consistent with the image he sought to present of himself
as a true believer of the faith. Accordingly, Aurangzeb sought
recognition of his ascent to the Mughal Emperor's throne from the
ruler of the holy places in the Hijaz, and he became a great patron of
the Holy Places. He is reported as well to have spent seven years
memorizing the Koran, and unlike his predecessors, his reign was
marked by austerity. The monumental architecture that characterized
the reigns of Akbar and Shah Jahan -- the Agra Fort, Fatehpur Sikri,
the Taj Mahal, Shahjahanabad, among others -- held little interest for
Aurangzeb, and similarly the musicians who had adorned the courts of
his predecessors were dismissed.

From the standpoint of Aurangzeb's Hindu subjects, the real impact of
his policies may have started to have been felt in 1668-69. Hindu
religious fairs were outlawed in 1668, and an edict of the following
year prohibited construction of Hindu temples as well as the repair of
old ones. Also in 1669, Aurangzeb discontinued the practice, which had
been originated by Akbar, of appearing before his subjects and
conferring darshan on them, or letting them receive his blessings as
one might, in Hinduism, take the darshan of a deity and so receive its
blessings. Though the duty (internal customs fees) paid on goods was
2.5%, double the amount was levied on Hindu merchants from 1665
onwards. In 1679, Aurangzeb went so far as to reimpose, contrary to
the advice of many of his court nobles and theologians, the jiziya or
graduated property tax on non-Hindus, and according to one historical
source, elephants were deployed to crush the resistance in the area
surrounding the Red Fort of Hindus who refused to submit to jiziya
collectors. The historian John F. Richards opines, quite candidly,
that "Aurangzeb's ultimate aim was conversion of non-Muslims to Islam.
Whenever possible the emperor gave out robes of honor, cash gifts, and
promotions to converts. It quickly became known that conversion was a
sure way to the emperor's favor" (p. 177).

It can scarcely be doubted, once the historical evidence is weighed,
that the religious policies of Aurangzeb were discriminatory towards
Hindus, Sikhs, and other non-Muslims. Nonetheless, numerous inferences
have been drawn from the literature which are not warranted by the
historical record. Though many historians have written of conversions
of Hindus, surprisingly little, if any, evidence has been offered to
suggest how far the conversion of Hindus took place, and whether there
was any official policy beyond one of mere encouragement that led to
the conversion of Hindus. Then, as now, conversion would have been
more attractive to the vast number of Hindus living under the tyranny
of caste oppression, and it isn't clear at all how the kind of
inducements that Aurangzeb offered -- if indeed he did so for the
purposes of conversion, as Richards maintains -- are substantially
different from the inducements that modern, purportedly secular,
politicians offer to people in their electoral constituencies. And
what of the popular representation of Aurangzeb as a ferocious
destroyer of Hindu temples and idols? Hindu temples in the Deccan were
seldom destroyed, notwithstanding Aurangzeb's extensive military
campaigns in that area. True, in north India, some Hindu temples were
undoubtedly torn down, but much work needs to be done to establish the
precise circumstances under which these acts of destruction took
place. The famed Keshava Rai temple in Mathura was one such temple,
but here Aurangzeb seems to have been motivated by a policy of
reprisal, since the Jats in the region had risen in revolt. Like his
predecessors, Aurangzeb continued to confer land grants (jagirs) upon
Hindu temples, such as the Someshwar Nath Mahadev temple in Allahabad,
Jangum Badi Shiva temple in Banaras, and Umanand temple in Gauhati,
and if one put this down merely to expediency, then why cannot one
view the destruction of temples as a matter of expediency as well,
rather than as a matter of deliberate state policy? Moreover, recent
historical work has shown that the number of Hindus employed as
mansabdars, or as senior court officials and provincial
administrators, under Aurangzeb's reign rose from 24.5% in the time of
his father Shah Jahan to 33% in the fourth decade of his own rule. One
has the inescapable feeling that then, as now, the word 'fanaticism'
comes rather too easily to one's lips to characterize the actions of
people acting, or claiming to act, under the name of Islam. It is also
notable that as a firm Sunni, Aurangzeb dealt as firmly with the Shia
kingdoms of Bijapur and Golconda as he did with the Hindus or Muslims.
One can safely assert that Aurangzeb acted to preserve and enhance the
interests of his own Muslim community, and restored the privileges of
the Sunni ulema, but his actions with respect to the Hindus, Shias,
and others are more open to interpretation.

Suggested Reading:

Ali, M. Athar Ali. The Mughal Nobility Under Aurangzeb. Bombay: Asia
Publishing House, 1968.

Chandra, Satish. "Reassessing Aurangzeb", Seminar, no. 364: Mythifying
History (December 1989).

Mukhia, Harbans. "Medieval Indian History and the Communal Approach",
in Romila Thapar, Harbans Mukhia, and Bipan Chandra, Communalism and
the Writing of Indian History. New Delhi: People's Publishing House,
1969.

Richards, John F. The Mughal Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1993; Indian ed., Delhi: Foundation Books, 1995. New Cambridge


History of India, I:5.

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Mughals/Aurang2.html

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 13, 2010, 3:05:26 PM1/13/10
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Aurangzeb, Akbar, and the Communalization of History

[see also Aurangzeb: A Political History; Aurangzeb: Religious
Policies;
Mughal Empire]

In Indian history, the syncretistic and communalist viewpoints have
conventionally been represented, to take one case in point, by
offering a contrast between the lives of the two emperors under whom
the Mughal Empire was at its zenith, Akbar (reigned 1556-1605) and
Aurangzeb (reigned 1658-1707). Akbar is often adduced as an example of
the tolerant ruler, whose policies demonstrate that though he himself
was a Muslim, the state was not Islamic. Some have even pointed to him
as a 'secular' ruler, when scarcely any monarch in Europe was such,
and his advocacy of a new faith, the Din-i-ilahi, which combined
elements from various religions, exemplifies the ecumenism with which
he is associated. "He looked upon all religions alike", writes Tara
Chand, "and regarded it his duty to make no difference between his
subjects on the basis of religion. He threw upon the highest
appointments to non-Muslims." [1] Though it is admitted that he may
have forged political and military alliances with Hindu rulers from
considerations of expediency, other historians allude to more enduring
signs of his real commitment to religious harmony and interest in
different faiths, such as his marriage to Rajput women, his scholarly
interest in epics such as the Ramayana, and his zeal in promoting
Hindu learning. Historians point to Akbar's elimination of the jizya
(poll-tax) usually levied on non-Muslims and his assumption of final
authority on religious questions on which there might have been
conflict of opinion among Muslim theologians, thereby undermining the
authority of the ulama (Muslim clergy). Describing Akbar's success as
"astonishing", Jawaharlal Nehru gave it as his opinion, in a work that
places him among the ranks of historians, that Akbar "created a sense
of oneness among the diverse elements of north and central
India." [2]

The commonplace view of Aurangzeb, on the other hand, is that he
repudiated Akbar's policies of religious toleration, and by alienating
Hindus he undermined the very empire whose tremendous expansion he
masterminded. Nehru maintained that Aurangzeb had "put the clock
back", undoing what his predecessors had achieved by working against
the "genius of the nation" and ignoring the common culture that had
been forged among the different elements of the Indian population.
"When Aurangzeb began to oppose this movement [of synthesis] and
suppress it and to function more as a Moslem than an Indian ruler,"
Nehru argued, "the Mughal Empire began to break up." But where Nehru
saw Aurangzeb as a "bigot and an austere puritan" whose policies were
instrumental in creating unease and dissent, and Tara Chand deplored
his "misdirected efforts" which caused "irreparable damage" to the
"great edifice of the empire", [3] many Indian historians have been
inclined to take a much harsher view of Aurangzeb's conduct. In this
they were to follow the lead supplied by Jadunath Sarkar, whose 1928
biography of Aurangzeb in four volumes bequeathed the view of
Aurangzeb that still predominates in the popular imagination. Sarkar
suggested that Aurangzeb intended nothing less than to establish an
Islamic state in India, an objective that could not be fulfilled
without "the conversion of the entire population to Islam and the
extinction of every form of dissent"; and to render this scenario more
complete, he proposed that the jizya (poll-tax) on non-Muslims, which
Aurangzeb had re-instituted in 1679, was aimed at forcibly converting
Hindus to Islam, though he was unable to marshal evidence to
substantiate this view. [4]

If Aurangzeb was so ferocious a communalist, why is it, some
historians have asked, that the number of Hindus employed in positions
of eminence under Aurangzeb's reign rose from 24.5% in the time of his
father Shah Jahan to 33% in the fourth decade of his own rule? They
suggest, moreover, that Aurangzeb did not indiscriminately destroy
Hindu temples, as he is commonly believed to have done so, and that he
directed the destruction of temples only when faced with insurgency.
This was almost certainly the case with the Keshava Rai temple in the
Mathura region, where the Jats rose in rebellion; and yet even this
policy of reprisal may have been modified, as Hindu temples in the
Deccan were seldom destroyed. The image of Aurangzeb as an idol-
breaker may not withstand scrutiny, since there is evidence to show
that, like his predecessors, he continued to confer land grants


(jagirs) upon Hindu temples, such as the Someshwar Nath Mahadev temple

in Allahabad, Jangum Badi Shiva temple in Banaras, Umanand temple in
Gauhati, and numerous others. [5] On the other hand, one might argue,
if Akbar was so dedicated to the principle of religious harmony, why
is it that none of the Mughal princesses were ever allowed to marry
into Rajput households? And while he may have propagated a new
syncretistic faith, how was it received by ordinary Muslims? Moreover,
do not both the supporters of Akbar and critics of Aurangzeb presume
that relations between Hindus and Muslims are to be inferred by
studying the lives of rulers, or at best members of the ruling class?
What, in any case, is really conceded when it is admitted that Akbar
was tolerant towards other faiths to the same extent that Aurangzeb
was only solicitous of the welfare of his Muslim subjects? As the
historian Harbans Mukhia has argued, "Once one accepts that the
liberal religious policy of Akbar was only the reflection of his own
liberal outlook, the conclusion becomes inescapable, for instance,
that the fanatic religious policy of Aurangzeb flowed from his fanatic
disposition." [6] If Aurangzeb sought to convert members of important
Hindu families to Islam, all the more to ensure the preservation of
his empire, why should that serve as a basis for the presumption that
a wholesale conversion of Hindus was a matter of state policy? By what
method of transference is it possible to construe that conflicts among
the ruling elite are conflicts at the broader social level? In the
debate over the nature of the Indian past, then, particularly with
respect to Hindu-Muslim relations, Akbar and Aurangzeb were to become,
as they still are, iconic figures.

Notes:

[1] Tara Chand, History of the Freedom Movement, 4 vols (New Delhi:
Government of India, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting,
Publications Division, 1961-72), 1:111-12.

[2] Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India (Calcutta: Signet Press,
1946; reprint ed., Delhi: Oxford University Press/Jawaharlal Nehru
Memorial Fund, 1981), p. 270.

[3] Ibid., p. 265, 271; Tara Chand, History of the Freedom Movement,
1:112.

[4] J. Sarkar, History of Aurangzeb, 4 vols. (Calcutta, 1928),
3:249-50, cited by Satish Chandra, "Reassessing Aurangzeb", Seminar,
no. 364: Mythifying History (December 1989), p. 35.

[5] This paragraph draws upon M. Athar Ali, The Mughal Nobility Under
Aurangzeb (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1968), pp. 30-32; Chandra,
"Reassessing Aurangzeb", pp. 35-38; and B. N. Pandey's comments in
Parliamentary Debates, Rajya Sabha, Vol. 102 (29 July 1977), col. 127.
See also Sita Ram Goel, "Some historical questions", Indian Express
(16 April 1989), p. 8.

[6] Harbans Mukhia, "Medieval Indian History and the Communal


Approach", in Romila Thapar, Harbans Mukhia, and Bipan Chandra,

Communalism and the Writing of Indian History (New Delhi: People's
Publishing House, 1969), p. 29.

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Mughals/Aurang3.html

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 13, 2010, 3:08:20 PM1/13/10
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Aurangzeb's Fatwa on Jizya [Jizyah, or Poll Tax]

Much has been made of Aurangzeb's reimposition of the poll tax (jizya,
or jizyah) on Hindus. However, as the text of the fatwa, which is
seldom read, indicates, an exemption was provided for various classes
of people, such as those who were indigent, without employment, unable
to work on account of poor health, and so on. Moreover, the fatwa
clearly shows that the amount was, far from being uniform, fixed
according to a person's ability to pay. The statement that the jizyah
was imposed as well on "the people of the Book" -- here doubtless a
reference to Christians and Jews -- is particularly significant, since
it suggests that there was no animus directed particularly against the
Hindus. The translation below is by Anver Emon of the Department of
History, UCLA.

Source:

Al-Fatawa al-Alamgiriyyah = Al-Fatawa al-Hindiyyah fi Madhhab al-Imam
al-A‘zam Abi Hanifah al-Nu‘man (Beirut: Dar al-Ma‘rifah, 1973),
2:244-245.

Chapter on Jizyah

[Jizyah] refers to what is taken from the Dhimmis, according to [what
is stated in] al-Nihayah. It is obligatory upon [1] the free, [2]
adult members of [those] who are generally fought, [3] who are fully
in possession of their mental faculties, and [4] gainfully employed,
even if [their] profession is not noble, as is [stated in] al-
Sarajiyyah. There are two types of [jizyah]. [The first is] the jizyah
that is imposed by treaty or consent, such that it is established in
accordance with mutual agreement, according to [what is stated in] al-
Kafi. [The amount] does not go above or below [the stipulated] amount,
as is stated in al-Nahr al-Fa’iq. [The second type] is the jizyah that
the leader imposes when he conquers the unbelievers (kuffar), and
[whose amount] he imposes upon the populace in accordance with the
amount of property [they own], as in al-Kafi. This is an amount that
is pre-established, regardless of whether they agree or disagree,
consent to it or not.

The wealthy [are obligated to pay] each year forty-eight dirhams [of a
specified weight], payable per month at the rate of 4 dirhams. The
next, middle group (wast al-hal) [must pay] twenty-four dirhams,
payable per month at the rate of 2 dirhams. The employed poor are
obligated to pay twelve dirhams, in each month paying only one dirham,
as stipulated in Fath al-Qadir, al-Hidayah, and al-Kafi. [The
scholars] address the meaning of "gainfully employed", and the correct
meaning is that it refers to one who has the capacity to work, even if
his profession is not noble. The scholars also address the meaning of
wealthy, poor, and the middle group. Al-Shaykh al-Imam Abu Ja‘far, may
Allah the most high have mercy on him, considered the custom of each
region decisive as to whom the people considered in their land to be
poor, of the middle group, or rich. This is as such, and it is the
most correct view, as stated in al-Muhit. Al-Karakhi says that the
poor person is one who owns two hundred dirhams or less, while the
middle group owns more than two hundred and up to ten thousand
dirhams, and the wealthy [are those] who own more than ten thousand
dirhams...The support for this, according to al-Karakhi is provided by
the fatawa of Qadi Khan (d. 592/1196). It is necessary that in the
case of the employed person, he must have good health for most of the
year, as is stated in al-Hidayah. It is mentioned in al-Idah that if a
dhimmi is ill for the entire year such that he cannot work and he is
well off, he is not obligated to pay the jizyah, and likewise if he is
sick for half of the year or more. If he quits his work while having
the capacity [to work] he [is still liable] as one gainfully employed,
as is [stated in] al-Nihayah. The jizyah accrues, in our opinion, at
the beginning of the year, and it is imposed on the People of the Book
(whether they are Arab, non-Arab, or Majians) and idol worshippers
(‘abdat al-awthan) from among the non-Arabs, as in al-Kafi...The
[jizyah] is not imposed on the idol worshippers from among the Arabs
or from among the apostates, where they exist. Their women and
children [are considered] as part of a single liability group (fi’).
[In other words], whoever from among their men do not submit to Islam
shall be killed, and no jizyah is imposed upon their women, children,
ill persons or the blind, or likewise on the paraplegic, the very old,
or on the unemployed poor, as is stated in al-Hidayah.

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Mughals/Aurnag_fatwa.html

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 13, 2010, 3:11:08 PM1/13/10
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Babar

Babar watching his gardeners at work. Illustration from Babur Nama.
Mughal miniature, 16th century. Coll: Victoria & Albert Museum,
London.

(Click image for a detaild view.)

The Mughal empire in India was founded by Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babar,
a Chaghatai Turkish ruler born on 14 February 1483. He was the son of
the ruler of the petty kingdom of Farghana and inherited his father's
precarious throne when he was but eleven years old. Though it was
Babar's dream to rule Central Asia and capture Samarqand, he had
fierce opposition from Persians and the Afghans. Consequently he
turned his eyes from the West to the East, from the steppes of Central
Asia to the fertile plains of Hindustan [India].

North India was at that time ruled by Afghan chieftains known as the
Lodis. Babar invaded the Lodi-governed Punjab several times from his
capital at Kabul before winning a decisive victory. In 1526, at the
battle of Panipat, only a few miles from Delhi, Babar's small but well-
trained army of 12,000 men defeated a much larger force under the
command of Ibrahim Lodi, the sultan of Delhi.

In the following year, Babar led his army to victory over a
confederacy of Rajput kings headed by Rana Sanga, ruler of the state
of Mewar of Rajasthan. Babar's small army defeated the eighty thousand
strong army of the Rajputs. These brisk victories gave Babar, who had
extraordinary military acumen, a base from which to consolidate his
rule in Northern India. His guns and his long-practiced use of the
enveloping tactics of Central Asian cavalry proved to be effective
against the Rajputs as well as the Afghans. His kingdom included
Central Asian territories, Kabul, the Punjab, Delhi, and other parts
of North India as far south as Gwalior and as far east as the Bihar.

Babar was more of a soldier than a politician. It has been suggested
by historians that the government he set up was saifi (by the sword )
and not qalami (by the pen). Considerable parts of his empire were
ruled by his ministers with full sovereignity. He was an orthodox
Sunni muslim and loved architecture and music; he was also a master of
Turki, his mother tongue, as well as Persian. The chronicles of his
life, the Babarnama, remains widely used and is a masterpiece of that
genre of literature. Babar appears not to have been enamored of Delhi
and India, and in recent years his name has been mired in controversy.
A mosque by the name of Babri masjid, apparently built in 1526 at his
command, was destroyed on 6 December 1992 by Hindu militants. They
claim that a Hindu temple, marking the site of Lord Rama's birth, was
destroyed at Babar's orders, and a mosque built at that very site. For
Hindu militants and chauvinists, Babar's name has become synonymous
with the history of Muslim tyranny and oppression, but almost nothing
in the historical record warrants this reading.

Babar nominated his son Humayun as his successor and died on 30
December 1530 at the age of forty eight.

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Mughals/Babar.html

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 13, 2010, 3:13:02 PM1/13/10
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Jahangir

The Emperor Jahangir examining a picture. Mughal miniature, 17th
century.

Click image for a larger view.

Jahangir was born on 9 September 1569 at Fatehpur Sikri. His father,
Akbar, really doted on him but the relationship got bitter as Jahangir
came of age. Jahangir openly rebelled against his father at first, but
was evenutally reconciled; and on Akbar's death in November 1605, he
assumed the throne. Though his own son, Khusrau, then seventeen years
old, led a military campaign against his father, Jahangir captured him
and rendered him blind. In 1611, Jahangir met, wooed, and married
Mehrunissa, the young widow of a Mughal officer. A beautiful and
strong woman, she soon became Jahangir's favorite queen and assumed
the title of Nur Jahan, 'Light of the World'. Her father, Itimad ñud-
daulah, was elevated to the position of chief minister; her brother,
Asaf Khan, became a nobleman at the court; and his daughter, Mumtaz
Mahal, was married to Khurram (later Shah Jahan), Jahangir's other
son, in 1612. Nur Jahan herself came to exercise considerable
influence over her husband, and Jahangir is said to have relied
heavily on her advice.

Under Jahangir, the empire continued to be a war state attuned to
conquest and expansion. Jahangir's most irksome foe was the Rana of
Mewar, Amar Singh, who finally capitulated in 1613 to Khurram's
forces. In the northeast , the Mughals clashed with the Ahoms of
Burma, whose guerilla tactics gave the Mughals a hard time. In
Northern India, Jahangir's forces under Khurram defeated their other
principal adversary, the Raja of Kangra, in 1615; in the Deccan, his
victories further consolidated the empire. But in 1620, Jahangir fell
sick, and so ensued the familiar quest for power. Nur Jahan married
her daughter to Shahryar, Jahangir's youngest son from his other
queen, in the hope of having a living male heir to the throne when
Jahangir died.

Jahangir always feared the Persians and the Uzbeks of Central Asia.
The Persians matched the Mughals in military strength and resources.
Their relations were tolerably good because each feared the other's
might. But in 1622, taking advantage of the disputes within the court,
the Persians capitalized on the Mughals' preoccupation in internal
affairs and captured Qandahar. Shah Jahan refused to help Jahangir and
Shahryar in the campaign against the Persians and thus led an open
rebellion. He fought his fathers forces but was defeated and agreed to
terms dictated by Nur Jahan. In 1627, Jahangir became seriously ill,
and he never recovered from his illness. Upon the death of his father
on 28 October 1627, Shah Jahan, with support from his father-in-law
Asaf Khan, became the emperor by executing Shahryar and other male
Mughal heirs. The accession of Shah Jahan to the throne was a result
of great political intrigue.

Jahangir lacked the political enterprise of his father Akbar. But he
was an honest man and a tolerant ruler. He strived to reform society
and was tolerant towards Hindus, Christians and Jews. However,
relations with Sikhs were strained, and the fifth of the ten Sikh
gurus, Arjun Dev, was executed at Jahangir's orders for giving aid and
comfort to Khusrau, Jahangir's rebellious son. Art, literature, and
architecture prospered under Jahangir's rule, and the Mughal gardens
in Srinagar remain an enduring testimony to his artistic taste.

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Mughals/Jehang.html

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 13, 2010, 3:14:55 PM1/13/10
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The Portuguese in India: The Early Phase, Part I

Vinay Lal

The arrival of Vasco da Gama, a nobleman from the household of the
King of Portugal, at the port of Calicut in south-west India on 27 May
1948 inaugurated a new, and extremely unpleasant, chapter in Indian
history. For some time, the Portuguese, among other Europeans, had
been looking for a sea route to India, but they had been unable to
break free of the stranglehold exercised by Egyptian rulers over the
trade between Europe and Asia. The Red Sea trade route was a state
monopoly from which Islamic rulers earned tremendous revenues. In the
fifteenth century, the mantle of Christendom’s resistance to Islam had
fallen upon Portugal; moreover, the Portuguese had inherited the
Genoese tradition of exploration. It is reported that the idea of
finding an ocean route to Ocean had become an obsession for Henry the
Navigator (1394-1460), and he was also keen to find a way to
circumvent the Muslim domination of the eastern Mediterranean and all
the routes that connected India to Europe. In 1454, Henry received a
bull from Pope Nicholas V, which conferred on him the right to
navigate the “sea to the distant shores of the Orient”, more
specifically “as far as India”, whose inhabitants were to be brought
to help Christians “against the enemies of the faith”. The pagans,
wherever they might be, “not yet afflicted with the plague of Islam”
were to be given the “knowledge of the name of Christ.” By the terms
of the Treaty of Trodesilhas (1494), all new territories were divided
between Spain and Portugal. The stage was thus set for the
Portuguese incursions into the waters surrounding India.

In 1487, the Portuguese navigator, Bartholomew Dias, rounded the “Cape
of Good Hope”, and so opened the sea route to India. An expedition of
four ships headed out to India in 1497, and arrived in India in
slightly less than eleven months’ time. The coming of the Portuguese
introduced several new factors into Indian history. As almost every
historian has observed, it not only initiated what might be called the
European era, it marked the emergence of naval power. Doubtless, the
Cholas, among others, had been a naval power, but for the first time a
foreign power had come to India by way of the sea; moreover,
Portuguese dominance would only extend to the coasts, since they were
never able to make any significant inroads into the Indian interior.
The Portuguese ships carried cannon, but the significance of this is
not commonly realized, especially by those who are merely inclined to
view the Portuguese as one of a series of invaders of India, or even
as specimens of ‘enterprising’ Europeans whose mission it was to
energize the ‘lazy natives’. For centuries, the numerous participants
in the Indian Ocean trading system – Indians, Arabs, Africans from the
east coast, Chinese, Javanese, Sumatrans, among others – had ploughed
the sea routes and adhered to various tacit rules of conduct. Though
all were in the trade for profit, as might be expected, no party
sought to have overwhelming dominance; certainly no one had sought to
enforce their power through arms. Trade flourished, and all the
parties played their role in putting down piracy: this was a free
trade zone. Into this arena stepped forth the Portuguese, who at
once declared their intention to abide by no rules except their own,
and who sought immediate and decisive advantage over the Indians and
over the Indian Ocean trading system.

In a word, the conduct of the Portuguese in India was ‘barbaric’.
Vasco da Gama’s initial conduct set the tone. On his way to India, he
encountered an unarmed vessel returning from Mecca; as a contemporary
Portuguese source states, da Gama ordered the ship emptied of its
goods, and then had it set on fire, prohibiting “any Moor” being taken
from it alive. He then spent four months in India. Having waited out
the monsoons, he set out to return to Portugal with a cargo worth
sixty times what he had brought with him, and refused to pay the
customary port duties to the Zamorin, the ruler of Calicut. To ensure
that his way would not be obstructed, he took a few hostages with
him. When he returned to Portugal in 1499, the pepper he brought with
him was sold at an enormous profit; and nothing underscores the
importance of direct access to the pepper trade as much as the fact
that elsewhere the Europeans, who relied on Muslim middlemen, would
have to spend ten times as much for the same amount of pepper.
Emboldened by this success, King Dom Manuel sent another expedition of
six ships headed by Pedro Cabral. With their usual ignorance of, and
disdain for, local customs, Cabral and the Portuguese sent a low-caste
Hindu as a messenger to the Zamorin upon their arrival at port.
Meanwhile, as the historian K. M. Panikkar has written, the Portuguese
were claiming the sole right to the sea; in the words of Barroes, “It
is true that there does exist a common right to all to navigate the
seas and in Europe we acknowledge the rights which others hold against
us; but this right does not extend beyond Europe; and therefore the
Portuguese as Lords of the Sea are justified in confiscating the goods
of all those navigate the seas without their permission” (p. 41).
Cabral attacked all Arab vessels within his reach, which provoked a
riot at the port that led to the destruction of the Portuguese
factory. Cabral retaliated in the only way known to a Portuguese
marauder and bandit of his times: he massacred the crews of the
boats, and burnt all the ships that were not his own. The intent,
which would be repeatedly witnessed in the history of Portuguese
interactions with the Indians (and with others), was to brutalize and
terrorize the native population, and Panikkar remarks, with evident
justice, that Cabral’s behavior persuaded the Indians that “the
intruders were uncivilised barbarians, treacherous and
untrustworthy” (p. 42).

Quotations are extracted from K. M. Panikkar, Malabar and the
Portuguese: Being a History of the Relations of the Portuguese with
Malabar from 1500 to 1663 (Bombay: D. B. Taraporevala, 1929).

Copyright, 2001

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Mughals/portuguese.html

bademiyansubhanallah

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Shivaji
See also: Shivaji and the Politics of History

Shivaji Bhonsle, venerated in Maharashtra as the father of “the
Maratha nation”, was born in 1627 into a family of Maratha
bureaucrats. His father, Shahji, was the jagirdar of the Sultan of
Ahmadnagar in Pune, but he shifted his allegiance to the Sultan of
Bijapur; Shivaji’s mother, Jiji Bai, was devoted to her son,
particularly after her husband took a second wife. This was not the
only time that Shahji shifted his loyalties: when the Mughal emperor
Shah Jahan decided to lead his forces into the Deccan, Shahji decided
to accept the offer of a mansabdari from Shah Jahan. However, upon the
emperor’s retreat in 1632, Shahji decided to accept once again the
suzerainty of the Sultan of Ahmadnagar. However, the Sultan of
Ahmadnagar was taken captive by the Mughal army in 1633, and though
Shahji struggled valiantly to retain his political independence, he
succumbed to the combined forces of the Mughal Emperor and the Sultan
of Bijapur who had signed an accord between themselves in 1636. Shahji
surrendered, was expelled from Pune, and retreated to Bijapur.

Shivaji, though his father was exiled from Pune, was raised in the
city that was to become the capital not only of Maratha power, but the
seat, as it were, of real and imagined Hindu martial traditions. (Much
later, it is in Pune that armed resistance to the British led to a
campaign of terror and assassination, and it is from Pune that
Nathuram Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi, emerged to press forth
the case for a masculine Indian nation-state.) Some historians have
argued that Shivaji grew up with a hatred for Islam, but there is
little in the historical record that directly substantiates any such
reading. For a good many years, Shivaji and his band of Marathas, who
can with some justice be claimed as having originated the idea of
guerrilla warfare in India, plundered the countryside, and Shivaji
came to acquire a formidable reputation as a warrior. But Shivaji’s
main interest lay in subduing Bijapur, and the opportunity presented
itself when the Sultan, Muhammad Adil Shah, died in November 1656.
Muhammad Adil Shah’s successor, Ali Adil Shah, sent his general, Afzal
Khan, at the head of an army of 10,000 troops to surround and subdue
Shivaji in his fortress, Pratapgarh.

The most celebrated act of Shivaji’s life, if historians are to be
believed, is his killing of Afzal Khan in 1659. According to the most
commonly accepted narrative of events, Afzal Khan agreed to meet
Shivaji in person to accept his surrender. It is suggested that Afzal
Khan had treacherous designs upon Shivaji, but evidently he received a
fatal dose of his own medicine before he could murder Shivaji. The
Maratha leader carried a small dagger in one hand, and a tiger’s claw
in the other, but these little weapons were concealed by the long
sleeves of the loose-fitting clothes he wore. As the two men hugged
each other, Afzal Khan nearly stuck a dagger at Shivaji’s side, but
the Maratha passed his arm around the Khan’s waist and, to quote from
the admiring biography by the Bengali historian Jadunath Sarkar, “tore
his bowels open with a blow of steel claws”. It is a chilling fact
that this episode, in which neither Afzal Khan nor Shivaji appear to
have shown much honor, should have been described, amidst the euphoria
of the celebrations in 1974-75 to mark the 300th anniversary of the
coronation of Shivaji, as the “most glorious event in the history of
the Marathas.” (See R. V. Herwadkar, “Historicity of Shivaji-Afzal
Khan Confrontation”, in B. K. Apte, ed., Chhatrapati Shivaji:
Coronation Tercentenary Commemmoration Volume (Bombay: University of
Bombay, 1974-75.)

As is purported to be quite common with ‘Oriental armies’, Afzal
Khan’s entire force is described as having become panic-stricken at
the death of their commander, and Shivaji was left victorious. His
triumph over Afzal Khan is often said to mark the birth of Maratha
power. In 1664, Shivaji dared even to plunder Surat, a trading town
with rich mercantile traditions and immensely wealthy merchants, but
this invoked the fury of Aurangzeb, who sent his general Jai Singh to
deal with this irritant. The Mughal commander Jai Singh used a variety
of diplomatic and military measures to ease the path to his victory.
It is said that Shivaji was visited in his dreams by the goddess
Bhavani, who reportedly advised him that he could not triumph if he
raised his hand against another Hindu prince, but this reading may be
no more than an attempt to assuage the pride of the admirers of
Shivaji bothered by Shivaji’s capitulation to Aurangzeb. Though
Shivaji himself was incorporated into the Mughal system, becoming in
John Richards’ words a “vassal” of the Emperor, it was his son,
Shambhaji, who was rendered into a mansabdar of 5,000. Shivaji’
hagiographers at this point pause to reflect on their hero’s daring
escape from the court of Aurangzeb in 1666. Though Shivaji had, by
1670, recaptured many of the fortresses he had previously surrendered
to Aurangzeb, the hagiographers do not always mention the fact that he
continued to petition the Mughal emperor to be entitled a “Raja”. This
petition was granted in 1668.

Shivaji’s coronation in 1674 as Chhatrapati, or “Lord of the
Universe”, constitutes the next pivotal chapter in his biography. It
was in part to mark his independence from the Mughals, and to
repudiate his formal relation to them of a feudatory, that Shivaji had
himself crowned, but the very gesture of defiance points to the fact
that he recognized the overwhelming power of the Mughals. Moreover, as
a Shudra or low-caste person, Shivaji had perforce to enact some
ceremony by means of which he could be raised to the status of a
kshatriya or traditional ruler. To this end, he enlisted the services
of Gagga Bhatta, a famous Brahmin from Benares, who did the
Brahminical thing in falsely certifying that Shivaji’s ancestors were
kshatriyas descended from the solar dynasty of Mewar. 11,000 Brahmins
are reported to have chanted the Vedas, and another 50,000 men are
said to have been present at the investiture ceremony, which concluded
with chants of, “Shivaji Maharaj-ki-jai!”

The greater majority of the historians of previous generations and
other scholars who have written on Shivaji have supposed that his
battles with Aurangzeb, as well as his coronation, cannot be read as
other than clear signs of his unrelenting hatred for Muslims and his
desire to be considered a great Hindu monarch. But it is not at all
transparent, as some recent work suggests, that his conflicts with
Aurangzeb should be read through the lens of a communalist-minded
history, where all conflicts are construed as the inevitable battle
between Islam and Hinduism. It is precisely to thwart the communalist
interpretations of Shivaji that Nehru made the pointed remark, in his
Discovery of India, that “Shivaji, though he fought Aurangzeb, freely
employed Muslims” (p. 272). The first Pathan unit joined Shivaji’s
forces in 1658, and one of his trusted commanders who was present at
Shivaji’s encounter with Afzal Khan was a Muslim, Didi Ibrahim. There
is nothing to suggest that the animosity between the Shia rulers of
Bijapur and the Sunni Mughal Emperors was of a different order than
the conflict between the Hindu Shivaji and Aurangzeb, who were locked
in battle over political power and economic resources. It is also a
telling fact that, after the coronation, Shivaji struck a military
alliance with the Muslim leader Abul Hasan, the Qutb Shah Sultan, and
together they waged a campaign against Shivaji’s own half-brother,
Vyankoji Bhonsle. Shivaji died in 1680.

[For a lengthier consideration of points raised in the last paragraph,
see the companion piece, Shivaji and the Politics of History.]

Further Reading:

Gordon, Stewart. The Marathas: 1600-1818. The New Cambridge History of
India II.4. New York, Cambridge University: 1993.

Richards, John F. The Mughal Empire. The New Cambridge History of
India, I:5. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1993.

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Mughals/Shivaji.html

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Shivaji and the Politics of History

In recent years, with the advent to power of the Bharatiya Janata
Party in national politics, and of the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, the
stock of Shivaji Bhonsle (1627-1680), the Maratha leader, has once
again risen high. One hundred years ago, the Indian nationalist Bal
Gangadhar Tilak succeeded to a considerable extent in reviving the
political memory of Shivaji, and early nationalists, in search of
martial heroes, raised him to the eminence of a “freedom fighter”.
Tilak’s contemporary, the Indian nationalist Lala Lajpat Rai,
nicknamed the “Lion of the Punjab”, published a biography of Shivaji
in Urdu (1896), and commended him to the attention of the youth with
the observation that “Shivaji protected his own religion, saved the
cow and the Brahmin but he did not disrespect any other religion. This
is the highest praise that can be bestowed on a Hindu hero like
Shivaji in the days of Aurangzeb.”

Shivaji has assumed over the course of the last few years an
extraordinary importance in the debates over the Indian past. To visit
Maharashtra, particularly Pune, is to come to the awareness that a
great many public institutions and buildings have been named after
him. Victoria Terminus in Bombay, one of the preeminent landmarks of
European colonialism in what was Britain’s foremost colony, is now
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, and one would imagine that Maharashtra,
home to great saints, writers, and such nationalist leaders as the
scholar Gopal Krishna Gokhale, was bereft of any other commanding
personality. Even in Delhi the gigantic Interstate Bus Terminal
(ISBT), which services the needs of millions of people every year, has
recently been renamed the Chhatrapati Shivaji Bus Terminal. It is
presumed that Shivaji was one of the earliest exponents of the idea of
a Hindu nation, who kept the torch of Hindu resistance alive during
the days of Muslim rule (generally characterized as ‘Muslim tyranny’).
Lala Lajpat Rai, whom we have quoted previously, took the view that
Shivaji’s life demonstrated that “during any [sic] time in Muslim rule
Hindus did not lose any opportunity to show their valour and attain
freedom nor did they quietly suffer oppression.” So long as Indian
nationalists persisted in portraying Shivaji as a Hindu leader who
withstood Aurangzeb’s military campaigns and religious fanaticism,
they were given no hindrance by the British; but when Tilak invoked
Shivaji’s name and courage to rouse Indians to resistance against
British rule, he was convicted of sedition. The emergence of Gandhi,
and the adoption by the Indian National Congress of non-violence as
its official policy, did little to erode the popularity in which
Shivaji was held. His name was kept alive by armed revolutionaries and
by a nation, stung by charges that it was effete and incapable of
offering resistance, eager to flaunt a martial past; and the emergence
of communalism in the 1920s, leading eventually to demands for the
creation of a Muslim state, again made it possible to urge resistance
to Muslim demands in the name of Shivaji.

With the creation in 1960 of the new state of Maharashtra, carved out
of the old Bombay Presidency, Shivaji became canonized as the creator
of the Marathi nation, and the celebration in 1974 of the 300th
anniversary of his coronation was to furnish ripe opportunities for
consolidating the view that he was even a ‘national’ leader. To take
any other view was to invite retribution, as one Marathi historian at
Marathwada University found out in 1974 when he was dismissed from his
position for disputing the hagiographic view of Shivaji. One volume of
contributions, mainly by historians, was entitled Chhatrapati Shivaji:
Architect of Freedom (1975). Its editor states that Shivaji “laid the
foundation of a nation-state, the state of the Marathas, on a firm,
secular basis.” But what is this nation-state of the Marathas, and of
what “freedom” was Shivaji the architect? Doubtless, the Marathas were
the dominant power in the Deccan for much of the eighteenth century,
but the argument for Maratha sovereignty, and a Maratha nation-state,
cannot so easily be sustained. Shivaji’s successors, taking advantage
of the weakness of the later Mughals, would play more the role of
plunderers and marauders than kings while still acting as the tax-
collectors for the Mughal emperors; by the second half of the
eighteenth century, they were also contending with the military
strength of the East India Company’s forces, though they were
nonetheless able to capture Delhi and Agra, the nerve centers of the
Mughal empire, in 1770-71.

Similarly, it is only possible to characterize Shivaji as the
“architect of freedom” on the presumption that Hindus were laboring
under severe disadvantages and were suffocated by Muslim tyranny
before Shivaji freed them from their woes. One historian, taking this
view, put the matter rather dramatically in another volume
commemorating the tercentenary of Shivaji’s coronation when he
described Shivaji as having liberated the Marathas from three
centuries of “alien rule” which had “turned the natives fatalistic”:
“It was Shivaji who emancipated them from this terrific mental
torpidity. He created in them self-confidence . . . He gave them back
their dearly loved religious freedom.” Yet this assessment appears
almost moderate, when we consider R. C. Majumdar’s opinion that in the
whole history of India, there was no Hindu other than Shivaji “who
made such a pious resolve in his mind to save his country and religion
from foreign yoke and oppression.” Dismissing with utter contempt the
position of “modern Hindu politicians and pseudo-historians” [a
reference to Nehru among others] who insist on “a complete
assimilation between the Hindus and Muslims after the first fury of
intolerance and oppression was over”, Majumdar remarked: “But Shivaji
was in any case free from such ideas. He looked upon the Muslims as
oppressive rulers and the Hindus as long-suffering subject peoples.”

To substantiate the Hindu communalist reading of Shivaji as the
architect of Hindu freedom requires that Hindu-Muslim conflict be seen
as the backdrop of his own times, just as it turns him into an
inveterate foe of Muslims. Yet Shivaji employed Muslims in his army,
among them 700 Pathans who had once worked for the Bijapur Sultan, and
he forged alliances with Muslim rulers, in one case to wage a campaign
against his own half-brother. It is not at all clear why the conflict
between Shivaji and Aurangzeb should necessarily be viewed as a Hindu-
Muslim conflict, rather than as a contest over power, resources, and
sovereignty. Moreover, there is little documentary evidence to warrant
the conclusion that Hindus in the Deccan were being systematically
persecuted before Shivaji arrived to free them from their yoke.
Indeed, quite to the contrary, at least some of the evidence points to
the fact that many Muslim dynasties in the south (mainly Shiite)
retained a catholic attitude towards Hinduism. Few historians in the
1970s, as communalism was becoming an important force in the writing
of Indian history, were prepared to reflect on how far it is possible
to infer from Shivaji’s encounters with Afzal Khan and Aurangzeb that
people belonging to various social strata similarly felt their lives
to be bounded by oppositional religious feelings. Yet, just as
Aurangzeb and Akbar had become symbolic figures in the emerging
dispute between secularists and communalists, so Shivaji was to become
an iconic figure in the struggle to define the ‘authentic’ history of
India.

With the rise to power of the Bharatiya Janata Party at the national
level, and earlier of the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, the quest for a
martial Hindu past has received a new impetus, and since the conflict
has moved to the domain of history as well, it seems certain that
Shivaji will continue to be viewed not merely as a chieftain and even
Maratha leader, which he doubtless was, but – altogether erroneously –
as the supreme figure in the “Hindu struggle for freedom” from Muslim
tyranny and as the inspirational figure for Indian independence.
Shivaji’s acolytes, in recent years, have embraced tactics of
intimidation and terror that certainly do no credit to Shivaji
himself. The scholar James Laine, author of Shivaji: Hindu King in
Islamic India (New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), was
placed under a death sentence for the expression of views considered
detrimental to Shivaji, and Oxford University Press was compelled to
withdraw the book from sale in India. One of Professor Laine’s local
informants, a scholar at the venerable Bhandarkar Oriental Research
Institute (BORI), was publicly humiliated by hoodlums claiming to act
in the name of venerating Shivaji’s memory, and the institute itself
was sacked. Any intellectual history of how Shivaji’s name survives in
India will thus have to contend not only with such obvious phenomena
as the rise of the Shiv Sena, but also the strategies deployed to
silence those who question the received versions of the history of
Shivaji.

[See also the companion biographical piece on Shivaji.]

Further Reading:

Apte, B. K., ed. Chhatrapati Shivaji: Coronation Tercentenary
Commemoration Volume (Bombay: University of Bombay, 1974-75). See
especially the introduction by Apte.

Kulkarnee, Narayan H., ed. Chhatrapati Shivaji: Architect of Freedom
(Delhi: Chhatrapati Shivaji Smarak Samiti, 1975). See especially the
article by J. C. Srivastava, "Lala Lajpatrai’s Urdu Biography of
Shivaji", and R. C. Majumdar, "Shivaji’s Relevance to Modern Times".

Mukhia, Harbans. "Medieval Indian History and the Communal Approach",
in Romila Thapar, Harbans Mukhia, and Bipan Chandra, Communalism and


the Writing of Indian History (New Delhi: People’s Publishing House,

1969).

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Mughals/Shivhistory.html

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Mahmud of Ghazni

Few figures from the Indian past strike most Hindus with as much
revulsion as the Turkish conqueror, Mahmud of Ghazni. Mahmud succeeded
his father, a warlord who had carved out an empire in central Asia and
had established his capital at Ghazni, south of Kabul, in 998 AD at
the age of 27. He launched aggressive expansionist campaigns, and is
said to have invaded India no less than 17 times between 1000 and 1025
AD. His campaigns invariably took place during the hot summer season,
and on each occasion Mahmud left India before the onset of the
monsoons, which would have flooded the rivers of the Punjab and
possibly trapped his troops.

Mahmud’s invasions of India, which never extended to the central,
south, and eastern portions of the country, were doubtless exceedingly
bloody and ruthless affairs. He is said to have carried away huge
amount of booty on each visit, and among other Indian dynasties, the
Chandellas of Khujaraho, the Pratiharas of Kanauj, and the Rajputs of
Gwalior all succumbed to his formidable military machine. Places such
as Kanauj, Mathura, and Thaneshwar were laid to ruins, but it is the
memory of his destruction of the Shiva temple at Somnath, on the
southern coast of Kathiawar in Gujarat, which has earned him the
undying hatred of many Hindus. Muslim chronicles suggest that 50,000
Hindu died in the battle for Somnath, and it is said that the Shiva
lingam was destroyed by Mahmud himself; after the battle, Mahmud and
his troops are described as having carried away across the desert the
equivalent of 6.5 tons of gold. The famous, intricately carved, doors
of the temple at Somnath were also carried away, and there is an
interesting story to be told about Somnath [see entry].

There can be no doubt that Mahmud of Ghazni waged ruthless campaigns
and terrorized the people who came in his way. The Arab geographer and
scholar, Alberuni, who wrote an account of India and spent much time
at Mahmud’s court, wrote of his raids that "the Hindus became like the
atoms of dust scattered in all directions and like a tale of old in
the mouths of people. Their scattered remains cherish of course the
most inveterate aversion towards all Moslems." Nonetheless, the
communalist interpretation of Mahmud, first initiated by British
historians and then adopted by nationalist Hindu historians, is
without merit and must be rejected. This interpretation represents
Mahmud as someone who harbored a special hatred for Hindus, but in
point of fact there is nothing he did to Hindus that he did not also
do to Muslims, especially Muslims he considered to be heretical. The
Muslim ruler of Multan, an Ismaili, and his subjects were dealt with
just as ruthlessly. Though Mahmud destroyed Hindu temples and broke
Hindu idols, he acted as any ruthless warrior bent on conquest and
pillage might do; indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find other
conquerors at that time who behaved any differently. Many of his deeds
struck even later Muslim historians as indefensible, and they become
comprehensible, though emphatically not justifiable, when one
considers him within a framework which recognizes the ‘politics of
conquest’. If Mahmud pillaged Hindu temples, he did so because wealth
was hoarded in these temples; but there is little to suggest a
particular animus towards Hinduism. Contemporary records suggest that
one of his most notable generals was a Hindu by the name of Tilak.

Mahmud’s ferocity and barbarism scarcely prevented him from
cultivating the great minds of the time. He was animated by an
ambition to make turn his court at Ghazni into a haven for scholars
and artists, and he turned Ghazni into one of the cosmopolitan cities
of the world. The famous Persian poet, Firdausi, author of the
national epic the Shahnamah, was enticed to make his home in Ghazni,
as was the Arab geographer Alberuni. The more substantive questions
pertain to why India fell so easily to Mahmud’s sword on so numerous
occasions, though even here it is worthy of note that he met stiff
opposition in Kashmir and could never establish his rule over that
fabled land. He doubtless had a more efficient military than any
Indian ruler could muster, and the most formidable of the Hindu kings,
the Cholas, were too far removed from northern India to offer any
resistance, or even to have any interest in the affairs of the north.
Caste divisions in Hindu society also played their part in weakening
the resistance of Hindu kings, and the professionalism and
egalitarianism of Muslim armies, many of which allowed slaves to rise
to the top, was nowhere to be seen among the Hindus. These are among
the pertinent considerations raised by Mahmud’s raids into India, and
scholarship would do much better in directing itself towards the
‘politics of conquest’ and the political structures of north India
around 1000 AD than in being derailed by communalist readings of
Indian history.

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Mughals/mahmud_mughals.html

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Jan 13, 2010, 3:24:49 PM1/13/10
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Research Material in MANAS

Primary Documents for the Study of Indian History, c. 1890-2000.
Prepared by Vinay Lal
Select Research Bibliography on the Partition of India, Compiled by
Vinay Lal

Pakistan: A Select Political Chronology, 1947-2008, Complied by Vinay
Lal

Short Research Bibliography on Hindi Cinema, Compiled by Vinay Lal

The Indian City, 1700 to the Present: A Select Research Bibliography,
Compiled by Vinay Lal
HISTORY AND POLITICS: British India

"The Incident of the Crawling Lane: Women in the Punjab Disturbances
of 1919", Genders, no. 16 (Spring 1993):35-60.

"Surat Under the Raj", review of Douglas Haynes, Rhetoric and Ritual
in Colonial India, Economic and Political Weekly 28, no. 18 (1 May
1993):863-865.

"Imperial Nostalgia", review of The Raj: India and the British
1600-1947, by C. A. Bayly et al., Economic and Political Weekly 28,
nos. 29-30 (17-24 July 1993):1511-13.

"Beyond Alterity", review of Sara Suleri's The Rhetoric of English
India, Economic and Political Weekly 30, no. 5 (4 February 1995):
254-55.

"The Courtesan and the Indian Novel", a review-article on Hasan Shah,
The Nautch Girl, and Mirza M. H. Ruswa, Umra Jan Ada, Courtesan of
Lucknow, Indian Literature, no. 139 (Sept-Oct 1995):164-70.

"Masculinity and Femininity in The Chess Players: Sexual Moves,
Colonial Manoeuvres, and an Indian Game", in Manushi: A Journal of
Women and Society, nos. 92-93 (Jan.-April 1996):41-50.

"Good Nazis and just scholars: much ado about the British Empire",
review of P. J. Marshall, ed., Cambridge Illustrated History of the
British Empire, Race and Class 38, no. 4 (April-June 1997):89-101.

"Hill Stations: Pinnacles of the Raj." Review article on Dale Kennedy,
The Magic Mountains: Hill Stations and the British Raj, Capitalism,
Nature, Socialism 8, no. 3 (September 1997):123-132.

"John Stuart Mill and India", a review-article. New Quest, no. 54
(January-February 1998):54-64.

HISTORY AND POLITICS: Independent India
Abul Kalam Azad by Rahil Khan

Bhopal and the Crime of Union Carbide. A review article by Vinay Lal
on Jamie Cassells, The Uncertain Promise of Law: Lessons from Bhopal
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994), originally published as
"Sovereign Immunity: Law in an Unequal World" in Social and Legal
Studies 5, no. 3 (1996):431-36. Also published, with variations, as
"Reliving a Nightmare", The Book Review (June 1996):29-31, and in New
Quest, no. 121 (Jan.-Feb. 1997):53-60.

SWEET, OH! NOT SO SWEET THIS WORLD CUP. Vinay LalPublished in
"Humanscape" Magazine, Mumbai, September 1999 issue, as "Why Indians
Should Have Supported Pakistan in the World Cup Final")

Democracy & the Indian Polity. Vinay Lal

HISTORY AND POLITICS: Mahatma Gandhi

The Mother in the 'Father of the Nation'. by Vinay Lal. Originally
published in Manushi: A Journal of Women and Society, no. 91 (November-
December 1995):27-30.

‘Hey Ram’: The Politics of Gandhi’s Last Words. Vinay Lal [Published
in Humanscape 8, no. 1 (January 2001):34-38.]

More Than a Man of Action, a review by Vinay Lal. Dalton, Dennis.
Mahatma Gandhi: Nonviolent Power in Action. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1993. 279 pp. $29.50, cloth. [Originally published
in Gandhi Marg 16, no. 4 (Jan.-Feb. 1995):491-96.]

Gandhi: A Select Bibliographic Guide

HISTORY AND POLITICS: Mughal India

Aurangzeb's Fatwa on Jizya [Jizyah, or Poll Tax]. Source: Al-Fatawa al-


Alamgiriyyah = Al-Fatawa al-Hindiyyah fi Madhhab al-Imam al-A‘zam Abi
Hanifah al-Nu‘man (Beirut: Dar al-Ma‘rifah, 1973), 2:244-245. Chapter

on Jizyah The translation below is by Anver Emon of the Department of
History, UCLA.

INDIAN DIASPORA

Establishing Roots, Engendering Awareness: A Political History of
Asian Indians in the United States, by Vinay Lal [Published in Live
Like the Banyan Tree: Images of the Indian American Experience, ed.
Leela Prasad (Philadelphia: Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, 1999):
42-48.]

RELIGIONS: Paths: Hinduism

Hinduism, A Basic Bibliography, by Vinay Lal

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/MAIN/research.html

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Primary Documents for the Study of Indian History, c. 1890-2000.
Prepared by Vinay Lal

Abbreviations:

BPP: British Parliamentary Papers, House of Commons.

CWMG: Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. 100 vols. GI, 1951-1996.

MIPT: K. P. Karunakaran, ed., Modern Indian Political Tradition. New
Delhi: Allied Publishers, 1962.

MPWMG: Raghavan Iyer, ed., Moral and Political Writings of Mahatma
Gandhi, 3 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press: Vol. I, 1986; Vol. II, 1986;
Vol. III, 1987.

GI: Government of India, Manager of Publications or Publications
Division.

PPGI: Publications Proscribed by the Government of India. Eds. Graham
Shaw and Mary Lloyd. London: The British Library, 1985.

TP: Nicholas Mansergh, ed., Transfer of Power, 1942-47: Constitutional
Relations between Britain and India. 12 vols. Vol. XII: 8 July-15
August 1947. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1983.

Notes:

1=Essential Documents; 2=Valuable; 3=Worthwhile.

(All documents are "1" unless otherwise stated)

At the end of most entries, the event to which the document refers is
mentioned in square brackets.

Colonialism

Gandhi, M. K. "The Great Trial", CWMG, Vol. 23, pp. 110-20. [Speech at
his trial, 1922].

Gandhi, M. K. [Letter to Lord Irwin, 1930] In CWMG, Vol. 30, pp. 2-8,
14-16 [Salt March].

Gandhi, M. K. Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth.
1925. Various editions. If necessary, chapters dealing with Gandhi’s
life until 1914 may be omitted.

Punjab Subcommittee [of the INC]. Report of the Commissioners
[Appointed to Look into the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre]. Vol 1, Report.
Bombay: Karnataka Press, 1920. Reprinted as Punjab Disturbances
1919-1920, vol. 1: Indian Perspective. Delhi: Deep Publications, 1976.

Industrialization, Technology, and Development

Nehru, Jawaharlal, "Economic Development", in Jawaharlal Nehru’s
Speeches, Vol. 1: 1946-49. 2nd ed., Delhi: GI, 1958 [1949], pp.
91-147.

First Five-Year Plan. Delhi: Government of India, Publications
Division,1952.

Report of the Congress Agrarian Reforms Committee. Delhi: GI Press,
1949.

Dutt, R. C. "The Economic Condition of India" [1901]. Reprinted in
MIPT, pp. 372-385. (3)

Shiva Kumar, A. K. and Joh E. Rohde. The Progress of Indian States,
1995: A Report on the Achievements of Indian States in Child Survival,
Health, Nutrition, Family Planning, Maternal Mortality, Primary
Education, Gender Equity, Child Labour. New Delhi: UNICEF, 1995. (2)

Nayyar, Deepak, ed. Industrial Growth and Stagnation: Selection of
Articles from the Economic and Political Weekly. Mumbai: Sameeksha
Trust Books, 1993. (2)

Government of India, Planning Commission. Reports of the Expert Group
on Estimate of the Proportion and Number of Poor. New Delhi, 1993. (3)

Fernandes, W., and Thukral Ganguly, eds. Development, Displacement and
Rehabilitation: Issues for a National Debate. New Delhi: Indian Social
Institute, 1989. (2)

Communal/Sectarian Conflict

Padgaonkar, Dilip, ed. When Bombay Burned. New Delhi: U.B.S.
Publishers, 1993. [Bombay Riots, December 1992-January 1993] (3)

Daud, S. M. and H. Suresh. The People’s Verdict: An Enquiry into the
December 1992 and January 1993 Riots in Bombay. Mumbai: Indian
People’s Human Rights Tribunal, 1993. (2)

Nandy, Ashis, et al. Creating a Nationality: The Ramjanmabhumi
Movement and Fear of the Self. New Delhi: Oxford UP, 1995.

Women / Women’s Issues

Towards Equality: Report of the Committee on the Status of Women in
India, Department of Social Welfare, Department of Social Welfare,
Ministry of Education and Social Welfare, GI Press, 1975.

Infant Marriage and Enforced Widowhood in India, Being a Collection of
Opinions, For and Against, Received by Mr. Behramji M. Malabari, from
Representative Hindu Gentlemen and Official and Other Authorities.
Bombay: ‘Voice of India’ Printing Press, 1887. (3)

Shramshakti: Report of the National Commission on Self-Employed Women
and Women in the Informal Sector. 1989. (3)

Law and Legal Issues

Constitution of India. New Delhi: Government of India Press. Various
editions.

"Maintenance of Internal Security Act, 1971 [No. 26 of 1971]."
Reproduced in B. V. Kumar, Preventive Detention Laws of India (Delhi:
Konark Publishers, 1991), Appendix 7, pp. 64-78. (2)

Nationalism

1918 BPP. House of Commons, Vol. 8 (Reports, Vol. 4). Cmd. 9190,
"Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate Revolutionary
Conspiracies in India." [Also called Sedition/Rowlatt Committee
Report] [Also published as Sedition Committee Report, Secret edition,
Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Press, 1918; various reprints]

"Congress Responsibility for the Disturbances 1942-43." BPP (1942-43)
Vol. 9 (Acounts and Papers, Vol. 3), pp. 827ff. Cmd. 6430. [Quit India
Disturbances]

The Civil Disobedience Enquiry Committee Report [1922]. Reprinted ed.
A. M. Zaidi, New Delhi: Indian Institute of Applied Political
Research, 1986. (2)

"Measures taken to counteract the Civil Disobedience Movement, and to
Deal with the Terrorist Movement in Bengal …" BPP (1931-32), Vo. 18,
pp. 973 ff. Cmd. 4014. [Civil Disobedience Movement, 1930] (2)

Gandhi, M. K. "Speech at AICC Meeting", 8 August 1942. CWMG, Vol. 76,
pp. 384-96. [Quit India Movement]

Gandhi, M. K. Hind Swaraj [1909; various editions]. Included in MPWMG,
Vol. I: 199-270; also in PPGI, "European Languages", no.77.

INA Trial. Ram, Moti. Two Historic Trials in [the] Red Fort. New
Delhi: Roxy Printing Press, 1946. Pp. 1-306, especially pp. 140-219
[Defence Address by Bhulabhai Desai]. (2) [Indian National Army Trial,
1945]

Tagore, Rabindranath. Nationalism. New York: Macmillan, 1917. 159 pp.
various reprints. (2)

Bhattacharya, Sabyasachi, compiler and ed. The Mahatma and the Poet:
Letters and Debates Between Gandhi and Tagore 1915-1941. Delhi:
National Book Trust, 1997.

Congress Presidential Addresses, Containing Full Text of the
Presidential Addresses from 1911 to 1934, 2nd Series (Madras: G. A.
Natesan, 1934), pp. 415-474 [Motilal Nehru, 1919], 732-755 [Mahatma
Gandhi, 1924], 884-902 [Jawaharlal Nehru, 1929].

Muhammad Ali Jinnah, [A Plea for Hindu-Muslim Unity], "Presidential
Address to the All-India Musim League, Lucknow, 1916", from India’s
Claim for Home Rule (Madras: Ganesh & Co., 1917), pp. 255-280.

Azad, Maulana Kalam. India Wins Freedom. New Delhi: Orient Longman,
various editions. (3)

Tilak, B. G. Bal Gangadhar Tilak: His Writings and Speeches. Enlg. ed.
Madras: Ganesh & Co., 1919, pp. 35-51, 55-80, 104-162, 201-6, 265-80,
373-389. (2)

Bipan Chandra Pal. "Political Philosophy of the Extremists [1906]." In
MIPT, pp. 190-213. (2)

Nehru, Jawaharlal. Toward Freedom: The Autobiography of Jawaharlal
Nehru. [also published as Autobiography]. Boston: Beacon Press, 1961
[1941], pp. 1-47 may be omitted if necessary.

Resistance

Gandhi, M. K. Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha). New York: Schocken
Books, 1964, pp. 3-176, 342-353, and 383-388.

Aurobindo, Sri. The Doctrine of Passive Resistance. (3)

Joshi, Barbara, R., ed. Untouchable! Voices of the Dalit Liberation
Movement. Minority Rights Group. London: Zed Books, 1986.

Environment

"Famine Commission, 1898. Report." [Sir J. Lyall, President]. BPP
(1899), vol. 31, pp. 535 ff. C. 9178. (2)

"Plague Commission, 1898-99. Report." BPP (1902), Vol. 72, pp. 223 ff.
Cd. 810. (2)

"Food Situation, 1943: Speech by the Food Member of the Governor-
General’s Counicl, and other Papers." BPP (1942-43), Vo. 9, pp. 777
ff. Cmd. 6479. [Bengal Famine, 1943]

EKLAVYA. Bhopal — A People’s View of Death, Their Right to Know and
Live. Bhopal: Eklavya, 1984. [Bhopal/Union Carbide Gas Leak, 1984] (2)

Delhi Science Forum. Bhopal Gas Tragedy. Delhi: Delhi Science Forum,
1985. [Bhopal/Union Carbide Gas Leak, 1984]

Agarwal, Anil and Sunita Narain. Global Warming in an Unequal World: A
Case of Environmental Colonialism. New Delhi: Centre for Science &
Environment, 1991. (2)

Morse, Bradford and Thomas Berger. Sardar Sarovar: The Report of the
Independent Review. Goa: The Other India Bookstore, & other
publishers, 1993. [Dispute over the Narmada Development Project]

The State of India’s Environment: The Second Citizen’s Report. New
Delhi: Centre for Science and Enviornment, 1984.

Government of India, Ministry of Environment and Forests. National
Stragegy for Conservation and Sustainable Development: Report of the
Core Committee. New Delhi: GI, 1990. (3)

Social and Reform Movements / Issues

Gandhi, M. K. "Speech at Banaras Hindu University", 4 Feb. 1916. In
CWMG, Vol. 13, pp. 210-16.

Ambedkar, B. R. What Congress and Gandhi Have Done to the
Untocuhables. Bombay: Thacker & Co., 1945; reprint, 1977.

Mandal, B. P, chiarman. Report of the Backward Classes Commission. 7
vols in 2. New Delhi, 1981. Volume 1: Introduction.

Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Seventh Report.
Delhi: GI Press, 1985. (2)

Department of Social Welfare. Report of the Committee on
Untouchability, Economic and Educational Development of the Scheduled
Castes. [Elayaperumal Committee] Delhi: GI Press, 1969. (3)

Encounters: A Report on Land Struggle in Bihar. Delhi: People’s Union
for Democratic Rights, 1996.

Report of the Age of Consent Committee, 1928-29. [Publication details
unknown] (2)

Scavenging Conditions Enquiry Committee [N. R. Malkani, Chairman].
Report. Delhi: GI Press, 1960. (2)

Ideology

Gopal, S.; Thapar, Romila; et al. "The Political Abuse of History."
Seminar [Delhi], no. 364 (December 1989); also reprinted in Social
Scientist, vol. 18, nos. 1-2 (Jan-Feb 1990):76-81, and South Asia
Bulletin 9, no. 2 (1989):65-67. (2)

Indian National Congress. Cawnpore Riots Enquiry Committee. A History
of the Hindu-Muslim Problem in India … Allahabad: Sunderlal, 1933. 544
pp. Complete. PPGI, "European Languages", no. 109.

Godse, Nathuram. May It Please Your Honor [statement in court of the
assassin of Mahatma Gandhi, November 1948]. 3rd ed., Delhi: Surya
Prakashan, 1987. [this document will require editing, as there are
scores of printing errors] (3)

White Paper on Communist Violence in India. Delhi: GI Press, 1949. (3)

[Documents on Indian Liberalism — Speeches and Writings of Surendra
Nath Banerjea, Dadabhai Naoroji, and Gopal Krishna Gokhale]. In MIPT,
pp. 31-122. (2)

[Address Presented to Lord Minto, Viceroy of India, on 1 October 1906,
by a delegation of Muslims led by the Aga Khan]. In MIPT, pp. 277-286.

Jacob, T. G., ed. National Question in India: CPI [Communist Party of
India] Documents, 1942-47 (New Delhi: Odyssey Press, 1988), pp.
80-104, 119-25, 158-240. (3)

Savarkar, Damodar Vinayak. Hindutva: Who is a Hindu? 6th ed., Delhi:
Bharti Sahitya Sadan, 1989. (2)

Golwalkar, Madhav S. Bunch of Thoughts. Bangalore, 1966 [esp. "The
Nation and Its Problems] or We, or Our Nation Defined. Nagpur, 1939.
[either of these two texts might be chosen]

State Violence and Oppression

Shah Commission of Inquiry. Interim Report I and Interim Report II
[March 3 and April 7, 1978]. Dehi: GI Press, 1978. [Emergency,
1975-77]

People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) and People’s Union for
Civil Liberties (PUCL). Who are the Guilty: Report of a Joint
Investigation into the Causes and Impact of Riots in Delhi from 31
October to 10 November. Delhi: PUCL/PUDR, 1984. [Massacre of Sikhs]

Delhi, 31 October to 4 November 1984: Report of the Citizens’
Commission. Delhi, 1984. [Massacre of Sikhs] (2)

Rao, Amiya; Ghose, Aurbindo; Bhattacharya, Sunil; Ahuja, Tejinder; and
Pancholi, N.D. Report to the Nation: Oppression in Punjab. Foreword by
Justice V. M. Tarkunde. New Delhi: Citizens for Democracy, 1985.
[Secessionism/Terrorism in Punjab and the State Response]

Imperial State/Imperialism/Constitutionalism

"Government of India Act [1919] …" BPP (1920), Vol. 35, pp. 1 ff. Cmd.
610. [The Government of India Act, 1919] (3)

"Government of India Act [1935] …" BPP (1935-36), Vol. 19, pp. 1149
ff. Cmd. 5133. [The Government of India Act, 1935]

"Full Text of Indian Press Act, VII of 1908." BPP (1908), Vol. 74, pp.
919 ff. Cd. 4152. (2)

"Announcements by and on behalf of His Majesty the King-Emperor at the
Coronation Dubar held at Delhi on the 12th December 1911." BPP (1911),
Vol. 55, pp. 577 ff. Cd. 5979. (3)

Report of the Indian Statutory Commission. London: HMSO, 1930. (2)

"Constitutional Reforms: Communal Decision." BPP (1931-32), Vo. 18,
pp. 965 ff. Cmd. 4147.

Independence

"Indian Round Table Conference. Second Session. Proceedings." BPP
(1931-32), Vol. 8, pp. 1ff. London: HMSO, 1932. Cmd. 3997

"India. Statements of Policy. Statement of the policy of His Majesty’s
Government made by the Secretary of State for India on 14 June 1945."
BPP (1944-45), vol. 9, pp. 653 ff. Cmd. 6652.

"Correspondence and Documents connected with the Conference between
the Cabinet Mission and His Excellency the Viceroy and Representatives
of the Congress and the Muslim League, May 1946." BPP (1945-46), Vol.
19, pp. 145 ff. Cmd. 6829.

"Cabinet Mission: Correspondence with the Congress Party and the
Muslim League, 20 May-29 June 1946." BPP (1945-46), Vol. 19, pp. 177
ff. Cmd. 6861.

"Cabinet Mission: Papers relating to the Sikhs, the Indian States, and
the European Community, May-June 1946." BPP (1945-46), Vol. 19, pp.
137 ff. Cmd. 6862. (2)

"India (Statements of Policy). Statement of 3 June 1947." BPP
(1946-47), Vol. 19, pp. 11 ff. Cmd. 7136.

"Indian Independence Act, 1947", and "Indian Independence Order", in
TP, Vol. 12, pp. 233-249 and 713-720, respectively.

[Report of the Boundary Commission in Punjab and Bengal], in TP, Vol.
12, pp. 744-757.

Jawaharlal Nehru’s Speeches, Vol. 1: 1946-49 (Delhi: GI Press, 1958
[1949], pp. 1-90. If you are really short of space, use instead the
following: Constituent Assemblyof India. Debates, 14 August 1947.
[Speeches by Rajendra Prasad, Nehru, etc]. Available at
http://alfa.nic.in/debates/debates.htm

[Documents on Kashmir, including the Instrument of Accession of Jammu
and Kashmir to the Indian Union]. Teng, Mohan K; Bhatt, Ram Krishen;
and Santosh Kaul, Kashmir: Constitutional History and Documents (New
Delhi: Light & Life Publishers, 1977), pp. 495-574. (mainly 2, but
"Instrument of Accession is "1")

Centre — State Relations [Federalism; Decentralization]

White Paper on Hyderabad. Delhi: GI Press, 1948. [Integration of
Hyderabad, 1948] (2)

White Paper on Jammu and Kashmir. Delhi: GI Press, 1948. [Dispute over
Kashmir with Pakistan]

White Paper on Indian States. Delhi: GI Press, 1950. [Administrative
reorganization of the Indian Republic] (3)

Report of the States Reorganization Commission, February 1954 to
September 1955. Delhi: GI, Ministry of Home Affairs, 1955.
[Administrative reorganization of the Indian Republic]

White Paper on the Punjab Situation. New Delhi: GI Press, 1984.
[Violence in Punjab]

Council of Sikh Affairs. The Anguish of Punjab — The Sikhs Demand
Justice. Chandigarh, 1983. [Violence in Punjab] (3)

Council of Sikh Affairs. The Punjab River Water Dispute — The Truth.
Chandigarh, 1983. [Violence in Punjab] (3)

Report of the Official Language Commission. New Delhi: GI Press, 1956.
[Status of English/Hindi]

Reports of the Committees of the Panel on Land Reforms. [Planning
Commission] Delhi: GI Press, 1959. [Land Reforms] (2)

Constituent Assembly of India. Report of Linguistic Provinces
Commission. New Delhi: GI Press, 1949. [Administrative reorganization
of the Indian Republic] (3)

Culture and Civilization:

Sri Aurobindo. The Spirit and Form of Indian Polity. Pondicherry: Sri
Aurobindo Ashram, [1947], 1966. (2)

Swami Vivekananda. "Pride in India’s Past and Her Mission in the
Modern World." [Address delivered at Colombo] In MIPT, pp. 123-133.
(2)

War

"India and the War: Communique issued by the Governor-General and
resolutions by the Indian National Congress, the All-India Moslem
League …" BPP (1939-40), vol. 10, pp. 35 ff. Cmd. 6196. (2)

Labor

"Working of the Indian Factory Act. Report." BPP (1889), Vol. 58, pp.
463ff. Paper 124. (3)

"Report of the Indian Factory Labour Commission." Vol. 1: Report
[only]. BPP (1908), Vol. 74, pp. 545 ff. Cd. 4292.

Labour Investigation Committee. Report [by D. V. Rege] on an Enquiry
into Conditions of Labour in Plantations in India. Delhi, 1946. (3)

Foreign Relations

Nehru, Jawaharlal. "India and the World", in Jawaharlal Nehru’s
Speeches, Vol. 1: 1946-49. Delhi: GI Press, 1958 [1949], pp. 201-330.

Copyright: Vinay Lal

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Independent/Histbiblio_indepindia.html

M. Ranjit Mathews

unread,
Jan 13, 2010, 3:40:59 PM1/13/10
to
On Jan 13, 2:51 pm, hari.ku...@indero.com wrote:
> "> Rajaram's "horse seal" was a fraud, created from a computer
> distortion
>
> > of a broken "unicorn bull" seal. =A0This led Indologist wags to dub it
>
> "Are Witzel and Farmer
> certain that this seal is based on just a bull (a chimeron can be a
> combo of multiple animals) or are they arguing just for the sake of"
>
> None of the above.  The historical revisionists desperately want to find
> evidence of horse culture in the indus complex culture.

This is not relevant to my question since I wasn't asking whether the
seal is a horse; I was asking whether Witzel and Farmer are sure it is
a bull.

>  They need this
> to tie vedic era as a direct line.  Here is some information about
> seals.  It also discusses the absence of other kinds of evidence for
> presence of horse:

Ah, so it mentions a horned bull that looks different from Nandi
(although the number of horns is not a difference that is seen in
nature). Thanks.

M. Ranjit Mathews

unread,
Jan 13, 2010, 3:47:20 PM1/13/10
to
On Jan 13, 3:40 pm, "M. Ranjit Mathews" <ranjit_math...@yahoo.com>
wrote:

> On Jan 13, 2:51 pm, hari.ku...@indero.com wrote:
>
> > "> Rajaram's "horse seal" was a fraud, created from a computer
> > distortion
>
> > > of a broken "unicorn bull" seal. =A0This led Indologist wags to dub it
>
> > "Are Witzel and Farmer
> > certain that this seal is based on just a bull (a chimeron can be a
> > combo of multiple animals) or are they arguing just for the sake of"
>
> > None of the above.  The historical revisionists desperately want to find
> > evidence of horse culture in the indus complex culture.
>
> This is not relevant to my question since I wasn't asking whether the
> seal is a horse; I was asking whether Witzel and Farmer are sure it is
> a bull.
>
> >  They need this
> > to tie vedic era as a direct line.  Here is some information about
> > seals.  It also discusses the absence of other kinds of evidence for
> > presence of horse:
>
> Ah, so it mentions a horned bull that looks different from Nandi
> (although the number of horns is not a difference that is seen in
> nature). Thanks.

A one-horned animal (which may be just a bull in profile) is found on
some seals from the Indus Valley Civilization.[2] Seals with such a
design are thought to be a mark of high social rank.[3]
The aurochs
An animal called the Re’em (Hebrew: רְאֵם‎) is mentioned in several
places in the Hebrew Bible, often as a metaphor representing strength.
"The allusions to the re'em as a wild, un-tamable animal of great
strength and agility, with mighty horn or horns (Job 39:9-12, Ps
22:21, 29:6, Num 23:22, 24:8, Deut 33:17 comp. Ps 92:11), best fit the
aurochs (Bos primigenius). This view is supported by the Assyrian
rimu, which is often used as a metaphor of strength, and is depicted
as a powerful, fierce, wild mountain bull with large horns."[4] This
animal was often depicted in ancient Mesopotamian art in profile, with
only one horn visible. The translators of the Authorized King James
Version of the Bible (1611) followed the Greek Septuagint (monokeros)
and the Latin Vulgate (unicornus) and employed unicorn to translate
re'em, providing a recognizable animal that was proverbial for its un-
tamable nature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicorn

hari....@indero.com

unread,
Jan 13, 2010, 7:20:08 PM1/13/10
to
"The aurochs
An animal called the Re=E2=80=99em (Hebrew:
=D7=A8=D6=B0=D7=90=D6=B5=D7=9D=
=E2=80=8E) is mentioned in several

places in the Hebrew Bible, often as a metaphor representing strength.
"The allusions to the re'em as a wild, un-tamable animal of great
strength and agility, with mighty horn or horns (Job 39:9-12, Ps
22:21, 29:6, Num 23:22, 24:8, Deut 33:17 comp. Ps 92:11), best fit the
aurochs (Bos primigenius). This view is supported by the Assyrian
rimu, which is often used as a metaphor of strength, and is depicted
as a powerful, fierce, wild mountain bull with large horns."[4] This
animal was often depicted in ancient Mesopotamian art in profile, with
only one horn visible. The translators of the Authorized King James
Version of the Bible (1611) followed the Greek Septuagint (monokeros)
and the Latin Vulgate (unicornus) and employed unicorn to translate
re'em, providing a recognizable animal that was proverbial for its un-
tamable nature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicorn "

See here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auroch

* The wild-ox called re'em (Strong's # 07214) in the Bible (Numbers
23:22 and 24:8, Deuteronomy 33:17, Job 39:9-10, Psalms 22:21,
29:6, 92:10 and Isaiah 34:7) is occasionally associated with the
aurochs and has incorrectly been translated as "unicorn" in the

The auroch was spread over much of the area from europe to s. asia and
was known into historical times. It is the source of all 3 cow
domestications in africa, the middle east, and s. asia.

It could well be the animal on the seals.

chhotemianinshallah

unread,
Jan 13, 2010, 7:50:39 PM1/13/10
to
Thursday, January 14, 2010

Neither am I weak nor do I belong to a group: Gadkari

Newly appointed BJP chief Nitin Gadkari rejects the notion that he
would prove a weak president and emphasises that development-oriented
politics and not ideological issues would be his focus. Gadkari talks
about his style of politics and takes a dig at Congress leader Rahul
Gandhi, saying serving the poor is nobody’s monopoly. In an interview
to Kumar Uttam, the former Maharashtra BJP president talks about
challenges before the BJP, his attempt to wean away minorities from
the Congress and more. Excerpts:

You superseded many seniors in becoming the president of the party.
Are you confident of cooperation from party seniors?

At the outset, let me make it clear that I am not a weak president. I
have done every assignment given to me with perfection. I will
successfully finish the new task given to me by my seniors. I am
confident about it. I have never lied and strong political will is my
biggest asset. I want to speak less and deliver more.

But why are you maintaining a distance from the Press?

This is because I want you to review my performance as president one
or two years from now, only when I’m halfway through my tenure and
have done at least something on the ground. A lot has to be achieved
before we stop. There is a difference of 10 per cent in the vote bank
of the BJP and the Congress. We have to bridge that gap.

What is this 10 per cent gap and how are you going to fill it up?

We have to aggressively work among the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled
Tribes and the minorities. We have to expand geographically as well.
These sections of the society have been the traditional supporters of
the Congress or any other non-BJP party and we have to convince them
about our idea. The BJP can think of growing only when this section
has faith in the party. We will also expand the network of ‘Friends of
BJP’ to join more and more professionals with our style of politics.

Given the traditional approach of the BJP and some other affiliates of
the RSS, do you believe that weaning away minorities would be easy?

This can be achieved only when we work among the minority class with
sincerity. The Congress has always branded us communal to ensure that
there was no dent to its own vote bank. This is a case of image versus
reality. Many of the Muslim community members are either working at
scrap stores, have a tea stall or are scooter mechanics, despite the
fact that the Congress has been in power for most of the period after
Independence. Starting next month our workers will take up at least
one initiative of service or development at Assembly constituency
level. Your words would have credibility only when you work on the
ground. The effects will be visible in the days to come.

Ever since you took over, you have not spoken a single word about the
ideological issues of the party and the Sangh Parivar. Is this because
your party has realised these issues have lost attraction?

I have said that commitment (to any issue) does not change with change
in leadership. But I would like to question you, why should not
development be my focus. What is wrong if I want to make unemployment
and poverty the central theme of my agenda? Why should not I talk
about a politics that is above caste, religion, community and
language? My style of politics will have space for all and it would be
development oriented. I have done it in Maharashtra. We adopted 500
agrarian families whose heads committed suicide after failing in
paying back agricultural loans. We have taken up several welfare
measures for these families. I want this type of politics where a
party is interested just not in forming government but actually in
bringing out a social change.

Are you trying, in any way, to compete with Congress leader Rahul
Gandhi whose visits to Dalit houses have helped turnaround the
fortunes of his party?

My good wishes are with Rahul if he is doing a good job. But, at the
same time I would like to make it clear that serving the poor or
catering to the last man in the queue is not the monopoly of any
individual or an organisation. If my efforts to bring social change
are a success, I cannot say that only I have the right to serve the
poor. Anybody is free to apply his mind and come out with ideas that
can really change the lives of people in the society, especially the
downtrodden.

You implemented most of these ideas in Maharashtra, yet the BJP lost
two consecutive Assembly elections. Moreover, you have hardly won any
parliamentary election in Nagpur, your hometown, and the area where
your work is widely visible. Are you sure your ideas would click at
the national level?

Of course. It is not that my ideas have not returned electoral
dividends. We won eight out of total 12 Assembly seats in Nagpur. We
lost the elections for an altogether different reason. Yes it is true
that we have hardly won Lok Sabha polls from Nagpur. At the risk of
reiteration, I would say my focus is not winning or losing election
but bringing out a change in society. If people would feel that we are
sincere in our efforts, they would elect us, otherwise not.

How are you going to control indiscipline in the party? Will you take
action against those who spoke in public about the party’s defeat
after Lok Sabha poll?

Let bygones be bygones. I am here with a fresh mind. No one is mine
and I am of no ones. You have not reported that I solved the Rajasthan
crisis in one day. The dispute over electricity bill in Punjab was
thrashed out in hours. My concept is clear. Every one will have to
perform. I have talked about performance audit for party leaders and I
have prepared the mechanism for the same. Every office bearer will
have to tour for 10 days or leave the office. Things will change. I am
confident.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/229131/Neither-am-I-weak-nor-do-I-belong-to-a-group-Gadkari.html

chhotemianinshallah

unread,
Jan 13, 2010, 8:17:56 PM1/13/10
to
Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Decoding the Liberhan code

A Surya Prakash

Since we are prone to appointing commissions of inquiry at the drop of
a hat, political writers often have to suffer the tedium of wading
through hundreds of pages of dull prose when the reports of such
commissions are tabled in Parliament or State legislatures.

While many commissions are appointed with the best of intentions, the
quality of their output can never be guaranteed. Some commissions,
which are headed by men of stature, often do painstaking work and this
diligence is obvious when one reads their reports.

Such commissions ensure a logical connect between the evidence
gathered and the conclusions drawn. However, there are others which
just do not measure up to the task either because the person heading
it is ill-equipped for the job or is unable to gather evidence — or,
worse still, allows pre-conceived notions to dictate the outcome.

The Liberhan Commission, which drained the public exchequer of Rs 8
crore and took a record 17 years to probe the destruction of the
structure known as the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, most certainly falls
in the latter category. Large parts of this report are so
incomprehensible that if we ever institute a prize for the worst
report ever produced by a commission of inquiry, the Liberhan
Commission would win it hands down.

While much has been written about this commission’s conclusions, not
enough has been said about the unintelligible parts of this report.
Since public money has gone down the drain because of the prolonged
existence of this commission, it would be in public interest to
reproduce excerpts from its report and ask readers if any of them has
any clue about what it is trying to say!

Let us begin with para 149.13 on page 886, which is a real gem. The
commission says, “No one should be allowed to recognise religion from
political ends as was done in the case in hand. There is no doubt that
constitutional philosophies always have political results but it is
understood that they should not have political intentions.” Can
someone please decipher this gobbledygook?

Next, take a look at this paragraph on page 884: “At the cost of
repetition it may be observed that enduring freedom is pretence for
manipulating Indian affairs. Political and religious overlords
attempted to rewrite the national statistics, citing the protection of
Hindus or Hindu as a religion as their sole fiefdom. Political parties
supported by religious parties may have secured majority in particular
state legislatures… etc.”

Will the commission please tell us what it means when it says that
“enduring freedom is pretence for manipulating Indian affairs”? Is the
commission hinting that we should not be a free nation? In which case,
does it want us to do away with our hard-earned freedom? Further, will
someone explain what the commission had in mind when it said that some
people “attempted to rewrite national statistics”?

Finally, here is one more Liberhan ‘finding’ on page 20: “During
inquiry, it has been rightly been impressed and patently has come on
record that casteism and communalism exists in almost all
organisations and institutions. Its infiltration in the community
starts among the very young persons.”

There are many more examples of such ‘wisdom’ in this report, but this
newspaper will have to bring out a special edition if one ever gets
down to reproducing all of them.

Further, the commission ties itself in knots when it dabbles in
history and comes up with the most extraordinary formulation in regard
to the country’s partition. It says on page 874 that “two religious
groups in a nation cannot claim a separate nation only by virtue of
religious identity. Though prior to partition the two-nation theory
propounded by the Muslim League was not accepted, now it has become an
established fact…”.

What does the commission mean when it says the two-nation theory
propounded by the Muslim League was not accepted prior to partition?
The statement that “two religious groups in a nation cannot claim a
separate nation only by virtue of religious identity” makes no sense
at all when we all know that the Muslim League did make that claim and
succeeded in dividing India. Also, the Hindus did not seek partition.
So where is the question of “two religious groups” claiming separate
nations?

Justice MS Liberhan also tries to defend bogus historians and rewrite
history on page 875: “Hindu nationalist(s) draw on Indian history to
point out that the Muslim kings destroyed many Hindu temples. Most of
the Muslim emperors with passage of time were Hinduised, and to cast a
typical Muslim in the same mould as the Moghul emperors in India would
be a travesty of history.” Mr Liberhan, please make up your mind. If
most of the Muslim emperors were ‘Hinduised’, what is the problem in
casting a ‘typical Muslim’ in the mould of the Moghul rulers?

Finally, in its anxiety to run down the BJP, the commission goes so
far as to offer a blanket ‘secular’ certificate to all other political
parties in the country. On page 874, it says, “There is no doubt that
during the elections three quarters of Hindus in India have not voted
in favour of BJP rather for secular parties.” How extraordinary.
According to this commission, all non-BJP votes went to ‘secular
parties’. Therefore, it would like us to believe that Mr Ram Vilas
Paswan’s party that paraded a Bin Laden lookalike at public meetings
is a secular party and so is the Muslim League, the Majlis Itehadul
Muslimeen and the rabid PDP headed by Abdul Nasser Madani in Kerala.
Needless to say, the commission has no doubt whatsoever about the
‘secular’ credentials of the Congress which executed a pogrom against
Sikhs in 1984.

Strangely, the commission is not even aware of the detailed work done
just a few years ago by the National Commission to Review the Working
of the Constitution, which was headed by one of our most eminent and
upright judges — Justice MN Venkatachalaiah. Justice Liberhan makes
the laughable suggestion that “it is high time” we looked into the
working of the Constitution. He says Parliament must constitute “an
assembly” for this purpose.

We must now appeal to the Union Government to appoint yet another
Commission of Inquiry to decode the report of the Liberhan Commission.

COMMENTS BOARD ::

RE:good article
By Prekshak on 1/12/2010 10:27:43 PM

A good article exposing how Liberhan crossed limits of his
mandate.Also,would there be an inquiry why Ambika Soni and Jaipal
reddy scrapped the project to find Saraswati river -which is claimed
in some reports to have been found?Is this not prejudice on their
part?


LIe-ber-Han
By dinesh on 1/12/2010 8:50:48 PM

It is a foolish report outsourced by a senile person bent on
condemning BJP full of lies and communal tones.Liberhan shud be asked
to tefund 8 crores which he misapproprited from Congress govt of
India.It is laughable a d shameful.Rav had a sense of humour when he
appointed Liberhan the joker asa commission.this is JAI HO


(IN)JUSTICE REPORT
By N.ASTI on 1/12/2010 7:59:29 PM

It seems Mr.Liberhan had decided to give this communal bias report
from day one of his appointment and waiting for Congress rule under
people like MMS and Sonia Gandhi.If not then taking so much time for
preparing this dustbin-worth report leads the Nation to doubt his
worth for not only this Commission but at all levels.For this itself
Commission should be appointed.Can judicial action not be taken
against this man for submitting bias pro-one side report?Legal experts
should think over it.


Liberhan's secular certificate to Congress
By S.Raguraman on 1/12/2010 3:12:12 PM

Congress party's secular credentials sre suspect not only because of
the pogrom against the Sikhs. The PM declares that Muslims, as a
Community, have the first right to the limited resources of the
country. The Home Minister declares that Muslims are respected
citizens of the country. If these are not examples of blatant
communalism, what is?


Nice
By chan on 1/12/2010 2:34:42 PM

good one. funny. so much for liberhan.


future of our country is doomed in the hands of such communla govt
By CHANAKYA 50 on 1/12/2010 12:14:40 PM

future of india is doomed in the hands of such govt who had
communlaised the country only for a miniscule vote bank. it has
betaryed the 85% hindus to appeaseonly 15% of minorities.The hindu
votes getd divided and the minorities rule. so if the liberhans
commission got 16 years to investigate and enquire the causes of the
riot in faizabad now called ayodhya it is not only reprehensible but
also agonising. the cost of the commission is too costly for india to
bear.


Liberhan's injustice
By Atanu Dey on 1/12/2010 10:00:23 AM

Well, don't you know, a party is communal only if it looks out for
Hindu interests. All other parties are by definition secular, just as
all non-Hindus are by definition secular. Justice (?) Liberhan is
secular and so he has the authority to certify Hindus communal and all
others secular.


Liberhan commission
By sohan on 1/12/2010 5:14:45 AM

The write-up on the Liberhan report is one of the many that have been
written over and over again. India, though, would remain a nation of
commissions as these help sooth the public tempers over extraordinary
incidents.


Appoint yet another Commission of Inquiry
By Anil on 1/12/2010 1:43:37 AM

He was just trying to be a historian of some sort to "correct the
facts of history" and mistakenly given this job. Financially, for him,
it proved OK though. At the expense of one he could vent his anger at
the other. There is also an alternative opinion - as he is a Judge,
may be very weak judge and some body else could easily impregnate his
mind with utopian ideas! Even could have written the report for him.


Liberhan Commission
By Anil on 1/12/2010 1:32:00 AM

He was retired so gave himself a job and wanted to linger as much as
possible. He must have had some good IQs too, which is higher than
that of an average Indian, so the average Indian kept paying for what
he was doing.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/228656/Decoding-the-Liberhan-code.html

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 14, 2010, 1:33:06 AM1/14/10
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Rajnath wants beef off Commonwealth Games menu
Nistula Hebbar / DNA
Thursday, January 14, 2010 0:00 IST

New Delhi: The Commonwealth Games organising committee now has to
worry not just about meeting the deadline, but also the menu card for
sportspersons and delegates.

Former BJP president Rajnath Singh has written to Games organising
committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi that his party opposed beef on the
menu.

“Cow is considered sacred in India. This thought has been integral to
our cultural ethos for ages. No wonder, even the founding fathers of
our Constitution also advocated a ban on cow slaughter (Article 48),”
Singh said in his letter.

“The Commonwealth Games have become an important event where we should
use every possible opportunity to highlight our cultural values and
age-old traditions. By removing beef from the menu card, the
organising committee would not only empathise with the popular
sentiment but also save the Games from agitations and other possible
controversies,” he added.

He also says that the BJP-dominated Municipal Corporation of Delhi has
already passed a resolution to this effect. “Rules for importing such
items will be suitably altered for the purpose. If imported, beef will
only be for the guests and sportsmen and not for general consumption,”
said Rakesh Mehta, chief secretary, Delhi government. The organising
committee has not committed itself on the matter.

The politics of beef is not new in the country and Rajnath appears to
be hoping that by adopting this pet Hindutva cause, he could hold on
to some of the party’s old agenda.

“With Nitin Gadkari determined to move ahead with a development-
oriented agenda, rather than a Hindutva one, this is Rajnath’s way of
signalling the RSS that for him at least, these pet causes are
important,” said a senior BJP leader.

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_rajnath-wants-beef-off-commonwealth-games-menu_1334531

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 14, 2010, 1:37:50 AM1/14/10
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Bangalore gets Rs3,248 crore gift for Makar Sankranti
Thursday, January 14, 2010 8:54 IST

BBMP has opened financial bids worth Rs3,248 crore for civic works
almost overnight and this has upset the opposition.

The ‘hurried’ manner in which tenders have been opened triggered
protests from opposition parties including Congress, JD(S), CPI, CPI
(M) and AIADMK in front of the BBMP offices on Wednesday.

The protesters said tenders were opened to steer clear of the election
code of conduct that comes into effect from Friday. BBMP commissioner
Bharatlal Meena denied the allegations. He said tenders were opened
from Tuesday morning. “We are doing everything as per the law,” he
said.

He said tenders were approved as per the Karnataka Transparency Public
Procurement (KTPP) Act and that the date for opening financial bids
was advanced to January 12 with an amendment to an earlier BBMP order.
R Ashok, minister in-charge of the city affairs, said: “We had issued
tenders two months back. These were not finalised in a hurry. We have
followed all the rules and regulations.” It is learnt that governor HR
Bharadwaj summoned R Ashok and raised serious objections to the tender
process.

Congress leaders, however, have a different take. “BBMP has violated
the KTPP Act by opening tenders on Tuesday night. Tenders were for the
upgrading and widening of roads and signal-free corridors worth
Rs3,248 crore. Why were they done overnight?”

Former city mayor PR Ramesh said: “As per the tender document, January
12 was fixed for the opening of technical bids the financial bids were
supposed to be called for on January 16.”

Ex-mayor M Ramachandrappa said BJP would not win the polls. He said:
“We will come to power….and will cancel all these tenders.” State
election commissioner CR Chikmath said “JD(S) and Congress have
complained about the BBMP tenders. We will examine the case.” JD(S)
has also complained to Lokayukta Justice N Sathosh Hegde and demanded
detailed inquiry into the matter followed by action against the erring
officers.

Governor puts brakes on Akarma Sakrama scheme

Governor HR Bharadwaj on Wednesday declined to give assent to the
Akrama Sakrama ordinance. He has asked the state government to have a
thorough discussion in the assembly before it reaches him. The scheme
seeks to regularise illegal buildings and layouts up to 50 per cent of
building bye-law violations in all urban centres of the state. Sources
told DNA that in a late Wednesday night development, Bhardwaj summoned
Bangalore in-charge minister R Ashok and sought clarifications about
the scheme. The governor reportedly also raised serious objections
about the ordinance being passed just two days before the poll code of
conduct came into effect on Friday.

http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_bangalore-gets-rs3248-crore-gift-for-makar-sankranti_1334574

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 14, 2010, 1:42:40 AM1/14/10
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Is Karnataka jinxed?
Wednesday, January 13, 2010 10:10 IST

The son of the soil may think he has a right to use expletives. He may
seek to justify the Double B (B****y B*****d) he spewed against the
chief minister and the advocate general while offering a conditional
retraction. Many of his followers may even argue that being a humble
farmer, he may, in anger, let loose expletives that need not be taken
too seriously because that is how simple, simple farmers are. Even if
one were to grant that it is a characteristic trait of some, it shows
up in poor light the culture of a leader.

HD Deve Gowda is not some ordinary street-corner pudari who has to
flex his muscle once in a while to earn fear if not respect. He has
been in politics for long and occupied high offices to know such
language of the street is not for his kind. That, surely, is also the
message that is coming across from ordinary citizens. Let us leave him
and his poor farmers alone and introspect why many ambitious projects
in Karnataka are jinxed. Let us run through a short catalogue.

Back in 1970, Indira Gandhi announced setting up a steel plant in
Bellary. It remained an announcement till the Janata government buried
it in 1979, not because the project was not feasible but to spite her.
The plant finally came up because of private enterprise 15 years
later.

The international airport is another jinxed project. It was on the
drawing board since 1982 but acquired some traction in the early 1990s
when the Tatas showed a keen interest. The state government treated
the Tatas so well that they pulled out. Another consortium finally
built the airport but not a single day passed without some one taking
a pot-shot either at the project or at the parties involved in the
project since 2004. We still are not happy, either with the facilities
at the airport or its location.

The third in this shortlist is the NICE project. It was conceived when
Deve Gowda was the chief minister in 1995. His government signed the
deal with the private consortium. In 15 years since then, only the
peripheral road, linking Hosur Road and Tumkur Road with Mysore Road
is ready. Not completely, however, since a tiny stretch near Gottigere
is bogged down in litigation. That and other issues relating to the
project have so many litigious twists that only Deve Gowda, Ashok
Kheny who runs NICE, and a couple of lawyers involved from the
beginning, probably understand all the facets of the case including
some contempt proceedings.

The NICE expressway of some 120km remains on paper while the old
Mysore-Bangalore highway itself was redone as a four lane carriageway.
While the state is still struggling with the question of how to let
this 120km road be built, a golden quadrilateral started in 1999, four
years after the memorandum of understanding for the NICE Road was
signed, and running a length of 5,800km is more or less ready. There
are, one is told, some major bottlenecks in that project but at least
some 5,000km of that highway was ready for use a long time ago.
Compared to that, the NICE Road ought to have been child’s play. But
then a jinx is a jinx and a troublesome Deve Gowda can give a mouthful
as well.

There is also some indication from him, not straightforward as usual,
that he may try to keep the issue alive even if the courts decide in
favour of the project as they have, time and again. That would make it
politically much more complex than it is now. The directive of the
Supreme Court to the state to file a compliance report in eight weeks
may give the state the legal shield to transfer land but it will still
carry political risks.

The only problem seems to be the value of the land that the project
needs. The price fixed at the time of notifying acquisition is way
below the current market price even if you were to ignore the grossly
exaggerated anticipated market price. If the gap between the low offer
and high anticipation of price is not bridged, those who lost their
land will always nurture a grouse. The only way forward is to look
beyond the courts and arrive at acquisition pricing that is fair to
those whose assets are being taken away.
Individuals who’re forced to give up their assets for a public purpose
always suffer a double dose of injury. First, losing the asset and
second, getting a lower value for that. Since the perception is that
the value of land closer to Bangalore is pretty high, every farmer
salivates at the prospect of making vast sums of money.

The proposed acquisition of land by BDA for forming a residential
layout in Bangalore north is a case in point. Some of those likely to
lose land have already formed an interest group to oppose acquisition.
If, as they point out, the state housing board was willing to pay Rs50
lakh per acre for land near Devanahalli, land closer to the city ought
to fetch them a higher price. A sound argument indeed and that is the
crux of the problem of the NICE project as well.

http://www.dnaindia.com/opinion/comment_is-karnataka-jinxed_1334184

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 14, 2010, 1:45:14 AM1/14/10
to
Nehru & other myths
R Jagannathan
Wednesday, January 13, 2010 22:05 IST Email

Shashi Tharoor, minister of state for external affairs, got it both
right and wrong on Jawaharlal Nehru because he forgot a basic piece of
wisdom: you don’t fight foundational myths.

Myth-busting is for scholars, authors and retired politicians, whose
ranks Tharoor may soon be forced to join given his controversial
twittermania. It’s not for active politicians who want to leave their
mark on history.

His remarks on Nehru —- to the effect that he followed a wishy-washy
foreign policy driven by Gandhian morality — are a case in point. If
you are a Congressman, you have to believe in the Nehru myth.

The Nehru myth states, inter alia, that modern India was entirely
hiscreation (only slightly true), that he was entirely secular and
democratic (not always), that the Nehru family is the only one that
has the whole of India’s interests at heart (absolutely untrue), that
non-alignment was a wonderful thing, and so on.

If you are part of a dynastic party, you cannot survive by challenging
the Nehru myth. If you do, you challenge the very basis for its
existence.

No Nehru myth, no dynasty. This is why the Congress cannot put any
leader — Sardar Patel, Ambedkar, Jinnah, Rajagopalachari or Rajendra
Prasad — on the same pedestal as Nehru despite the fact that they all
contributed much to the making of India.

Besides, Nehru himself was no perennial success icon. His foreign
policy blunders culminated in the humiliation of 1962. His economic
policies were equally flawed, as Nehru believed in the Soviet model
with minor roles for the private sector.

His daughter initially compounded his economic follies, but after the
1980s she started changing course. It took a bankruptcy in 1991 to
finally abandon Nehruvian socialism.

The reason why Nehru made colossal blunders was simple: he was vain
and hence sycophants could take him for a ride. This is why he
persisted with VK Krishna Menon long after events proved him to be a
liability; Chinese leader Zhou Enlai pulled wool over his eyes by
pretending to be a novice in international affairs.

Nehru held forth about his views on the world believing Zhou to be a
genuine admirer when the latter was actually playing to his ego and
neutralising him on Tibet.

In course of time, the Nehru myth has been extended to the whole
family, from Indira Gandhi to Rajiv to Sonia and now Rahul and
Priyanka.

Thus, Indira is the social messiah (bank nationalisation, garibi
hatao), Rajiv Gandhi is the moderniser and reformer (though Narasimha
Rao actually did more in reality), and Rahul the new youth icon and
emancipator. You question these myths at your own peril. Tharoor got a
rap on the knuckles only for this.

Without myths there would be no institutions, for myths are the glue
that holds disparate elements together. Whether it is a religion or a
corporation, myths are essential and beyond reality.

Management writers Jim Collins and Jerry Porras (Built to Last)
discovered that successful companies that have survived for over 100
years tended to have cult-like cultures that you could not question.
People who questioned the corporate myths (“we are a people-oriented
organisation”) were ejected fast. You can’t be in Wal-Mart and not
participate in the company’s theme song. You can’t be in HP without
kowtowing to the HP Way.

In Pakistan, they have a Jinnah myth — he was never a pious Muslim,
but given his role in the creation of the state, you can’t mention it.
In India, Jinnah has been demonised (often for good reason), but a
rational reassessment is not possible either by the Congress (which
believes in the Nehru myth) or the BJP (which has to follow the RSS,
which believes in Akhand Bharat, where Jinnah has been given the
villain’s role).

It doesn’t matter that Partition has actually created a huge Hindu
majority India, of the kind that the RSS could not have dreamed of in
a united India. But myths do not need to have a rational basis.

It’s the same with the major organised religions. You can’t be a
Christian without believing in virgin birth and resurrection, never
mind that these myths are far removed from the message of Jesus Christ
and invented much later.

You can’t be Muslim without believing that before the prophet arrived
it was all jahiliya — the age of ignorance — even though common sense
tells us humanity always had its dark and bright spots in all ages.
Hindus have too many myths to count, but the point is that a thought
gets institutionalised only with the help of myths.

Myths work best when you pay lip service to them, but don’t get hemmed
in. If Tharoor wants to change Nehruvian ideas, the best way is to
lionise Nehruism and then dump his ideas in practice. This is what we
have done with Gandhi. So why not Nehru?

http://www.dnaindia.com/opinion/column_nehru-and-other-myths_1334486

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 14, 2010, 1:50:59 AM1/14/10
to
Toll in Gangasagar mela stampede reaches 7
PTI Thursday, January 14, 2010 9:37 IST

Gangasagar (WB): At least seven pilgrims were killed and nine injured,
four of them seriously, when a stampede broke out at the Gangasagar
mela in South 24 Parganas district early today.

Around four lakh pilgrims had gathered to take a holy dip at the
confluence of Ganga and the Bay of Bengal in Gangasagar islands on the
occasion of 'Makar Sankranti' when the stampede took place.

The dead included six women and a child.

Out of the nine injured, admitted to Kakdweep Hospital near here, the
condition of four is stated to be serious.

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_toll-in-gangasagar-mela-stampede-reaches-7_1334583

chhotemianinshallah

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Jan 14, 2010, 6:40:00 AM1/14/10
to
Lahore bus, Agra summit were my ideas: Jaswant Singh
IANS, 14 January 2010, 03:52pm IST

LONDON: Former external affairs and defence minister Jaswant Singh
says he wants to work for peace in South Asia, claiming it was he who
put Atal Bihari Vajpayee on a bus to Lahore and thought of an India-
Pakistan summit in Agra.

Singh also said he had no regrets over the controversial hostage swap
he ordered to end the 1999 Christmas Eve-hijack of an Indian airlines
flight to Kandahar, Afghanistan, and would do it all over again if
faced with a similar dilemma.

"I will work for peace in South Asia - in Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka
and Bangladesh - and I want to expand the constituency of peace in our
land," Singh told journalists after a launch of the international
edition of his book "Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence" in the
House of Commons Wednesday.

Declaring South Asia to be in its most "perilous state" in 62 years,
Singh outlined his credentials as a regional peacemaker, saying it was
he who came up with the idea that then Prime Minister Vajpayee travel
to Lahore in a bus.

"Prime ministers don't ordinarily travel by bus. I suggested to Prime
Minster Vajpayee - and it was in New York that this suggestion was
made - that 'why not travel to Lahore by bus'.

"Vajpayee then addressed the citizens of Pakistan on television where
he said: 'Bahut ho gaya, ab hamein khoon bahana bandh karna
chahiye' (Enough is enough, let's end this bloodshed)."

Singh said he persisted with peacemaking even though he was "betrayed"
by Pakistan's subsequent attack on Kargil and terrorist strikes on the
Jammu and Kashmir assembly and the parliament.

"We persisted. We invited (then Pakistan President) Pervez Musharraf
to Agra. Vajpayee said, 'why are we doing this'? I said 'insaniyat ke
liye (For the sake of humanity)'.

"Musharraf engaged in grandstanding in Agra - otherwise we would have
achieved something," he added.

Singh also put up a strong defence of his decision to swap three
jailed terrorists for 166 passengers of the Indian Airlines flight
IC-814 that was hijacked to Kandahar Dec 24, 1999 by a Pakistan-based
terrorist group.

"Which is less wrong? To try and save 166 human lives or let three
terrorists go? Any day, if I had the choice as a government minister,
I'd work for saving lives. No government has the right to allow its
own citizens to die."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Lahore-bus-Agra-summit-were-my-ideas-Jaswant-Singh/articleshow/5445089.cms

Sid Harth

unread,
Jan 14, 2010, 10:30:37 AM1/14/10
to
KSRTC worker’s murder: Life term of BJP men annulled

Kochi, Thursday, January 14, 2010: The Kerala High Court today
annulled the life sentence of two BJP workers who were convicted by
additional District and Sessions Judge, in connection with murder of a
a Kerala State Road Transport Corporation bus conductor at East Fort
in July 2000.

Those convicted for murder are Manu alias Vinod, 28, and Vijayakumar
alias Poodan Biju, 27, both residents of Muttathura, Sreevaraham.

The High Court division bench awarded the accused seven years sentence
and a fine of Rs.3000. The Court also stayed the verdict of trial
court, which had sentenced fourteen people including VHP leader for
destruction of public properties.

Rajesh, 20, a KSRTC employee and resident of Muttathara, was killed
when a march organised by the RSS and the BJP in the city in July 2000
turned violent. Rajesh was murdered by the activists with wooden staff
and stones at the Transport Bhavan, around 12.30 p.m.
More than 80 KSRTC buses were destroyed in the incident and public
property worth more than Rs.8 lakhs were vandalised.

By KOL News , Written on January 14, 2010

http://www.asianetindia.com/news/ksrtc-workers-murder-life-term-bjp-men-annulled_119529.html

Sid Harth

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Jan 14, 2010, 11:17:32 AM1/14/10
to
Sinning in God’s own country

14 Jan 2010, 0149 hrs IST, Rishi V K, ET Bureau

The recent arrest of a local politician for alleged immoral activities
has leapfrogged into becoming one of the most talked-about events in
Kerala.

The person in question, Rajmohan Unnithan, a member of All India
Congress Committee, has been suspended from party and barred from
travelling outside Kerala by a local court since his arrest during the
night of December 20. Doesn’t sound all that abnormal, for India, that
is. What is unusual, however, is the way this small-time Malayalam
film actor was taken into police custody and charged with such a
serious offence.

According to media reports, local activists of DYFI, the youth wing of
the ruling CPI-M, and the People’s Democratic Party of Abdul Nasser
Madani, broke into a house at Manjeri in Malappuram district to find
Unnithan with a woman. They accused the two of immoral activity,
actually took their photographs and held a public hearing for hours
before handling them over to the police.

Unnithan and his 32-year-old female companion, a former Congress Sewa
Dal member, were subjected to medical tests and had to spend a night
in the police station before being granted bail by the Manjeri first
class judicial magistrate the next day. And all this for being in the
same house.

Since that day, Unnithan has been using all his time, energy and
oratorical skills to explain he was set up and that he had no sexual
relationship with the woman in question. Most commentators, bloggers
and the public at large are debating what the two grown-ups were doing
in the house and trying to guess if any remark from this otherwise
small player in local politics may have led to a possible entrapment
(Unnithan is known for his sharp and often nasty remarks.

For example, when the Congress invited K Karunakaran to rejoin the
party, this is how he explained why the former CM’s son Muraleedharan
was not invited: “Vada comes free with masala dosa in Udupi hotels,
you don’t need to order separately.”) Meanwhile, the man’s own party,
Congress, has ordered a probe into the incident.

Very few in the state have come out in the open to say the real issue
was about violation of privacy and that consensual sex has nothing to
do with illegal trafficking. One prominent person who did say that,
writer Paul Zacharia, has allegedly been roughed up by DYFI activists
for doing so. That’s God’s own country. A paradox. It leaves the rest
of the country far behind in social indicators such as literacy,
healthcare and social awareness, yet Kerala remains one of the most
backward when it comes to relationships between the sexes.

Sample this: at the beautiful Varkala beach in south Kerala, Indians
are not allowed to bathe at the main beach. It’s kept exclusively for
foreigners. There’s no need to argue with the security guards or local
police. Just watching how sensitive sun-bathing foreigners are to
local stares is good enough. At Kovalam’s famed Hawah Beach too, it’s
hard to spot brown skin in a sea of bare-bodied sunbathers.

That may sound like other parts of conservative India. But Kerala is
‘progressive’. It believes in equality. It voted the first
democratically
elected Communist government into power. It has implemented land
reforms. Here, girl children are taken care of, they are well-
educated, confident and most of them work for a living, many outside
the state. It’s even supposed to be a traditionally matriarchal
society!

Yet, here, even young husbands and wives are reluctant to share the
same seat in local buses and college boys and girls seem reluctant to
mingle with each other outside campuses. It’s next to impossible to
find a local woman in a bar or see a woman travel alone after sunset.
Despite all its progressive claims and the ability of its people to
adapt to different conditions around the world — it’s said that there
are more Malayalis outside the state than within — Kerala remains a
male-dominated society that’s steeped in moral backwardness. The only
probable exceptions could be found among the youth in cities like
Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram.

In Kerala, it seems, only man is human. He errs. He drinks and robs,
and sometimes kills. But a woman is beyond all that. She’s a goddess,
or furniture, or just a machine. She’s incapable of action. She can’t
sin. She can’t really live. Here’s the most Catholic society in the
world. It lives in a state of false morality that stands between man
and woman, increasing their distance and distrust, and turning people
into perverts. There are numerous sex scandals and cases of gang
rapes. Yet, everybody is busy moral policing. Sex, thus, is one of the
original sins in God’s own country.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/editorial/Sinning-in-Gods-own-country/articleshow/5442219.cms

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 14, 2010, 3:08:25 PM1/14/10
to
All India Mother-in-law Protection Forum
We are Victims; not Vamps.
30 Dec 09

Biological mother or enemy of daughter

In the Indian society “FEMALE FOETICIDE” is a common term. We
generally talk of ‘GIRL CHILD HATRED’ among the parents specially a
mother craving for a son and not for a daughter. The “GENDER BIAS”
starts from this very thinking. A daughter being regarded as a
liability by those parents who wish to encash the “MARRAIGE” of their
daughter by marrying her in a family from where they can benefit
monetarily is very common in the present society even at cost of
hiding the shortcomings of the daughter. They want to “USE” her and so
train her accordingly. This is the reason why they marry their “NOT SO
GOOD” DAUGHTER” in a “RICH AND WELL TO DO FAMILY” from where they can
encash money. A section of parents think it is their right to extort
money from the in-laws of the daughter to make up for all that they
spent on their daughter in natal home. The popular saying “LADKI
PARAYA DHAN”, is used by them to make the” paraya dhan“ of the “SON-
In-LAW” (FREE ATM MACHINE) their own by filing false cases of “DOWRY
HARASSMENT”, “DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND MAINTENANCE” with help of the
police, the lawyers the judiciary ,and the laws supporting them which
can be” MISUSED” for this mission.

When a woman goes to a police station with crocodile tears and false
allegations it is converted into a “DOWRY HARASSMENT CASE” whatever
may be the reason. It is an irony that the Husband and his whole
family are harassed for years on for no fault but due to the greed of
his in-laws. By the time justice is given it is too late as it has
already caused a huge to him and his family-socially, economically,
mentally, physically, professionally and morally. The most precious
years of his life are wasted and humiliated.

The greedy and malicious mothers and the shameless and manipulative
fathers of such “wives” who want to gain control in the matrimonial
home by creating fear in the minds of the in- laws should be punished
for their misdeeds. Such “LEGAL TERRORISM” should stop.

In the third report of ”THE NATIONAL FAMILY HEALTH SURVEY” it is
found that a woman faces 8 times more violence in her natal home in
many ways as being regarded as a burden. She is programmed to hate the
in-laws specially the “Mother- in law” and also trained to control the
Husband” With attitude and the mindset of becoming “Abusive” in all
ways she enters the matrimonial home. Being negative in her behavior
from the very start she fails to understand her own incapabilities and
the wrong teachings of her parents do not allow her to believe in the
goodness of her in-laws or to adjust herself in the new home even
though the in-laws may never have ill-treated her or ever complained
about her to parents. Such women in order to fulfill their desires
with support of parents and relatives file “False Cases” to “Extort”
hefty amount from the “Matrimony”. Her demand is “RIGHTS WITHOUT
RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES”.

Concluding thought:

पहले माँ बेटी को सिखाती, जहां तेरी डोली जाए, वहां से “अर्थी” उठे
अब माँ बेटी को सिखाये, जहां तेरी डोली जाए, वहां से “अर्थ” उठा ले
आगे माँ बेटी को सिखाएगी, जहां तेरी डोली जाए, वहां सबको उठा ले
अब तू ऐश कर, तेरा कोई कुछ न बिगाड़े

http://www.aimpf.org/biological-mother-or-enemy-of-daughter/#more-191

bademiyansubhanallah

unread,
Jan 14, 2010, 3:31:57 PM1/14/10
to
TV actress Urvashi Dhanokar in the dock for cruelty, child abuse,
child labour to 10 year old child maid in Mumbai

23 August 2009

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/mumbai/TV-actor-in-the-dock-for-cruelty-to-child-maid/articleshow/4923873.cms

http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-97414.html

MUMBAI: Even as a 10-year-old domestic help recounted how she was
exploited, beaten and scalded by her employer, a small-time TV actor,
an angry mob gathered outside the woman's house on Saturday to heckle
the 32-year-old who was arrested for child abuse and later released on
bail.

Andheri resident and mother of two Urvashi Dhanorkar employed
Rameshwari Jadhav, bringing her to Mumbai four months ago from her
hometown in Amravati. She promised the child's parents she would send
her to school. "They promised to educate me. Instead, I was made to do
all kind of work at home and was even beaten up in front of the
children," said Rameshwari, her face puffy and scarred.

She told police that Dhanorkar punched her in the eyes and smashed her
head against the wall a fortnight ago. Three days ago, Dhanorkar
allegedly burnt her with a hot spoon for eating shrikhand without
permission. Dhanorkar denied the allegations, saying she was a "victim
of circumstances".

The gory abuse came to light on Friday when neighbours saw the girl
crying in the apartment complex's garden. Seeing bruises and burns on
her, they alerted the police and called for medical help.

"Members of the society informed me that Urvashi had been beating up
the 10-year-old maid for the last one week. They had spotted the kid
crying in the garden with burn marks on her hand. According to the
doctor, the injuries were the result of physical abuse. Urvashi had
even boxed her in her eyes; there was a swelling on her forehead,"
chairperson of the society, Indu Bhosale, told media.

''The girl has been beaten badly. She seems to be less than 10 years
of age. It's a case of cruelty against child and violation of child
labour norms,'' Bindu Bhosale, Chairman, Royal Classic Society, the
social organisation which rescued Rameshwari, told reporters.

Dhanorkar has a doctorate in business management. The girl had been
admitted to Cooper Hospital in Vile Parle and was now at a children's
shelter.

When angry neighbours confronted Urvashi, she denied hitting the
child. Bhosale said, "She told me that the girl's eyes were red
because honeybees had stung her and that she had burned herself
accidently." Urvashi has been booked under Section 324 (voluntarily
causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code, and Sections 23 and 26 of the
Child Labour Act.

She was produced before the magistrate's court in Bandra and released
on bail.

Reacting to the incident, Maharashtra labour minister Nawab Malik
said, "Child labour is a crime, but abusing a child is an even bigger
crime."

"The victim complained to us about Urvashi, but made no mention of her
husband," said police inspector Kailash Ghamande.The onus of reporting
Child labour and Child abuse is also with the citizens.

Dhanorkar's advocate, Nitin Satpute, said, "My client had not
assaulted Rameshwari. The girl sustained burn injuries when she
accidently turned on the hot water tap for the shower in the bathroom.
My client even took her to the doctor for treatment."

Posted by Roshni Mathan Pereira at 06:54

http://voiceofwomenindia.blogspot.com/2009/08/tv-actress-urvashi-dhanokar-in-dock-for.html

chhotemianinshallah

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Jan 14, 2010, 7:34:31 PM1/14/10
to
MLA, husband booked for maid's death in Madhya Pradesh
IANS, 10 January 2010, 02:36pm IST

BHOPAL: Asha Rani, a legislator of the ruling-Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) in Madhya Pradesh, has been booked for abetting the suicide of
her domestic help in 2007, while a case has also been registered
against her husband Ashok Vir Vikram Singh for abduction and rape of
the maid, police said on Sunday.

"The fresh FIR (first information report) was registered in connection
with the suicide of their domestic help. The victim, Tijji Bai, who
had sustained serious burn injuries was found dead at the Bhopal
residence of the leader in November 2007," a senior police officer
told IANS.

Ashok Vir Vikram Singh alias Bhaiya Raja, a former legislator who is
already in judicial custody for allegedly killing his kin Vasundhara
Bundela, is accused of abducting the maidservant, keeping her as a
bonded labourer and sexually abusing her.

Asha Rani, who is a legislator from Bijawar, is a co-accused in the
case and has been booked for abetment to suicide.

The police had earlier closed the investigation deeming it merely a
suicide case.

Bhaiya Raja was arrested last month for allegedly murdering his 21-
year-old grand-niece Vasundhara Bundela, alias Nishi, whose bullet-
riddled body was found in the city's Misrod area on December 11 last
year.

Nishi, a student, was staying in a girls' hostel and was subjected to
sexual exploitation. She underwent an abortion in Indore before being
shot dead.

Nishi's father Mrigendra Singh had accused Bhaiya Raja of eyeing his
daughter

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/BJP-MLA-husband-booked-for-maids-death-in-Madhya-Pradesh/articleshow/5430457.cms

chhotemianinshallah

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Jan 14, 2010, 7:54:39 PM1/14/10
to
Man gets death for killing daughters, father-in-law
Ravi Singh Sisodiya , TNN, 15 January 2010, 04:26am IST

LUCKNOW: A sessions court here on Thursday awarded death sentence to a
man who killed three persons including his two daughters for a piece
of land.

After passing the verdict, sessions judge Shiva Nand Mishra sent the
matter to the high court for confirmation of the capital sentence.

The convict, Ram Pratap Verma, killed his two daughters -- Savitri
(18) and Sudha (10) -- and his father-in-law Sarvajeet during the
intervening night of November 26 and 27, 2004. Ram had murdered the
victims with a sharp-edged weapon. Judge Mishra observed that the
manner in which the convict committed the three murders fell in the
rarest of rare category and hence he deserved maximum punishment.

Additional district government counsel (ADGC) Lalit Kumar Singh put
forth the arguments against the Ram. Counsel said Ram had left his
wife Madhuri 15 years back to marry another woman. Madhuri's father
Sarvajeet had three bigha land which he gave to Ram and Madhuri's
daughters -- Savitri and Sudha. Savitri was married.

On the day of incident, Savitri's brother-in-law Jai Singh and father-
in-law Ram Pher had come to Sarvajeet's house. But the same night, Ram
arrived in the house and killed the three persons in the presence of
Jai Singh and Ram Pher. Other witnesses -- Sharda Prasad and Keshram
-- had also seen Verma with the weapon of crime, which was
subsequently recovered. The forensic report too established that blood
stains on the weapon were of Ram.

ADGC Lalit argued that Ram did not attack Madhuri because if she had
been killed then the property would have gone to Savitri's in-laws.
The counsel vehemently demanded capital punishment for Ram citing the
manner of killings, which seemed too brutal.

Ram, however, pleaded innocence and stated that murders were committed
by Savitri's in-laws for the greed of property and added that he was
falsely implicated. The court had also summoned Madhuri who too stated
that murders were committed by Ram.

The FIR was lodged by Jai Singh with the Gosainganj police on the next
day of the killings. Ram was arrested and during trial he remained in
jail.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/Man-gets-death-for-killing-daughters-father-in-law/articleshow/5446648.cms

chhotemianinshallah

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Jan 14, 2010, 7:58:46 PM1/14/10
to
Chapati bomb goes off in kitchen, woman injured
TNN, 14 January 2010, 07:45am IST

LUCKNOW: Human bomb, bicycle bomb, car bomb and simple bomb seem to be
a passe. How about a chapati bomb The term itself may sound stupid .
But is not unfounded. Ask anyone in Firozabad - the glass district of
Uttar Pradesh - and you will believe that it exists.

People in Firozabad, too, would not have believed it had they not
learnt about it on Wednesday morning. This chapati bomb went off -
where else but in the kitchen of a house owned by a civil contractor
Jameel. The house is situated in Chishti Nagar locality under Ramgarh
police station .

Jameels wife Rubina was making chapatis on an liquid petroleum gas
(LPG) stove when a sudden burst of flames left her wriggling in pain
with severe burns. It happened by the bat of an eyelid , she told the
police lying on the bed at the burn ward of a local hospital. For
Jameel and his neighbours, who were the first ones to reach the spot,
the mishap was apparently a result of a burst of flames caused by a
partially blocked stove burner top, which is a common occurrence.

But what caught the attention of the doctors was patches of charred
flour found stuck on and around the burn wounds of Rubina. Why would
charred flour stick to her wounds, they wondered. They prompted Jameel
to have another and a closer look at the scene of mishap. This time,
he found some small white granules in the flour. By feeling the
granules in his hand, Jameel could make out that they were anything
but lumps of flour that are usually caused by moisture. He quickly
informed the police.

Soon, senior superintendent of police (SSP) Raghubeer Lal rushed to
the spot with a battery of explosive experts, bomb detection squad and
sniffers, followed by a police field unit. The explosive experts
deduced that the granules in flour were highly combustible and had
explosive properties as well. The police also found a used 20
kilogramme polybag of flour that the family had bought from a local
grocery store. The bag had Shiv Brand Aata, Jagdamba Flour Mills,
Shahajahanpur printed on it.

The police seized the entire stock of the particular brand from all
the stores in the area. The district police were directed to trace the
wholesalers and dealers of the particular brand and seal the stock but
without triggering off panic.

We have also informed the Shahjahanpur police to seal the entire stock
at the production house and send samples for forensic examination and
chemical analysis, SSP Firozabad said while talking to TOI. Though
granules have been found in the bag at Jameels house only, there is no
trace of it in over 50 other samples seized from different places, Lal
said, adding: We are now trying to establish if the incident was a
result of carelessness at the time of production or packaging of the
flour or part of any design.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/Chapati-bomb-goes-off-in-kitchen-woman-injured-/articleshow/5442663.cms

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 15, 2010, 3:36:47 AM1/15/10
to
EVM is like a super calculator, says Chawla
Special Correspondent

Udhagamandalam: Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) have come to stay
and there is no question of the country reverting to the old system,
Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla said on Saturday. Speaking to
journalists here, he said: “Other nations have lauded India for
declaring election results without delay by using the EVMs.”

Asked about various parties referring to the ballot voting in the
United States, he pointed out that it was federal system. The EVM was
like a “super calculator” and its role andcommands could not be
altered, he said, adding the people accepted that the machines were
tamper proof.

Recalling that doubts over the EVMs had been brought to the Election
Commission’s notice, Mr. Chawla said that since the proof of the
pudding is in the eating, 100 machines from various States were placed
before a number of invitees and they were asked to choose machines at
random and demonstrate how they could be tampered with. None could
prove that the EVM was untrustworthy.

Stating that the machines were being procured from Bharat Electronics
and the Electronics Corporation of India, the CEC pointed out that
these firms were catering for the needs of the defence sector and the
Atomic Energy Commission.

After the recent Maharashtra Assembly elections, a candidate said he
would accept the verdict only if the votes were counted four times. It
was done and there was no variation in the vote count.

To another query, he said the controversy surrounding EVMs was laid to
rest. “As head of the Commission I am convinced one thousand per cent
about its use.”

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 03, 2010
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

http://www.thehindu.com/2010/01/03/stories/2010010360340800.htm

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 15, 2010, 3:40:14 AM1/15/10
to
Munde may head PAC
Neena Vyas

Sinha for External Affairs committee

NEW DELHI: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Yashwant Sinha and
Gopinath Munde are among those being considered for chairmanship of
the parliamentary standing committee on External Affairs and the
prestigious Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Both positions are now vacant. After her elevation as Leader of the
Opposition, Sushma Swaraj vacated chairmanship of the committee
attached to the External Affairs Ministry, while the former BJP
leader, Jaswant Singh, resigned as PAC chairman.

The names to fill the vacancies have not yet been finalised, but party
sources indicated the positions would be filled soon.

Following the controversy over his book on Pakistan founder Mohammad
Ali Jinnah, Mr. Singh was expelled from the BJP last year. After that,
an effort was made by the BJP to get Mr. Singh to relinquish PAC
chairmanship, a position normally held by a senior leader of the main
Opposition. However, at that time Mr. Singh refused to oblige. But,
just before the end of the winter session of Parliament, Mr. Singh
expressed his intention to quit the post and forwarded his resignation
to the Speaker.

Now, it seems Mr. Munde may get PAC chairmanship. Party sources
indicated that he and the new BJP president, Nitin Gadkari, were
bitter rivals in Maharashtra politics.

After Mr. Gadkari assumed office as BJP president, PAC chairmanship
may be a way of compensating Mr. Munde, according to the sources.

Mr. Sinha would be a “natural” choice for chairmanship of the External
Affairs Ministry standing committee. For, he was the last External
Affairs Minister in the National Democratic Alliance government.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 03, 2010
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

http://www.thehindu.com/2010/01/03/stories/2010010360270800.htm

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 15, 2010, 4:14:12 AM1/15/10
to
Nation cannot make progress if people forgets the past history:BJP

Jammu.October 26 (Vijay Kumar) – BJP State Spokesperson Ramesh Arora
said that a nation cannot make progress if the people forgets the past
history.

Talking to reporters in Jammu Ramesh Arora said ,”We the people of
Jammu and Kashmir are sufferers due to Himalayan blunders committed by
the leadership after the instrument of accession was signed by
Maharaja Hari Singh26th October, 1947 is an historical day and the
people of the nation and state of Jammu and Kashmir will never forget
this event. The instrument of accession was signed by Maharaja on 26th
October and was accepted by Lord Mountbatten, Governor-General of
India on 27th October 1947. This acceptance was unconditional like
other than 557 princely states”.

He said once unconditional accession was signed and accepted there was
no occasion to give power under the constitution of India to the
state, for having its separate constitution, separate flag and in
corporation of Article-370 in constitution of India, it was also a
historical mistake. The questions still remained unanswered, why
Indian forces were stopped from taking back the area occupied by Pak
army in connivance with Kabali militants? We have committed another
mistake which also required to be answered, why matter was referred to
UNO when it was our internal issue? Our soldiers have won the battles
in the field but we have lost battles on negotiation-table. Even, we
cannot solve the Kashmir issue during Tashkent agreement, Shimla
agreement and due to this failure the problems is hanging.

Ramesh Arora further said that our state of J&K being a state of
strategical importance, was not given due attention to solve the basic
problem. Recent statement of the Home Minister P. Chidambaram have
more complicated the issue, when he said that majority view will be
considered and they have a solution but will not disclose. It will
amount to reopening the issue of pelvicite and referendum which is
dead. Arora said that it is not there personal problem and BJP will
not allow Centre as well as State government to make any compromise
beyond the constitution. When we talk that each and every talk should
be under the constitution, we mean that constitution as it is and not
after changing the same. The proposal of autonomy and self-rule are
against the constitution because they will destroy the basic fabric of
the constitution. Arora warned the state government not to keep
sleeping over the issues as Gilgit-Balitistan area which was already
annexed by Pakistan by so called independence and the change of the
boundaries is state subject under the constitution and even centre
government cannot alter than why state is silent over the issue of
“Gilgit-Balitistan”.

BJP warned PM of India and Home Minister that they should not take any
decision without taking BJP and other parties into confidence
otherwise a nation-wide protest will be there. Arora said we are in
touch with central leadership of BJP and we will not allow any
compromise which will affect constitution and boundaries of the state.

Ramesh Arora said that only solution is that Indian government and
people of India should stand united over the resolution of parliament
1994 and should deal external interference / militancy with firm will.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 14th, 2010 at 9:44 pm

http://www.eblogslive.com/?p=3392

Sid Harth

unread,
Jan 15, 2010, 9:36:10 AM1/15/10
to
January 14, 2010
Nyaya Sastra and its importance
By K.Vanamali
Samskrita Bharati Chennai Member

"The ability to discuss, debate and analyze in a structured manner
seem to be sorely lacking in current day society. I am not sure
whether this is even recognized as a problem. With reasoning being
given great importance in modern society but at the same time lack of
ability to do structured reasoning has lead to situation where we do
not know when to align, question or oppose. This greatly affects
individual¡¯s spiritual progress and society at large."says
Gouthaman_Gopalan .

"The ability to discuss, debate and analyze in a structured manner
seem to be sorely lacking in current day society".

Frighteningly true. I am grateful that the writer chose to bell the
cat.

The heart of the matter lies in the fact that modern society is being
manipulated by western ideologies either overtly or covertly. While it
appears to champion the spirit of freedom and free thinking, it
actually subverts it. It is impossible for them to get out of the
crude "might is right" deadlock. To them the concept of "Satyam" is
beyond comprehension because it transcends time. They are and will
always be driven by the 'now' syndrome. The infamous axiom "the end
justifies the means" is the seed of moral and intellectual corruption.
The idea here is not about people being good or bad. The truth is, by
default, all are good. With passage of time the ability to sustain
goodness is eroded due to the "rat race" syndrome so cleverly put in
place under the disguise of competition.

Winning, followed by winning at any cost, is seen as the route to
freedom from the travails of modern living. No body dares to even
remotely consider opting out and living the natural and simple life
ordained for the human race which is blessed with "self regulated
freedom" and "intrinsic contentment".

The concept of "self regulated freedom" and strict adherence to
conventional wisdom driven "dos and donts" will set the foundation for
lively pursuits only if the concept of all transcending 'satyam' is
understood and accepted as the guiding philosophy.

What is "Satyam" ? The all pervading and all transcending concept. The
minute it is understood that it transcends time, we become sublime and
humble. Only then can the process of rationalisation begin in right
earnestness, free of the never ending list of wants (the now and now
only). The intellect is then opened up to the discovery of the
fabulous and gigantic play (leela) that is enacted around us. The
human persona then blossoms to blend with the surroundings instead of
conflicting or competing perpetually by default.

I am reminded of the golden words "lakshyam deergam baveth". i.e. let
it transcend the now forever.

Unless we begin to understand (for ourselves) that we are being
manipulated, we are going to be led around like sheep (!) whose sure
shot destination is the slaughter house. I am sorry that I am
constrained to use such a strong analogy.

The minute we liberate ourselves from the rat race and take our
rightful place in the human race, we will automatically become
oriented to the quest of knowing rather than prevailing. It is the
urge to prevail which is the root cause of "The inability to discuss,
debate and analyze in a structured manner which is all pervading in
current day society".

Kindly pardon me if I have stepped out of bounds in my urge to share
my thoughts.

Easwara sankalpena

Posted by Naxal Watch at 6:45 PM

IntelliBriefs

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http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2010/01/nyaya-sastra-and-its-importance.html

Sid Harth

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Jan 15, 2010, 9:43:18 AM1/15/10
to
NGOs move SC, oppose legalisation of prostitution
STAFF WRITER 20:4 HRS IST

New Delhi, Jan 15 (PTI)

Four NGOs today approached the Supreme Court opposing any move to
legalize prostitution in the country.

Far from regulating the profession, it would only lead to
proliferation of the trade, the NGOs submitted citing various research
reports in their joint intervention application filed before a bench
of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and A K Patnaik.

Citing the instance of Netherlands where prostitition is legal, the
NGOs Prajwala, Guria, Sanlaap and Saarthak, through counsel Aparna
Bhat, said the country recorded a 300 per cent increase in
prostitution between 1996 and 2001.

Victoria state in Australia also recorded a 300 per cent increase in
prostitution after it was legalised there in 1999, it said.

http://www.ptinews.com/news/470409_NGOs-move-SC--oppose-legalisation-of-prostitution

Sid Harth

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Jan 15, 2010, 9:47:44 AM1/15/10
to
Goa is a victim of peddled narcotic drugs: Police chief
STAFF WRITER 19:52 HRS IST

Panaji, Jan 15 (PTI) Goa police chief B S Bassi has admitted that the
police had no inkling about the exact quantum of drugs peddled in the
state.

"I have no estimate of how much drugs are brought in Goa. We have
figures based on which we can say that we had the biggest amount of
seizures last year," Bassi told a press conference here.

Goa police chief's statement cames in the backdrop of accusation of
widespread uncontrolled drug menace in the state. Besides the main
opposition BJP, Congress government's own legislator Agnelo Fernandes
had blamed police for their inefficiency.

Bassi said that the state is a "victim" of narcotic trade. "It's
neither producing drugs nor a transit point for it. We are victim
state."

He said that some people were trying to push in drugs into the state.

http://www.ptinews.com/news/470388_Goa-is-a-victim-of-peddled-narcotic-drugs--Police-chief

Sid Harth

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Jan 15, 2010, 9:54:12 AM1/15/10
to
L.K.ADVANI AND THE MYTHOLOGY OF “SADNESS”: AN EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT

Badri Raina

An eye-witness report by Journalist Ruchira Gupta about who did what
including LK Advani during the demolition of the Babri does not
appear in the Liberhan Report; yet what it reveals about senior
leaders of the Bhartiya Janata Party should be an eye-opener.

On December 6, 1992, when the Babri mosque was razed to rubble,
Ruchira Gupta was a journalist with Business India.

She was at the site of the carnage, where she met L.K.Advani and the
other indicted (by the Liberhan Commission) leaders of the Sangh
Parivar who sat “in a mood of excitement on the terrace as if waiting
for a celebration.”

At a commemorative meeting on December 6, 2009 organized by SAHMAT,
Ruchira gave a first-hand public recital of what she saw and heard on
that fateful day in 1992—evidence that she had given to the Liberhan
Commission, having flown especially from New York to do so where she
has been working for a UN organization.

The specifics of her evidence, however, do not find any place in the
Commission’s voluminous report.

In regard especially to the much-touted remorse that Advani was later
to claim to have felt, some of the direct snippets of her interaction
with him on that day must seem revealing in the extreme, even though
that claim may never have anyway won any credibility among Indians at
large, with or without any direct evidence.

Here is what Ruchira had to say, and in her own voice from notes
taken on December 6, 2009:

–when I heard the slogan “kasam Ram ki khatein hein/ mandir wahein
banayeinge” (we swear by lord Ram that we shall build his temple at
the very same spot), I asked Advani what this meant. He said to me
“when you reach there you will find out what the slogan means” (this
episode during his infamous rath yatra).

On the day of the demolition, I heard Advani direct Uma Bharti to
advise “the boys to come down (from the dome) because the dome would
come down anyway.” Needless to say, the latter half of what he says
here puts a whole different colour on his much-propagated anxiety at
the violence to come.

Uma Bharti in the meanwhile was busy shouting “Mussalmanoun ke dou
hee sthan/ Pakistan ya Qabristan (there are only two places for
Muslims/ Pakistan or the graveyard.)

I saw Murli Manohar Joshi carrying statues, clearly to be installed
after the demolition. I heard Vijay Raje Scindia say “ab meri aankhoun
ko shanti milegie” (now my eyes will have rest). I went inside the
mosque, crowded with marauding karsevaks (religious draftees).
Someone shouted “Muslim”; people began choking and molesting me.
Shouts of mar dou (kill her); another shout “yahan nahi” (not here)
because this is the “garba grah” (the place of Ram’s birth).

They took me to the trench outside, where a karsevak recognized me and
shouted “yeh patrakaar hai” (she is a journalist). “Hindu hai” (she
is a Hindu.) Released, I went back to the terrace where I saw Chandan
Mitra and Swapan Dasgupta, two senior journalists, were also sitting.

I pointed Advani to homes burning at some distance; he said, “yeh
Mussalmaan ghar jala rahei hein muavzzei ke liye” (these are Muslims
burning their own houses for compensation.)

And then: “Itna badda dinn hea, cheeni khaaw” (it is such an
auspicious day; have some sweet.) I noticed Mark Tully, S.P.Jain and
some other journalists being attacked. I said to some TV journalist,
“Psycopaths.”

Which is when I began to be hounded; character assassination, hate
mails, whisper campaigns were unleashed.

During the Liberhan hearings, the defence lawyer was to ask me, “do
you smoke? Do you act in TV serials? What gods do you believe in?
Why did you not run if you were molested?”

The very next day, the campaign to propagate the mythology of Advani’s
“sadness” began to be floated in the media by journalists allied to
the Sangh.

Ruchira also said that some journalists were “pressurized not to
testify, and others were bought off.”

As said above, none of this testimony finds a place in the Liberhan
report.

But, we salute Ruchira for the strength of commitment which obliged
her to make a clean breast, and in the best national interest.

Will the state bring the psychopaths to book?

( December 19, 2009)

http://www.insafbulletin.net/archives/676

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 15, 2010, 1:28:20 PM1/15/10
to
Janata Dal (U) men burn Gadkari effigy; BJP to take up the issue
PTI Friday, January 15, 2010 19:55 IST

New Delhi: JD(U) workers today burnt an effigy of BJP chief Nitin
Gadkari here for his alleged remarks on migrant population in big
cities, following which BJP maintained that the comments were not
against migrants and said it will discuss the issue with its key ally.

JD(U) youth wing president Govind Yadav said his party's Delhi state
unit workers burnt Gadkari's effigy in Jantar Mantar as the BJP
president's statement was "unconstitutional and undemocratic".

"In Delhi and Mumbai, the migrants form the soul of the city," Yadav
said.

"Gadkari had not made any such statement. He had only said that
migration was creating problems. Urbanisation is a natural process but
the government has not done anything to deal with the issue. Only now
they have come up with JNNURM scheme," BJP spokesperson Prakash
Javadekar said.

He insisted that Gadkari was only pointing to the absence of adequate
infrastructure to meet the influx of migrants to big cities in search
of jobs. "The government has completely failed to comprehend this
problem," Javadekar said.

He also sought to downplay the burning of Gadkari's effigy by JD(U)
workers.

"Our alliance is eternal. I will talk to Sharad Yadav (NDA convenor
and JD-U president) about this," Javadekar said.

Yesterday, Gadkari had clarified his position in a statement saying,
"India is one country and it is the constitutional right of its
citizens to go to any state and settle there."

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_janta-dal-u-men-burn-gadkari-effigy-bjp-to-take-up-the-issue_1335227

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 15, 2010, 1:50:23 PM1/15/10
to
Film on Advani made by daughter blanks out his RSS association
Mohua Chatterjee, TNN, 15 January 2010, 04:12am IST

NEW DELHI: A film made on L K Advani by his daughter Pratibha Advani
has raised some eyebrows because of the total blackout of his lifelong
association with RSS.

The omission was raised by the veteran RSS leader Ramesh Prakash who
was part of the audience invited for the screening. The RSS leader
found that the film did not have a single frame that included Sangh.

Advani, however, played down the matter, pointing out that he had
written about Sangh, his ideological parivar, in his memoirs `My
Country, My Life'. He also emphasized that the film was made by
Pratibha.

The occasion also saw the saffron stalwart springing a surprise for
those who read his stepping down from the post of Leader of Opposition
in Lok Sabha as retirement from politics. Advani said his "yatra
(political journey) had begun at age 14" when he joined RSS and was
"still on". It will end only after he is "able to make the party
regain its full strength", he added.

The statement may surprise many in the party who read Advani's
quitting as Leader of Opposition as a retreat to the sidelines.

Advani said that on the day of Sankranti he hoped that all the ills
that had crept into the party and have been troubling the party in the
recent past would get over and a new beginning would be made. The
party veteran was confident that after the recent organisational
changes in the party, things will only get better for BJP and the
party will be back to its days of strength and glory. By `yatra', he
clarified that he was not talking about any `rath yatra' but was
talking about his political journey.

Advani clearly said that the party had been suffering and the problems
unfortunately had not come from any external source but from within.
"Therefore, the problems would have to be resolved by the party
itself," he clarified, adding that the process had already begun.

In a clear reference to the succession war and the public mudslinging
that had broken out after BJP's defeat in the Lok Sabha polls last
May, Advani said that the problems had put the party in such a
situation that not only those who were part of it but even those from
the rival camp expressed their concern to him. "It is important even
for the Opposition to be strong for the well being of the country and
the democracy," he said.
Follow us on Twitter for TOI top stories

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Film-on-Advani-made-by-daughter-blanks-out-his-RSS-association/articleshow/5446113.cms

bademiyansubhanallah

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Jan 15, 2010, 2:15:16 PM1/15/10
to
JATI Hi PUCHHO SADHU KI!Caste names in Bihar Congress list: FIR
against Jagdish Tytler, Anil Sharma! by palashbiswas @ 2010-01-14 –
18:58:57

JATI Hi PUCHHO SADHU KI!
Caste names in Bihar Congress list: FIR against Jagdish Tytler, Anil
Sharma!

Palash Biswas

NO place for any particular caste, community or creed in the RSS -
Sarsanghchalak
26/12/2009 01:50:48
Bhagwat for ‘fearless talk’ with China

Amarnath Tewary | Patna - Daily Pioneer

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Friday said environment and border disputes
were serious issues before the country today. He was speaking on the
third and last day of his meeting in Patna.

Bhagwat also said there was no place for any particular caste,
community or creed in the RSS as "it was a Hindu organisation with
Hindu ideology."

"Environment is a serious issue today. There was a meeting on the
issue recently in Copenhagen but no one says anything about it. Koi
kuch batata nahi hai," said Bhagwat.

The RSS chief was addressing over 20,000 swayamsevaks at Gandhi
Maidan, when he spoke about infiltration from Bangladesh and border
disputes with China. "We should have a frank and fearless talk with
China. What is happening in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh worries
everyone," he said.

He added that even the Supreme Court of India had taken serious note
of Bangladeshi infiltration "but it seems the issues have been
politicised as no one is doing anything about it."

Referring to the growing Naxal problem, Bhagwat said, "You cannot talk
of change by force of a gun. They talk about change and development
for the poor but they enter their villages carrying guns and
displaying firearms. This cannot be the way," he added.

While talking about regionalism and growing ethnic violence, the RSS
chief said these were emotional issues which had been used by some as
poll gimmicks. "India is one country. There is unity in diversity here
and there should be any place of such things in Hindustan," said
Bhagwat. "The country should not be divided on the basis of region or
language," he added.

The RSS chief noted that there was no minority in the country as
everyone was a Hindustani. "Even the Parsis - who are below 5 per cent
- call themselves Hindustani, not a minority," said Bhagwat.

While explaining that RSS was a social organisation with over 40 lakh
swayamsevaks, Bhagwat reiterated that it worked for the development of
Hindustan and harmony and peace in society.

Earlier, the RSS chief had advocated inter-caste marriages. While
addressing the meeting on the second day, Bhagwat had called upon
people to break the caste divide and discontinue caste-based
impositions at temples.

"We are all one… we all are Hindu… our DNA is the same and even our
ancestors are the same," Bhagwat said while urging about 70 caste and
community leaders to use their influence in ending the discrimination
and distinction.

Meanwhile, some BJP leaders were also part of the huge gathering at
Gandhi Maidan. Earlier, senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi had a
closed-door meeting with Bhagwat on Thursday for half-an-hour.

Majority of street children face sex abuse in India: Study
PTI, 14 January 2010, 05:01pm IST

NEW DELHI: In damning statistics, a government study has found that a
vast majority of street children face sexual abuse in India, which is
home to the world's largest number of destitute children.

According to a study conducted by the ministry of women and child
development, the overall incidence of physical abuse among street
children was 66.8 per cent.

The majority of the street children facing physical abuse are in the
age group of 5-12 years.

Around 55 per cent of the street children reported having undergone
sexual abuse, it said.

The study covered 13 states -- Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Delhi,
Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Rajasthan,
Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal with a sample size of 12,447 children.

These included children in family environment, those attending
schools, those in institutional care and street children. Out of
these, 2,317 children (18.6 per cent) were street children.

Estimates by international agencies put the number of street children
in India at 18 million, which is the largest in the world.

The women and child development ministry has recently introduced a
centrally-sponsored scheme, namely Integrated Child Protection Scheme,
for such children.

It is also implementing another scheme called 'An Integrated Programme
for Street Children' for the welfare and rehabilitation of street
children.

PTI

An FIR was on Thursday filed against AICC in-charge of Bihar Jagdish
Tytler and state Congress president Anil Sharma for allegedly
violating the SC and ST Atrocity Prevention Act following "release" of
a list containing caste description of Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar
and its state unit office-bearers.Well, Bihar is INFAMOUS for such
Histroy. But Bihar is not only one Place which implements caste
system. Bengal is Worse than the Entire Cow Belt and South India. I
must say.

It was the Daughter of a Fishermen Community, Rani RASMANI who
established Dakshineshwar Kalibari which created the ICONS like
Ramkrishna Paramhans and Swami Vivekanand. But Ramkrishan Mission
Never Recognises the contribution of the Black Untouchable lady. Caste
and Untouchability has not WITHERED away from the Mission which is
nowadays best known as NGO, the Religious agency of Free Market
democracy!

you should remember that Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) Chief Mohan
Bhagwat called upon its workers "to make serious efforts for uniting
different Hindu castes" to help establish a "discrimination-free
society".Does it mean that RSS goes against caste system and there
should NO HINDU Rashtra, it has been decided. Kumbha Mela and
Gangasagar Rituals affirm Caste System with Newer ENTHUSISM and
justifying the Bhagwat KARMA Principle Solar Eclipse is also tagged
with Rituals to get SALVATION and Rebirth in UPER Caste. TV Channels
and media Showcae the Most Castist Phenomenon. Even the Marxists do
jsurtify Religion ans thus, the caste. Ironically Ambedkarite Economic
ideology is taken as Castology and Mayawati is believed to practice
it.

Addressing a gathering of RSS and Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) workers
here, Bhagwat urged them to work towards integration of different
Hindu castes and aim to establish co-ordination amongst the different
castes, which in turn would strengthen the community, a RSS leader
told IANS.

The RSS chief advocated adherence to the philosophy of Hindutva rather
than castes as the "answer to a number of problems pertaining to
social unrest lies in Hindutva".
The FIR was filed against Tytler and Sharma here on Thursday afternoon
by Dalit Kranti Morcha leader Vidhanchandra Rana. The duo faces
charges under various sections of the SC/ST Prevention Act 1989,
police said, adding an inquiry was ordered into the matter.

Rana alleged that both Tytler and Sharma violated the act by naming
castes of the leaders in the list and termed the act as "a
constitutional crime."

The list released by Sharma for different committees under the state
Congress found mention of the name of Meira Kumar, as one among 64
permanent invitees, along with her caste.

Meanwhile,Thousands of Hindu pilgrims braved a winter chill Thursday
to take a dip in the holy Ganges River in the northern town of
Haridwar, beginning one of the world’s largest religious
congregations. Millions of devotees waiting anxiously for hours to
witness the celestial light, shouted in joy and thanksgiving when the
Makara Jyothi appeared thrice on the horizon at the Sabarimala temple
here Thursday evening.

The celestial light was seen after 6.40 p.m.

Sighting of the celestial light on the horizon is considered most
auspicious and marks the finale of the three-month-long pilgrim season
at the hill shrine of Sabarimala.

Mind You! Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) primary Mohan Bhagwat has
called for the conclusion of caste barriers which he said somebody
blockaded the maturation of Hinduism and shackled Faith lodge for
hundreds of eld. Bhagwat was interacting with intellectuals in the Taj
city Monday dark after a two-day festivity of the activity in
Metropolis. He said the RSS was in no perplexity or confusion over its
philosophical posturing. "We are for change in Hindi gild and this can
be through only when all of us begin an all out attack on casteism.
RSS activists are way upfield in this expedition. A recent summary has
indicated that the merchandise of intercaste marriages was the maximal
in the RSS," he said. Bhagwat's nidus was on attacking casteism, which
he said should be abolished and RSS workers should spearhead the move
for transportation land caste barriers to incorporate Asiatic elite.
The RSS boss Bhagwat interacted with part bearers and last body of the
administration to germinate a strategy for succeeding challenge
programmes.

Our friend, Dilip Mandal has done an Excellent job exposing the
Brahaminical Mafia in media in reference to Gandhian CARBIDE late
Prabhash Joshi whom the Brahamin Intelligentsia ICONISED to continue
the Monopoly of the Brahamins.Last week, Dilip has written Two
important articles in hindi dainik Jansatta with Which Prabhash Joshi
had been tagged. Dilip has welcomed Bhagwat`s statement on Caste but
doubted his agenda. Since the caste Hindus deny
Untouchabilityparctising it rigidly and often plead that there is no
Castism in India just to undermine the Constitutional Reservation for
SC, ST and OBC and Converted Minorities. The ailing Ex Chief Minister
of West Bengal, arguably the real Destroyer of Bengal is also ICONISED
by the Ruling Hegemony and the Zionist Dynasty. Basu denied the
existence of forty Two Percent OBCs in Bengal althroughout his tenure
as the Chief Minsiter of West Bengal. The Bihar Incident exposes the
Mindset and psyche of the Foreigner Brahmins who identify themselves
with Zionists galaxywide and make the Market Dominating Community in
the US Promoted FREE Market democracy.

Myths are created to jsutify Caste system and Myths are also created
to rag the Black Untouchably Culturally to eraze their Identity. The
Brahamins in Bengal succeeded to make it official with their entries
in various documents that the Low Castes are no better than Thieves
and bandits of Lowest Origin. The Bengali Brahmins had to Partition
Bengal just because as Hindu mahasabha an Jansangh leader shyama
Prasad Mukherjee said that the Brahmins are not ready to be RULED by
the Converted Muslims who had been the Hated Dalits of Bengal.The
Gandhian Carbides and the Marxists followed suit as all the THREE
Governemnets before Partition had been led by Muslims with adequate
representation of dalits and the Caste Hindus had virtually NO Space.
While Baba saheb Bhim rao Ambedkar was elected from East Bengal, the
ARYAN Venegeance targeted the Sc Partition Victims from east Bengal
and threw them out of Bengal.Those left in bengal have been
deidentified and Destroyed systematically all in the name of
Progressiv Marxist Ideology which is nothing But Scientific Manusmriti
Rule. More Over, Hijacking the State Power in the Centre bengali
Brahamins continued Persecution of the Dalits in East Bengal and the
Refugee Influx continued. The Ruling Hegemony is enacting Laws to
execute the Suspended Deportation of Partition Victim SC OBC
Communities Countrywide! And they declare shamelessly that there is no
Caste in Bengal denying Caste Certificate and Reservation to SC, ST,
OBC and Converted Minorities!

Dilip has drawn our attention to the Mind Control and Misinformation
game palyed in the Hyped bollywood Film PAA in which Land Acquisition
and Displacement have been Justified quite RUTHLESSLY!

Just days after installing his protégé Nitin Gadkari as BJP president,
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat met Hindu leaders of different castes in an
attempt to unite various communities in Bihar.

Bhagwat — on the last day of his three-day tour of the NDA-ruled state
— had a series of closed-door meetings with Kushwaha Samaj chief
Prahlad Sharma, Patwa Samaj chief Ramanarayan Mandal and others — a
step seen as RSS’s bid to overcome the caste barrier, which plays a
great role from marriage to politics in the Hindi belt.

Probably in a bid to introduce “modernity” in what is referred to as
the primordial concept of RSS, Bhagwat advocated for inter-caste
marriage, too. “People of various castes should tie the nuptial knot
among themselves. They should also dine together as no Hindu caste is
untouchable,” he said.

Sources in the RSS hinted that the right wing Hindu outfit would
organise meetings of various Hindu caste leaders at block and district
levels to follow up on what Bhagwat has done in Patna.

Describing caste as a “big hurdle” in the way of uniting the Hindus,
Bhagwat said that the Hindus should adhere to the philosophy of
Hindutva rather than castes. “The answer to all problems, including
global warming, infiltration and social unrest, lies in Hindutva,” he
said.

Incidentally, the number of RSS followers is not increasing in Bihar
despite the Hindu outfit sharply raising the number of its camps and
schools across the state. For example, RSS camps, according to
sources, have gone up to 1,150 from 750 in 2004 and the number of
Vidya Bharati Schools has shot up from 425 in 2004 to 750. But many of
these schools and camps stay unattended in the countryside with people
not evincing interest in them, according to the sources.

The RSS, the sources added, is also miffed at the government headed by
JD(U)’s Nitish Kumar does not take notice of the Hindu outfit’s
schools unlike his Gujarat counterpart, Narendra Modi, whose
government has adopted many of the Bharati Vidya Mandirs for providing
financial and logistical assistance.

On the other hand, the BJP ministers, including deputy chief minister
Sushil Kumar Modi and others, appeared in the RSS’s traditional khaki
shorts and white shirts at a meeting addressed by Bhagwat here today.

“We owe our roots and rise in politics to the RSS, the head of the
Sangh Parivar, which also has the BJP in its fold. How can we even
think of appearing in other uniform?” asked a senior BJP leader.

Besides Modi, legislative council chairman Tarakant Jha, Giriraj
Singh, Aswhini Choubey, Nandkishore Yadav, Ramnarayan Mandal (all
ministers), former Union minister Ravishankar, former Gujarat governor
Kailashpati Mishra and several others had attended the meet.

The three-month Maha Kumbh Mela, or gathering, is held once every 12
years and rotates between four Indian pilgrimage spots located along
rivers. The 2001 Maha Kumbh Mela in the northern city of Allahabad
drew 60 million people over 45 days.

Hindus believe a ritual bath during certain auspicious bathing days of
the Maha Kumbh Mela washes away all sins.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) does not bar people with
religious belief from joining, but they should not let their faith
intrude into the affairs of the state, party chief Prakash Karat said
Thursday.

On the other hand, Describing food inflation as a “temporary
phenomenon”, the Planning Commission has said that the prices of
various food items will decline towards the month-end and that the
economic growth during the year would exceed 7 per cent.

“The food price inflation is a worrying problem, but in my view it is
a temporary phenomenon... they (prices) will come down,” Planning
Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said in an interview
to Karan Thapar for the India Tonight programme telecast on CNBC
TV-18.

With the coming of the rabi (winter) crop, he added, “you will see a
drop in cereal inflation compared to what it is now ... wait for the
end of January... on the foodgrain front there will be ample
available.”

Driven by rising prices of pulses, potato, onion and other vegetables,
food inflation soared to a decade’s high of about 20 per cent in
December before sliding marginally.

About the country’s economic growth prospects in the current fiscal,
Mr. Ahluwalia said it “would definitely be 7 per cent or a little
more.”

The Commission, which had projected a growth rate of 6.5 per cent for
2009-10, he said, would revise it upwards, especially in view of the
robust 7.9 per cent GDP recorded in the second quarter (July-
September).

Troubled by former MP from Kerala, K.S. Manoj, quitting the party last
week, the CPI-M general secretary said: “The party has no hesitation
in joining hands with believers and those religious leaders who
espouse the cause of the poor, or, act in defence of the rights of the
working people.”

Manoj, who represented Kerala’s Alappuzha constituency in the previous
Lok Sabha, had quit in protest against the party’s Rectification
Document, which reportedly directs party members not to participate in
religious ceremonies.

Clarifying the party’s stand on religion in an article in the latest
issue of the People’s Democracy, the party mouthpiece, Karat said:
“Marxists are atheists, i.e., they believe in no religion. But
Marxists understand the origin of religion and the role it plays in
society.”

“While the CPI-M upholds the materialist outlook, it does not bar
people having religious faith from joining the party,” he said.

“The only condition for membership is acceptance of the Party
Programme, the Constitution and the willingness to work under Party
discipline in an organisational unit of the party.”

He went on: “The Communist party does not bar persons who have
religious faith from joining the party. While they may practise their
faith, they are expected to also uphold secularism and oppose the
intrusion of religion into the affairs of the state.”

Karat said the rectification guidelines were designed to help
Communist party members live by Communist norms and values.

“As far as the leading cadres are concerned, the Party expects them to
behave like Marxists both in their public and private life,” he said.

While quitting, Manoj said he was forced to take the decision because
he felt his religious beliefs stood above his party ideology. He said
he was pained to see the recent Rectification Document which called on
party leaders not to take part in religious functions.

“Dr Manoj is wrong in stating that the CPI-M guidelines for its
leading cadres on religious practice is against the Indian
constitution. The constitution provides for a secular state which
guarantees the right to practise one’s religion to a citizen. It also
ensures the right for a citizen not to practise religion. The CPI-M is
an organisation in which citizens voluntarily join if they subscribe
to its philosophy,” Karat said.

Meanwhile,a group of Buddhist monks Thursday ended their hunger strike
for control over Bodh Gaya’s 1,500-year-old Mahabodhi temple.

“We have ended the hunger strike as the district administration forced
us, but we will continue to raise the demand for Buddhist control over
the Bodh Gaya temple,” one of the monks Bhante Gayanratan said.

The monks began their fast Jan 1 near the office of the temple
management committee at Bodh Gaya, where the Buddha attained
enlightenment 2,550 years ago.

Another monk Bhante Budh Saran said they would not sit silent. “We
will launch another non-violent protest against injustice to the
Buddhists,” he said.

He said even the National Minority Commission was in favour of
Buddhist control over the temple but the state government was delaying
the matter due to vested interests.

National Commission for Minorities members H.S. Hanspal and Spaljes
Angmano, who visited Bodh Gaya, some 110 km from here, early this
month, made it clear that it was against the Constitution to deny
Buddhist control over the temple, he added.

The monks have been demanding amendmemnt to the Mahabodhi Temple
Management Act, 1949, under which the Bodh Gaya Temple Management
Committee (BGTMC) has four Buddhist and an equal number of Hindu
members for a three-year period, with the Gaya district magistrate as
its ex-officio chairman.

At sunrise, devotees, who had started queuing along the streets of
Haridwar leading to the river, also known as the Ganga, began taking
their ritual holy baths.

The first bathing day marked the Hindu festival of Makar Sankranti,
which is celebrated across India as the end of winter and the
beginning of the harvesting season.

The devotees came to Haridwar from across the country and neighbouring
Nepal. They ranged from villagers and to shopkeepers to business
leaders, professionals and holy men.

There were not many sadhus, or holy men, taking the bath on the first
day, but they were expected to come in large groups after January 26,
officials said.

The local administration has instituted stringent security
arrangements to control the crowds, which often exceed a few million
on key bathing days.

There have been several stampedes at earlier Kumbh congregations.

At least 39 people were killed at Nashik in southern India in 2003 and
more than 600 at Allahabad in 1954.

Hindus also took part in ritual dips and other festivities in other
parts of the country on Thursday.

Called Makar Sankranti in northern India, the festival is celebrated
as Bhogali Bihu in Assam in the north-east and Pongal in the southern
state of Tamil Nadu. Besides the ritual dip, the day is marked by
preparation of traditional sweets, dishes made of newly harvested rice
and kite flying.

In the eastern state of West Bengal, the day was marred by the death
of six women and a child in a stampede as a large number of people
tried to rush onto a boat leaving for an island pilgrimage spot.

http://palashspeaks.blog.co.uk/2010/01/14/jati-hi-puchho-sadhu-ki-caste-names-in-bihar-congress-list-fir-against-jagdish-tytler-anil-sharma-7756242/

bademiyansubhanallah

unread,
Jan 15, 2010, 5:07:30 PM1/15/10
to
Punjab BJP leader injured in firing by unidentified assailants
SAMEER KAURA
Saturday, 16 January 2010

PHAGWARA: BJP Leader and former BJP Councilor Arun Khosla was attacked
and seriously injured by two unidentified armed assailants who came on
a motorcycle to his local Hoshiarpur road office and opened fire upon
Khosla on Friday night.

The assailants sped away after the firing. Khosla was immediately
brought to local Gandhi Hospital, from where treating doctor Satnam
Singh Parmar refered him to Ludhiana due to his critical condition.

Phagwara DSP HPS Khakh and Naib Tehsildar Mulakh Raj rushed to the
spot. DSP Khakh said that police was investigating the matter in
details.

Hundreds of local citizens rushed to Gandhi Hospital where Khosla was
given first aid and later was shifted to Ludhiana.

http://www.punjabnewsline.com/content/view/22635/38/

chhotemianinshallah

unread,
Jan 15, 2010, 6:09:54 PM1/15/10
to
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

About Organisation

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ({{lang-hi|राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ}},
{{lang-en|National Volunteers' Union}}), also known as the Sangh or
the RSS, is a Hindu nationalist organization in India. It was founded
in 1925 by K.B. Hedgewar. The RSS is active throughout India and
abroad as the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh.

Their general philosophical outlook is cultural nationalism known as
integral humanism, aimed at preserving the spiritual and moral
traditions of India.Christophe Jaffrelot, The Hindu nationalist
Movement in India, Columbia University Press, 1998 The RSS believes
that Hinduism is not a religion but a way of

life.http://www.rss.org/New_RSS/Mission_Vision/Why_RSS.jsp

The proclaimed purpose of the organization is "serving the nation and
its people in the form of God - Bharata Mata (Mother India) and
protecting the interests of the Hindus in India".

They have engaged in numerous social, service charity, and relief
works, and engaged in inter-community dialogues, as well as actively
participated in the political process. They are well-organized and
have a heirarchial structure to their organization, with the
sarsanghchalak being the highest rank.

The RSS was banned in India thrice during periods in which the
government of the time considered them a threat to the state: in 1948
after Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, during the 1975 Emergency in
India, and after the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition, in order. The bans
were subsequently lifted after the Supreme Court of India declined to
uphold the bans due to lack of evidence of their involvement in the
alleged activities{{Fact|date=April 2007}}.

The RSS continues to be viewed as controversial due its commitment to
stop conversions of Hindus and to "organise" Hindu society,
allegations of its "Fascist" tendencies and it's alleged involvement
in several communal riots (the latest being the riots in Gujarat in
2002). These allegations are made by various academics, politicians
and commentators, but disputed by other academics.

Its numbers have been bolstered by the rise of its associated Sangh
Parivar members, especially the Bharatiya Janata Party.

History

In 1925, Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, a Nagpur doctor influenced by
recent Hindu-Muslim riots in his town, formed the Rashtriya
Swayemsevak Sangh aiming to protect Hindus by organizing together.

Curran, Jean A. Jr. The RSS: Militant Hinduism Far Eastern Survey,
Vol. 19, No. 10. (May 17, 1950), pp. 93-98.

Hedgewar proposed the Hindu masses must be united to combat the
challenges facing them and protect the freedom and diversity of Indian
civilization. In the 1940s the development of the RSS was fueled by a
desire of some Hindus to organize themselves in reaction to the
growing mobilization, sometimes in paramilitary form, of Muslim
separatist movements. The response was strongest in areas where the
Hindus were in the minority. RSS benefited from support from local
community leaders. The "pracharaks" or "full-time workers", who were
dispatched on the recommendation of such patrons, gathered support and
coordinated their efforts from their headquarters in NagpurK R
Malkani: The RSS Story. During the Indian independence movement, the
RSS campaigned alongside the Indian National Congress for national
independence at first keeping its organization separate and core
mission different. However when some Congress leaders tried to subsume
RSS into the Congress and urged the RSS leaders to dismantle the
organization, they slowly diverged away from the Congress.

Partition activities

The Partition of India was a very traumatic event in the young
nation's history. Millions of people, both Hindu and Muslim, attempted
to migrate from India and Pakistan/East-Pakistan through the violence
and the death toll was considerable

http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat3.htm#India.

The organization gained considerable strength and support because of
its various relief activities organized for the migrating Hindus and
successful protection of Hindus in the Hindu-Muslim riots during the
time of the partition. At the time, its alleged contribution to the
spread of communalism led to allegations of it being anti-Muslim.

Banning and revival

After Mahatma Gandhi's death in 1948, the RSS was accused by the
Government of India for taking part in the plot to assassinate the
Mahatma. Jawaharlal Nehru, in his opposition to the RSS, believed that
the murder of Gandhi was part of a conspiracy on the part of the Hindu
Nationalists to "seize power", and he claimed that the RSS was the
power behind this conspiracy.For Nehru's claim that the RSS was
involved with a conspiracy to seize power and analogy to Europe on the
eve of fascist takeovers, see: Nussbaum, p. 167. Nehru saw the
situation as analogous to that in Europe on the eve of the fascist
takeovers.Quotation from Nehru provided in: Nussbaum, p. 167. .
However, without conclusive evidence on the conspiracy of the
assassination, the government banned the RSS on February 4, 1948.

Following an intervention of the Supreme Court, the government agreed
to lift the ban on the condition that the RSS adopt a constitution.
The second sarsanghchalak, Golwalkar began drafting a constitution for
the RSS which he sent to the national government in March of 1949. In
July of the same year, after many negotiations over the consititution
and its acceptance, the ban on RSS was lifted.

Over the 1950s and 1960s, under Golwalkar (usually called "Guruji" by
members), the RSS regained its following slowly and steadily. It
embraced the Cow Slaughter Ban Movement and the Ram Janmabhoomi in
Ayodhya movement. In 1967, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad was founded as an
adjunct body, initially to organise the religious leaders of various
Hindu sects and streamline religious doctrine.

It has a following throughout India.

Organization

The RSS has over 4.5 million members. BBC News, RSS: An in-depth
Analysis. Retrieved 12-May-2007. The RSS organises itself
hierarchically.

Sarsanghchalaks

The Sarsanghchalak is the family head of the RSS organization. The
individuals who have been Sarsanghchalkas are:

•Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar (founder), also known as Doctorji
(1925-1940)
•Madhavrao Sadashivrao Golwalkar, also known as, Guruji (1940-1973)
•Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras, also known as, Balasaheb (1973-1993)
•Rajendra Singh, also known as, Rajjubhaiya (1993-2000)
•Kuppahalli Sitaramayya Sudarshan (2000-present)

The position is decided by nomination followed with elections held at
the annual "Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha" meeting. The current
sarsanghachalak of RSS is K.S. Sudarshan.

Shakha

"Shakhas" means "branch" in Sanskrit.

Most of the organisational work of the Sangh is done through the
coordination of shakhas, or branches. These shakhas are run every
morning (prabhat shakha), evening (sayam shakha) or night (atisayam
shakha) for 1 hour in public places and are open to people of all
castes, creeds or social and economic status. Currently more than
50,000 shakhas are run throughout India. Apart from 42,000 daily
gatherings, there are about 5,000 weekly and 2,000 monthly gatherings
conducted throughout the length and breadth of the country{{Fact|
date=April 2007}}.

These shakhas are usually operated in playing grounds without any
offices. At the end of the shakha the prayer "Namaste Sadaa Vatsale
Matrubhoome" (which means "My salutation to you, ever loving
motherland") is recited.

These shakhas are the core building blocks of RSS structure. During a
Shakha, the activities consist of yoga, games, discussions on broad
range of social topics, prayer to Bharat Mata and an inspirational
session (baudhik). The RSS uniform consists of a black cap, white
shirt and khakhi-coloured shorts. On the day of 'Guru Poornima' the
RSS vounteers pay tributes to the 'Bhagwa Dhwaj' - the saffron flag,
which has considerable symbolic importance.

An RSS volunteer who attends shakha is referred to as a "Swayamsevak".
A Swayamsevak is sometimes appointed as a Sanghchalak, meaning group
administrator, and is given the task of leading and organizing the
Shaka's events.

Ideology

The primarily goals of the RSS are a revival of Hindu tradition and to
be an advocacy group for Hindus, whom they feel are being slowly
marginalized due to alleged "negationism" in India and the acts of
appeasement against them from the left-wing political parties and
politicians in favor of extremist elements of other religious
denominations. Their core ideology is based on Integral humanism and
Hindutva, a form of Hindu Nationalism. They describe themselves as an
"antidote to self-oblivion", and their goals as an attempt to
inculcate Indians with the "A burning devotion to the Motherland
(India), a feeling of fraternity among all citizens, intense awareness
of a common national life derived from a common culture and shared
history and heritage", as well as to "activise the dormant Hindu
society (of India), realise its past mistakes, to instil in it a firm
determination to set them right, and finally to make it bestir itself
to reassert its honour and self-respect

"Mission & Vision,RSS Web Page.

Views on other religions

The Sangh has declared publicly that its Hindutva philosophy states
that Hindutva supports the philosophy Ekam Sat Viprah Bahudha Vadanti
Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (translated to Truth is One, Sages Call it by
Many Names. The Whole Universe is one Family).BJP Philosophy -
Hindutva However, it feels this society has been threatened by
repeated persecution of Hindus, especially by Muslims. According to
the BJP, a member of the Sangh Parivar:

Thus, the seeds of today's Hindu Jagriti (awakening) were created the
very instance that an invader threatened the fabric of Hindu society
which was religious tolerance. The vibrancy of Hindu society was
noticeable at all times in that despite such barbarism from the
Islamic hordes of central Asia and Turkey, Hindus never played with
the same rules that Muslims did.BJP Philosophy - HindutvaThe RSS
believes that provided better circumstances the a majority of the
Muslim population of India would 'revert' to Hinduism, believing that
most Indian Muslims can trace their ancestry back to those with a
Hindu background. The BJP, the RSS' political wing, has expressed its
beliefs on this matter: bjp.org :

The RSS entirely agrees with Gandhiji's formulations that "There is in
Hinduism room enough for Jesus, as there is for Mohammed, Zoroster and
Moses" and that "majority of the Muslims of India are converts to that
faith from Hinduism through force of circumstances. They are still
Hindu in many essential ways and, in a free, prosperous, progressive
India, they would find it the most natural thing in the world to
revert to their ancient faith and ways of life."

The RSS believes all non-Hindus in India should adopt a stance of
religious tolerance towards the native religions, or otherwise they
should face intolerance in return. This lines up with the RSS's belief
that all religions should have the same rights and responsibilities in
terms of laws. Regarding non-Hindus in India, Madhav Sadashiv
Golwalkar, an RSS leader in the past, had also stated (in the 1940s)
that:

"The non-Hindu peoples in Hindustan must either adopt the Hindu
culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence the
Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of glorification of
Hindu race and culture, i.e., they must not only give up their
attitude intolerance and ungratefulness towards this land and its age-
old traditions but must also cultivate the positive attitude of love
and devotion instead-in a word they must cease to be foreigners, or
may stay in this country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation,
claiming nothing, deserving no privilege, far less any preferential
treatment-not even citizens' rights."Craig Baxter,

The Jana Sangh: A Biography of an Indian Political Party
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1969), p. 31.

With regards to claims of having an anti-Muslim stance, RSS
spokesperson Ram Madhav has stated that such claims are a "distortion
of RSS ideology". He asserts that the RSS "believes in the oneness of
our culture and the country", and that "any opposition to this view
could lead to disintegration as it in fact happened with the
Partition. This accent against divisiveness should therefore not be
seen as hatred towards any particular religion.Q&A: Ram Madhav,The
Hindu.

The RSS denies that they are intolerant of any other religion, citing
examples of RSS-dominated communities in India that have lived in
relative peace with adherents of other religions.

Views against the Caste system

Historically, the RSS has had several Dalit and Middle-Caste members
in their fold, several of whom are in key positions along their rank-
and-fileSunday Mail, December 23, 1990.Originally, the RSS was formed
by members of the upper caste Brahmin community. However, that
situation has changed considerably over time. An RSS sarsanghchalak
quotes:"All our best attended shakhas are in the poor areas, not in
the alienated middle class or rich upper caste suburbs or cities or
towns. In simple words, the new Sangh Swayamsevak is mostly a backward
caste or Dalit".

The RSS has recently expressed concern over caste-based political and
social conflicts, they have urged Hindus to "get rid of this evil at
the earliest"India's RSS urges war against 'evil' of
casteism,''Freerepublic archive from the Times of India''.Their
resolution adopted at a national executive meeting said:

"Hindu society should take all necessary measures to ensure entry and
access to every Hindu, irrespective of his caste, to their homes,
temples, religious places, public wells, ponds, and other public
places..Hindu society will have to get rid of this evil at the
earliest."

The organisation further contends that "caste-based untouchability"
and "feelings of high caste and low caste" were the main evils
haunting the Hindu society and aims to eradicate Casteism from Indian
society. To that end, the R.S.S have tried to reach out to prominent
Dalit (traditionally the "Untouchable" Caste) leaders in India, such
as poet and leader of the Dalit activist group "Dalit Panthers" Namdeo
DhasalDalit leader buries the hatchet with RSS,Times of India. The
Dalit Panthers have been traditional adversaries of the R.S.S and
peceived them as an "upper-caste" dominated party. However,
negotiations with RSS chief K.Sudarshan on August 2006 led to
reconciliations, when Sudarshan declared that the R.S.S categorically
rejects all forms of caste discrimination in the organization. He
further said:

The Dalits are our own flesh and blood, but because of some ill
practices and social evils the practice of untouchability has brought
havoc on those who were an integral part and defenders of Dharma. This
has to be corrected through our deeds and actions."

Namadeo Dhasal said at the meeting with the RSS, "Yes, I do feel that
the fight to eradicate caste has to be fought by Dalits and caste
Hindus together carrying forward the tradition of Adi Sankara, which
got broken somewhere in between."
Sudarshan then said, "I fully agree with what you have said here
today".

In addition, the RSS has advocated for training Dalits and other
backward classes to be temple high priests (a position traditionally
reserved for Caste Brahmins and denied to lower castes). They argue
that the social divisiveness of the Caste system is responsible for
the lack of adherence to Hindu values and traditions and reaching out
to the lower castes in this manner will be a remedy to the problemRSS
for Dalit head priests in temples,Times of India.

Appealing for social harmony and Hindu brotherhood, the organisation
warned the community against the political parties, which it said had
been drawing "political benefits" out of casteism and "Inventing caste
based new conflicts in the Hindu society for the sake of political
benefits [which has] has become a trend of many politicians these
days."

Views on votebank politics

The RSS has spoken out against votebank politics of politicians who
encourage caste based rivalries and have urged political parties to
keep away from caste based politics and give an Indian culture to
democracy.

"No religion or sect is inferior to others. The whole society should
be aware that every sect and caste of Bharat has a glorious
history..The entire society should fully realize the essence of 'Na
Hinduh Patito Bhavet' (No Hindu shall ever come to grief)"

Views against Islamic Terrorism

The RSS has spoken out against Islamic Fundamentalism and acts of
Islamist terrorism carried out in various parts of India in recent
years. A Senior RSS leader Madan Das has said that there should be "no
hesitation whatsoever in fighting against those who do not want peace
and added that the world communities should fight terrorism together".
They have labelled Islamists as "anti-national elements" and have
alleged Pakistani involvement in the various terrorist actsBe vigilant
against ‘jehadis’: RSS leader,The Tribune. In addition, the Islamist
terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba is suspected for carrying out an
unsuccessful attack on the headquarters of the RSS in Nagpur on June
1,2006Lashkar-e-Toiba,South Asia Terrorism Portal Lashkar attack on
RSS HQ foiled; 3 ultras shot,The Tribune, inviting condemnation of the
outfit from politicians across the spectrumTerror attack on RSS HQ
foiled, 3 Lashkar men shot dead,Times of India.
Position on Israel and Zionism

A recent issue of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-backed weekly
Organiser has gone out of its way to support the Zionist cause,
arguing that the recent violence was the result of Palestinian
intransigence.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1722/17220140.htm.

This follows the rise in support for Israel in India in recent
years.Israel's War and India: Aftershocks. This has invited scathing
attacks on the party from anti-Zionist elements

.http://ghadar.insaf.net/June2004/MainPages/zionism.htm.

In addition. RSS welcomed the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon to India in 2003.Sharon's visit was widely condemned by the
left-wing parties and MuslimsPress spotlight on Sharon's India
visit,BBC.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh unilaterally condemned these protests
and statements.RSS slams Left for opposing Sharon's visit

Google Cache of above. R.S.S spokesperson Ram Madhav said:

The entire world acknowledges that Israel has effectively and
ruthlessly countered terror in the Middle East. Since India and Israel
are both fighting a proxy war against terrorism, therefore, we should
learn a lesson or two from them. We need to have close cooperation
with them in this field.

The R.S.S newspaper "Panchjanya" dubbed those advocating friendship
with Pakistan as ones responsible for encouraging terrorist activities
in India, and described the visit of Ariel Sharon as an opportunity
for India to get closure to Israel and fight terrorism jointly .

Political influence

In 1973, Golwalkar passed away and Balasaheb Deoras took over the
leadership, and continued until 1993, when Dr. Rajendra Singh took
over from him. During this period, came the rise of the Bharatiya Jana
Sangh, the political front of the RSS. Between 1975 and 1977, the RSS,
along with socialists like Jayprakash Narayan launched a civil
disobedience movement, to reject the national emergency and
postponement of elections by Prime Minister and Congress President
Indira Gandhi. The Jana Sangh was an integral part of the Janata Party
coalition that defeated Indira Gandhi's Congress in a landslide in
1977.

It was in fact the close relationship between the Jan Sangh and the
RSS that proved to be the Janata coalition's undoing, as non-Sangh
constituents of the coalition insisted that all members of the Union
Cabinet distance themselves from the RSS, as they were now members of
the Janata Party. When Vajpayee and Advani in particular refused to do
so, the coalition collapsed over what came to be known as the 'dual
membership' issue.

The RSS saw its stock rise as the BJP thrived upon the disenchantment
of the masses with the Congress-led governments. By 1988, the BJP had
88 seats in the Lok Sabha, lower house of Parliament, and by 1996 it
was the single-largest party. In 1998 it went on to head a coalition
government that survived six years and another election in 1999.

During recent time, people who share RSS's ideology, many of whom have
been swayamsevaks or former swayamsevaks have gone on to achieve the
highest political positions in the Indian Politics. These leaders
include Atal Behari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani, Narendra Modi,
Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Pramod Mahajan, Gopinath Munde and Ram Prakash
Gupta.

Sangh Parivar

Organizations which are inspired by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's
ideology refer themselves as the members of the Sangh Parivar. In most
of the cases Pracharaks (Full time volunteers of the RSS) were deputed
to start and manage these organizations. The largest organizations
within the Sangh are the Bharatiya Janata Party, Vishva Hindu Parishad
and Bajrang Dal. Numerous other Hindutva organizations take
inspiration from the RSS's actions.

Social Activity

The RSS has also participated in relief efforts in the Indian State of
Kashmir, which has been besieged by Islamic terrorism (see Terrorism
in Kashmir). An RSS-affiliated NGO, Sewa Bharti, has adopted 100
children, most of them Muslims, from militancy affected areas of the
region to provide them education at least up to Higher Secondary
levelJK: RSS adopts militancy hit Muslim children,''oneindia.in''.Sewa
Bharati has also collaborated with several relief groups, such as the
Catholics Bishops Conference of India to conduct relief operations in
the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Activities included
building shelters for the victims, providing food, clothes and medical
necessitiesRelief missions from Delhi,The Hindu. In 2006, RSS
participated in relief efforts to provide basic necessities such as
food, milk and potable water to the people of Surat, Gujarat who were
affected by massive floods in the regionRSS joins relief operation in
flood-hit Surat,Organiser.org.

Khushwant Singh credits members of the RSS with helping and protecting
Sikhs who were being targeted be members of the Congress(I) political
party during the 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots

K. Singh: “Congress (I) is the Most Communal Party”, Publik Asia,
16-11-1989. . He said:

"It was the Congress(I) leaders who instigated mobs in 1984 and got
more than 3000 people killed. I must give due credit to RSS and the
BJP for showing courage and protecting helpless Sikhs during those
difficult days”

The RSS also rendered relief work during the 2001 Gujarat Earthquake

http://www.guardian.co.uk/naturaldisasters/story/0,7369,430302,00.html
and the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake and the subsequent Tsunami

http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/dec/29tn3.htm.

Criticism

Allegations of Fascistic tendencies

Some Indians criticize the RSS for its "Hindu supremacist philosophy"
and "campaigns" against other religions in India. In addition,
academic observers have described it as a "reactionary group of Hindu
fanatics with Fascist tendencies.

"Curran, Jean A. Jr. The RSS: Militant Hinduism Far Eastern Survey,
Vol. 19, No. 10. (May 17, 1950), pp. 93-98..

Martha Nussbaum wrote in her book on the rise of the Hindu right that
"The RSS is possibly the most successful fascist movement in any
contemporary democracy.

"{{cite book |last=Nussbaum |first=Martha |authorlink=Martha Nussbaum |
coauthors= |title=The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and
India's Future |year=2007 |publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard
University Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |
isbn=0-674-02482-6 }} p. 155.

Jawaharlal Nehru attacked the RSS when he compared their efforts to
fascism. In December 1947, following allegations of RSS's involvement
in the Gandhi assassination, he wrote to the provincial governors
saying "We have a great deal of evidence to show that the RSS is an
organization which is in the nature of a private army and which is
definitely proceeding on the strictest Nazi lines, even following the
technique of organization....Quotation from Nehru provided in:
Nussbaum, p. 167."

Some academics, such as Ian McDonald of the University of Brighton,
compare the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and it's concept of
"organicism" with 19th century European Nationalism and European
Fascism, calling the

"apotheosis of RSS's intellectual and physical development the
physiological patriot, a Hindu homo-fascitus",

and that "the argument of its fascist ideology and methodology" is

"profoundly disturbing"Fascism, Physical Culture and Hindu
Nationalism,by Ian MacDonald, Univ of Brighton, England

In his book Fascism: Theory and Practice, Dave Renton mentions that in
the 1990s RSS has used Communal riots as form of popular politics
against the state. Rention further goes to state that, since RSS has
adopted only adapted "parts" of Fascist ideology and is NOT a full
fledged movement against the state, they cannot be labelled as

"Fascist"http://books.google.com/books?

vid=ISBN0745314708&id=Ojtn0IT6LpgC&pg=PA108&lpg=PA108&dq=RSS
+fascism&sig=saVQjtJle3dbohaeNlWDwFLnwRI

Other academics, such as David James Smith, Professor of Indian
Religions at Lancaster University, writes that despite the
organizations past links with fascist ideologies, it's decentralized
nature and lack of emphasis with a supreme leader, and the central
position that it awards to social system (rather than race), means
that describing them as

"fascist" is inappropriate

Smith, David James, Hinduism and Modernity P188, Blackwell Publishing
ISBN 0-631-20862-3.

Vincent Kundukulam, a Christian priest at St. Joseph Pontifical
Seminary in Aluva, Kerala, has written a Ph.D thesis in Sorbonne
University, Paris, France, that claims RSS to be neither nationalist
nor fascist RSS neither Nationalist nor Fascist, Indian Christian
priest's research concludes,Christian PostGoogle Cache of above RSS
neither nationalist nor fascist, says Christian priest after
research,The Indian Express

Web Archive,ibid.

He states that that RSS cannot be considered as a nationalist
organisation in the sense in which the term 'nationalism' is generally
interpreted in India. He points out that Indian nationalism and
religion are mutually exclusive. Since RSS's primary loyalty is to the
Hindus, it can't be called 'nationalist'. He also argues against
branding the RSS ideology as "Fascism", "Nazism", "Fundamentalism" and
"Communalism". He said the terms fascism, Nazism, and fundamentalism
are much abused terms in India. They have a different connotation and
meaning in the European context that don't apply to an Indian
sociopolitical context. He argues that since communalism is not a part
of religion, RSS can be called "communal" only in a limited way.

In addition, accusations of "fascism" have been critiqued by former
political philosopherProfile, Jyotirmaya Sharma and Times of India
commentator Jyotirmaya Sharma as inappropriate: a "simplistic
transference has done great injustice to our knowledge of Hindu
nationalist politics"Hindu Nationalist Politics,J. Sharma Times of
India.

References

Publications

•{{cite news| url =http://www.panchjanya.com/ | title = Panchajanya |
publisher = RSS weekly publication| language = Hindi}}

•{{cite news | url =http://www.organiser.org/ | title = Organiser |
publisher = RSS weekly publication| language = English}}

•{{cite book |title= Bunch of Thoughts |year= 1966|publisher= Sahitya
Sindhu Prakashana|location= Banglore, India |id= ISBN 81-86595-19-8}}
- Collection of Speeches by Golwalkar.
Books

•{{cite book |last=Anderson |first=Walter K. |coauthors=Damle, Sridhar
D. |title=The Brotherhood in Saffron |year=1987 |publisher=Vistaar
Publishers |location=Delhi, India}}

•{{cite book |last=Nussbaum |first=Martha |authorlink=Martha Nussbaum |
coauthors= |title=The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and
India's Future |year=2007 |publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard
University Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |
isbn=0-674-02482-6 }}

See also

External links

•RSS - official website•Accusations gone rancid, without remorse-
Criticism of smear campaigns against RSS
Sangh Parivar Hindutva

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh hi:राष्ट्रीय
स्वयंसेवक संघ kn:ರಾಷ್ಟ್ರೀಯ ಸ್ವಯಂಸೇವಕ ಸಂಘ ml:രാഷ്ട്രീയ സ്വയംസേവക സംഘം
mr:राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh

22528 reads

#1 Submitted by prantar biswas (not verified) on Sun, 07/12/2009 -
22:53.

Muslims kill 12 Hindus in
Muslims kill 12 Hindus in Murshidabad.
MAJOR COMMUNAL RIOT IN MURSHIDABAD, 12 HINDU DEAD, HUNDREDS INJURED
INCLUDING ONE DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT OF POLICE.

Today, 10th July, a major communal riot broke in Murshidabad district.
Till now 12 persons dead, most of them Hindus, hundreds injured
including 10 policemen and one D.S.P. rank police officer. Two village
markets and hundreds of Hindu houses were looted and burnt. Firing
between police and Muslim rioters still going on at 11.30 night.
Curfew imposed in the whole area. BSF and CRPF deployed to help police
and RAF.

Perhaps the whole incident planned to welcome the proposed Aligarh
Muslim University Campus in this district.Jhaubona High School is a
big higher secondary school in Jhaubona village under Nawda polie
station in Beldanga sub division in Murshidabad district. Among total
1000 students of this school, about 50% are Muslim students. For long
they were demanding to offer Friday Namaz inside the school. But
school management and the Hindu students resisted it apprehending that
it will create a virtual mosque inside the school. So, the furious
Muslim students made objection against Saraswati Puja in the school
and the school management has been compelled to stop Saraswati puja
last year in the school. In spite of that, the Muslim students were
not satisfied. So they planned to offer Friday Namaz today (10 July)
by force inside the school without any permission from Head Master or
School Management.

#2 Submitted by Varatharaajan. R (not verified) on Sun, 07/12/2009 -
06:19.

Please update the
Please update the information : The present Sarsanghachalak of RSS is
Shri Mohan Rao Bhagwath.

#3 Submitted by narendhar (not verified) on Tue, 07/07/2009 - 10:08.

i would like to join rss in
i would like to join rss in chennai...whats the procedurs

#4 Submitted by Varatharaajan. R (not verified) on Sun, 07/12/2009 -
06:23.

Please attend the programme
Please attend the programme on 14th August 2009 in Chennai. RSS chief
Shri Mohan Rao Bhagwath will be addressing a meeting in Chennai.

#5 Submitted by akshay sodhani (not verified) on Mon, 06/29/2009 -
18:44.

How come even after around
How come even after around 2.5 months, you have not updated the sar-
sangh-chaalak to Param Poojya Sri Mohan Bhagwat ?

-- akshay sodhani
sanghchaalak,
pratap nagar,
Indore MP

#6 Submitted by ashutosh sodhan (not verified) on Mon, 06/29/2009 -
18:42.

How come even after around
How come even after around 2.5 months, you have not updated the sar-
sangh-chaalak to mohan bhagwat ?

#7 Submitted by jishal. kannur (not verified) on Fri, 06/26/2009 -
19:17.

namasthe ......... to all
namasthe ......... to all RSS members

#8 Submitted by Sakshi: An Apologetics Network (not verified) on Wed,
06/24/2009 - 23:11.

Hello Friends, Some of the
Hello Friends,

Some of the questions raised in many RSS booklets and submitted to the
Justice BK Somasekhar Enquiry Commission by Praveen Reddy and others,
have been answered with evidence here

http://www.sakshitimes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=382...
(www.sakshitimes.org)

Hope you enjoy reading those.

Regards

SAN Team

#9 Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 06/22/2009 - 15:14.

Garve karo apne desh
Garve karo apne desh per,apne logon per,na ki goondon per.

#10 Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 06/21/2009 - 13:07.

I have read most of the
I have read most of the comments here and found one thing in
common,that every writer is reacting as an anti muslims & christians
and showing solidarity towards nationalism.Also I observed that most
of the commentators are ignorant on the subject.I believe that
practicing religion and patriorism are two different things.Religion
is totally a personal issue and patriorism is a public concern.Non of
us were born in a religion of ones choice but God chose for us.When a
person converts to other religion its his/her personal choice if he/
her finds more peace & comfort in that.I am a practicing muslim and
believe in faith of Islam.But I am same time patriotic for my mother
land as any other hindu would be.

Since I grew up from my childhood,my parents never diffrentiated me
from my hindu friends.We have grown together and still have more Hindu
friends and colleagues than muslims,also we stay in area dominated by
hindus.But i am getting a feeling that now hate politics is giving way
to hatred within the communities and dividing us apart.

We youngsters should avoid these hate politics against us because
hindus and muslims always lived together in harmony and peace as an
elder and younger brothers.As far as appeasement is concerned all
political parties are playing same dirty games because of their hunger
and lust for power.If RSS is concerned about nationalism then it
should come forward to safeguard other communities also.Hatred would
only rip apart us.So we should pray to GOD to help us to chose a wise
path and give people wisdom to differentiate between right and wrong.

#1 Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 06/24/2009 - 23:48.

Sir, I agree with you, but I
Sir, I agree with you, but I want to say that as an individual Muslims
or Hindus can be good or bad. As a community how they behave? Muslims
community gave India great persons like RASKHAN, RAHIM, ASHFAQ , ABDUL
HAMID, ex president ABDUL KALAM AZAD, M.C.Chagla, but as a community,
Muslims do not associate themselves with all these great son’s of
India. But rather they associate themselves with BABER, AURANGJEB etc.
Why not Muslims demand execution of terrorist or oppose the party
which does not hang terrorist. Why all political parties want to
appease Muslims by not hanging terrorist, by setting inquiring into
south Delhi case where Mr. Sharma was killed by terrorists. Why
Muslims can be appeased on all these issues? Sir, it is not a question
of individual but of community behavior. Hindu can be a bad man or
Muslim can be a good human but as community Hindus associate
themselves with India, and every cause of India while Muslims does not
associate themselves with India. Hindus do not object the demolition
of mandir to widen the road because for them India is no. one for them
but can we expect the same from Muslims?

#2 Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 06/27/2009 - 20:24.

I just feel pity on your
I just feel pity on your thinking.Muslims as an individual or
community never supported any terrorists or anti national activity.
Baber or Aurangzeb were the rulers and what they did good or bad were
the things of past.Late Asfaqullah,Abdul Hamid had same love for India
like any other patriotic indian and laid their lives for the sake of
the country.If political parties try to appease or try to woo voters,
is this the fault of muslims?Is BJP not trying to appease or woo
Hindus?You will call them nationalist isn't it?
Army,police,Government,courts etc are dominated by Hindus and pilicies
are made by them then how hindus became bechara in India? In a free
democratic country like India every citizen and community has a right
to question on the Government's action.No doubt Late Mr Sharma was a
brave son of the soil and it was his duty to safeguard country's
interest.Muslim community raised the issue against the Government's
action as they felt they have been targeted intentinally.My dear
friend your minds are being poisioned against Muslims by some people
or organisation who doesn't want both communities to live together in
harmony and peace.Any citizen whether it's Hindu or muslim have equal
rights and no body should be diffrentiated.

My friend, muslim community is in distress and in pathetic condition
because of illeteracy,poverty and unemployement more than your
community.If you think u r so patriotic then come forward and set a
record by helping them.As you have said muslims can't associate
themself with India,i just feel pity on you and your thinking as these
propaganda against them is diminishing the image of muslims in india
and increasing hatred against them, spreaded by rightwings hindu
fundamentalist organisations.In a Govt office u can expect a muslim
not taking bribe but u can't expect a hindu not taking a bribe.No
where muslims demonstrate against the illegal structures been
demoilished for widening of roads as no mazaar or place of worship can
be build on illegally occupied land.

Don't give ear to rumors but I would rather suggest you to go into
deep on the issues and use your own brain.Thanks

#3 Submitted by aseem (not verified) on Tue, 06/09/2009 - 18:45.

jai hind jai bharati
jai hind jai bharati

#4 Submitted by Ruchir tiwari (not verified) on Wed, 05/20/2009 -
20:45.

RSS,vishwa hindu
RSS,vishwa hindu parishad,bajrang dal par hame garv hai,....chahe
jitni rishte dari,rakkho apne babar se,yadi bharat mai rahna ho
toh,Ram kaho sub aadar se.........jai shree Ram...

#5 Submitted by sajan didwania (not verified) on Wed, 05/13/2009 -
15:57.

i sugest that 30 months bjp
i sugest that 30 months bjp should run the goverment & congress
support from outside and 30 months congress should run the goverment &
bjp support from outside

#6 Submitted by dhananjay kumar mishra (not verified) on Fri,
05/01/2009 - 20:34.
i want to work for hinduism
i want to work for hinduism and hindustan

#7 Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 04/25/2009 - 18:10.

namaskar to all RSS
namaskar to all RSS friends.friends,when are you going to do parades
in kashmir and assam?or r u scared to go there?

#8 Submitted by Yogesh Nair (not verified) on Sun, 05/10/2009 - 13:22.

Our government is
Our government is responsible for taking care of Kashmir and Assam and
also other trouble parts of our country.
Please cooperate with our government like us.

There is no logic in your opinion.

RSS is an organisation that is in nation building.

Army takes care of Pakistan and ULFA. Army has right, arms and
training to tackle terrorists. Army is trained like the hunters to
tackle blood drinking, flesh eating beasts like the Jehadis and ULFA
militants.

RSS trains Hindus in becoming disciplined, cultured, organised and
self respecting individuals who toil hard to take care of Bharat
mata.

Please donot repeat this question and kindly understand the situation
intsead of being in state of negationism.

Jai Hind
Jai Bharat Maa

#9 Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 04/25/2009 - 01:23.

RSS has helped India restore
RSS has helped India restore democracy during the emergency, it has
helped save lot of lives during the Tsunami and Gujarat earthquake
etc. It is a very good organization with lot of good people in it.

Jai RSS, Jai Hind.

#10 Submitted by naeem (not verified) on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 20:39.

rss caddigalannu
rss caddigalannu barathadinda odedoodisuwewu . samaya sameepisutttide

#1 Submitted by Bidyut Bhusan Jena (not verified) on Wed, 04/15/2009 -
09:20.

These days some idiots
These days some idiots believe that to be secular is to be virulently
anti-Hindu. Whosoever wants to be infamous overnight believes in
denigrating Hinduism. To those idiots Hinduism is a soft target. Of
late Hinduisn is being attacked under the mask of 'feminism', 'dalit
studies' and a host of other such nonsensical subjects. Actually we
the members of Sangh Parivaar should trail through the pages of the
'true history' of Hindustan (written not from the perspective of the
Marxist historians). We should read authentic books published by the
publishing houses like- VOICE OF INDIA, BHARATIYA VIDYA BHAVAN,
RAMAKRISHNA MISSION, SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM, GEETA PRESS AND SO ON. JAY
HIND....BHARATA BHARATI

#2 Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 17:10.

lets all try to understand
lets all try to understand the message of sanatan dharma.the religion
of saints and rishis.we have examples of ramakrishna paramhansa,swami
vivekananda,paramahansa yogananda.

#3 Submitted by Bidyut Bhusan Jena (not verified) on Mon, 04/13/2009 -
19:08.

Tipu Sultan,who is
Tipu Sultan,who is responsible for the destruction of 8,000 Hindu
Temples is venerated by some of the idiots in India. The Marxist
historians are a pernicious specis...be careful friends...Bharata
Bharati......

#4 Submitted by Bidyut Bhusan Jena (not verified) on Mon, 04/13/2009 -
14:58.

These days some idiots
These days some idiots believe that to be secular is to be virulently
anti-Hindu. Whosoever wants to be infamous overnight believes in
denigrating Hinduism. To those idiots Hinduism is a soft target. Of
late Hinduisn is being attack under the mask of 'feminism', 'dalit
studies' and a host of other such nonsensical subjects. Actually we
the members of Sangh Parivaar should trail through the pages of the
'true history' of Hindustan (written not from the perspective of the
Marxist historians). We should read authentic books published by the
publishing houses like- VOICE OF INDIA, BHARATIYA VIDYA BHAVAN,
RAMAKRISHNA MISSION, SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM, GEETA PRESS AND SO ON. JAY
HIND....BHARATA BHARATI

#5 Submitted by Bidyut Bhusan Jena (not verified) on Mon, 04/13/2009 -
14:58.

These days some idiots
These days some idiots believe that to be secular is to be virulently
anti-Hindu. Whosoever wants to be infamous overnight believes in
denigrating Hinduism. To those idiots Hinduism is a soft target. Of
late Hinduisn is being attack under the mask of 'feminism', 'dalit
studies' and a host of other such nonsensical subjects. Actually we
the members of Sangh Parivaar should trail through the pages of the
'true history' of Hindustan (written not from the perspective of the
Marxist historians). We should read authentic books published by the
publishing houses like- VOICE OF INDIA, BHARATIYA VIDYA BHAVAN,
RAMAKRISHNA MISSION, SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM, GEETA PRESS AND SO ON. JAY
HIND....BHARATA BHARATI

#6 Submitted by Jagannath Prasad Mohanty (not verified) on Wed,
04/08/2009 - 15:30.

Bharat Mata Ki Jai. Jai Sree
Bharat Mata Ki Jai. Jai Sree Ram

#7 Submitted by PAWAN KUMAR PANDIT (not verified) on Wed, 04/08/2009 -
15:44.

JAI SRI RAM JAI JAI SRI
JAI SRI RAM
JAI JAI SRI RAM
BOLO BOLO BHARATH MAATHA KI JAI

#8 Submitted by Bidyut Bhusan Jena (not verified) on Wed, 04/08/2009 -
15:18.

These days the situation in
These days the situation in Kerala is pretty grim. Less than 56% is
the Hindu population there. Even a muslim leader has put forth a
spineless view to turn Kerala into second Kashmir. We Hindus should
unite, otherwise a/the time will come when India would become an
Islamic country. Apart from some anti-Hindu elements in other
religions there are the enemies of Hinduism in our midst in the form
of, "the Left Parties" and "the Congress". We should purge Hinduism of
these harmful elements.

#9 Submitted by Bidyut Bhusan Jena (not verified) on Wed, 04/08/2009 -
15:04.

These days some idiots
These days some idiots believe that to be secular is to be virulently
anti-Hindu. Whosoever wants to be infamous overnight believes in
denigering Hinduism. To those idiots Hinduism is a soft target. Of
late Hinduisn is being attacked under the mask of 'feminism', 'dalit
studies' and a host of other such nonsensical subjects. Actually we
the members of Sangh Parivaar should trail through the pages of the
'true history' of Hindustan (written not from the perspective of the
Marxist historians). We should read authentic books published by the
publishing houses like- VOICE OF INDIA, BHARATIYA VIDYA BHAVAN,
RAMAKRISHNA MISSION, SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM, GEETA PRESS AND SO ON. JAY
HIND....BHARATA BHARATI....

#10 Submitted by Bidyut Bhusan Jena (not verified) on Mon, 04/06/2009
- 16:38.

instead of "of" i had
instead of "of" i had wrongly typed 'od'....sorry ..i have send my
comment for the second time. thank you.

22533 reads

#1 Submitted by Bidyut Bhusan Jena (not verified) on Mon, 04/06/2009 -
16:36.

These days some idiots
These days some idiots believe that to be secular is to be virulently
anti-Hindu. Whosoever wants to be infamous overnight believes in
denigering Hinduism. To those idiots Hinduism is a soft target. Of
late Hinduisn is being attack under the mask of 'feminism', 'dalit
studies' and a host of other such nonsensical subjects. Actually we
the members of Sangh Parivaar should trail through the pages of the
'true history' of Hindustan (written not from the perspective of the
Marxist historians). We should read authentic books published by the
publishing houses like- VOICE OF INDIA, BHARATIYA VIDYA BHAVAN,
RAMAKRISHNA MISSION, SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM, GEETA PRESS AND SO ON. JAY
HIND....BHARATA BHARATI

#2 Submitted by Bidyut Bhusan Jena (not verified) on Mon, 04/06/2009 -
16:33.

These days some idiots
These days some idiots believe that to be secular is to be virulently
anti-Hindu. Whosoever wants to be infamous overnight believes in
denigering Hinduism. To those idiots Hinduism is a soft target. Of
late Hinduisn is being attack under the mask of 'feminism', 'dalit
studies' and a host of other such nonsensical subjects. Actually we
the members of Sangh Parivaar should trail through the pages od the
'true history' of Hindustan (written not from the perspective of the
Marxist historians). We should read authentic books published by the
publishing houses like- VOICE OF INDIA, BHARATIYA VIDYA BHAVAN,
RAMAKRISHNA MISSION, SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM, GEETA PRESS AND SO ON. JAY
HIND....BHARATA BHARATI....

#3 Submitted by prashant khale (not verified) on Sat, 03/21/2009 -
16:42.

RSS,Nagpur, i am
RSS,Nagpur,
i am prashant,currently in Dubai,i am swayamsewak,and dwitiya varsh
shikshit,i am coming to nagpur mid of April.i need contact nos.of
RSS,Swayamsewak in Nagpur that can help me to again start shakha.
please contact me.by phone or email.
see u in nagpur,
Bharat mata ki jay,
PRASHANT,
+97150 2431759

#4 Submitted by upender (not verified) on Tue, 03/17/2009 - 14:57.

I am joining to rss plz tell
I am joining to rss plz tell me

#5 Submitted by saraswati sisu mandir (not verified) on Wed,
03/11/2009 - 22:48.

a vanpaddler of saraswati
a vanpaddler of saraswati shishu mandir of chak islampur dist
murshidabad of west bengal shri basudeb mondal( a swayam sevak)
brutally injured by one muslim youth furkan sheikh (attempt to morder)
with no cause when returning after reaching the students at their home
at 1.30 pm on 10.03.09.his left hand palm was cut on the spot by the
culprit and it is feared that his right hand may be amputed.he is now
in serious condition.he is the only earning member of his 4 members
family (having a baby of just 2 months).police could not arrest the
culprit till now.

#6 Submitted by saurabh raj singh (not verified) on Sun, 03/08/2009 -
20:21.

i want to do something for
i want to do something for my religion and my country,so i think
Rashtriya swayamsevak sangh provide me a good platform for it

#7 Submitted by Amol on Sun, 03/08/2009 - 23:16.

Yes,but our comments can
Yes,but our comments can make any difference or it is only timepass of
our emotions.

#8 Submitted by sreejesh (not verified) on Sat, 01/24/2009 - 12:02.

SOME QUESTIANS which I am
SOME QUESTIANS which I am asking my self
WE can say to Indian Christians and Muslims as Victims’ of conversion
We can ask our Hindu women’s like to wear pardas (burka) and enjoy
less freedom and no education
We can ask our public they like to walk through shivagi nagar
Bangalore (Muslim dominated area )or an area where a Hindu temple is
situated
We can educate our Hindu that changing a religion is like leaving
their mothers or husbands or brothers or sisters just for money or
some temporary gain
If u r ready to change ur religion for some money or for good living
environment you may also change ur husband or wife or mother for money
or if u see some other person who is living in a good environment
To Christians-will u look at a Hindu peacefully if a Hindu offer money
and better living environment to ur mother or family members
To all Hindus –why r u giving money to temples give to RSS as long as
temples r controlled by GOVT give money to priests don’t put in
boxes .from this money govt is giving minority welfare and subsidy for
HUJ around 25000 per head
When we will able to free our temples
FOR BJP Why we r fighting for positions in BJP as we have to achieve a
lot .we can fight after we achieve the goal not now

#9 Submitted by tikamsoni (not verified) on Mon, 01/19/2009 - 21:31.

jai shri ram vande
jai shri ram
vande matram

#10 Submitted by Nishant (not verified) on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 23:23.

I'm a borm Hindu, practice
I'm a borm Hindu, practice Hinduism.

Considering the present situation I would like to share my thoughts
and, views etc.

I strongly beleive that the present Govt, and the prevaling situation
is highly determintal for the sustance of the peace and the regional
Imbalance.

We shoul have a clear cut policy to tackle the minority based politics
by Congress and CPM and others. Issue of porous border with
Bangladesh, Conversion etc.

If you can help me in finding the respective authority in sharing my
views & thoughts I would be Highly greatful.

Jai Hind!

Rahul

22529 reads

#1 Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 03/01/2009 - 21:30.

hi. I am participating in
hi. I am participating in RSS of long time. I would like to help you.
You may contact me through my mail id nadara...@gmail.com

#2 Submitted by Mangalore ka vaasi (not verified) on Fri, 01/09/2009 -
18:26.

Namaskaar, I have a very
Namaskaar,
I have a very good strategy in mind to face the systematic attack of
congress against Bjp(portraying it as the old peoples party),
Please contact my mail id

#3 Submitted by Anoop (not verified) on Thu, 01/01/2009 - 17:43.

i am anoop from rajastan,but
i am anoop from rajastan,but i blelong kerala,kollam,kottrakara,.i am
bikaner nagar college vidyarthi pramukh.bikaner at rajastan.

#4 Submitted by Badri (not verified) on Mon, 12/29/2008 - 23:04.

Indias intergity is based on
Indias intergity is based on its culture,

The KASI and RAMESHVARAM is the main sacered place for hindus to wash
away their karmas,
I have an idea to tell all people who go to Rameswaram for holy visit
to the temple, each of them can take three hand full of sand at their
home place put in a cloth, make pooja at home( this sand == karma of
their own of this janma) to put it at ramaswaram sea to wash away
their karmas. If this practised millions of people visit can make the
rameshwaram temple safe from sea erroson and natural disastor. Also
this above action is EQUIVALENT to help LORD RAMA to build the LANKAN
BRIDGE to wage war agaist RAVAN as said in the EPIC. Thouse who helped
LORD RAMA at that time have received the blessings of god directly.

Regards
Badrinath

(If this message attracts , Pl pass to all people with your meidas
help)

thankyou.
Following message sent to friends.

if the issue raised that
1) southindians helped lord rama (character in ramayan) to build
bridge between tamilnadu and eelam.Also helped to send great
southindian army to wage war to defete ravana(equivalent genoside
srilankan singaliees) to get back sita (character in ramayan)
(equivalent tamileelam nation).

2) so project to people of india, tamilnadu, eelam and allover world
that a) rama == indians b) southindians == tamilnadu c) sita ==
tamileelam d) ravana == genoside singalees

3) Please note that when america tell about adamsbridge built 17500
million years ago- they would have not tell just like josoyum, they
conducted scientific analysis like satelite picture of the bridge,
unique curvature if the bridge(this bridge when built may be of
stright - now due to movement of indian subcontinent towards asia this
curvature may happen to the present bridge). this 17500 million years
desided by americans by analyzing the sampels of floating stones(this
floating stones are nothing but the fousils of trees used at the time
of building the bridge).If analyzed(possible to get chance) the
sivalingam made by rama at rameshwaram should be of 17500 million
years old can expose to the world.

4) why americans not stick their claimes about man made ancient bridge
between india and celone? due to politicians(cunning) of india and
srilank may requested american not to provide further details to the
world, if they prove that bridge build by ancient humans then ramayan
epic become true, what ever said in this epic become the history, this
history will be favourable to our southindians and tamileelam also to
opposition(like BJP). To avoid this favourable situvation this present
polititians avoid to expose the truth which is not favourable to them.
If go deep look in to the above message, many loop can be found and
use the favourable points can be used to solve tamilpeoples long
pending problems like eeelam,cavary, other rivers and major issues
etc,. by getting all support from the world. why we the southindians
propose-project to re-build this bridge by just by laying 5 to 10
meters soil from main land to sea for 2km wide and 50km length, which
may take less expence than 'what it was expected to spend to the
proposed seethusamutaram project'. Mr.Mohan please pass this message
to Mr.Vaikos knowledge.RegardsBaadri the following message sent before
to aiadmk and tamilnation.

(i have not yet get any feedeback)

Dear amma of tamilnadu,

Pl consider the below message as an oppurtunities to unite all our
people to boost the party all over india, as you give deep arraikai on
all issues related to people concern, so consider - analyse and tell
the truth that great south indians help great rama to build the great
bridge and help him to wage war against Great Ravana, If analyzed our
south indians are in trouble due to cunning politicience of lanka.
Those beleive in rama should not support sigalise, all should unite to
stop crual activities done by them. Consider-as oppurtinuties to unite
all indians to gain power in india, to drive away the evil mindedness-
to stop the blood shed of our udanpiruppukkal. Very much eger and
sending this with broken heart- if this message reaches AMMA to
blossom our tamilpeople.

Regards
R.Baadri

--- On Wed, 10/9/08, badri nath wrote:

From: badri nath
Subject: request
To: sat...@tamilnation.com
Date: Wednesday, 10 September, 2008, 2:37 AM

Udanprupai! Why don't tell the world(indians) that we the prehistoric-
south-indians who helped the Great Rama to build the Great Bridge to
ceylone to achive his target to wage war with Great Ravana and beat
him. Same way at present We are having trouble in our land due to
Genoside-singalies atleast it is great full to us not to support them,
give moral support for us(prehistoric-south-indians) to defeat
Genoside-singalies. Regardswell wisher( this message is my general
idea from tamilnadu) Also you have a great media to express the ideas
what the world can lisen to You. In India Some force try to split
tamilpeople, so that they can be in power. If possible raise voice for
united tamilpeople with india-You(tamileelam) can benefit the lot to
acheive your goal. (how you take this expression? if it hurts any one
feel sorry and Vanakkam)

--- On Tue, 9/12/08, mo...@vaiko-mdmk.com wrote:

From: mo...@vaiko-mdmk.com
Subject: Thankyou for your Registration in vaiko-mdmk.com
To: badri...@yahoo.com
Date: Tuesday, 9 December, 2008, 3:04 AM

Dear badri

Thankyou for your registration in Vaiko-mdmk.com, you will get a mail
from vaiko-mdmk.com, when we update our site.

Regards,
S.Mohanram,
vaiko-mdmk.com.

#5 Submitted by prabir (not verified) on Mon, 12/29/2008 - 22:32.

a "sit sibir" (winter camp)
a "sit sibir" (winter camp) has been organised by RSS in dakshin
murshidabad zila in west bengal attended by 635 swyamsevaks from
26.12.2008 to 28.12.2008.each and every district in south bengal have
organised such camp at this time simultaneously.

#6 Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 12/28/2008 - 16:51.

i like to inform you about
i like to inform you about the indian border.in our indian map shows
very old land mark but it is occupaied by pakistan in left head and
right side head by china and also arunachala pradesh.but know one have
averness about the occupaied place.we have to creat awearness about
this and have to regain this place. and one more information have to
add in one more option in voting machine that is miltery rule and
governer rule.we dont have option to choose this.

#7 Submitted by Jyothish Krishna (not verified) on Fri, 12/26/2008 -
04:44.

Iam from Kerala, Thrissur
Iam from Kerala, Thrissur district and iam too sad about BJP work over
there in Kerala..i know just one...that in kerala facing lot of
problems inside BJP mainly
scarcity of good leaders..we have to go inside people and serve the
people this way we can only grow...jai shriram..any way i decided next
year to go back forever from gulf and plan to look for a business,
however i will work with RSS/BJP jai shriram
jai shriram..

#8 Submitted by Jyothish Krishna (not verified) on Fri, 12/26/2008 -
04:39.

Dear Brothers, It's great
Dear Brothers,

It's great pleasure to see a site for RSS. I was in RSS since 10
years, now working in Gulf. My family full of RSS supporters and
workers, i pray for your best..
in gulf especialy saudi arabia here we have lots of supporters..jai
hind, Jai shriram..

#9 Submitted by Purnesh (not verified) on Wed, 12/03/2008 - 14:05
.
vkradoknh geyk ¼lhfj;y
vkradoknh geyk ¼lhfj;y CykLV½ & QSDV 'khV
,d vkSj lhfj;y CykLVA ,d vkSj vkradoknh geykA ,d ckj fQj vQjk&rQjh dk
ekgkSy] ehfM;k dk dojst] fuUnkvksa dks nkSjA ejus okys ds ifjokjhtuksa
dks bruk #i;k] ?kk;y dks bruk #i;k & clA D;k gS ;s lc \ ge D;ksa bl
vkx dk bZ/ku cu jgs gSaA bldk tokc 'kk;n fdlh ds ikl ugha gSA ge ij
fQj geyk gksxk ge fQj fdlh vkradoknh dks idM+sxs ysfdu mls ltk ugha
nsxsA bUrtkj djssaxs] ltk ns nsxsa rks ,d cM+k oksV cSad ukjkt gks
tk,xkA vjs bruh vkcknh gS] dqN yksx de gks x, rks D;k gqvk gekjh lhV
rks fMLVcZ ugha gqbZA ge l[r dne mBk ysaxs rks gekjh dqlhZ ugha pyh
tk,xhA dSls ge vius i{k esa ,drjQk oksfVax dk Qrok tkjh djok ik,axs \
Hkys gh ;s vkradoknh gekjs fdrus dh tokuksa dh cfy ysdj budk gkSlyk de
jgrs jgsaA
okLro esa fgUnqLrku esa tks nkSj bl oDr py jgk gS og drbZ Hkh mfpr
ugha gSA vkradoknh [kqys vke ljyrk ls gekjh tkus ys jgs gSaA gesa
uqdlku igq¡pk jgs gSa vkSj ge gS fd jktufr esa iM+dj dksbZ l[r dne Hkh
ugha mBk ldrsA gSjkuh rks rd gksrh gS tc gekjs x`gea=h th dgrs gSa fd
gesa irk Fkk fd CykLV gksaxs ij dc vkSj dgk¡ gksaxs cl ;g irk ughaA
deky gSA bruh tkudkjh rks yxHkx lHkh dks gS] ,d nks lky ds cPps dks
Hkh irk gS fd foLQksV gkssxs] vkSj rks vkSj ,d ikVhZ ds dfFkr ;qojkt
dgrs gSa fd ns'k esa vkSj Hkh leL;k,a gSaA D;ksafd ge viuh ^^ge dc
rd ,d ekSdk vkSj ds** cgdkos esa vkdj budk jkstk+ v¶rkj djkrs jgsaxsA
vxj vHkh buls lqj{kk ugha cYdh jksdFkke ugha dh xbZ rks og fnu nwj
ugha tc bu ng'kr xnksZa ds vkdk ikfylh cuk,axs vkSj ge cl ns[krs
jgsaxsA
;g okjnkrsa fgUnqLrku dh izxfr esa oks ck/kk,a tks fdUgh dkj.kksa ls
gekjh gh vkLrhuksa esa lkai cudj iy jgs yksxksa dh ?k`f.kr euksn'kk dk
urhtk gSA lcls igys gesa bUgsa jksduk gksxkA buds fy, dqN lkspuk
gksxk ,slk djuk gksxk fd vkrafd;ksa dks lh/kk lans'k tk, fd lsj dks
lok lsj fey pqdk gSA vHkh dkuiqj esa ,d n'kZd bXyS.M dk >.Mk ygjk jgk
Fkk mls dqN yksxksa us /kqu fn;k& xqM fd;kA ysfdu gesa mu tSls yksxksa
dk neu djuk gh gksxk tks ukxfjd rks ;gka ds gS ij fØdsV eSpksa esa
liksVZ iM+kslh ns'k dk djrs gSaA ckr NksVh yxs ij lp ;gh gS fd D;k ;g
ns'knzksg dh Js.kh esa ugha vkrkA fgUnqLrku ds gkjus ij 'kchys yxkus
okys] vkfr'kckth djus okys vkf[kj dkSu gSaA vkrafd;ksa ds f[kykQ l[r
dne mBkus ij fojks/k dk Loj Å¡pk djus okys dkSu gSaA gekjh /kkfeZd
vkLFkkvksa dks fu'kkuk cukus okys pkgs os vejukFk ;k=k gks ;k fd fdlh
xyh ls fudyus okys NksVs tqyql ds f[kykQ vkokt cqyan djus okysA D;ksa
ugha ;s dqpys tkrsA D;ksa ugha bUgsa crk;k tkrk fd dkuwu lcds fy, ,d
gSA
vxj vHkh ls bu vkrafd;ksa dks ng'krtnk ugha x;k ;s geij jkt djsaxsA
ikfylh cuk,axsA gekjs tks usrk tkus&vUtkus budk leFkZu djrs gSa oks
viuh rks ftUnxh fdlh rjg th ysxsa ysfdu mudh vxyh ih<+h mudk D;k
gksxkA ge ;kfu turk dks Hkh ,sls yksxksa ls vius fj'rksa ds ckjs esa
lkspuk gksxk ,oa vxj bu vkradokfn;ksa ij vadq'k yxkuk gS rks mu
'kfDr;ksa dks etcwr djuk gksxk ftuds ckjs esa ;g vkradoknh Hkh lksprs
gSa fd ;s geij n;k ugha fn[kk,axsA
dkbZ ekus ;k ekus vkSj eq>s lh/ks lkaiznkf;d rRo dgs ij lR;rk ;gh gS
fd gesa detksj fd;k tk jgk gSA vjs ge rks vius nsoh nsorkvksa ds
Hkn~ns fp= cukus okys dks Hkh ohvkbZih dk ntkZ nsrs gSaA ns'k fojks/kh
ukjksa ij Hkh vius dkuksa dks [kqyus dh btktr ugha nsrsA vkt fgUnqLrku
esa nks laiznk; esa ckr gks ,d dh ckr djks] mls xkyh nks dqN djks]
dgha ls dksbZ fojks/k] ;k vkokt ughaA dksbZ dkuwu ugha D;ksafd os viuk
dkuwu vyx cukrs gSaA fdUrq vxj vkius nwljs laiznk; dk uke Hkh xyrh ls
fy;k rks lh/ks vki lkaiznkf;d dh Js.kh esa vk tk,axsA dkuwu dk MaMk
pyus yxsxkA Qros tkjh gksus yxsaxsA
fgUnqLrku dh turk ls ,oa uhfr fu/kkZjdksa ls mEehn dh tkrh gS os
fLFkfr dh bl xaHkhjrk dks vHkh le>saxs l[r rFkk mfpr dne mBkdj bl vkx
dh jksdFkke djsaxsA ojuk nqfu;k tkurh gS fd vfr lcdh [kjkc gksrh
gS ,oa uklwj dk bykt 'kjhj ds fgLls dks dkVdj gh fd;k tkrk gSA

eSa tkurk gw¡ 'kk;n gh bls dksbZ izsl vius fdlh dkye esa txg ns ij bl
lR; ls bUdkj ugha gksxkA

iw.ksZ'k]
Mkyhxat] y[kuÅ
y[kuÅ & 226020.

#10 Submitted by Sumanth (not verified) on Mon, 11/24/2008 - 15:25.

Namaskar, I am from Andhra
Namaskar,

I am from Andhra Pradesh and currently working in Bangalore. I would
like to join Sangh Parivar Shaka in Bangalore. Can any one please
provide me some contact details.

#1 Submitted by Aftab Hashmi (not verified) on Mon, 11/24/2008 -
15:20.

Dear Sirs, I am an Indian
Dear Sirs,

I am an Indian Muslim from Bihar. I have all the respect for my Mother
Land. My uncle is a Hindu Kayasth. The relationship between him and my
father is that of elder brother and younger brother. From the very
beginning of my life, I have seen most of my father's friends, a
devoted hindu. We used to discuss about religion and nationalism.

I am convinced that, India is not a country of any particular
Religion, it is a country of only Indians. As long as we understand
this fact that - "Bharat is my Mother Land", there is no problem at
all. But the moment we start thinking of religion without Nationalism,
the problem starts.

As far as Islam is concerned, the country where we live is our Mother
Land. And all Muslims must follow the rule of land. It doesn't mean
that he has to go against his religion. If he follows Islam truly,
then he is a true Indian.

I again repeat, that a true Muslim is a true Indian and a true Hindu
is a true Indian. It means "Dharma" forces you to be a true
Nationalist.

Since I have been studying about RSS regularly, I found that they mean
to promote Nationalism in all Indians. And to clear its misconception
about Anti-Muslim stance, it has created a new wing , "Rashtrawadi
Muslim Manch."

I request the organisers to guide me, how to join this "Rashtrawadi
Muslim Manch." I would be more than thankful to them. I think this
manch will provide me a platform to work for the Indian Muslims to
bring them to the fore front of National Unity and National
Development.

Regards,

Aftab Alam Hashmi,
Bihar,
Currently Working in Saudi Arabia.

#2 Submitted by abhishek mishra on Sat, 11/22/2008 - 17:51.

hi
hi

#3 Submitted by cheetapakhi on Wed, 11/19/2008 - 19:26.

AUR HAIN MUJHE ISKE BAREME
AUR HAIN MUJHE ISKE BAREME LIKH KAR DENA BHI JARUR.

#4 Submitted by cheetapakhi on Wed, 11/19/2008 - 19:23.

I JUST WANT TO TELL THE RSS
I JUST WANT TO TELL THE RSS AND THE SANGH PARIVAR THAT PLEASE GO ALL
OUT AGAINST THE MALEGAON PROBE CASE.AUR AAP LOGO KE SAMNE RAKHIYE
PEHLE JAB BLAST HOTA THA USKE BAAD CONGRESS KA REACTION KYA HOTA THA
AUR MALEGAON BLAST KE BAAD KAISA REACTION HAI.AUR CONGRESS KITNA ANTI-
HINDU HAI ISKE UPOR EK PUSTOK BHI LIKHIYE JO DARSAYE CONGRESS AUR
INDIAN MEDIA KI PSEUDO-SECULARISM.

#5 Submitted by cheetapakhi on Wed, 11/19/2008 - 19:23.

I JUST WANT TO TELL THE RSS
I JUST WANT TO TELL THE RSS AND THE SANGH PARIVAR THAT PLEASE GO ALL
OUT AGAINST THE MALEGAON PROBE CASE.AUR AAP LOGO KE SAMNE RAKHIYE
PEHLE JAB BLAST HOTA THA USKE BAAD CONGRESS KA REACTION KYA HOTA THA
AUR MALEGAON BLAST KE BAAD KAISA REACTION HAI.AUR CONGRESS KITNA ANTI-
HINDU HAI ISKE UPOR EK PUSTOK BHI LIKHIYE JO DARSAYE CONGRESS AUR
INDIAN MEDIA KI PSEUDO-SECULARISM.

#6 Submitted by Devkumar banerji (not verified) on Tue, 11/04/2008 -
16:42.

i am very impressed with the
i am very impressed with the sangh and its programmes i want to join
the sangh

#7 Submitted by dilip kumar (not verified) on Mon, 11/03/2008 - 11:46.

Pranam shreeman My name is
Pranam shreeman
My name is Dilip Kumar Sahu.
I am a Govt. Employee and now fed up of my job and i don't like thhis
life .
I want to do something for my country and my hindu relegion by
sacrificing my life....
Due to recents bombblasts in our country I can do anything ...........
Please reply sir otherwise my life will be waste and i have to commit
the suicide......
My contact no is 09445400278......

#8 Submitted by Dr. Sanatkumar (not verified) on Thu, 10/30/2008 -
12:43.

Namaskar, "Itihas es bat ka
Namaskar,

"Itihas es bat ka pramad hai ki hinduo ne kabhibhi kisi dharam ya
rastra par hamala ya aakarmad nahi kiya hai."

Pura Weshwa jab vidyalay nahi janta tha to hamare paas Viswavidayalay
the.

Aaj bhi hame GYAN ke prasar se viswa vijay ke liye pryas karna Chhiye.

Dr. Sanatkumar Sharma
Assitant Professor
Department of Sociology
University of Gondar
GONDAR, Ethiopia

#9 Submitted by Mithilesh (not verified) on Mon, 10/27/2008 - 15:00.

Namaskar Bhai Saheb !! Kahin
Namaskar Bhai Saheb !!

Kahin na kahi Hame ye nahi lagta ki Badlane ki jaroorat hai hame,
aakhir hame ek dhara me modne ke liye waqt ko kuchh to public ko
bharose me lena hoga aur definately, public kahi na kahi Hindutwa ke
kathit thekedaro se niras ho chuki hai .... ??

#10 Submitted by mukesh trikha (not verified) on Sat, 10/25/2008 -
21:55.

jai shri ram Orissa
jai shri ram
Orissa mein jo ho raha hai bo bilkul sahi ho raha hai. kyun ke apni
sanskriti ki rakhsha ab shanti se nahi ho sakti.is desh mein sarkar
koi v ho wo to sirf muslim vote benk ko hi dekhege. hum hinduan ko
rakhwala koi nahi.

#1 Submitted by LANKE.VIJAYA KUMAR VARMA (not verified) on Thu,
10/23/2008 - 12:21.

Basically iam interessted
Basically iam interessted hindhuism and iam inspiring the activities
of the RSS.This is very good in hindhu religion. i am interest to work
with us. i can do any thing to my country and my community. so please
suggest me your ideas for raising of my activities in sangh parivar.

#2 Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 10/21/2008 - 07:37.

is it true that 50000
is it true that 50000 christians have converted to hinduism in UP by
RSS.then please do know me the time span within which the process have
been done.

#3 Submitted by kannan_prasad81 on Wed, 10/15/2008 - 19:28.

BHARAT MAA KI JAI JAI JAI
BHARAT MAA KI JAI
JAI JAI JAI RSS

#4 Submitted by kannan_prasad81 on Wed, 10/15/2008 - 19:28.

BHARAT MAA KI JAI JAI JAI
BHARAT MAA KI JAI
JAI JAI JAI RSS

#5 Submitted by RAVI TAMRKAR (not verified) on Sun, 11/09/2008 -
20:40.

thanx.....................
thanx.....................

#6 Submitted by RAVI TAMRKAR (not verified) on Sun, 11/09/2008 -
20:40.

thanx.....................
thanx.....................

#7 Submitted by RAVI TAMRKAR (not verified) on Sun, 11/09/2008 -
20:40.
thanx.....................
thanx.....................

#8 Submitted by dr.Shambhu N gupta (not verified) on Mon, 10/13/2008 -
10:31.

respectful organizer, I want
respectful organizer,
I want to bring a notice of recent installation of mother-baby statue
in prominent place indira vaika sri ganganagar by BJP nominated person
Smt Seema Periwal. The statue is resemble to Mariama and Jesus.When
BJP nominated person will propagate other then how we can talk about
our religion.
Please discuss this in proper platform and this should not repeat in
future.

#9 Submitted by prabir biswas (not verified) on Fri, 10/10/2008 -
22:39.

i am a saha mahakuma
i am a saha mahakuma (taluk)karyabaha from bengal dist murshidabad. i
think sangh should support the nuclear deal unless a bad signal will
go to our people as we want india getting a best position in this
region.

#10 Submitted by Divya (not verified) on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 21:27.

From the Border of India &
From the Border of India & Bhutan I Divya Kumari want to know about
the Balika / Mahila wing of RSS. And how can joine it . Plz Reply .

I think you get the idea...

http://www.sanghparivar.org/wiki/rashtriya-swayamsevak-sangh

chhotemianinshallah

unread,
Jan 15, 2010, 6:17:04 PM1/15/10
to
Sign our petition

to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, to outlaw and ban the RSS (Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh), a Hindu Extremist Organisation from collecting
money in the UK and using it to persecute Muslims, Sikhs, Christians
and Daljits in India.

The RSS had a major role in the genocide of Muslims in Gujarat, along
with the destruction of the Babri masjid in Ayodha. The RSS supported
the Indian military attack on the GoldenTemple and Sikh genocide in
1984.

You can sign the petition at

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/bantherss/

An email will then be sent to you. Click on the link in this email to
complete the process.

10,000 signatures are required to get the RSS banned.

Do something - Signing the petition only takes a few minutes.

Ask your family, friends, parents and children to sign the petition.

A National Conference attended by Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist
and Jain community leaders was held on 27th October in Southall,
collectively urging the public to sign the petition.

The attendees included Lord Nazir Ahmed, Manmohan Singh Khalsa & Nazar
Lodhi (World Muslim Sikh Federation), Avtar Singh Sanghra (Babbar),
Tarsem singh (British Sikh council), Gurcharan Singh (Dal Khalsa) and
Adran Chada (British Muslim Youth Federation UK).

We cannot have groups such as the RSS who spread hate and terror being
funded from a nation such as the UK, which values Human Rights and
liberty.

The petition states that:

"The RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), is a Hindu Extremist
Organisation based within India but receives a large part of its
funding from countries such as the UK.

RSS believes that only Hindus should reside within India, the
minorities should either come into the Hindu fold or be wiped out. The
organisation wish to create a Hindu Super State of Hindutva, Hindu,
Hindi and Hindustan. There is no place for minorities."

The RSS have actively been trying to distort and destroy Sikh history
and practises by modifying the history and books. A Sikh video
documentary on Youtube, Tabhe Ros Jageo, documents what the RSS do.

The organisation had a major role in the genocide of Muslims in
Gujarat, along with the destruction of the Babri masjid in Ayodha. The
RSS also supported the Indian military attack on the Golden Temple and
Sikh genocide in 1984.

The organisation had a major role in the genocide of Muslims in
Gujarat, along with the destruction of the Babri masjid in Ayodha. The
RSS also supported the Indian military attack on the Golden Temple and
Sikh genocide in 1984.

The RSS takes its inspiration from Hitler and his Nazi party’s pure
race ideology, a recent channel 4 documentary "The Indian miracle?"
documents this.

We cannot have groups such as the RSS who spread hate and terror being
funded from a nation such as the UK, which values Human Rights and
Liberty.

http://www.bantherss.co.uk/

chhotemianinshallah

unread,
Jan 15, 2010, 6:23:58 PM1/15/10
to
Nailing the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

Written by Correspondant
Monday, 01 January 2001

Inside information by a former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)
activist proves that the militantly anti-secularist organisation was
directly complicit in planning one of the most heinous assassinations
in human history.

That the RSS is a past-master at lying brazenly to defend its
conspiratorial past has been proved by its repeated denial of any
association or responsibility for the crime of having supported, in
either form or intent, the killing of Mahatma Gandhi. Its good fortune
— and the nation’s misfortune — is that the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP), an RSS affiliate, is suffering from such amnesia or
complacency, that when the issue is even lightly touched on by one of
its senior leaders, the bulk of the party prefers to dissociate itself
from the issue, thus allowing the outfit to mislead the public by loud
protestations and by threatening to file a defamation suit.

I am not sure that this is not an empty threat — there is so much
evidence that proves that Nathuram Godse was actively associated with
the organisation and was inspired to do the dirty deed by the ideology
that gave birth to the RSS. The organisation’s lies have been nailed
by no less a person than Nathuram’s own brother Gopal Godse.

In an interview to Frontline magazine (28 January 1994), he said, “All
the brothers were in the RSS. Nathuram, Dattatreya, Govind and myself.
You can say we grew up in the RSS rather than in our home. It was like
a family to us. Nathuram had become a baudhik karyavah (intellectual
teacher) in the RSS. He said in his statement that he had left RSS. He
said this because Golwalkar and the RSS were in a lot of trouble after
the murder of Gandhi. But he did not leave the RSS.”

When confronted with Advani’s claim that Nathuram had nothing to do
with the RSS, he replied that he had countered Advani by saying, “It
is cowardice to say that. You can say that the RSS did not pass a
resolution saying, ‘Go and assassinate Gandhi’.”

Apart from denying his association with Nathuram, the outfit has been
using the time-tested technique of all liars. Selective quotations
from the correspondence of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel are cited to
suggest that the then home minister did not believe that the RSS had
committed the crime. Patel’s letter had been addressed to Nehru in
February 1948.

But in a letter to RSS founder Dr Shyamaprasad Mookerjee, written in
July that year when more facts were probably unearthed, Patel squarely
blamed the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha, saying, “As…the case relating
to Gandhiji’s murder is sub judice, I would not like to say anything
about the participation of these two organisations, but our reports do
confirm that, as a result of the activities of these two bodies,
particularly by the former (RSS), an atmosphere was created in the
country in which such a ghastly tragedy became possible.” He went on
to write, “The activities of the RSS constituted a clear threat to the
existence of the government and the state.”

Neither this letter nor one from Patel to Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar
himself, in which the ban on the RSS was justified, is talked about.
Golwalkar was told that the speeches of the RSS men “were full of
communal poison. It was not necessary to spread poison in order to
enthuse the Hindus and organise for their protection. As a result of
the poison, the country had to suffer the sacrifice of the invaluable
life of Gandhiji.” In the same letter, Patel pointed out that popular
opposition to the RSS turned serious “when the RSS men expressed joy
and distributed sweets after Gandhiji’s death”.

Rather than being penitent, asserting that it was not the RSS but
Nathuram on his own had fired the shots is like saying it was not
Nathuram but a pistol that had killed Gandhi. After all, the man who
risks his life to take somebody else’s is motivated by ideas; in this
case, Nathuram had imbibed them from the RSS. Nathuram was the
instrument of that ideology, just as the pistol was Nathuram’s
instrument. It should, therefore, be examined whether RSS training
could have inspired his intense hatred against Gandhi.

Godse’s strongest claim to innocence is based on the court judgment,
which had held only Godse guilty and not any organisation. That was
because the Indian Penal Code then in force had no provision for
proceeding against organisations spreading hatred. The lacuna was
removed in 1972 through an amendment. Therefore, a court judgment
based on the old IPC should not be treated as a valid alibi.

Vinayak Damodar “Veer” Savarkar had been arrested and punished not
because he had killed Curzon Wylie but because he had incited and
inspired the killer Madan Lal Dhingra. British law did not suffer from
the handicap that the IPC did, particularly because there is enough
evidence.

In this regard, I find my own experience significant. I had become an
RSS activist as a teenager way back in 1940-41 as a reaction to the
Muslim League’s Pakistan resolution. The Congress had no children’s
wing and for the nascent political consciousness of a teenager, the
RSS provided the only expression.

The intellectual food that I had got till 1948 was such that I was
averse to seeing Gandhi’s face. I was then working in a Hindi daily
Milap and was assigned the duty to report Gandhi’s speeches at the
prayer meetings. Instead of going to Birla House, I would report his
speech with the aid of the radio broadcast. The only day I decided to
go to a prayer meeting was the day Madan Lal Pahwa hurled a bomb,
which missed its target. I had gone because the RSS crowd was
circulating the news that something of high importance was expected to
occur.

A similar motivation impelled me to proceed in that direction on 30
January, but before I could enter Birla House, I found people running
and screaming that Gandhi had been killed. I ran back and entered the
bungalow of Dr NB Khare, the Prime Minister of Alwar state who was
then a member of the Constituent Assembly: I was aware of his
sympathies for the RSS.

My experience is corroborated by the experience of another
disillusioned swayamsevak who had written a letter to Sardar Patel
after the assassination and which has been referred to by Gandhiji’s
private secretary Pyarelal in his book ‘Mahatma Gandhi: The Last
Phase’, and quoted by Justice JL Kapoor, who reviewed the case in
1966. In that letter, the swayamsevak had asked “members of the RSS at
some places to tune in the radio sets on the fateful Friday for the
‘good news’.”

Pyarelal has also mentioned an aborted attempt at assassination by
these people in Poona in order to punish Gandhi for his campaign
against untouchability. He said, “Their plans this time were far more
systematic and thorough and included such refinements as conditioning
the mind of youth for their prospective task by making them wear, as
part of their training, photos of Congress leaders like Pandit Nehru
and others, besides Gandhiji, inside their shoes, and using the same
for target practice with fire-arms and so on.”

What kind of intellectual diet were the swayamsevaks fed? It is there
in ‘Bunch of Thoughts’, a compilation of Golwalkar’s ruminations,
officially published in 1966. To give a comprehensive idea, one has to
quote at length, especially to avoid being accused of the selectivity,
which the RSS itself indulges in. Accusing the Gandhi-Nehru leadership
of “Muslim appeasement” in order to achieve Hindu-Muslim unity, he
says, “The Hindu was asked to ignore, even submit meekly to the
vandalism and atrocities of Muslims. In effect, he was told: “Forget
all that the Muslims have done in the past and all that they are now
doing to you. If your worshipping in the temple, your taking out gods
in procession in the streets irritates the Muslims, don’t do it. If
they carry away your wives and daughters, let them. Do not obstruct
them.”

“Once a notable Hindu personality of those days, in a largely attended
public meeting, declared: ‘There is no swaraj without Hindu-Muslim
unity…In other words, the Hindu was told that he was imbecile, that he
had no spirit, no stamina to stand on his own legs and fight for the
independence of his motherland and all this had to be injected into
him in the form of Muslim blood. What a shame, what a misfortune that
our own leaders should have come forward to knock out the indomitable
faith in ourselves and destroy our spirit of self-confidence and self-
reliance, which is the very life-breath of a people! Those who
declared ‘No swaraj without Hindu-Muslim unity’ have thus perpetrated
the greatest treason to our society. They have committed the most
heinous crime of killing the life-spirit of a great nation.”

It is not difficult to imagine the effect of such propaganda on
listeners who treat Golwalkar’s words as no less than divine. Although
Gandhiji’s name has been included in the pratah-smarn (morning
prayer), the attitude, in practice, remains unaltered. An editorial in
1961 in ‘The Organiser’, the RSS mouthpiece, commented that Gandhi’s
assassination was the result of anger caused by his insistence on
stopping anti-Muslim killings and paying Rs 55 crore to Pakistan as
that new nation’s post-Partition due share of the treasury. More
recently, former RSS chief Rajendra Singh said that Godse’s opposition
to Gandhi was not wrong, only that his method was not right. The
entire Sangh Parivar is still adamant on its refusal to accept Gandhi
as the “Father of the Nation."

In 1948, they physically killed Gandhi. Since then, they have been
systematically trying to kill his moral-political legacy. The recent
evidence of which was shamelessly brandished in Gandhi’s home state of
Gujarat under the dispensation of the brutal Chief Minister Narendra
Modi, who is being treated as a sacred cow by the RSS establishment.
But history will eventually prove the RSS in the wrong and complicit
in one of the most heinous assassinations in human history.

(Courtesy: Hardnews Syndication Service)

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 25 November 2009 )

http://indianchristians.in/news/content/view/513/47/

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