Gujarat - Conversion to Christianity
****
What Are Their Needs?
The Gujarati have the Bible, Jesus film, and Christian broadcasts available
to them. Also, eight missions agencies are currently targeting them. Still,
response to the Gospel has been minimal, with less than 1% being Christian.
Sustained prayer is the key to tearing down the strongholds that have
blinded the Gujarati to the Truth.
Prayer Points
Ask the Lord of the harvest to send loving Christians to share the Gospel
with the Gujarati.
Ask the Holy Spirit to grant wisdom, favor, and unity to the eight missions
agencies that are targeting the Gujarati.
Pray for effectiveness of the Jesus film among the Gujarati, with many
conversions resulting.
Ask God to anoint the Gospel as it goes forth via radio in their area.
Pray that God will give the Gujarati believers boldness to share Christ with
their own people.
Take authority over the spiritual principalities and powers that have kept
the Gujarati bound for many generations.
Ask God to raise up prayer teams who will begin breaking up the soil through
worship and intercession.
Ask the Lord to bring forth a triumphant Gujarati church for the glory of
His name!
Church members: 223,981
Scriptures in their own language: Bible
Jesus Film in their own language: Available
Christian broadcasts in their own language: Available
Mission agencies working among this people: 8
Persons who have heard the Gospel: 19,822,300 (57%)
Those evangelized by local Christians: 1,973,800 (6%)
Those evangelized from the outside: 17,848,500 (51%)
http://www.bethany-wpc.org/profiles/p_code5/94.html
Unreached peoples profile
http://nmmindia.org/
Native Missionary movement
Udaipur
****
A cluster of 5 Gypsy groups in India.
The name "Gypsy" often conjures up images of wandering bands of peddlers
and fortune tellers traveling from place to place in colorful caravans. But
this is not always an accurate picture, as many of the world's Gypsies can
be found settled in India and the Middle East.
The largest group of Gypsies in India are the Lambadi (or Gormati) Gypsies.
Other groups living there include the Tamil Nomads, the Indian Gypsies, the
Kanjari, and the Baiga. Although these Gypsy groups are spread throughout
India, most of them are concentrated in such areas as Punjab, Madhya
Pradesh, Utter Pradesh, Madras, Orissa, and Andhra Pradesh. The Arhagar
Gypsies also live in neighboring Pakistan.
These groups, as well as other Gypsies around the world, are linked
linguistically. All of the Gypsy languages belong to the North Indo-Aryan
language family. When Gypsies began traveling from India to different
regions of Europe hundreds of years ago, different dialects of their
language (Romany) emerged. Each dialect became classified by the region in
which a particular group settled. Most Indian Gypsies have olive skin, dark
hair, and brown eyes. Many believe they are descendants of the Rajputs of
medieval India. These were a people who had been expelled from their
homeland by Muslim invaders. They were used as grain-carriers and
weapon-makers for Muslim troops.
these Gypsies are spiritually poor.
The majority have no Christian resources available, and only two groups have
some portions of the Bible. Christian broadcasts and scriptures must be made
available if they are to hear the Gospel. Christian workers are needed to
teach them how to live lives pleasing to God.
Prayer Points
Take authority over the spiritual principalities and powers that are keeping
the Gypsiea bound.
Ask the Lord to call people who are willing to go to India and share Christ
with the Gypsies.
Pray that the Gypsies who have found Christ will be bold witnesses to their
own people.
Ask God to strengthen, encourage, and protect the small number of Gypsy
believers.
Pray that Christian resources such as Bibles, films, and radio broadcasts
will be made available to them.
Ask the Holy Spirit to soften the hearts of Gypsies towards Christians so
that they will be receptive to the Gospel.
Pray that God will give missions agencies strategies for reaching the
Gypsies.
Ask the Lord to raise up strong local churches among the Indian Gypsies by
the year 2000.
http://www.bethany-wpc.org/profiles/clusters/8007.html
Adina Greiner
won't be so hurt that you react aggressively to what I say; I hope God
will illuminate your mind and soul, and help you see the truth of what
I am saying. I can find no better way of saying it than this:
I was born in Romania, where we have a lot of gypsies. They are not
"spiritually poor" as you ignorantly claim. They have maintained, to some
degree, their Hindu heritage: for example, they worship Ganesha, the god
of innocence, and are waiting for goddess Kalki to come and destroy what
is evil
in this world.
They also have incorporated some elements of the most prevalent religion
in Romania - Eastern Orthodoxy - which, if you don't know, refers to
the oldest branch of Christianity - the one closest to Christ.
Neither the gypsies, nor the general Romanian population, like missionaries
coming "to tell them about Christ." They (we) already know more about Christ
than the missionaries who come speaking words they do not understand.
We have learned the lessons which Christ came to teach much better than
the Christians in the west, who historically committed unspeakable attrocities
in His name. We are more forgiving, more generous, more caring people than
the aggressive people in the west. Religion for us, as well as for the gypsies,
is something we live, not something we talk about. If we worship Christ, we
worship Him in churches, but most importantly we worship Him in our innermost
hearts. That is what God truly cares about. Religion for us is not a show,
like it is in the west.
I don't know about the gypsies in India, but I would venture a guess that
they are not "spiritually poor" in the least, and that their lives are
much more pleasing to God than the lives of christians in the west.
So I would advise that you get a grip on the reality of the situation, and
find out just who is spiritually poor and who is not.
I think you have a lot to learn from them, about God, much more than they
have to learn from you.
May God show you the true light.
In article <6tpjns$q75$1...@winter.news.erols.com>, "****"
Nobody
Who gives '******' the right to say and judge what the gujarati gypsies
need, how dare anyone know what's best for others.
I feel that it does not matter what religion they worship because all
religions give the same message. It's only the people's interpretation of
their's and others religions that usually screws things up.
Adina Greiner wrote in message ...
Pradip Parekh
Nobody wrote in message <6trcav$7...@romeo.logica.co.uk>...
>I feel that it does not matter what religion they worship because all
>religions give the same message. It's only the people's interpretation of
>their's and others religions that usually screws things up.
>
That "all religions give the same message" is a layman's view or more a
political view seeking to avoid hate-conflicts. It certainly is not a
scholarly view: as a small example, teachings of Islam calling for
inflicting atrocities on non-believers is not shared by other religions
(specially non-Semitic religions).
The fact is most Semitic religions have sanctified hate and Islam is easily
the extreme example of it: Just read their original religious books, and you
will see hate prominently displayed. IMO, non-spiritual parts of religions
must be publicly decried in the interest of peace.
Pradip Parekh
****
Politics of Conversion
Indeed in the whole of the Christian-Hindu strained relationship there has
been no greater cause of friction than the Christian campaign of conversion.
When the one who is in an advantageous position seeks to force his
conception of God and the Universe on the other who is in a vulnerable
position, when the one strikes at that which is deepest and most precious in
the heart of the others he invites resistance.
The Christians of India are converts or descendents of converts whose
conversion had been' secured during some period of history by force or
fraud; conversion by persuasion is a rarity. Voluntary change of faith
prompted by spiritual motives, nobody objects to. The Rev. Tilak, Pandita
Ramabai are of such type. Change of faith did not diminish their love of
India's cultural heritage. But how are whole villages converted en mass in
no time? Are mass conversions prompted by any spiritual motive? Voluntary
change of faith is preceded by great psychological revolution; nobody
abandoned Hinduism that way. Most of the converts have been victims of
threats, allurements financial stringency, ignorance, deception and
persecution. The less said the better about the role of the sword in
securing recruits for the gospel. it is an ugly past. The Hindus who had
gladly given asylum to the Jewish wanderers, the exiled Parsis and
persecuted Christians found themselves victims of proselytisation by
Christians.
For quite a long time there had been a continuous decline of Hindus in
number; when under the British religion became the basis of representation,
the missionary movement acquired momentum. Even a small increase in
Christian population and a decrease among the Hindus would bring in its
train a chain of troubles, political and social. What ails India's
north-east is this factor. It is the political consequence of the supposed
religious conversions.
There is something unhealthy in the whole missionary idea. To go to a people
like the Hindus, a race of high culture and a long tradition with
philosophical, ethical and religious systems ante-dating Christianity and to
go avowedly to save its people from damnation is certainly something
grotesque! Humanitarian and philanthrophic works are only excuses to enable
themselves to go near their victims to tear out the ancient religion from
the simple and trusting hearts.
Gandhiji wrote "Conversion now-a-days has become a matter of business, like
any other. I remember having read a missionary report saying how much it
cost per her head to convert and then presenting a budget for the next
harvest". He further maintained "If I had power and could legislate, I
should certainly stop all proselytising. For Hindu households, the advent of
a missionary has meant the disruption of the family, coming in the wake of
change of dress, manners, language, food and drink". What Gandhiji wanted to
stop, viz. Conversion has been held by the Christian missionary as his basic
religious right. The best of them, Mother Teresa, justified it very recently
in an interview by saying that, 'Conversion is a change of mind by love'
Remove the tapestry of the language, it is aggression an the Hindu society.
Therefore, a Hindu cannot condone conversion and he must not.
A large part of Asia has gone Islamic and another large chunk communist.
Their doors are closed for Christian missionaries to storm in. So, India has
emerged as a fertile grazing ground. Christianity is, now working overtime
trying to convert our people, particularly the tribals. The rich white
missionary agencies are making use of the country's poverty and social ills
to further their ends. They offer temptations, a cardinal sin, in order to
effect conversions The Baptist missionary in North-Eastern belt, for
example, reward with cheap polyester trousers to those tribals who change
their religion; with motor bicycles if they also help their brothers to be
converted. In Madhya Pradesh as the Neogy Report showed, the missionaries
give small loans of say five or ten dollars to the tribals on interest,
loans which they know could not be easily paid back but the payment of which
can be waived off if the debtors accepted Christianity.
On more sophisticated levels, they run schools arid dispensaries, asylums
and orphanages and engage in so- called social work. Since the basic motive
is proselytisation or creating congenial climate for poselytizers, these
services are tainted and poisoned. Social work has now become big business.
It is not disinterested philanthropy. To a superficial observer the
Christianity centres appear not only quite harmless, but as the very
embodiment of sympathy and love for humanity. Words like service, human
salvation flow endlessly from their speeches. The ultimate objective is to
de-Hinduise. The people of our country, simple and innocent as they are, are
taken in by all these things. The sweetest of tongues is accompanied by the
sharpest of teeth. Is it not arrogance going in the garb of humility? It
reminds me of the story of Pootana, an evil woman who made a show of
motherly affection and wanted to breast- feed infant Krishna. But it was not
milk but poison.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
A RETROSPECT CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA
BY
Shripaty Sastry
http://rbhatnagar.ececs.uc.edu:8080/~archives/hvk/books/Retrospect_of_Christ
ianity/index.htm
****
**********************************
Eye of Shiva
Part 1
It seems easier today than a century ago for man to have a religious outlook
on life. In an apparent paradox, it is the scientific revolution of the
twentieth century that makes this possible. Not so far back there was a time
when it seemed that an iron-bound deterministic science was about to
establish complete dominion over man and his environment - when the universe
was seen as a cosmic machine functioning according to sets of mathematical
equations. The physical world was seen through the lenses of an engineer,
and the mind was thought to coincide with the brain. All this is now water
under the bridge, and contemporary physicist regards the material world, in
Arthur Eddington's words, "in a more mystical, though no less exact and
practical way."
Strangely enough, there is also, in what some call the post-Christian world,
a profound and rising scepticism regarding the dogmas and theologies of
western creeds, although man's religious aspirations are greater now than
they were two or three generations ago. This coincidence is explosive, and
evidence points to the fact that we are probably standing on a historical
watershed - comparable in importance to the birth of Christianity some two
thousand years ago. A new spiritual vision is beginning to take shape, under
the spur of a most unlikely alliance between the new physics and eastern,
rather than western, philosophies.
Few physicists who reach the outer limits of their science can avoid taking
a side glance at the "metaphysical" implications of the recent revolution:
but the surprising fact is that contemporary science seems to be
deliberately turning away from its cultural roots, finding a more compatible
atmosphere in the very different metaphysics of the orient. It is the
startling parallelism between today's physics and the world-vision of
eastern mysticism that becomes an outstanding cultural phenomenon of times.
Furthermore, as Werner Heisenberg remarks, the increasing contribution of
eastern scientists from India, China and Japan, among others, reinforces
this conjunction. Physical science has now become planetary and draws into
its fold an increasing number of non-westerners who find in its new vision
of the universe many elements that are quick to note, one cannot always
distinguish between statements made by eastern metaphysics based on mystical
insight, and the pronouncements of modern physics based on observations,
experiments and mathematical calculations.
The new picture of the universe presented to us by contemporary physics is
baffling. Contrary to classical science, physics now states that the
commonsensical world we live in simply does not exist; all our impressions
of ultimate solid substances are deceptive. The scientific revolution has
shattered our previous notions of physical reality and natural law. Space,
time, energy, matter and causality have all acquired entirely new meanings.
The first item to go was the sharp and absolute separation between space and
time. Einstein's Special and General Theories of Relativity have now joined
them together into a four-dimension continuum lacking the Newtonian
universal flow of time. Different observers will see events occurring in
different temporal sequences according to their respective positions and
velocities. As the eminent and Nobel Prize-winning Japanese physicist Hideki
Yukama states it, "Here time resolves itself into the fourth dimension, on a
par with space, where harmony prevails in an eternal state of rest. One may
sense something close to the Oriental outlook."
The second item to go was the concept of matter as something substantial,
whose building blocks, the atoms, were considered to be the ultimate,
indivisible constituents of the physical world. Almost suddenly, the atom
was understood to be divisible and made up of nucleus and particles.
Stranger still, particles could be interpreted as waves as well as granular
elements - it made little difference to the mathematical equations that
dealt with them since they are not substantial things in the commonsensical
meaning of the word. Wave mechanics assert that electrons can be either
waves or corpuscles, giving rise to the Theory of Complementarity, according
to which any physical event can be interpreted in two different frames of
reference, mutually exclusive, yet also complementary. At that microcosmic
level, the objective world of space and time ceases to exist: the
mathematical interpretation of this subatomic world no longer refers to
actual reality but only to potentialities, "probability waves."
With Heisenberg's Principle of Uncertainty (or Indetermination), we now
reach the outer limits of scientific possibilities by doing away with
determinism and causality, in view of the impossibility of determining
simultaneously the position and velocity of a particle - the greater the
precision of the one, the greater the imprecision of the other. The deeper
we penetrate into the microcosmic world, the more difficult, if not
impossible, is direct observation, along with the fact that the observation
itself interferes with the behaviour of the phenomenon. For instance, let us
suppose that an imaginary microscope was able to magnify an individual
electron a hundred thousand million times so as to make it visible to the
human eye. Since an electron is smaller than a light-wave, the scientist
could make it visible only by using radiation of a shorter wave-length
high-frequency gamma rays of radium that would push it around violently and
make an objective study of it impossible.
This amounts to saying that physics can go only so far in its objective
study of nature, and no further: and beyond, there remains a whole realm of
reality that can never be investigated by scientific observation and
experimentation. Physics has to presuppose the existence of a background
that shall remain forever outside the scope of its investigation. Physics
itself is now reduced to statistical statements and pointer readings;
physical laws simply express the "connectivity" of these pointer readings.
To sum up, the world we see and experience in everyday life is simply a
mirage, an illusion of our perceptions and our brain. All that is around us,
including ourselves, which appears so substantial, is ultimately nothing but
networks of particle waves whirling around at lightning speed, colliding,
rebounding, disintegration in almost total emptiness. Matter is mostly
emptiness, proportionately as void as intergalactic space, void of anything
except occasional dots and spots and scattered electric charges. For
instance, a single atom is already minute enough: yet, although almost all
of its mass is concentrated in the nucleus, this nucleus itself is a hundred
thousand times smaller. An atom, therefore, is almost completely empty space
in which protons and neutrons whirl around within its confines at speeds up
to forty thousand miles per second-enough to make us dizzy when we
understand that, in the last resort, that is what we and everything physical
are made of.
A Victorian scientist thought that he knew clearly what he was talking about
when he mentioned atoms, molecules, matter: he visualised them as concrete
and describable elements. Today's physicist knows that this is not exactly
the case. Science no longer pretends to have anything to say about the
intrinsic nature of the physical world: the atom we attempted to visualise
earlier is, in fact, nothing more than a "schedule of pointer readings"
attached to some unknown background. Scientific knowledge is all inferential
knowledge. Physics presents us with the symbolic skeleton of the universe,
not with an accurate picture of the universe itself.
The one indisputable fact about the universe is human consciousness which is
known to us by direct and immediate self-knowledge. Even science and
actuality of the physical world is, ultimately, a product of our
consciousness. Physics now tends to accept the fact that we have to restore
consciousness to the fundamental position in the universe, rather than see
it simply as a material phenomenon derived from a particular arrangement of
physical molecules, atoms and particles. Physicists such as Eugene Wigner
believe that the formal inclusion of consciousness in physics could well
become an essential feature of any further advance in our scientific
understanding. The mind is the one element of knowledge that is not limited
to pointer readings. Therefore, only consciousness can provide the necessary
background for all the pointer readings that, in the aggregate, constitute
physical science.
This background is mind-stuff and, as Eddington puts it, the "stuff of the
world is mind-stuff." This mind -stuff is not spread out in space and time:
on the contrary, it is space and time that are spun out of it. Here and
there it rises to the level of self-consciousness in human beings and from
those tips of icebergs, floating on the surface of the world stuff, springs
our two-tier intellectual knowledge - direct knowledge within each thinking
individual, and generalised inferential knowledge which includes our
knowledge of the physical world. Inferential knowledge, however, is only
part of a whole and cannot grasp the whole. Science cannot, regardless of
further discoveries, encroach on the background from which it springs; and
our own consciousness lies in this background.
Our task now is to deal with that part of consciousness that does not emerge
in space and time and is, therefore, not amenable to scientific analysis - a
part that is, perhaps, amenable to the insights of the religious approach.
We are now faced with the central problem of the truth of religion. A vast
number of churches and denominations scattered throughout the world claim a
near-monopoly of spiritual truth with a remarkable lack of metaphysical
humility such as characterises contemporary science. It has become difficult
for any thoughtful person to subscribe to any such claim. All religions are
true and false at the same time, in the sense that they all point toward
some ultimate truth; but none of them is literally and absolutely true. All
their myth, dogmas, scriptures and theologies are merely symbolic and
relative interpretations designed to help the devotee on his spiritual way.
But how did this belief in the possibility of "literal" truth come about
when thousands of years ago already, our much wiser cultural ancestors quite
rightly understood that every form of expression is purely symbolic? As
Origen expressed it in the third century: "Who can be stupid enough to
believe that God, like a gardener, tilled the fields of Eden and actually
planted a tree named the Tree of Life?" In order to understand it, we must
come to grips with the fundamental dichotomy splitting mankind's higher
cultures into two distinct groups - East and West, the most famous twins in
history: the East comprising Hinduism and Buddhism, along with all the other
sects and creeds of the Far East and their offshoots; the West being largely
made up of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The East springs mostly from
India's culture heritage, the West from Greek philosophy and the prophetic
tradition of Judaism.
The first striking difference is that the West often believes in the literal
truth of its myths, scriptures, dogmas and ideologies, and often takes their
contents as historical facts, very much as the Victorian physicist thought
that his scientific world-picture literally described the universe as it is.
The East, on the other hand, does nothing of the kind - indeed it has no
dogmas at all, sees in all myths merely useful symbolism and does not care
at all about historical fact. The roots of the pseudo conflict between
science and religion, materialism and spiritualism lies right here and
concerns only the West. No such conflict is possible in the East where all
mythologies are understood to be simply allegoric and symbolic, implying no
literal truth or factual statement whatsoever, and therefore no possibility
of collision with any scientific view of the universe.
It does matter a great deal to the West whether Christ rose bodily from the
dead, multiplied bread loaves, or even existed at all. It does not matter
one whit to the East whether Rama, Shiva or Buddha ever existed; since their
importance is not historical but symbolic. The West has always attempted to
impose dogmatically its conflicting viewpoints because, imbued with a
Biblical, Judaic or Koranic sense of God-given historical mission and the
conviction of having the monopoly of literal religious truth, it has always
attempted to conquer and shape the world, either by the sword or by
scientific knowledge. The apparent paradox is that the western scientific
attitude springs precisely from this belief in literalness, inherited from
medieval scholasticism, from the intellectual gymnastics of such mental
giants as Duns Scotus and Abelard, who raised the word-symbol to an almost
mathematical precision, and made possible the total independence of the
abstract idea from aesthetic impression. Thought was no longer chained to
subjective emotion and could therefore enter into independent and objective
relationship with the world of nature. The East also expanded its knowledge
but without ever rejecting the mythologies from which it sprang. It never
took those myths to be anything but metaphorical formulations of higher
truths - as projected contents of an unconscious that was understood and
accepted as being closer to ultimate Reality than conscious thought
(waking-consciousness).
East and West alike, all religions attempt to provide for their devotees a
"way": a path toward some form of holiness. Unlike the West, the East
concentrates almost entirely on the Path - the Chinese Tao, the Buddhist
"Noble Eightfold Path" - and underplays the merely intellectual
interpretations that supposedly go with it. Therefore it does not tread on
the secular grounds covered by science. Furthermore, and this is crucial, it
has studied the "way" of internal metamorphosis pragmatically and
undogmatically, with almost clinical thoroughness; whereas the West,
encumbered by dogmas and scriptures, has never developed a methodical
"science" of the "way", based on experimentation and observation. The "way",
of course, is the way of the mystic, for lack of a better word. Where the
mystical impulse, in the West, is presumed to be a free gift of God's grace
imparted to the few, in the East it is presumed to arise through a form of
knowledge and practice that is, theoretically, at everyone's disposal.
****
Knowledge of Reality
http://www.sol.com.au/kor/kor_10.htm
Peter H.M. Brooks
imagi...@hotmail.com "****" writes:
It is impressiv that you manage to produce such an load of tosh
all in one posting - have you been practicing?
Peter H.M. Brooks
****
There was a resplendent galaxy of poet saints in Maharashtra from the 13th
to the 17th Century, from Jnandev (1275-'96) down to Turkaram (1608-'90).
Altogether this was a time of great national vitality, covering the Maratha
struggle for independence of the Moghul Empire and its final achievement
under Shivaji. On the whole, however, the poet-saints showed no concern with
such matters.
They were a strong, rugged, outspoken dynasty drawn from all social classes.
Jnandev was a Brahmin, but there were also Namdev, a tailor; Gora, a potter;
Savanta, a gardener; Chokha, a sweeper; and Tukaram, a tradesman. There were
women too among them: Jnandev's sister Muktabai, Namdev's servant Jani,
Chokha's wife Soyara. Their outstanding quality is a beautiful fusing of
bhakti (devotion) with Jnana (knowledge). They worshipped and merged into
Oneness with the God they worshipped. This is especially prominent in
Tukaram. He declares for instance, "When I meditate on the Lord of Pandhari
the body becomes transformed together with the mind. Where is there room for
speech then? My I-ness is become Hari (God). With the mind merging in Divine
Conciousness all creation looks divine. Tukaram says: 'how shall I put it?
All at once I became lost in God-conciousness." And again, "The glory of the
bhaktas is known only to themselves. It is hard for others to understand. In
order to increase the happiness of love in this world they display duality
without actually dividing. This is understood only by those who have
experienced Unity through faith."
Jnandev with his sister Muktabai and his two brothers, all four of them
poet-saints, had an unhappy childhood. Their father, after living the life
of an ascetic, returned to married life, and on that account the orthodox
Brahmins ostracised the whole family. They were orphaned young and their
genius blazed forth while still in their teens. Jnandev, the greatest of
them, is better known as Jnaneshwara, the 'Lord of Wisdom'. His great work,
the Jnaneshwari is a monumental verse commentary on the Bhagavad Gita. Apart
from this there are also his Anubhavamrita or 'Elixir of Experience'. Having
himself attained this elixir, he says,
"The distinction between liberated, aspirant and bound subsists only so long
as this Elixir of Experience is unknown to one. The enjoyer and the enjoyed,
the seer and the seen, are merged in the non-dual, which is indivisible. The
devotee has become God, the Goal has become God, the Goal has become the
path; this indeed is solitude in the universe.'
This magnificent achievement was completed by the age of 22, when he
declared that his life's work was finished and ceremoniously entered into
samadhi in a specially prepared crypt, having given instruction that it was
to be bricked up. This was in the village of Alandi in Poona district. There
is a beautiful atmosphere of sanctity and serenity there. It contains a tree
under which an unending chain of recitation of the Jnaneshwari has gone
until the present day. Jnaneshwara has remained a perrenial fount of
inspiration for Maharashtra. He was at once the foundation and crown of this
amazing dynasty.
Namdev, who arose next, described the three brothers as manifestations of
Para-Brahmin and spoke of them as shining suns. In his youth he had been a
thief and murderer, until one day, hearing a young mother explain to her
fatherless child that they had to live in penury because his father had been
killed, he realised with sudden horror that it was he who was the killer,
and with a violent revulsion of feeling he rushed to the nearby temple to
take his own life. He was prevented, however, and he devoted the rest of his
life to penance and worship. He wrote in Hindi as well as Marathi (two
sister languages both derived from sanskrit, as are most of those of North
India), and it is interesting to note that some of his Hindi songs are
included in the Granth Sahib, the scripture of the Sikhs, which their
founder, Guru Nanak, partly wrote and partly compiled.
While he was still a simple devotee of God in the form of Vithoba it was
Jnaneshwara's sister Muktabai who awoke him to deeper understanding. when he
met her she astonished him:
What if you have become a devotee of the Lord?
The Inner Refuge is beyond your ken;
Never have you turned your gaze Spiritward!
What use is your godly talk till then?
Your Self you have never found;
I-ness has you in its iron grip.
Yet, unmindful of your own failure,
You question us about our roots.
She also wrote for him:
All form is forever permeated with formlessness.
Shape it has none, but enveloped in Maya
The devotee does with form endow
The all-pervading Boundless That within.
Such was the celestial group of which one, the sweeper Chokha proclaimed:
'God neither has form nor is without form.'
Another, the servant-girl Janabai, felt that she 'ate God, drank God, slept
on God and carried on all her activities with God.'
Namdev died in 1350. He desired his ashes to be buried under the doorstep to
the main entrance of the temple of Vitobha at Pandharpur so that all
devotees who went there might bless him with their holy feet.
The next great saint of this galaxy was Eknath (1533-'99). He taught that
bhakti and jnana are like flower and fruit, inconcievable in seperation. He
carried on the tradition of Jnaneshwar and Namdev. The text of the Jnashwari
had become corrupted, so he re-edited it, and his recension has remained
current to the present day. He was both scholar and poet, and his verse
exposition of chapter XI of the Bhagavata is as illuminating and as popular
as the Jnaneshwari. His copious and varied compositions (including
folk-songs called 'Bharudas') have enriched Marathi literature with their
unique quality.
Eknath had a contemporary, Father Stephens, an English Jesuit from Oxford,
living in Goa who composed a Christa Purana in Marathi distinctlyreminiscent
of Eknath's Bhagavata.
There are many sayings that bring out the pure advaitic understanding of
Eknath. "My body is Pandhari" (a place of pilgrimage) he says, and Atma is
Vitthala (God) therein." And again: "When I bathe in the river the water is
liquid conciousness!"
He was famed for his never-ending patience as well as for his tolerance and
compassion. He was carrying holy water for his worship but gave it to a
thirsty donkey. On the anniversary of his ancestors he called an untouchable
for food and gave him the consecrated dishes prepared for the Brahmins.
The next great figure in this dynasty, Tukaram, (1608-'50) was a peasant
trader by profession but ranks as the crown of Maratha sainthood after
Jnaneshwara. The woman poet Bahinabai speaks of him as the steeple or
pinnacle of the edifice whose foundation Jnaneshwara had laid. Rameshwar, a
contemporary disciple, declaired that " in jnana, bhakti and vairagya
(dispassion) there was no one to match Tukaram".
Even today his songs sway our emotions as they did his contemporaries.
The secret lies in the rustic simplicity and utter frankness on
self-revelationin his songs together with their profound understanding and
ardent devotion. He had not an easy life. He could not get up any interest
in trade, with the result that he and his family often went hungry,and his
wife developed into a scold, as well as she might. The local Brahmins
declared that, being of low caste, he had no right to compose poems and
ordered him to throw them into the river flowing through the town.
Obediently he did so, but the waters washed them ashore undamaged. Abashed
by this, his critics allowed them to be kept. He rose above
body-conciousness while still in the body. In a well known poem he declares;
"I witnessed with my own eyes my bodily death. That was indeed a unique
sacrament!" He started (like his prototype Namdev) as an ordinary devotee of
God as Vitthala but attained transcendent experience "I went to see God and
there stood transfigured into God'" he says.
He is one of those rare saints who have disappeared bodily at the end of
life. Since there was no body to entomb there is no shrine to him to which
pilgrims can repair. Instead they go to the spot on the river bank where his
poems were washed ashore. There is a beautiful atmosphere there.
Apart from this fraternity of saints centred around Pandharpur, there were
two other contemporaries of Tukaram who were eminent Marathi poet-saints.
One of them was a Muslim faqir , Sheikh Muhammed, whose tomb at Ahmednagar
became a place of pilgrimage for Muslims and Hindus alike. The other was
Samartha Ramdas, the powerful inspirer of Shivaji, whose shrine is at
Sajjangad in Satara District.
Sheikh Muhammed is chiefly remembered today for his Yoga-sangrama, a long
allegory in songs describing the spiritual struggle as a 'battle of yoga'.
He confesses: "I do not know refined speech. Cultured pandits may laugh at
my uncouth expression. But look into the core and understand my soul." Like
Kabir he understood the basic unanimity of the religions and he could have
said with Kabir: " Ram and Rahim, Ishwar and Allah are all the same." He
regarded all sadhus as the same and not other than the Absolute, whatever
their external forms or religions. "The peel of the jackfruit is rough and
prickly but the pulp inside is sweet. The shell of the coconut is hard and
rough, but the milk and kernel inside are delicious." He also said: "There
is no difference between Paramatma (universal spirit) and saint. They are
essentially the same although they appear different." Tukaram said in almost
the same words: "All saints are the same. They appear different only in
externals, just as milk is all the same though it comes from cows of
different colour."
Samartha Ramdas also said the same: "Sadhus look different, but, merged in
Self, they are all manifestations of the One Real." What distinguished him
from the Pandharpur group of saints was that, unlike them, he was interested
in the national life also. He became the Guru of Shivaji and inspired the
freedom struggle against Aurangzeb. His Das-Bodha is a Marathi classic of
rare merit. Though composed in the ovi metre, it has the terseness and
forthrightness of vigorous prose. Its pragmatism is impregnated with the
highest spiritual values. It inculcates Vedanta in practical terms of
work-a-day life. Its code of enlightened conduct covers all social classes
and applies to both ruler and ruled.
The message and mission of Ramdas were summed up in the meaningful phrase
'Maharashtra Dharma'. His work contained that mixture of realism and
intuition which are so characteristic of Maharashtra through the ages. In
fact his Das-Bodha with Tukaram's Gatha or Book of Songs and the Jnaneshwari
can be looked upon as the 'Triple Veda' of Maharashtra down to this day.
Their appeal is both to the head and heart. They are couched in a form which
some might consider more like rythmical prose than verse. But they are all
alike embodiments of Satyam-Sivam-Sundaram - 'Truth, Purity, Beauty'. The
truth must be experienced, and these had experienced it and could indicate
it for others to experience.
From the Mountain Path
****
Paul Williams Robert says in his book "Empire of the Soul":
The Spread of Christianity in Goa:
"In the wake of the warriors came the priests.
First, the Franciscans, then the Jesuits, then the Dominicans, and lastly
the Augustinians. It must have made their holy blood boil to find their old
foes, the Muslims and Jews openly and brazenly practicing their religions.
The men of God set about clearing what the Dominican termed this "jungle of
unbelief" with the ardor of Amazon lumber barons.
Just like the mullahs who had marched into Goa two hundred years before with
the Bahamani sultans, these Catholic clergy were prepared to go to any
lenghts to spread their faiths. Initially they pestered the Portugese king
for special powers, then they pestered the Pope to pester the king on their
behalf.
The first of these special powers arrived in 1540 when the viceroy received
authority to "destroy all Hindu temples, not leaving a single one
in any islands, and to confiscate the estates of these temples for the
maintenance of the churches which are to be erected in their places.
Five years later, the Italian cleric Father Nicolau Lancilotto reported that
"not a single temple to be seen on the island."
The island in question was Teeswadi, the main field of operations for the
two priestly orders then on the scene. A glance at the absurd profusion of
churches standing cheek by jowl in Old Goa still conveys some idea of the
spiritiual excesses indulged in by these competing orders of the day.
This Olympiad of Christianization scared the hell out of the locals, and
thousands of family fled across the river. To them, the harshness of the
Moghuls still governing the adjacent territories must have been preferable
to the rabid monomania of papist clerics.
A saying still exist in Konkani, the language of Goa:
"Hanv polthandi vaitam" ( I'm leaving for the other bank ), one half of
its double meaning implying to this day that a person is rejecting
Christianity.
Although their temples had been razed.
The Hindus who remained continued to practice their religion in secret.
More extreme methods were therefore instituted to bring the heathen into the
church's loving embrace. Hindu festivities were forbidden; Hindu priests
were forbidden from entering Goa; makers of idols were severely punished;
public jobs were given only to Christians.
Soon it was announced that anyone practicising in private was declared a
crime. The penalty was confiscation of property. Also Hindus, dying without
a male heir could pass thier estates only to relative who had embraced
Christianity.
Death was no easier than life for Hindus in mid-sixteenth-century Goa. To
them, the cruelest piece of legislation passed by the Portugese prohibited
cremation of the dead - an inviolably sacred part of Hindu faith.
As a result, death had to be kept a secret; the wailing grief of the women
had to be smothered; family members had to go about their business as if
nothing had happened; children were sent out to play, washing was done, work
was performed - all as usual.
In the dead of the night, a boat would be loaded with firewood down on the
riverbank, then the dead body would be placed on it, covered by more wood.
The pyre would be set alight and the boat pushed out to drift on the river's
currents as the funeral party ran back into the safety of shadows.
The missionaries simply could not grasp that another people's faith could be
as dearly cherished as deeply embedded as their own.
The mssionaries obviously had no idea how resilient Hinduism could be, and
indeed is. It had survived Islam's scimtar, and it would survive the sword
that so much resembled the cross in whose service it was now employed.
Total of 200 temples had been demolished.
****
Says Andre Corsalli to Giuliano de Medici Jan 6, 1516
" In a small island near this, called Divari, the Portuguese , in order
to build the city, have destroyed an ancient temple ... which was built with
marvelous art and with ancient figures wrought to the greatest perfection,
in a certain black stone, some of which remain standing, ruined and
shattered , because these Portuguese care nothing about them. If I can come
by one of these shattered images, I will send it to your Lordship, that you
may perceive how much in old times sculpture was esteemed in every part of
the world."
Source: Empire of the Soul
By Paul William Roberts
Riverhead Books.
1994.
pages 80-84
_____________________________________________________
****
A group of prominent South Asia experts in the United States has suggested
easing the controls on the export of dual-use technology to India.
The easing of such controls is one of the demands being made by India in its
talks with the US to deal with the situation arising out of its nuclear
tests in May.
The experts, who constituted a task force chaired by Richard N Haass,
director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institutions, and Morton
H Halperin, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, have not
endorsed more ambitious US policies dictated solely by nuclear concerns.
They have instead urged the administration to recognise other important
interests in promoting democracy, expanding economic growth, and
co-operating with India and Pakistan on global challenges.
The task force's report, which was released in Washington yesterday, says
the administration's nuclear non-proliferation aims in the South Asian
region are "unrealistic", specially the idea of a complete "rollback" to a
non-nuclear South Asia.
It says, "What India and Pakistan learned from the recent tests cannot be
unlearned and for the foreseeable future neither country will eliminate its
stockpiles or sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear
state. Such goals are likely only in the context of giant strides toward
global disarmament and improvement in Indo-Pakistan and Sino-Indian
relations."
The report says a rollback to a non-nuclear South Asia is not even a
realistic medium-term policy option. "The United States should keep the
broader interests in South Asia in mind, specially its economic stakes, and
abandon the narrow, sanctions-dominated policy which is unrealistic and
could thwart American goals in the long run."
It urges congress to grant a broad waiver authority to President Bill
Clinton to remove sanctions against India and Pakistan and allow diplomacy
to play a role.
The report partly blames China for the situation in the region, given its
own nuclear and missile programmes that concern India and the assistance it
has been providing Pakistan.
It calls upon China to cap its strategic force levels to encourage India to
do the same. It says China should remove warheads from its missiles,
de-alert its forces, institute confidence-building measures, and act in a
"constructive manner".
The report calls upon India and Pakistan to cap their nuclear programmes at
current levels, sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, participate in the
Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty, not deploy missiles with nuclear warheads
or aircraft with nuclear bombs, abide by the Missile Technology Control
Regime, initiate confidence-building measures, calm the situation in
Kashmir, and begin talks to improve relations.
If India and Pakistan take some of these steps, it says, the bulk of the
sanctions should be removed. World Bank lending and private loans should be
allowed. "The United States needs to move away from the 'light switch'
approach central to the Glenn Amendment and toward a more modulated use of
sanctions as symbolised by a rheostat," it adds.
The expert group has disagreed with the idea of linking Clinton's proposed
visit to India with progress in the talks between the two countries. Clinton
should visit the region since such a trip is in the broader interests of all
countries, it has suggested.
It has also suggested that the US provide intelligence and selective
technology to India and Pakistan in support of specific confidence-building
measures to dispel rumours or disprove false assessments that could
stimulate an "unnecessary" arms competition or unauthorised or accidental
use of nuclear weapons.
UNI
http://209.194.80.218/news/1998/sep/18nuke.htm
****
Cracks have developed in the ruling Pakistan Muslim League over the 15th
Constitution Amendment Bill introduced by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief to
make the holy Quran and the Sunnah the supreme law of the country.
As many as 30 members of the League have raised the banner of revolt against
the party's leadership on the provisions of the bill. In fact, Khurshid
Kasuri, member of the National Assembly, enraged by some remarks made by the
prime minister at a meeting of the PML parliamentary party yesterday, even
handed over his resignation to Sharief.
Sharief was annoyed that after having been elected on a PML ticket, Kasuri
was openly lobbying against the bill. To this, Kasuri said he was opposing
the bill because his conscience would not permit him to keep quiet, and in
doing so he was only exercising his democratic right to free expression of
his opinion. At this, Sharief demanded his resignation, which Kasuri handed
over promptly and walked out.
Kasuri was later called back by several of his supporters in the PML who
also asked Sharief to reject his resignation. Sharief complied.
UNI
http://209.194.80.218/news/1998/sep/18pak.htm
****
BEIJING, Sept. 18 (Agencies)
China has banned the public dissemination of the fund Starr report detailing
US President Bill Clinton's sexual encounters with Monica Lewinsky, a
leading Hong Kong newspaper reported today.
Circulars have been sent to publishing houses ordering them not to put out
Chinese versions of the report. Those which violate the rule will be given
heavy punishment, the "South China Morning Post" reported.
Staff working in government departments and state-owned enterprises have
been told not to read the report on the Internet, the report said.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin had praised Clinton's contributions to build
up strong Sino-US ties, it said apparently referring to the reasons behind
the ban.
Clinton had recently visited China in late June where he shook hands with
Jiang and accepted red carpet state welcome at the Tiananmen Square.
Officially, China is silent on Clinton's sex scandal. "It is an internal
affair of the United States. We don't comment on that," Foreign Ministry
spokesman Zhu Bangzao said.
China's state-run media largely had ignored spicy stories on Clinton until
independent counsel Kenneth Starr submitted his report alleging potential
grounds for Clinton's impeachment.
Even then, stories in the Communist Party mouthpiece, the "People's Daily"
have been terse and relegated to the inside pages.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/190998/detFor02.htm
Brijnandan Singh Dehiya
It is even more impressive that Peter 'His Moronity' Brooks can write more
than one phrase at a time. Or understand more than half a phrase at once.
Perhaps he has been going to adult education classes - those taught by
alzheimer patients.
Brij
----
Peter H.M. Brooks
Well done, my child. You seem to be cross bunny, maybe you might manage
being an articulate bunny one day.
--
Peter H.M. Brooks
Brijnandan Singh Dehiya
Right after you start chewing without your dentures.
Brij
----
Peter H.M. Brooks
b...@merle.acns.nwu.edu "Brijnandan Singh Dehiya" writes:
> In article <906172...@psyche.demon.co.uk>,
> Peter H.M. Brooks <pe...@psyche.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> >In article <6tuvme$2...@news.acns.nwu.edu>
> > b...@merle.acns.nwu.edu "Brijnandan Singh Dehiya" writes:
> >>
> >> It is even more impressive that Peter 'His Moronity' Brooks can write more
> >> than one phrase at a time. Or understand more than half a phrase at once.
> >> Perhaps he has been going to adult education classes - those taught by
> >> alzheimer patients.
> >>
> >Well done, my child. You seem to be cross bunny, maybe you might manage
> >being an articulate bunny one day.
>
> Right after you start chewing without your dentures.
>
This is a curious point. I would have thought that having false teeth
indicated considerable age, unless you had some problem. Not using them
would indicate death, or something. Maybe you can make this gnomic phrase
a little clearer.
--
Peter H.M. Brooks
****
in Off-Broadway Production
(New York, N.Y.) - Terrence McNally's new play, "Corpus Christi," is about a
Jesus-like figure who has sex with his apostles and is crucified as the
"king of the queers." The lead character is Joshua (Hebrew for "Jesus").
Even the play's title pokes at the devout: "Corpus Christi" is a feast day
honoring the Eucharist, a sacred sacrament. It also means "the body of
Christ." What could be worse than an intentionally blasphemous play? This
insult to people of faith is being produced with tax dollars! Last year, the
National Endowment for the Arts gave the Manhattan Theater Club, which will
host the play this fall, $205,000, with $80,000 earmarked to develop new
plays. Catholic League President William Donohue exclaimed that the
Manhattan Theater Club is not entitled to its Federal, state and local
government subsidies. "It is one thing for a fully private group to produce
such a work," he said, but "nobody has a right to the public purse. If it's
wrong to take public monies to promote my religion, then it's wrong to take
public monies to bash my religion," he added. Christian Coalition Executive
Director Randy Tate agreed. "This is the last straw," he said. "We need to
shut down the NEA." Tate met with House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Majority
Leader Dick Armey and Majority Whip Tom DeLay in May, and the House
leadership reaffirmed their commitment to eliminating the NEA once and for
all. "The NEA may claim that its grant money to the Manhattan Theater Club
was not for this disgusting play, but make no mistake. That money - taxpayer
money - benefits the entire theater program and is therefore direct support
for an incredible assault on Christ." The U.S. Senate remains silent on this
issue.
http://www.cc.org/publications/rrw/0798/queerplay.html
Wilson Samraj
**** <imagi...@hotmail.com> wrote in article
<6tuukm$6ba$1...@winter.news.erols.com>...
Peter H.M. Brooks
imagi...@hotmail.com "****" writes:
> Christ." What could be worse than an intentionally blasphemous play? This
>
Quite a few things really, nuclear winter comes to mind, as does being
sentenced to five years in Yankland. An intentionally religious play
is certainly worse - unless it is 'St Joan', but that is something of
an exception.
--
Peter H.M. Brooks
Jim Rockford, P.I.
<a load of crap snipped>
*>The U.S. Senate remains silent on this issue.
Too bad you can't take the queue and do the same.
No wonder less and less people are responding to your mindless rubbish.
It is not worth dignifying with a response. So, here's the last kick
at the cat. Talk to the walls from now on. Easy to find rubbish, believe
rubbish, and quote rubbish from spurious sources, especially now that we
have a free-for-all with the advent of the Net:( Anyone can quote anyone!
Even you!
Kishore Joshi
An excellent source of clarified research/commentry with
parallels to CHristian and other Indian saints of North India.
In article <6tur2a$dmv$1...@winter.news.erols.com>,
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Money is not the root of All Evil, It is the perceived lack of it....
ramk...@imap3.asu.edu
: US experts call for easing technology controls on India
: A group of prominent South Asia experts in the United States has suggested
: easing the controls on the export of dual-use technology to India.
: The easing of such controls is one of the demands being made by India in its
: talks with the US to deal with the situation arising out of its nuclear
: tests in May.
Good idea for India to make this conditional in the on going talks. The
childish reaction from the adolescents' ;-) administration is just one
more example of a series of bad moves in the recent US foreign policy.
: The report partly blames China for the situation in the region, given its
: own nuclear and missile programmes that concern India and the assistance it
: has been providing Pakistan.
But this blame will point back to the US for assisting China by the
present administration 'for a few dollars more' support aka Campaign
funds ;-)
: It calls upon China to cap its strategic force levels to encourage India to
: do the same. It says China should remove warheads from its missiles,
Especially those pointing at US ;-) which can be repointed in a matter of
minutes ;-) thanks to Bill.
: de-alert its forces, institute confidence-building measures, and act in a
: "constructive manner".
: The expert group has disagreed with the idea of linking Clinton's proposed
: visit to India with progress in the talks between the two countries.
Right again. India and Pakistan did not progress with their talks in 50
years ;-) and linking the visit is a nice way to say Mr.President can't
go due to problems elsewhere.
: Clinton
: should visit the region since such a trip is in the broader interests of all
: countries, it has suggested.
Strangely this would warrant lifting sanctions before the visit.
: UNI
: http://209.194.80.218/news/1998/sep/18nuke.htm
Prem Thomas
be
known as Prince, "****" wrote:
> Jesus Called 'King of Queers'
>
> in Off-Broadway Production
>
> (New York, N.Y.) - Terrence McNally's new play, "Corpus Christi," is about a
> Jesus-like figure who has sex with his apostles and is crucified as the
> "king of the queers." The lead character is Joshua (Hebrew for "Jesus").
> Even the play's title pokes at the devout: "Corpus Christi" is a feast day
> honoring the Eucharist, a sacred sacrament. It also means "the body of
> Christ." What could be worse than an intentionally blasphemous play? This
> insult to people of faith is being produced with tax dollars! Last year, the
> National Endowment for the Arts gave the Manhattan Theater Club, which will
> host the play this fall, $205,000, with $80,000 earmarked to develop new
> plays.
Can you picture anything even remotely similar happening under the
auspices of
your fascist-VHP controlled BJP-led government in India?
Prem
mailto:pre...@qed.net
http://x8.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?AN=353985687&CONTEXT=899796610.1448346043&hitnum=1
http://panacea.phys.utk.edu/~dbd/minifaqs/jai.maharaj.miniFAQ
http://www.wetware.com/mlegare/kotm/html/jaievidence.html
>It would be merely annoying if it didn't provide so much misinformation to
>new or occassional readers; preventing such misinformation being the
>only reason anybody ever responds to the jai-bot.
> - Narad, Chuck, "The Jai-Bot explained"
> rec.food.veg et. al., November 1994
****
I don't see you ventilating some of that when the Western media pokes fun at
Hinduism. An Australian periodical recently printed lewd images of Lord
Ganesha with beer in his hands!
Christian Coalition fanatic Pat Roberston labelled Islam as 'Insanity' or
Hinduism as "Demonic".
don't you think Hindus and Muslims and all others have feelings?
If you pride yourself to be so fair minded, then why not protest those
incidents?
You are nothing but a typical " Holier than thou" Christian with a vulgar
name calling, demented tongue to match with it! If you don't like what
somebody posts, all you can do, is resort to "mudslinging and name
calling".
Its pathetic. Whatever happened to freedom of speech??
Must we act like we are in Communist China?
____________________________________________________
Prem Thomas wrote in message <3604BBDF...@ged.net>...
Prem Thomas
> Your Moral outrage is extremely funny!
> I don't see you ventilating some of that when the Western media pokes fun at
> Hinduism. An Australian periodical recently printed lewd images of Lord
> Ganesha with beer in his hands!
So ventilate all you want, but do it in the appropriate fora. SCI, SCIK
and
Indian Christians have nothing to do with stray incidents of ignorant
outpourings and remarks from fringe(and acknowledgedly ultra right-wing)
"Christian" groups. Do you see Indian Christians castigating Hinduism
and all
Hindus for incidents of violence, stupid remarks and so on on the part
of some
so-called "Hindus"? No, but you seem all too eager to do the reverse.
> Christian Coalition fanatic Pat Roberston labelled Islam as 'Insanity' or
> Hinduism as "Demonic".
> don't you think Hindus and Muslims and all others have feelings?
If you have a problem with the Christian Coalition's stands on certain
issues(as
I do), mail them at coal...@cc.org. But do stop acting as the attack
dog of
the bigoted jyotishi who lately, and inexplicably, has been sharing his
bed with
CC.
> If you pride yourself to be so fair minded, then why not protest those
> incidents?
> You are nothing but a typical " Holier than thou" Christian with a vulgar
> name calling, demented tongue to match with it! If you don't like what
> somebody posts, all you can do, is resort to "mudslinging and name
> calling".
What you have posted is mere mudslinging and misleading rhetoric.
Furthermore,
you are slandering and tarnishing the image of all Christians, and
Indian
Christians in particular, based on the actions and remarks of a few
so-called
"right-wingers".
> Its pathetic. Whatever happened to freedom of speech??
> Must we act like we are in Communist China?
You are, certainly.
Adina Greiner
that homosexuals desperately want to defile any great man in history, and
claim that he was "one of them." They claim Lincoln was homosexual, that
Michelangelo was too.
They aren't happy destroying themselves, they want to "recruit" new
members to their disgusting cult. And so they will make up any lie to
"gain credibility"
in the minds of naive and ignorant people.
In article <6u0lhe$9tk$1...@winter.news.erols.com>, "****"
<imagi...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Jesus Called 'King of Queers'
>
> in Off-Broadway Production
>
> (New York, N.Y.) - Terrence McNally's new play, "Corpus Christi," is about a
> Jesus-like figure who has sex with his apostles and is crucified as the
> "king of the queers." The lead character is Joshua (Hebrew for "Jesus").
> Even the play's title pokes at the devout: "Corpus Christi" is a feast day
> honoring the Eucharist, a sacred sacrament. It also means "the body of
> Christ." What could be worse than an intentionally blasphemous play? This
> insult to people of faith is being produced with tax dollars! Last year, the
> National Endowment for the Arts gave the Manhattan Theater Club, which will
> host the play this fall, $205,000, with $80,000 earmarked to develop new
> plays. Catholic League President William Donohue exclaimed that the
> Manhattan Theater Club is not entitled to its Federal, state and local
> government subsidies. "It is one thing for a fully private group to produce
> such a work," he said, but "nobody has a right to the public purse. If it's
> wrong to take public monies to promote my religion, then it's wrong to take
> public monies to bash my religion," he added. Christian Coalition Executive
> Director Randy Tate agreed. "This is the last straw," he said. "We need to
> shut down the NEA." Tate met with House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Majority
> Leader Dick Armey and Majority Whip Tom DeLay in May, and the House
> leadership reaffirmed their commitment to eliminating the NEA once and for
> all. "The NEA may claim that its grant money to the Manhattan Theater Club
> was not for this disgusting play, but make no mistake. That money - taxpayer
> money - benefits the entire theater program and is therefore direct support
> for an incredible assault on Christ." The U.S. Senate remains silent on this
> issue.
> http://www.cc.org/publications/rrw/0798/queerplay.html
****
Franciscan Friars join other demonstrators outside the opening of "Corpus
Christi"
Catholic League on the play: 'Sick beyond words'
Theatergoer: 'It's all about free speech'
September 23, 1998
Web posted at: 1:49 a.m. EDT (0549 GMT)
NEW YORK (CNN) -- The curtain went up Tuesday on an off-Broadway play about
a gay Christlike figure as theatergoers submitted to airport-style security
because of death threats and about 150 people protested outside.
People attending the first preview of "Corpus Christi," which debuted to a
full house, had to pass through metal detectors and hand over bags and
packages to be X-rayed.
Several members of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal -- who wore gray
robes and sandals, some carrying crosses -- held a prayer vigil outside the
City Center theater.
The play, by Tony-winning playwright Terrence McNally, has been a source of
controversy since media reports in the spring revealed that it was about a
gay Christlike figure who has sex with his disciples.
In May, The Manhattan Theater Club dropped the work from its fall schedule
because of security concerns after callers threatened to burn the theater
and "exterminate" everyone inside.
Days later, theater executives reversed their decision, saying police had
promised to ensure safety if the play was staged, and it was scheduled for
Oct. 13. Tuesday was the first night of previews, in which a play is
generally fine-tuned before its official opening.
Pressure to produce the play also came from within the ranks of the theater
community. South African playwright Athol Fugard threatened to withdraw his
play "The Captain's Tiger" from the theater club's roster if "Corpus
Christi" was not mounted.
_______________________
Catholic League on the play: 'sick beyond words'
Holding signs saying "You call this art?" and "Don't support blasphemy,"
about 150 people gathered in a designated area across the street from the
theater, holding rosaries, singing hymns and praying. A 70-year-old woman
was arrested when she refused to move from in front of the theater.
"This play offends the very root of Christianity, which is the sacredness of
Christ," said Margaret Devlin, a Roman Catholic from Long Island. "It
defames Jesus Christ."
Devlin conceded she had based her objections to the play on media reports
but said "just knowing that Jesus Christ lives a homosexual lifestyle with
his disciples" was reason enough to protest.
The Catholic League branded the play "sick beyond words."
"Certain segments of the arts community seem obsessed with sex, and ...
they're projecting it onto Jesus Christ," said Rick Hinshaw, a spokesman for
the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. "It's just the
misportrayal, blasphemous portrayal of Jesus."
Play spokesman Andy Shearer refused to discuss the script Tuesday, saying
McNally preferred to let "Corpus Christi" speak for itself.
He said no details would be released beyond a description in a brochure sent
to potential theatergoers earlier this year. It said: "From modern day
Corpus Christi, Texas, to ancient Jerusalem, we follow a young gay man named
Joshua on his spiritual journey, and get to know the 12 disciples who choose
to follow him."
Theatergoer: 'It's all about free speech'
Theatergoers hurried past the demonstrators instead of lingering outside the
theater, as is customary before a show. They seemed to shrug off the
controversy.
"It's all about free speech. They have the right to protest. The theater has
a right to stage it. I have the right to see it," said Candace Simon, 37, of
Newark, New Jersey.
After being among the first to watch the play, John Friedman, 34, of
Greenwich, Connecticut, said he understood why it was controversial.
"It may not be for everybody, but I thought it really brought out the
transcendental nature of Jesus," he said. "It emphasized that he was an
outcast."
McNally -- who has won best-play Tony awards for "Master Class" and "Love!
Valour! Compassion!" as well as a Tony this season for the musical
"Ragtime" -- is both gay and Catholic. The play is directed by Joe Mantello,
another gay Catholic who starred in "Angels in America."
"It makes me a bit nervous," said Gail Topol, who said she had not known the
night's performance was the first of 10 previews before the play's formal
opening.
"It makes it a bit more nerve-racking. You don't know if some lunatic is
going to create a disturbance in the theater or something," she said.
http://www.cnn.com/US/9809/23/gay.jesus/
****
September 23, 1998
Web posted at: 2:41 a.m. EDT (0241 GMT)
NEW YORK (AP) -- New information on nuclear reactor performance indicates
that India is now capable of producing 455 atomic bombs and Pakistan can
build 105 nuclear weapons, Jane's Intelligence Review reported in its
October issue.
The estimates are higher than the current widely accepted view that India
can now produce a maximum of 65 bombs while Pakistan can make at most 25
bombs, the respected monthly security magazine said.
Rival nuclear tests in May by the South Asian neighbors, who have fought
three wars in the last 50 years, heightened fears of a new nuclear arms race
that could ultimately spread to other aspiring nuclear nations.
ALSO:
Indian PM says stage set for talks with Pakistan
The London-based magazine said new information provided by the Canadian
Nuclear Association on the performance of Canadian nuclear reactors in India
and Pakistan led to the revised projections on the amount of nuclear
material produced in both countries.
India has eight Canadian CANDU nuclear power reactors and one Canadian
research reactor while Pakistan's one nuclear power reactor is a CANDU, it
said.
Toronto-based author Ian Steer, who specializes in defense and science
issues, said in a telephone interview that the new estimates raise fears
that India could produce at least 800 atomic bombs over the next 10 years
and Pakistan could make more than 200 bombs.
Revised projections raise fears
As of July 1, India's 10 nuclear power reactors and three of its six nuclear
research reactors have produced 3,299 kilograms (7,258 pounds) of plutonium,
the key ingredient of its nuclear weapons, the Jane's report said.
Seventeen percent of this plutonium, or 567 kilograms (1,247 pounds), is
weapons-grade and the rest is less efficient reactor-grade plutonium which
can still be used to make nuclear weapons, it said.
The weapons-grade and reactor-grade plutonium can potentially be used to
make 455 atomic bombs, the magazine said.
Colin Hunt of the Canadian Nuclear Association was quoted as saying that "so
far as is known, India's power reactors have not been used to produce
weapons-grade plutonium, and none of the reactor-grade plutonium they have
produced has been diverted for weapons purposes."
Jane's noted, however, that if India's reactor-grade plutonium, which is not
under international safeguards, is separated from spent nuclear reactor
fuel, "it can be converted into 243 atomic bombs very quickly."
In Pakistan, Jane's said, the estimate that the country can produce a
maximum of 25 atomic bombs doesn't take into account plutonium for at least
38 weapons produced by the country's CANDU reactor.
Pakistan now uses highly enriched uranium in its nuclear weapons but within
a few years a new plutonium production reactor at Khusab will allow the
country to build plutonium-based atom bombs, it said.
In addition, the magazine said, closer analysis of Pakistan's two uranium
enrichment plants indicates their combined production to date is 2 1/2 times
greater than previously believed.
http://cnn.com/WORLD/asiapcf/9809/23/india.pakistan.01.ap/index.html
Peter H.M. Brooks
imagi...@hotmail.com "****" writes:
>
> People attending the first preview of "Corpus Christi," which debuted to a
^^^^^^^
>
This is the bit that really shocks me! How on earth do you think you can do
such a dreadful thing to the word 'debut'? It is worse than sick, it is
utterly deranged to assume that you just chuck an 'ed' on the end of a
word and bob's your uncle, do you have absolutely no sensitivity?
It certainly is true that Jesus died a bachelor, was very keen on his
mum and said 'Ah! Men!' so often that people thought it was one word. We
also know that Judas greeted him with a kiss - after storming off, presumably
from a lover's tiff, to call the police in a suggestively spiteful catty move.
It is also claimed that his mother was a virgin which might lend weight to
the proposition that homosexuality is genetic. One might also wonder why
exactly he wished to put an end to circumcision - maybe it was an aesthetic
concern. There was also the affair with the ass on Palm Sunday, but I won't
go into that.
I would be cautious of saying that he definately was a poof - after all, it
was only in 1977 that 'Gay News' was sucessfully prosecuted for publishing
a poem saying just that - Blasphemy (as this was said to be) is illegal
in England. In any case, though a lot of paintings show him in a frock there
is no evidence that he liked wearing leather trousers with the bottom missing.
It is not even completely certain that he had a moustache.
--
Peter H.M. Brooks
****
Evangelizing the globe by AD 2000
by Luis Bush
The core of the unreached people of our world lives in a rectangular-shaped
window! It is a belt that extends from West Africa across Asia, between 10
degrees north to 40 degrees north of the equator. If we are serious about
providing a valid opportunity for all people and every city to experience
the love, truth, and saving power of Jesus Christ, we cannot ignore the
reality that we must concentrate on this region of the world which could be
termed "the 10/40 Window." Why? There are six good reasons.
1. Historical significance. In the book of Genesis, we read the account of
Adam and Eve and the fall of man. Then came the flood, followed by the
building of the tower of Babel--all of which took place in the 10/40 Window.
This effort by man to try to rally together in defiance against God resulted
in the introduction of different languages, the scattering of the people,
and the formation of nations.
Ancient history was worked out in the territory marked by the 10/40
Window--from the cradle of civilization in Mesopotamia across the Fertile
Crescent to Egypt. Ancient empires came and went in this very spot. The fate
of God's people Israel rose and fell depending on their obedience to the
covenant with their God. Here Christ was born, lived his life, died on the
cross, and rose again.
It was not until the second missionary journey of the apostle Paul toward
the end of the biblical record that events of divine history occurred
outside of the territory identified as the 10/40 Window. The fact that so
much of God's dealing with humanity took place on that piece of earth is a
significant reason to focus on it.
2. Unevangelized peoples.
While this is only one-third of the earth's total land area, almost
two-thirds of the people in the world reside there. These people live in 64
countries. They include both sovereign states and non-sovereign
dependencies. Only those countries with a significant majority of their area
lying within the 10/40 Window are included.
When the 55 most unevangelized countries are overlaid upon the countries in
the 10/40 Window, we immediately see a very close fit. In fact, 97 percent
of the 3 billion people who live in the 55 most unevangelized countries live
in the 10/40 Window. This constitutes the core of the challenge of reaching
the unreached.
We need to think of the mission of Christ who came to seek and to save the
lost, as he taught in the parables about the lost sheep and the lost coin.
Christ made great efforts to heal, restore, and save just one person. We
need to consider Christ's mandate to preach the gospel to every creature, to
make disciples of all the nations, and to be his witnesses to the uttermost
parts of the earth when we think about the 10/40 Window.
3. The Heart of Islam.
North Africa and the Middle East represent the core of the Islamic
religion. Adherents to the Islamic religion are growing, as is suggested by
the increased numbers making the pilgrimage to Mecca. Yet at the same time,
it is reported that many Muslims--having studied the Koran in great
depth--have discovered in the process that the highest prophet described in
the Koran is Jesus Christ and not Muhammad. We must pray that the "eyes" and
the "hearts" of the Muslims will be opened to the truth.
4. Three religious blocs.
There is the Muslim bloc with 706 million people or 22 percent of the 3.6
billion people living in the 10/40 Window. There is the Hindu bloc with 717
million people or 23 percent of the people living in the 10/40 Window. And
there is the Buddhist bloc with 153 million people or close to 5 percent.
On May 6, 1990, the Jordan Times in Amman published a report from Algiers
titled "Collapse of Communism Will Weaken Islam." In a conference on the
future of Islam, Egyptian writer Fahmi Howeidi argued that "the Islamic
World is marginalized in a new map." Howeidi was among 40 scholars and
political leaders from ten Arab countries attending the conference. He said:
"Christianity has been regenerated in Eastern Europe .... Changes in Eastern
Europe showed that a liberal model of society... based on Christian,
capitalist values, was sweeping the world. Islam had yet to come up with a
viable alternative."
5. The poor.
More than 8 out of the 10 poorest of the poor, who on the average have a
gross national product of less than $500 per person per year, live in the
10/40 Window. More than one-half of the population of the world lives in
poverty with less than the average of $500 per person. Of these people, 2.4
billion live in the 10/40 Window. Despite this fact, only 8 percent of all
missionaries work among these people.
In the book Target Earth, Bryant L. Myers of World Vision and MARC wrote an
article titled "Where are the Poor and Lost?" Myers suggested that "the poor
are lost, and the lost are poor." He arrived at this conclusion after
observing that the majority of the unreached live in the poorest countries
of the world.
As Christians gathered from some 170 countries at Lausanne II in Manila,
there was a heart-felt concern expressed in the second section of the
"Manila Manifesto" for the materially poor of the world. The document reads,
"We have again been confronted with Luke's emphasis that the Gospel is the
Good News for the poor (Luke 4:18, 6:20, 7:22) and have asked ourselves what
this means to the majority of the world's population who are destitute,
suffering, and oppressed."
There is a remarkable overlap between the 50 poorest countries of the world
and the least evangelized countries of the world. In fact, 79 percent of the
people who are the poorest are also in the least evangelized countries of
the world. And when you relate them to the 10/40 Window you discover that 99
percent of these least evangelized poor--2.3 billion people--live in the
10/40 Window. Only 6 percent of the missionary force now works among this 44
percent of the world's population. This certainly constitutes the greatest
challenge of this decade for committed Christians.
6. Quality of life. One way of measuring the quality of life has been to
combine three variables: life expectancy, infant mortality, and literacy.
More than 8 out of 10 of the people living in the 50 countries of the world
with the lowest quality of life also live in the 10/40 Window. This
represents 47 percent of the population, yet only 8 percent of the foreign
missionary force works among these people. More than 9 out of 10 of these
people live in Hindu or Muslim countries.
Stronghold of Satan.
Why do committed Christians need to focus on the 10/40 Window? Because it
is a stronghold of Satan. The people living in the 10/40 Window have
suffered not only hunger and a lower quality of life compared with the rest
of humanity, but also have been kept from the transforming, life-giving,
community-changing power of the gospel.
The Scripture makes it clear from the writings of Paul the apostle that "the
god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot
see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God"
(2 Corinthians 4:4).
A careful observation of the 10/40 Window would indicate that Satan has
established a territorial stronghold with his forces to restrain the advance
of the gospel in that territory.
We need to significantly increase our efforts in this decade to reach those
who are in the 10/40 Window. If we are to be faithful to Scripture and
obedient to the mandate of Christ; if we are to see the establishment of a
mission-minded, church-planting movement within every unreached people and
city by A.D. 2000; if we are to give all people a valid opportunity to
experience the love, truth, and saving, power of Jesus Christ, we must get
down to the core of the unreached--the 10/40 Window.
Luis Bush is the international director of the A.D. 2000 and Beyond
Movement. For more information on the 10140 Window, write: 2860 S. Circle
Dr., Suite 2112, Colorado Springs, CO 80906. Phone: (719) 576-2000.
http://quis.qub.ac.uk/qubcu/cu/evmission.htm
http://www.ad2000.org/1040pepl.htm
****
Coalition: Sex scandal proves moral decline, delegates say.
BY LAURIE GOODSTEIN
New York Times
Published Sunday, September 20, 1998, in the San Jose Mercury News
WASHINGTON -- This should be a time of triumph for the conservative,
overwhelmingly pro-Republican members of the Christian Coalition. The
Democratic, baby-boomer president they have long considered a moral disgrace
now faces talk of his impeachment.
And yet, in the hallways and during coffee breaks at the three-day Christian
Coalition convention, many delegates said they were despondent about opinion
polls showing that most Americans do not share the conviction that President
Clinton should resign or be impeached.
They said they feared that the American people cared more about the decline
of the Dow than the decline of morals. And they speculated that the
libertine legacy of the 1960s still held sway over American culture.
``The nation is so grossly materialistic and so self-centered,'' said Brad
Thomas, founder of Christ's Bride Ministries in McLean, Va., as the
convention joined in singing the national anthem. ``We see that in the
abortion debate. It's a matter of `me first.' Supposedly there are many
Christians in this nation, God-fearing people, and yet Clinton can attend
church and supposedly that makes him godly, even when every policy he's had
has been ungodly.''
Gary Johnson, an operations consultant for US West in St. Paul, said: ``The
polls could be accurate, and that makes me worried that the so-called
liberalism that has taken root in the last 20 to 25 years means that people
can't think clearly about perjury and obstruction of justice. It seemed
clear when Nixon was in office. Why isn't it clear now?''
Since the Christian Coalition held its first convention eight years ago, the
group's founders, Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed, have issued dire warnings
that the nation is facing moral collapse. They have cited prayer in the
schools, teenage pregnancy and youth violence. They have attributed social
problems to the increasing secularization of society, and said they were
seeking to return the nation to its ``Christian roots.''
At this year's convention, which ends today, the group's leaders used the
Clinton scandal as the ultimate evidence that Washington was in need of a
restoration of ``family values.''
``Character matters, and the American people are hungry for that message,''
said Reed, the coalition's former executive director and now a private
political consultant. ``We care about the conduct of our leaders, and we
will not rest until we have leaders of good moral character.''
But among the group's rank-and-file members, there was speculation that many
Americans do not share that sentiment.
``Why isn't there outrage over this?'' said Ronald J. Mossberg, 31, a
computer-systems analyst from Maplewood, Minn.
``I think people have just gotten themselves too busy, taking care of the
kids,'' he said. ``Everybody's working. They listen to the evening news and
they become disengaged. The baby boomers were raised in a permissive age,
and Bill Clinton is one of them.''
Many of those who attended the convention suspected the media were
intentionally skewing the poll questions to make the results appear more
supportive of the president.
``I am sick of hearing TV constantly quoting the polls, as if that
matters,'' said Cecilia Huckestein, 50, a portrait artist from Westlake
Village. ``The law matters.''
Huckestein said nobody she knew in Los Angeles wanted Clinton to stay in
office, so she could not imagine how polls turned up such results. ``I
haven't ever been polled,'' she said.
The latest New York Times/CBS News Poll, conducted last week, showed that of
1,813 adults nationwide who were surveyed, 6 in 10 Americans wanted Clinton
to finish his term. Although 2 in 3 people polled said Clinton did not share
their moral values, 62 percent approved of the job he was doing.
In the face of such vexing numbers, the Christian Coalition sponsored its
own poll, asking 1,000 registered voters whether, regarding morals and
values, ``things are on the right track and getting better, or on the wrong
track and getting worse.'' In that poll, 63 percent said things were getting
worse.
Randy Tate, the Christian Coalition's executive director, touted the
results.
``The moral crisis we now face is so obvious everybody sees it,'' he said.
http://www.mercurycenter.com/premium/nation/docs/christian20.htm
****
By:Dr. Shreerang Godbole
Our understanding of our religion, culture and history is largely colored by
Western perceptions. Our intellectuals and hence lay people faithfully
repeat what western scholars have had to say on these matters. This would
have been perfectly all right if western scholarship (of the 19th century)
had been unbiased. It does not seem to occur to our intellectuals that
Western scholarship could have been motivated. At any suggestions to this
effect, we immediately recoil in horror and say, "it is unfair to challenge
the honesty, integrity and bonafides of eminent individual western scholars
without evidence." Let us therefore see for ourselves whether we are
justified in questioning the motives of the 19th century western scholars.
It may be noted that the evidence I have marshalled consists entirely of
quotations which these worthy men have themselves recorded with remarkable
candor.
THE BACKGROUND
Motivated western scholarship in India's religious, cultural and historical
spheres has a chequered history. The pioneers in this field have been
western Christian missionaries. It was Pope Honorius IV (1286-87 A.D.) who
first encouraged the study of oriental languages as an aid to missionary
work. Soon after, the Ecumenical Council of Vienna (1311-12 A.D.) decided
that "the Holy Church should have an abundant number of Catholics well
versed in the languages, especially in those of the infidels, so as to be
able to instruct them in the sacred doctrine." Therefore, it ordered the
creation of the chairs of Hebrew, Arabic and Chaldean at the Universities of
Bologna, Oxford, Paris and Salamanca. After another hundred years, the
General Council of Basel (1434 A.D.) returned to this theme and decreed that
"all Bishops must sometimes each year send men well-grounded in the divine
word to those parts where Jews and other infidels live, to preach and
explain the truth of the Catholic faith in such a way that the infidels who
hear them may come to recognize their errors. Let them compel them to hear
their preaching." (Ram Swarup's Introduction to the Reprint of 'Muhammad and
the Rise of Islam' by Dr. D.S. Margoliouth; Voice of India, 1985, pp. v-vi).
It is clear that the motives of missionary 'scholars' in pursuing Oriental
Studies were far from altruistic.
THE PIONEERS IN INDIA
The history of western (missionary) scholarship in Oriental Studies in India
can be traced to William Carey, the pioneer of modern missionary enterprise
in India. Carey was an English oriental scholar and founder of the Baptist
Missionary Society. From 1801 onward, as Professor of Oriental Languages, he
composed numerous philosophical works, consisting of 'grammars and
dictionaries in the Mahratti, Sanskrit, Punjabi, Telugu, Bengali and
Bhatanta dialects. From the Serampor press, there issued in his life time,
over 200,000 Bibles and portions in nearly 40 different languages and
dialects, Carey himself undertaking most of the literary work.'
(Encyclopedia Britannica, 1950, Vol. 4, p. 860). Carey and his colleagues
experimented with what came to be known as Church Sanskrit. He wanted to
train a group of 'Christian Pandits' who would probe "these mysterious
sacred nothings" and expose them as worthless. He was distressed that this
"golden casket (of Sanskrit) exquisitely wrought" had remained "filled with
nothing but pebbles and trash." He was determined to fill it with "riches -
beyond all price", that is the doctrine of Christianity (Richard Fox Young,
Resistant Hinduism, Vienna, 1981, p. 34).
THE BODEN CHAIR OF SANSKRIT
The next Champion of Oriental Studies was a Lt. Col. Boden of the Bombay
Native Infantry who bequeathed his estates of about ,25,000 to the
University of Oxford to enable to found a Chair of Sanskrit which the
University named after him. In his will dated August 15, 1811, Boden stated
most explicitly that the special object of his munificent bequest was to
promote the translation of the scriptures into Sanskrit, so as "to enable
his countrymen to proceed in the conversion of the natives of India to the
Christian Religion" (Preface to Sanskrit-English Dictionary by Sir
Monier-Williams, Boden Professor of Sanskrit, 1899, p.ix). It would not be
out of place to state that Sir Monier-Williams mentions in this Preface, "he
(Monier-Williams) has made it the chief aim of his professional life to
provide facilities for the translation of our sacred Scriptures into
Sanskrit". It may be mentioned that Prof. H.H. Wilson, the eminent
Sanskritist and first occupant of the Boden Chair, wrote a book, "The
Religion and Philosophical Systems of the Hindus." Explaining the reasons
for undertaking this work, he said,"These lectures were written to help
candidates for a prize...for a best refutation of the Hindu Religious
System." To think that the man who wrote these words held one of the most
pretigious professorships at Oxford! Happily, the Boden Professor of
Sanskrit at Oxford no longer indulges in such unseemly activities.
Monier-Williams, Wilson's successor of Boden Professor wrote in 1879,
"...When the walls of the mighty fortress of Brahmansim (Hinduism), are
encircled, undermined and finally stormed by the soldiers of the Cross, the
victory of Christianity must be signal and complete."
SIR WILLIAM JONES
The real pioneer of Indology was Sir William Jones (1746-94), a true
scholar, gifted linguist and founder of the Royal Asiatic Society. Jones
became an ardent admirer of India. He wrote, "I am in love with Gopia,
charmed with Crishen (Krishna), an enthusiastic admirer of Raama and a
devout adorer of Brihma (Brahma), Bishen (Vishnu), Mahisher (Maheshwara);
not to mention that Judishteir, Arjen, Corno (Yudhishtira, Arjuna, Karna)
and the other warriors of the M'hab'harat appear greater in my eyes than
Agamemnon, Ajax and Achilles apperaed when I first read the Iliad" (Mukharji
S.N., Sir William Jones: A Study in Eighteenth Century British Attitudes to
India, Orient Longman, 1987). However, even an acknowledged Indophile like
Jones could not free himself from the Biblical dogma of Genesis which he
took to be literal accounts. His chronology for ancient India, including the
dating of Chandragupta Maurya to the period of Alexander's invasion of India
was dicated at least in part by the Biblial dogma. Jones may not have had an
ulterior motive in doing this. All the same, his disinclination to go
against his scriptures renders his conclusions suspect.
MACAULAY AND MAX MUELLER
Thomas Babbington Macaulay (1800-59) is best known for introducing English
education in India. Though not a missionary himself, he sincerely believed
that Christianity held the key to the problems of administering India. In a
letter to his father in 1836, Macaulay exulted, "...It is my belief that if
our plans of education are followed up, there will not be a single idolator
among the respectable classes in Bengal thirty years hence. And this will be
effected without any efforts to proselytize, without the smallest
interference with religious liberty, by natural operation of knowledge and
reflection. I heartily rejoice in the project." Vivekananda was to shatter
Macaulay's dream and hope. The key point here is Macaulay's belief that
'that knowledge and reflection' on the part of the Hindus would cause them
to turn to Christianity. His plan was to turn the strength of the educated
Hindus against them, to use their commitment to scholarship to uproot their
own tradition. To this end, he wanted someone willing and able to interpret
Hindu Scriptures in such a way that the newly educated Hindu elite would see
for itself the difference between their scriptures and the New Testament and
choose the latter. It is a measure of Macaulay's seriousness that he
persisted with his hare-brained scheme until he found just the man for it.
The man was Friedrich Maximillian Mueller (1823-1900) who was to be touted
as the foremost Indologist, Scholar Extraordinaire (by Nirad Chaudhury) and
Vedemaharishi Mokshamula Bhatta (of Gothirta or Oxford) by none other than
Lokmanya Tilak in his obituary. Let us see the motives of this 'eminent
scholar'.
MAX MUELLER AND HIS MASQUERADE
Max Mueller was a mere twenty-four-year-old fledgling when he reached London
in 1846 with 'not a penny left'. He was looked after by Baron von Bunsen,
the Prussian Minister to England who basked in the childishly pleasant
thought of converting the whole world to Christianity. It was in London that
Max Mueller met Macaulay who was on the look out for 'his right man' as we
have seen previously. The East India Company hired Max Mueller for
translating the Vedic Mantras into English and for his services, the Company
agreed to pay him a sum of ,4 for each page that was ready to print. By the
end of his career, Max Mueller churned out a formidable quantity of printed
matter. Max Mueller arbitrarily dated the Rig Veda. His knowledge of
Sanskrit was so atrocious that Swami Dayananda, in his inimitable acerbic
style had likened him to a "toddler who was still learning to walk." He
wrote, "Prof. Max Mueller has been able to scribble out something by the
help of the so called 'tikas' or paraphrases of the Vedas current in India."
(Satyarth Prakash, Third Edition, p. 278). Max Mueller had once admitted to
another Indian who had called on him at Oxford that he could not make out in
which language the visitor had all along been speaking, though it was only
Sanskrit!! (Max Mueller - A Life Long Masquerade, Brahma Datt Bharti, Era
Books, 1992, p. 94). No wonder Schopenhauer said "I cannot resist a certain
suspicion that our Sanskrit scholars do not understand their text better
than the higher class of the school boys their Greek and Latin." However,
our concern here is solely with Max Mueller's motives, not with his dubious
scholarship. Here is the unadulterated confession of this zealot, "...this
edition of mine and the translation of the Vedas, will hereafter tell to a
great extent on the fate of India and on the growth of millions of souls in
that country. It (the Rig Veda) is the root of their religion and to show
them what the root is, I am sure, the only way of uprooting all that has spr
ung from it during the last three thousand years, (Life and letters of Max
Mueller, 1902, p. 328). Here is another gem from this modern crusader,
"India is much ripe for Chritianity than Rome or Greece were at the time of
St. Paul. The rotten tree for some time had artificial supports...but if the
English man comes to see that the tree must fall...he will mind no sacrifice
either of blood or of land...I would like to lay down my life, or at least
lend my hand to bring about this struggle" (Life and letters, Vol. I, pp.
190-92). All this from the man who has Bhavans named after him all over
India.
DUBOIS AND J.S. MILL
The famous French Missionary, Abbé Dubois, wrote a whole chapter on Hindu
temples in his book, "Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies." Coming to
Hindu idols he says "Hindu imagination is such that it cannot be excited
except by what is monstrous and extravagant" (p.607). Abbé Dubois' book has
run through a dozen of reprints in England and remains the best primer for
the average western traveler to India to this day. Abbé Dubois influenced
James Stuart Mill's malicious "History of British India" which was written
in six volumes in 1818. The volumes were compulsory reading for candidates
wishing to appear for the I.C.S. exams. Mill's history has in fact
mesmerized the best Hindu minds. And here is what Max Mueller himself has to
say in this book "India - What it can teach us?" 'The book which I consider
to be most mischievous, nay which I hold responsible for some of the
greatest misfortunes that have happened to India, is Mill's 'History of
British India'...Mill, in his estimate of the Hindu character, is chiefly
guided by Dubois, a French missionary and by Orme and Bucahnan, Tennant and
Ward, all of them neither very competent nor unprejudiced judges. Mill,
however, picks out all that is most unfavorable from their works, and omits
the qualifications which even these writers felt bound to give in their
wholesale condemnation of the Hindus" (pp. 39-40).It may be mentioned that
toward the end of his career, Max Mueller came to realize the futility of
his own and other like-minded efforts to uproot Hinduism from the soil of
india. Here is an amazing passage: "In the whole world there is no study,
except that of the original (Upanishads), so beneficial and so elevating as
that of the Oupnekhat (Persian translation of the Upanishads). It has been
the solace of my life, it will be the solace of my death (Dialogue
'72/'73:49). Those who came to scoff remained to pray!
BISHOP CALDWELL AND DRAVIDIAN GRAMMAR
The idea of the Dravidian migrations from the north was first put forth by
Bishop (who else?). Caldwell, insisted that the Dravidians had 'invaded'
India long before the Aryans. As this theory had no basis in tradition,
history or even archeology, it has tried to draw linguistic support from
'Dravidian-speaking Brahuis in Baluchistan and in Central and East India'.
It is not accidental that the most vitriolic Dravidian enthusiasts have been
inveterate idol descrators. It may be argued that the 19th century western
scholars were 'products of their age'.
It may be questioned whether it is right to re-open old wounds. I must
stress that the question before me was whether it is fair to challenge the
honesty, integrity and bonafides of eminent individual (western) scholars
without evidence. I have let the worthies speak for themselves. My own
comments are superfluous. For those who have not yet closed their minds, for
those who do not refuse to see, the evidence should be as clear as it is
damning.
****
In 1787 a former army officer wrote: In former times the Bengal countries
were the granary of nations, and the repository of commerce, wealth and
manufacture in the East...But such has been the restless energy of
misgovernment, that within 20 years many parts of those countries have been
reduced to desert. The fields are no longer cultivated, extensive tracks are
already overgrown with thickets, the husbandman is plundered, the
manufacturer (handicraftsman) oppressed, famine has been repeatedly endured
and depopulation ensured.
As India became poor and hungry, Britain became richer. Colossal fortunes
were made. Robert Clive arrived in India penniless - activities of Company
investigated by House of Commons. The Hindi word loot was introduced into
English language because of the plunder of India. Colossal fortunes helped
fund Britain's Industrial Revolution e.g.:
1757 - Battle of Plassey
1764 - Hargreaves spinning jenny
1769 - Arkwright's water frame
1779 - Crompton mule (whatever that is)
1785 - Watt's steam engine
When British first reached India they did not find a backwater country. A
report on Indian Industrial Commission published in 1919 said that the
industrial development of India was at any rate not inferior to that of the
most advanced European nations. India was not only a great agricultural
country but also a great manufacturing country. It had prosperous textile
industry, whose cotton, silk, and woollen products were marketed in Europe
and Asia. It had remarkable and remarkably ancient, skills in iron-working.
It had its own shipbuilding industry in Calcutta, Daman, Surat, Bombay and
Pegu. In 1802 skilled Indian workers were building British warships at
Bombay. According to a historian of Indian shipping the teak wood vessels of
Bombay were greatly superior to the oaken walls of Old England. Benares was
famous all over India for its brass, copper and bell-metal wares. Other
important industries included the enamelled jewellery and stone carving of
Rajputana towns as well as filigree work in gold and silver, ivory, glass,
tannery, perfumery and papermaking.
All this altered under the British leading to the de-industrialisation of
India - its forcible transformation from a country of combined agriculture
and manufacture into an agricultural colony of British capitalism. British
annihilated Indian textile industry because a competitor existed and it had
to be destroyed.
Shipbuilding industry aroused the jealousy of British firms and its progress
and development were restricted by legislation. India's metalwork, glass and
paper industries were likewise throttled when British government in India
was obliged to use only British-made paper.
The vacuum created by the contrived ruin of the Indian handicraft
industries, a process virtually completed by 1880, was filled with British
manufactured goods. Britain's industrial revolution, with its explosive
increase in productivity made it essential for British capitalists to find
new markets. India turned from exporter of textile or importer. British
goods had to have virtually free entry while entry into Britain of India
goods was met with prohibitive tariffs. Direct trade between India and the
rest of the world had to be curtailed. Horace Hayman Wilson in 1845 in The
History of British India from 1805 to 1835 said the foreign manufacturer
employed the arm of political injustice to keep down and ultimately strangle
a competitor with whom he could not have contended on equal terms.
While there was prosperity for British cotton industry there was ruin for
millions of Indian craftsmen and artisans. India's manufacturing towns were
blighted e.g. Decca once known as the Manchester of India, and
Murshidabad-Bengal's old capital which was once described in 1757 as
extensive, populous and rich as London. Millions of spinners, and weavers
were forced to seek a precarious living in the countryside, as were many
tanners, smelters and smiths.
India was made subservient to the Empire and vast wealth was sucked out of
the subcontinent. Economic exploitation was the root cause of the Indian
people's poverty and hunger. Under Imperial rule the ordinary people of
India grew steadily poorer. Economic historian Romesh Dutt said half of
India's annual net revenues of £44m flowed out of India. The number of
famines soared from seven in the first half of 19th Century to 24 in second
half. According to official figures, 28,825,000 Indians starved to death
between 1854 and 1901. The terrible famine of 1899-1900 which affected
474,000 square miles with a population almost 60 million was attributed to a
process of bleeding the peasant, who were forced into the clutches of the
money-lenders whom British regarded as their mainstay for the payment of
revenue. The Bengal famine of 1943, which claimed 1.5million victims were
accentuated by the authority's carelessness and utter lack of foresight.
Rich though its soil was, India's people were hungry and miserably poor.
This grinding poverty struck all visitors - like a blow in the face as
described by India League Delegation 1932. In their report Condition of
India 1934 they had been appalled at the poverty of the Indian village. It
is the home of stark want...the results of uneconomic agriculture, peasant
indebtedness, excessive taxation and rack-renting, absence of social
services and the general discontent impressed us everywhere..In the villages
there were no health or sanitary services, there were no road, no drainage
or lighting, and no proper water supply beyond the village well. Men, women
and children work in the fields, farms and cowsheds...All alike work on
meagre food and comfort and toil long hours for inadequate returns.
Jawarharlal Nehru wrote that those parts of India which had been longest
under British rule were the poorest:Bengal once so rich and flourishing
after 187 years of British rule is a miserable mass of poverty-stricken,
starving and dying people.
India was sometimes called the 'milch cow of the Empire', and indeed at
times it seemed to be so regarded by politicians and bureaucrats in London.
Educated Indians were embittered when India was made to pay the entire cost
of the India Office building in Whitehall. They were further outraged when
in 1867 it was made to pay the full costs of entertaining two thousand five
hundred guests at a lavish ball honouring the Sultan of Turkey.
In India, the hunger and poverty experienced by the majority of the
population during the colonial period and immediately after independence
were the logical consequences of two centuries of British occupation, during
which the Indian cotton industry was destroyed, most peasants were put into
serfdom (after the British modified the agrarian structures and the tax
system to the benefit of the Zamindars - feudal landlords) and cash crops
(indigo, tea, jute) gradually replaced traditional food crops. Britain's
profits throughout the 19th century cannot be measured without taking into
account the 28 million Indians who died of starvation between 1814 and 1901.
http://www.ummah.net/history/naval_crusades/india2.htm
****
09/19/98)
by Dale Hawkins
Founder of NAZARK
There is a movement afoot in America that is persuaded to establish itself
on the moral high ground of the body politic to effect their dominion over
the general population.
Periodically, throughout the history of nations, there are efforts by some
to prevent the perceived decay in morality of the populous by establishing,
what they consider to be, an elevated moral presence in the leadership of
the nation. Their perception as to the state of the moral decay is used as
an alarm to advance their cause and influence over a well-meaning but easily
deceived and gullible segment of the population. Generally speaking this
segment is an affluent class of people that feel threatened by the less
affluent and are disposed to maintain their superior position in the
societal spectrum by any means necessary. First by law, second by force of
arms should the first fail.
The attempt by the superficially converted Constantine to forestall the
perceived moral decay and fall of the Roman Empire by establishing
Christianity as the state religion is typical of this mentality. This event
is even given by those so disposed to justify their cause. Such is the
delusion they are under.
The purpose of the Inquisition was an effort by a self-perceived morally
superior assemblage of clergy and national leaders to purify the faith by
ridding the earth of those deemed faithless and morally corrupt.
There was a time, during the fetal development of America, that a religious
group known as the Puritans ruled in the New World thereby elevating
self-righteousness to a new high with their bigotry and persecution of those
deemed to be morally inferior to themselves.
It was upon the well understood principle of the "Separation of Church and
State" that the nation of the United States of America was established by
it's founding fathers who knew well the historical record that demonstrated
that every time a group of religionist gained control of the state their
bigotry would become institutionalized in law leading to intolerance and
eventual persecution of those who refused to be so led.
The Temperance Movement in America which gave birth to the ill-conceived
experiment of Prohibition against Alcohol is another example of the blending
of the witches brew of Politics and Religion to effect an abomination that
eventually had to be abandoned.
In our day the specter of the "Beast" has again began to reappear in the
form a group of self-appointed moralizers that have gained access to various
media outlets to communicate their self-righteous, narrow-minded and bigoted
viewpoints to a wide audience.
Namely they are the likes of: William Bennet, Alan Keys, Jesse Helms,
William Saffire, George Will, Cal Thomas, Pat Robertson, Jerry Fallwell and
a whole gaggle of Pontificating Fornicators of the Airwaves from Rush
Limbaugh, (Dr.) James Dobson and Michael Reagan to the acid tongued (Dr.)
Laura Schlessinger just to name a few of the more prominent members of this
"conspiracy of the like minded". It is not necessary for them to meet, or
even know each other for that matter, to conspire with one another because
there is a unifying Demonic Force at work in the Realms of Darkness which
blinds them (and their minions) to true understanding and causes them to
believe a Lie.
Moralizers are usually identified by their preaching of the doctrine of
Self-Responsibility while being pre-occupied with the natural failings of
the flesh of others. Perceiving themselves as being more moral than others
they speak with a bragging sense of self-pride. They tend to be zealous
towards the superficial observance of various religious rules and laws. They
are eager to condemn, slow to forgive. They tend to be generally unconcerned
with the plight of the poor and like to impose their perverted concept of
morality on others by various manipulative ploys using impeccable verbiage
and inane quasi-religious laws.
The aforementioned individuals, and others, constitute a self-righteous
Cabal. While the base forms of evil such as rape, murder and robbery are
obvious for the damage they do, they are less harmful than the higher
pretentious levels of evil. Self-righteousness is the highest form of evil
that is possible for one to participate in by virtue of the gross
misrepresentation that is involved and the cloak of godliness that covers
their sanctimonious depravity and intolerance. They have elevated
McCarthyism to a new high by initiating a new perverted version of it that
might be called "Moralistic McCarthyism", a potentially far more destructive
entity. Because those who are so involved enjoy an air of respectability it
is a difficult evil to identify and speak out against.
As a Child of Light you have no darkness in you and are therefor aware of
the above mentioned trend which is pre-destined to continue until it's
conclusion bringing with it the inevitable Destruction.
Shalom
****
PM also reiterates need to fight terrorism
Times of India
http://www.timesofindia.com/today/25home1.htm
By Dileep Padgaonkar
NEW YORK: India on Thursday expressed its readiness to participate in the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) subject to other countries adhering to
it without conditions. It also agreed to join in the negotiations on a
treaty that will prohibit the production of fissile materials for nuclear
weapons or other nuclear explosive devices and reiterated its proposal,
first mooted at the non-aligned summit in Durban, to convene an
international conference next year to discuss the phased elimination of all
nuclear weapons before the end of the millennium.
Addressing the UN General Assembly in Hindi, Prime Minister Atal Behari
Vajpayee also drove home the need to combat terrorism with concerted action
at the international level, stressed the imperative need to safeguard human
rights, including social, economic and cultural rights, and once again
staked a claim for India to be a permanent member of the UN Security
Council.
From the very start of his address it was obvious that Mr Vajpayee had
chosen to speak as a representative of a ``responsible nuclear weapons
state.'' Thus, after spelling out the rationale for conducting the
underground tests in May, he made clear India's intention to undertake the
requisite efforts to ensure that the entry into force of the CTBT is not
delayed beyond September 1999. At the same time, he emphasised that the onus
of implementing the CTBT now rested on other countries.
In much the same spirit, he expressed reservations over the ``partial''
nature of the discussions related to the prohibition of the production of
fissile materials now underway at the conference on disarmament in Geneva
but was quick to announce that India would participate in them to ``ensure a
treaty that is non-discriminatory and meet India's security interests.''
A careful reading of these passages indicates that India's adherence to
various treaties aimed at curbing nuclear proliferation would critically
depend on two factors. Such an adherence would have to be part and parcel of
its endeavour, carried out over several decades, to create a nuclear
weapons-free world. And it would have to address India's security concerns.
This latter factor is presumably at the heart of the Jaswant Singh-Talbott
talks. In effect, Mr Vajpayee has told the Americans in substance that it is
now for them to make it possible for the talks to reach a successful
conclusion.
Mr Vajpayee's reference to terrorism - ``the most vicious among
international crimes'' - is the closest he came to pointing to Pakistan
without actually naming it. Here, too, he left nothing to chance. After
stating that India had coped with terrorism, aided and abetted by a
neighbouring country for nearly two decades, with patience he went on to
warn: None should doubt India's resolve to crush this challenge. Such tough
language goes down well here at this gathering of nations, many of whom
suffer terrorist assaults daily.
It was not immediately clear whether there would be many takers for Mr
Vajpayee's strong bid for a permanent seat for India in the UN Security
Council but the sentiment voiced here is that the Prime Minister of nuclear
India had spoken a language befitting a ``responsible nuclear India.''
Equally significant in this regard was his sovereign refusal to respond to
Mr Nawaz Sharif's references to Kashmir during his speech to the UN on
Wednesday - a refusal which has been the rule with Mr Vajpayee's predecessor
as well.
****
Vajpayee upbeat after meeting with Sharif
By Ramesh Chandran
The Times of India News Service
NEW YORK: ``A new chapter in Indo-Pak cooperation is being opened'' - this
is what an optimistic Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee informed a
crowded press conference here, soon after his luncheon meeting with Prime
Minister Nawaz Shari,f in which he said a ``conscious effort'' would now be
made to encourage trade and commercial ties between the two countries.
While it was announced in the joint statement that the two foreign
secretaries will now begin talks in Islamabad beginning on October 15, to
focus on Kashmir and peace and security including confidence-building
measures (CBMs), Mr Vajpayee also stressed that any move that India might
take regarding signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) will be done
``independently'' and is not linked to any Pakistani decision.
Flanked by the ``trio'' who spearheaded India's foreign policy - Jaswant
Singh, deputy chairman of Planning Commission, Brajesh Mishra, principal
secretary and K Raghunath, foreign secretary, Mr Vajpayee was in fine form
despite needling questions from a Pakistani journalist who inquired about
the ``future of Indian Muslims'' under the BJP government.
The Prime Minister responded that he would not accept the manner in which
the question was framed and emphasised: ``India is a secular country. Every
citizen is treated on equal footing, we have a written Constitution
guaranteeing fundamental rights. We are a functioning democracy, where
opposition is very vigilant and the government is responsible to the people.
We have a Minorities Commission as well as a Human Rights Commission.'' He
then added that despite Kashmir being a Muslim majority state, it was
relatively peaceful from what it was now, ``difficult to find rooms in
hotels'' or in ``shikaras'' and that ``there were more than 120 million
Muslims in India and there were more Muslims in India than in Pakistan.'' He
stressed that they were ``safe, their future is assured and if there were
any problems, it would be immediately remedied.'' He then invited the
Pakistani journalist to visit India.
Mr Vajpayee elucidated on some of the more concrete steps which will now be
pursued following his discussions with Mr Sharif. These included:
* India buying energy and electricity from Pakistan for which details are
being worked out.
* Direct bus service between Delhi and Lahore as well as a road-cum-rail
link between Munabao (Rajasthan) to Khoprakar.
* A ``hot line'' to be re-established between the two prime ministers.
* Anti-government propaganda against each other to be checked and especially
the government media to handle these issues with more prudence.
* Border firing to cease immediately.
Mr Vajpayee said issues like non-deployment of missiles and other related
defence issues would be discussed at the forthcoming foreign secretaries
meeting beginning on October 15 in Islamabad.
The remaining six subjects such as Siachen, Wullar Barrage, Sir Creek,
terrorism and drug trafficking, economic and commercial cooperation, and
cultural exchanges would be taken up in separate meetings in New Delhi in
the first half of November. Responding to a question on whether India and
Pakistan could forge a ``joint defence pact,'' the Prime Minister responded:
``Joint defence pact against whom? There is no need for such a defence pact,
let us be good neighbours having friendly relations cooperating with each
other.''
Regarding President Clinton's proposed visit to India, Mr Vajpayee stated
that India would be happy to welcome him ``particularly since a US president
would be visiting India after 20 years and we would like him to come in a
positive atmosphere.'' He also added that the question of imposition of
Shariat law in Pakistan was not discussed and neither was the Taliban's role
in Afghanistan. He pointed out, ``India's position on Afghanistan is well
known. We are in favour of an independent, non- aligned, democracy in
Afghanistan.''
http://www.timesofindia.com/today/25home1.htm
****
By NICHOLAS D KRISTOF
TOKYO: They were the world's richest and shrewdest investors, and they rode
a wave of globalization to buy bonds in a promising developing country. When
the country defaulted, they were livid.
``There should be lunatic asylums for nations as well as individuals,'' one
investor wrote in The London Morning Post, denouncing the defaulting country
as ``a nation with whom no contracts can be made.''
It all sounds a bit familiar, but the year was 1842 and the developing
country was the United States. After defaults by Maryland, Pennsylvania,
Mississippi and Louisiana, the entire United States was blacklisted and
scorned on global markets, with Americans barred from the best London clubs
and the Rothschilds warning bitterly that America would be unable to
``borrow a dollar, not a dollar.''
Globalization, in other words, may not be quite as fresh as it sometimes
seems. Since at least the 14th century, when Florentine merchants lent to
the English to pay for King Edward I's wars, international capital has
roamed the world in search of high returns. (The start was inauspicious:
England defaulted, causing the collapse of two Florentine banks.)
What has changed, economists say, is the scale of the capital flows and
their ability to capsize small nations -- or even large ones. Many experts
say that behind the economic crisis that has devastated Asia and Russia,
wobbled South America, and now come knocking on America's door is the
fantastic increase in the pool of capital that sloshes from one country to
the next in search of safety and profit.
The sums are so gargantuan --far greater than the amounts that governments
can wield --that a growing number of economists are calling for new steps to
control these capital flows or at least soften their impact. Some say that
the Bretton Woods economic system, which has governed the global economy for
half a century, has been eclipsed by these vast pools of capital, and there
are calls to design a new ``architecture'' for the global economic order.
``We'll have to rethink the system in a big way,'' said Jagdish Bhagwati, a
prominent scholar of international economics at Columbia University.
Mr Bhagwati urged that the new architecture should ``give up the notion that
the optimal world is one characterized by capital flows, by capital account
convertibility, where you just press a button and take out a billion.''
The US government has led a global push to free the flow of capital around
the world, and any new impediments to capital flows would be an abrupt step
back for its campaign. As recently as March, the International Monetary Fund
newsletter carried a front-page headline cheerily declaring capital
liberalization to be ``an irreversible trend.''
These days, it looks more reversible. Some economists believe that despite a
wealth of scholarly research showing the need for caution, the United States
pushed too hard for capital liberalization. The result, they say, was that
tides of investment flooded into ill-prepared developing countries and
created speculative bubbles, and then surged out, leaving behind shattered
nations and a global financial crisis.
``I actually think the IMF was too pushy in going around the accepted wisdom
and encouraging countries to liberalize their capital accounts too soon,''
said Ronald McKinnon, an economist at Stanford University and author of a
book on capital liberalization. ``And not the least of the reasons behind
this was arm-twisting by the United States Treasury, which always wants
American banks and Wall Street people to be in there, competing freely.''
Paradoxically, historians sometimes attribute the modern boom in
international capital, beyond the easy reach of any regulator, to the
Communists. In the 1950s, China and Russia kept their dollars out of the
United States, for fear Washington would freeze their accounts, and instead
deposited the dollars in Europe. One result was the ``Eurodollar'' market
and a growing investment pool that flitted from country to country and
currency to currency in pursuit of higher interest rates. Most governments
imposed capital controls early in this century and then lifted them in the
1970s and '80s, and limitations on changing money came to be seen as quaint.
Paradoxically, it is the holdouts with capital controls, like China and
India, that have weathered the financial crisis much better than others,
because they were not vulnerable to a sudden exodus of capital.
****
Chandan Mitra/New York
PRIME MINISTER Atal Bihari Vajpayee sent out a powerful message of India's
self-assurance and its determination to play a major global role in the next
millenium through a comprehensive and inspiring address to the UN General
Assembly here on Wednesday.
Speaking in Hindi, as he had done two decades ago as Foreign Minister in the
Janata Party Government, Mr Vajpayee demonstrated his command over changing
global and national courcerns, particularly the complex issue of nuclear
disarmament.
The Prime Minister strongly reiterated India's commitment to total
elimination of weapons of mass destruction, urging the Assembly to "pledge
that when we assemble here in the new millennium, it shall be to welcome the
commitment that humankind shall never again be subjected to the use or
threat of use of nuclear weapons."
His stance on India signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was expectedly
nuanced; albeit it categorically stated India's intention to ensure that
"the entry into force of the CTBT is not delayed beyond September 1999." A
key paragraph in the Prime Minister's 29-para speech was devoted to
explaining India's desire to sign the CTBT after the successful conclusion
of the discussions it is currently engaged in with "key interlocuters" on a
range of issues.
Shorn of diplomatic sophistry, the Prime Minister's pledge on the CTBT is:
India will sign the CTBT in line with valid international concerns, without
bartering national interests. But the underlying assumption is that other
countries, including the US, shall also do so without placing further
conditions.
Incidentally, the US is yet to ratify the CTBT and its passage through the
Senate appears difficult at present with Senator Jesse Helms, chief of its
foreign relations committee, saying that it is at the bottom of his agenda.
The three-stage process of adherence to the CTBT involves signing, ratifying
and depositing it.
The Prime Minister dwelt at length and with considerable clarity on the
three crucial facets of the nuclear non-proliferation regime -- CTBT,
fissile material control treaty and export of nuclear technology. Mr
Vajpayee emphasised that India was keen to ensure that all such
international agreements were non-discriminatory.
Following Pakistan Prime Ministeer Nawaz Sharif's announcement at the same
venue on Wednesday that his country will sign CTBT before its deadline of
coming into force by September 1999 expires, it was expected in certain
quarters that Mr Vajpayee might be tempted to be more categorical.
However, he stuck to India's nuanced position on the issue, although the
thrust of his pronouncements over the last 48 hours clearly indicates that
India is all set to sign the document as soon as the current round of
Jaswant-Talbott talks conclude, with some concessions made to India's
security concerns.
The Prime Minister sought to project the Indian position as part of a larger
NAM initiative by drawing attention to the Durban NAM summit's call for an
international conference in 1999 on the total elimination of nuclear weapons
which, he insisted, ought to be the ultimate goal. The aspirations of the
developing world, particularly their claim to moral leadership of the world
order, were also emphasised by his linking of the Security Councils
restructuring to the non-proliferation issue.
Forcefully pleading for immediate reform of the Security Council's permanent
membership structure, the Prime Minister pointed out that developing
countries have been prevented from exercising their rightful role because of
its imbalance.
Reiterating India's claim to Big Powr status, Mr Vajpayee said: "The new
permanent members must, of course, have the ability to discharge the
responsibilities... India believes it can and we are qualified for it.
The Prime Minister's wide-ranging speech also focussed on terrorism, with Mr
Vajpayee making a determined effort to link the common concerns of developed
and developing nations on that score. Making specific mention of the bombing
of Air-India's Kanishka, the Pan Am's Lockerbie crash and the recent blasts
in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam, Mr Vajpayee described terrorism as the "most
vicious among internatinal crimes" one which constitutes a "pervasive,
pernicious and ruthless threat" to people's lives as well as international
peace and security.
Without naming Pakistan, the Prime Minister pushed India's agenda by
mentioning that the country has coped with terrorism for over two decades --
a terrorism that is "aided and abetted by a neighbouring country." This was
Mr Vajpayee's only veiled reference to Pakistan on the issue of India's
stance on nuclear matters.
Again referring to the Durban NAM summit, Mr Vajpayee mentioned the
Movement's initiative to develop a collective global response to the threat
of terrorism and reiterated its decision to convene an international
conference to draw up a global convention to provide for collective action
against states and organisations that intiate or abet terrorism.
The Prime Minister also made a surprising but characterstically
emotion-charged foray into the new world economic order, taking a moral
stance against unbridled global capitalism. Introducing the only elements of
humour in his otherwise sombre address, Mr Vajpayee referred to the "Asian
flu" spreading to other economies although the "triumphalism" that had
heralded the onset of global capitalism had now given way to caution and
realism.
At the same time, Mr Vajpayee clarified emphatically that there was no
question of turning back from globalisation. But he warned against the
continuing strangehold of "virtual money" (imaginatively translated as
'apratyaksh dhanrashi') that is not generated by productive economic
activity, and which defies national regulatory mechanisms. In this context,
he referred to the growing recognition that premature liberalisation of
capital markets was largely responsible for the current financial crisis. A
tone of self-congratulation on India's cautious approach on this issue was
clearly discernible.
In conclusion, Mr Vajpayee struck a stirring note by recalling Albert
Einstein's description of his scientific achievements as mere pebbles on the
shore of the ocean of truth. "I believe that we are now actually sailing in
the ocean of truth," the Prime Minister said before dwelling on the
uncertainties that nevertheless grip the world today. "The world is not at
ease with itself. Forces are bubbling under the surface tranquility...
(which) seek to lead the world towards bigotry, violence and unhealthy
exclusivism," Mr Vajpayee said, summing up the anxieties that India shares
with many members of the world body.
Drawing upon the Rig Veda, Mr Vajpayee concluded with a prayer for global
peace. His incantation of "Om Shanti! Om Shanti! Om Shanti!" reverberated
througth the high-domed General Assembly hall as loud applause marked the
conclusion of a thoughful speech that demonstrated Mr Vajpayee's enviable
command over universal concerns and their linkages to national self-esteem
Hugh Bonney
: Religious right sounds alarm
: Coalition: Sex scandal proves moral decline, delegates say.
: BY LAURIE GOODSTEIN
: New York Times
: Published Sunday, September 20, 1998, in the San Jose Mercury News
: <abridged>
: http://www.mercurycenter.com/premium/nation/docs/christian20.htm
:
There are problems with public morals in Washington, to be sure.
The US has a Surgeon General and a Poet Laureate. Now, in Kent
Starr, we have a National Pornographer and he has been paid
millions - far more than the other two put together. The "religious
right" is silent suggesting that religion or morals may not be
their primary interests. After all, who has really exploited Monica
Lewisky in this matter? (Which, of course, excuses no one else.)
Congress refuses to pass campaign finance reform with teeth in it.
As a result democracy itself is slipping through our fingers. We
are told that the Asian economic crisis is a result of massive
capital misallocation and often misappropriation as a result of
their way of doing business and their legal environment that
supports it. Unless the reforms are passed in Congress the same
problems are inevitable in the US.
The "religious right" is not concerned about public morals but
only an especially nasty version of politics. They seem to use
moral issues primarily as a distraction. The polls suggest that
there are limits to how far such distraction is possible. That
is, it's not possible to fool all of the people all of the time.
Hugh---
****
India joins Pakistan in nuclear weapons pact as the two sides step back from
the brink
Having launched a nuclear arms race -- and fired artillery shells at each
other in Kashmir for much of the summer -- India and Pakistan are finally
letting enlightened self-interest carry the day, and have decided to make
nice. India's Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Thursday followed the
lead of his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, and promised to sign the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The moves followed a breakthrough meeting in
New York Wednesday at which the two leaders agreed to reduce tensions in
Kashmir and increase trade between their countries.
"Both sides are climbing down on nuclear weapons under pressure from Western
economic sanctions," says TIME New Delhi bureau chief Tim McGirk. "Sanctions
have hurt India psychologically, but in Pakistan their effect has been
devastating. Once Pakistan was forced to sign, India wasn't going to remain
out in the cold." But it may take more than an end to sanctions and India's
offer to buy $2 billion worth of electricity to bring Pakistan back from the
brink. "Pakistan is almost bankrupt and Islamic fundamentalism is on the
rise," says McGirk. "It's in danger of coming apart, turning into a failed
nation with a nuclear bomb.
" All the more reason for Vajpayee to extend his hand to Nawaz.
http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/daily/0,2960,14891-101980924,00.html
****
From Presidents to pop icons, America is a weird mix of puritanism and
prurience
By Tunku Varadarajan in New York
I am in an atmosphere that addles the mind. My brain is moist and my hands
are clammy. My spectacles—regulation wire-rimmed glasses, purchased in
Janpath on my last holiday in Delhi—steam up each time I turn to CNN.
America is in the midst of a morality meltdown, an ethical
greenhouse-effect, a heatwave of self-righteousness, a harmattan of
indignation. I breathe in short gasps as the cant and the pietism clog my
nostrils. Help: get me out of here!
There is no escape from Bill Clinton. There is no escape from Monica
Lewinsky. There is no escape from Kenneth Starr (I refuse to call him “Ken”,
for to use a diminutive is to dignify a disagreeable muck-raker). There is
no escape from the namby-pamby, preachy-squeaky editorials in newspapers and
magazines.
Worst of all, there appears to be no escape from those talking-heads on
television, whose infernal blah-blah-blah now includes references to Kant,
the Bible and deontology (reach for that dictionary: I did, too).
Philosophers are in their element, as are the Christian scripture-wallahs
and the odd rabbi (although multicultural America, mercifully, still spares
us the spouting mullah). The shrinks have floated, like scum, to the top of
the pond, and the political pundits...why, that tribe can never, in the
turbulent and often graceless history of modern America, have been as
pompous, opinionated, verbose and self-important as they are now.
There is, above all, no escape from that M-word, “morality”: this, I regret
to say, means the morality of a rural preacher, a black-and-white Ten
Commandments sort of morality where To Lie and To Commit Adultery are both
monstrous violations of the cardinal rules of a society, a civitas, a tribe.
The horror here is magnified because the lying was about adultery, and the
lie was uttered under the aegis of America’s other great church—the legal
system.
But let’s get one thing ramrod straight. Most of America has always had its
knickers in a twist over morality. In fact, the only members of this vast
and quixotic society who seem to subscribe to a coherent morality (even if
it is their own audacious brand) are those who do not usually insist on
wearing knickers—the country’s pornographers. The Adult Film-Makers’ Guild
(which oversees the production of 35 times more films per annum than
Hollywood’s entire mainstream output) has pronounced that the bond between
Miss Lewinsky and the Rhodes-Scholar-in-Chief was “their private business
and their private business alone.” This makes sense, of course, coming from
people whose public business is to have sex on screen, while invoking the
“free speech” right to do so under the First Amendment of the American
Constitution.
It is as easy to find hypocrisy in America as it is to find good paan in
Benares. Give me the pornographers any day over, for example, Senator Joseph
Lieberman, the Democrat friend of Mr Clinton who said: “Whether he or we
think it is fair or not, the reality is in 1998 that a president’s private
life is public. Contemporary news media standards will have it no other
way.” Excuse me? What was that again? It was the worst sort of syllogism.
Mr Lieberman said this, effectively: the president has a private life; the
media regards the president as a public figure; so the president’s private
life is public.
While I’m on a hypocrisy turkey-shoot, why not ask the following questions.
What is more immoral, lying about hanky-panky in the Oval Office (and
adjacent hallways, bathrooms, sinks, bidets, etc.) or: giving every citizen
the right to bear arms? Having tens of millions with no health insurance in
the richest country in the world? Allowing abortion virtually on tap?
Cloning animals? Spending two billion dollars on each state-of-the-art
bomber while millions starve across the globe? Accepting dubious campaign
donations from Chinamen of uncertain provenance?
Even among Mr Clinton’s supporters, there is deep hypocrisy and moral
equivocation. There are those who cry that the president is not getting a
“fair trial”, that the rules of natural justice—not to mention ordinary
laws—have been breached by the “Starr Chamber” in its hounding of the
president. Examples? (1) The president’s lawyers were not allowed a peek at
the Starr report, in order to formulate a rebuttal, before the box-loads of
paperwork were carted off to Congress. Here, the president’s lawyers say,
the principle of audi alteram partem, or “hear the other side”, was breached
materially. (2) The law prohibits federal prosecutors from leaking
confidential grand jury proceedings, yet Starr’s flunkies repeatedly fed
succulent cuts of testimony to the press throughout the grand jury stage.
Where’s the hypocrisy here? Turn your minds to international affairs, where
the rules of natural justice and law are just as valid as in the American
domestic arena. What was Scott Ritter, an American expert, doing on the UN
team that inspected alleged weapons sites in Iraq? However odious Saddam
Hussein may be—and I’d rather have dinner with Mr Starr than with the
murderous Ba’athist psychopath—a rule of natural justice also states that no
party may be the judge in its own case (nemo iudex in re sua). Ritter, an
American, had no business inspecting the sites of Iraq, with whom his
country had been (and in many ways still is) at war. He was there on the
insistence of the US government, as crude a form of victors’ arm-twisting as
one could hope to find. As for the law, the same Clintonistas who claim that
their man is being wronged by the Starr team were silent when the
commander-in-chief biffed poor Sudan without the slightest bit of evidence
that Khartoum had anything to do with the tragic bombings in Nairobi and
Dar-es-Salaam. (According to the UN Charter, no less a legal document than
the US Constitution, force may not be used by one state against another
except in self-defence.)
What sticks in the gullet of secular moralists like me—whose values are
rooted not in the doctrine of a particular religion but in a rough-and-ready
calculus of doing good and avoiding harm—is that the cavalry charge against
Mr Clinton is being led by Christian crusaders. I accept that Mr Clinton is
a sex-obsessed man, a priapic president who cannot keep his zipper in order
for more than five hours a day; but to crucify him for dallying with a
trollop like Miss Lewinsky is conduct more unbecoming than the president’s
own indiscretions. (And actually, lest we forget it, he was pretty darn nice
to her, unable to tell her to go away with the bluntness that was necessary
to stop her in her unwholesome tracks.)
On a personal level, I have always believed that Mr Clinton was unfit to be
president, even though he has presided over a strong economy and healthy
race relations. Why? It’s because he dodged the draft and wouldn’t fight for
his country in Vietnam. That, for me, was the unpardonable sin. Miss
Lewinsky, “phone sex” and his odd use of a good cigar are all small moral
fry in comparison. A man who turned his back on his country at a time of
military need had no business running for president.
What baffles me is this: if that didn’t bother the great American nation,
why oh why are they so upset by his ten little trysts with a tawdry intern?
Dulce et decorum est pro Monica mori. (It is sweet and fitting to die for
Monica.)
(The author is a former New York bureau chief of The Times, London. He is
working on a book on post-war immigration to the US.)
____________________________________________________
More of this stuff at:
http://www.outlookindia.com/issue3/frinternational.htm
Consumption
Triple Deckers and Stretch Limos Can’t Buy Happiness Culture
Coke, Blue Jeans and Chewing Gum for the Mind Diplomacy
Desperately Seeking Enemies in a Unipolar World
Media
Cocked and Loaded: Sex in the Time of the Internet Politics
Porn in the USA: All Is Legitimate in the House Sex and Violence
When Billy the Kid Met the Playboy Bunny Family Values
The 10 Commandments in the Land of the Free
****
http://www.india-today.com/itoday/28091998/sonia.html
Almost as soon as the party's code of conduct is released, members begin
exploring escape routes. Implementation too remains a mystery.
By Harish Gupta
Where there's a will, there's a loophole. When on September 14 Sonia Gandhi
got the Congress Working Committee (CWC) to adopt a code of conduct for
party members, her intentions must have been entirely honourable. Worried
about the Congress' reputation as perhaps India's least law-abiding
political party, its president may have hoped to inject a puritan ethic into
its workings.
Sonia's 19-point programme may, however, prove a non-starter. Within hours
of the code of conduct being made public, senior Congressmen were
congratulating each other on finding escape routes. For example, the code
says that Congressmen must "abstain from alcoholic drinks and intoxicating
drugs". As one excited CWC member put it, "There is no bar on offering
drinks to others. There is no bar on selling and manufacturing liquor. The
bar is only on self-consumption of alcohol in public." The last two words
must be the operative ones as more than half the 20-member CWC is known to
enjoy its drink, albeit in discreet surroundings.
Another clause calls for all party MPs, MLAs and office-bearers to present
annual accounts of their income and assets. They have been asked to submit
property returns on a form prescribed by the All India Congress Committee
(AICC) within three months of their election or nomination. Strangely,
immediate family members of such Congress leaders have been spared. As a
Congress MP smirked, "The clause will become redundant as most of the
property is benami or in the name of family members."
The code envisages that Congress members will be prompt in paying their
taxes and other dues to the Government and the party. Since there is no
mechanism to enable the party to ascertain the tax dues of its members, this
clause seems mystifying. Actually, its purpose is not quite altruistic.
"What concerns Soniaji," says a Congress functionary, "is that every MP, MLA
and office-bearer pay one month's income to the party fund. The clause's
emphasis will be on helping the party, which is facing an acute financial
crisis."
Some sections of the code are no more than profound homilies. For instance,
Congressmen have been asked to abstain from "vulgar display of wealth" and
"pomp and ostentation at marriages and other social functions". Further,
they have been asked to not give or receive dowry. Since dowry is banned
anyway, does this clause amount to a quiet acceptance that Congress members
are flagrantly violating the law?
The dowry injunction is only a pointer. In reality, much of the Sonia code
is old hat, finding place in the Mahatma Gandhi-inspired Directive
Principles and even in the Congress' constitution. The Congress president's
attempt to whitewash her party is also nothing new. In December 1985, at the
centenary session in Mumbai, Rajiv Gandhi had spoken of cleansing the party
of "power brokers". Within two years, he found himself enmeshed in the
Bofors scandal and his "Mr Clean" image tainted.
Later, P.V. Narasimha Rao used the last days of his term as prime minister
to take on corruption. The hawala cases were renewed and scandal-linked
partymen were denied tickets for the 1996 election. The problem with Rao's
grand crusade was that it fooled no one, being directed at internal rivals.
As Congress president, neither Rao nor his successor, Sitaram Kesri, could
even appoint a drafting committee for the long-promised code of conduct.
That task was left to Sonia. Her first problem was to find men and women of
unimpeachable integrity for the code-formulation panel. Given the state of
the Congress, this couldn't have been an easy task. Nevertheless, the final
list seemed satisfactory. The drafting committee was headed by A.K. Anthony.
It had five other members: Manmohan Singh, Margaret Alva, Ahmed Patel, S.B.
Chavan and M.C. Bhandare. By coincidence, not one of these leaders hails fro
m a state the Congress is ruling.
Chavan was the most experienced in such matters, being chairman of the Rajya
Sabha's Ethics Committee. He has travelled across the world, studying
ethics-monitoring systems in a variety of polities. Bhandare was the legal
eagle in the sextet. It was his job to hammer out the initial document. The
deadline was tight as Sonia gave the committee just one month to accomplish
its mission.
Bhandare faces up bravely to the charge that the code has nothing new. He
asserts that there is a unique Sonia stamp in the stress on women's rights,
on the electoral exile of those battling criminal and corruption charges and
on population control. "No party," Bhandare says, "has dared to incorporate
a provision on family planning as a parameter for giving tickets to workers.
It is a bold step." The Congress president has ruled that any person who
begets more than two children after January 1, 2000, cannot be a party
candidate in any election. There is less clarity on the matter of those who
may face court cases. While nobody charged with a crime can be held guilty
till convicted, the Congress may decide to prejudge some of its members.
Bhandare says that any such decision will be taken by the ethics committee
at the centre or in the state "on a case by case basis". The party may
decide to deny nomination to a person who is still undergoing trial given
"public perception and the merits of the case". Of course, Anthony clarifies
that the new rules are only for fresh cases and cannot be applied
retrospectively.
This isn't the only grey area. Nobody in the Congress is sure how and when
the code will be implemented. Sonia has already indicated that it will lie
in cold storage till November's elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and
Delhi are over. Obviously, she does not want a burst of morality to
inconvenience her selection of candidates for these polls. That apart, the
ethics committees in Delhi and in the state capitals are yet to be
appointed. The forms which the partymen will use to declare their financial
status are nowhere close to being printed.
Privately, the drafting committee's members have been told they will be
incorporated into the national ethics committee. A formal announcement is
awaited. Next, the AICC plans to issue advertisements in the media outlining
the code of conduct and inviting specific accusations from the public.
The ethics committee has been conceived as a quasi-judicial body. It will
receive complaints and hold hearings. It will record evidence, issue summons
and even supervise a Congress bureau of investigation, a sort of in-house
CBI.
Congressmen, as usual, are hailing the code of conduct as the greatest act
since creation. To quote but one example, Surinder Singla, former MP, has
urged that the "humble beginning" not be dismissed lightly.
Sonia means business, goes the refrain. She has been able to do in six
months what could not be achieved in 20 years -- since 1978, when Indira
Gandhi split the old Congress and founded the Congress (I). Imitation being
the best form of flattery, daughter organisations like the Youth Congress,
Mahila Congress and Seva Dal have begun thinking of their own codes.
Beneath the hype, the Congress sees the release of the code as a desperate
public relations exercise. At a time when one Congress chief minister
(Orissa's J.B. Patnaik) faces charges of protecting a molester, a former
chief minister (Gujarat's Amarsinh Chaudhary) is a bigamist, a former
minister faces a court battle resulting from an adulterous liaison during an
official visit overseas and scores of other partymen are under one cloud or
the other, the code of conduct seems a joke.
The point is the joke may be laughing back at the Congress.
*****************************************
CLEANSING MANIFESTO
Some Sonia commandments
Thou shalt wear just khadi.
Thou shalt treat women as equal to men in all spheres.
Thou shalt not criticise party policies in the media.
Thou shalt not seek funds for the party, unless told to.
Thou shalt inform party, if arrested for a crime,
Thou shalt stay away from casteist, communal bodies.
Thou shalt promote the goal of small families.
Thou shalt volunteer help during riots, calamities.
Thou shalt fight and seek to efface untouchability.
****
By Ludwina A. Joseph in Washington, DC
En masse, it would be hard to find a greater collection of double-dealers,
money grabbers, carpet-baggers, influence-peddlers and adulterers under one
roof anywhere in the world," writes Simon Hoggart of The Guardian, London,
on the US Congress, the American legislature that will decide if "Slick
Willy" is to be pardoned or punished. "It beggars belief that Newt
Gingrich—a man who brought his wife divorce papers to sign while she was in
hospital recovering from cancer—will be a central part of the process."
From the outside, the American political system—with its dandy politicians,
defection-free parties and dignified proceedings—may bring a gleam of envy
to not-so-privileged countries. But on the inside, it’s stuffed silly with
"think global, act local" politicians, who can’t look beyond their noses,
and when they do, can’t look beyond their constituencies. Witness how
quickly they rolled back agriculture sanctions against Pakistan in spite of
the N-tests, when it seemed it would hurt American interests.
Not only do domestic demands dictate foreign policy, but they also tend to
send strange signals to a bewildered world. "There is a great irony in the
Clinton affair, and it is this: the crisis in the American presidency
matters more to the world outside the US than it does inside the country,"
says Michael Elliot, editor of Newsweek International.
"They will tell you time and again that theirs is the freest society in the
world. Translation: everyone has the God-given right to buy hardcore
pornography around the corner and everyone has the right to become a
millionaire. An unhappy byproduct of this self-deception is that Americans
truly believe they have the best democracy in the world," says Bhaichand
Patel, a former UN information officer. "This myth has lately taken the
trappings of the most blindingly manifest of great truths. American
democracy gives you the right to choose between the Republicans and the
Democrats. There is no other choice. When you examine it closely, you will
note that the system is one party removed from the one prevailing in China."
So, even as Czar Starr hounds Cocky Clinton over an "inappropriate
relationship" while completely ignoring the original objective of his
investigation (a land deal in Whitewater, Arkansas), few barring the
president’s legal eagles find the voice. Reason: Congressional polls are due
in November, and what they say now can (and will) be held against them then.
Should Clinton be impeached? No unanimity again despite the national
breastbeating. Reason: removing Clinton means replacing him with Al Gore,
who will stay till the 2000 elections, and might even take the Democrats
home.
Ramesh Ravella, an Indian who heads a Virginia-based software company,
thinks it is the "gradual ascendancy" of the US House of Representatives
over the slow-moving and methodical US Senate that has contributed to "the
dumbing down of American politics". He adds: "House members run for
elections every two years and are constantly in ‘running mode’, raising
campaign funds or playing constituency politics. In contrast, the Senate is
more deliberative and introspective with a more global vision."
"The American public does not care that Clinton had an affair, no one can
change that. What they are being made to care about by Clinton’s political
foes is that he lied about it. The theory is, if he lied to everyone about
this, what if he has been lying about other things—like granting missile
technology to China? What if Clinton’s loose idea of right vs wrong
compromised US security?" asks Siddharth Mookerji, ceo of Georgia-based
Software Paradigms Inc.
But while the expediencies of politicians may find some sympathy, the
limited Weltanschauung of the American legislator is striking. "In the
warped view of legislators, the world outside the US does not count for
much," says Ravella.
"Tune in to the evening news," observes Ardhanari Ramaswamy, an Indian
software engineer in Washington, "and the so-called ‘World News’ will be
devoted for the most part to US news. As long as US interests are safe or US
supremacy is not at risk, Americans don’t really care about what happens in
other parts of the world, be they civil wars or natural disasters or
terrorist attacks." Ditto and likewise for its politicians, and its polity.
With Ramananda Sengupta
The Outlook
http://www.outlookindia.com/issue3/frinternational.htm
****
By Narayan Keshavan in New York with Ramananda Sengupta
Love and bullets, Charlie." That Bronsonian parting line which defined the
Americas of the swinging seventies has given way to a far more direct
end-of-the-millennium mantra: sex and guns. Preferably lots of it. Nothing,
but nothing, brings out the great American paradox better than those two
words. A nation that prides itself on its moral permissiveness wallows in
its president’s tawdry affair with an intern, to the extent that they now
know more about his sexual life than that of their best friend’s. And while
the parents are piously busy, bombing Iraq or Sudan, New York kindergartens
are being equipped with metal detectors to prevent kids armed with handguns
from shooting at their classmates every now and then.
A nation that gave the world Playboy and Penthouse, Demi Moore and Pamela
Anderson, while extolling the wares of dildo shops and peep shows, a nation
whose porn industry can wipe out the national debt of most Third World
nations, gets into a prurient huff because its president is an adulterer. As
for the other phallic symbol, the gun lobby proudly proclaims that in 1994
(the last year for which figures were available) there were 231 million
firearms, mostly handguns, in private hands. After all, the second amendment
to the US Constitution categorically ensures that: "A well regulated
militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the
people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." And the people, of
course, includes children and the mentally ill. So what do you get? Sesame
Street with semi-automatic weapons.
In 1995, nearly 35,000 Americans died by gunfire. Among all consumer
products, only motor vehicles outpace guns as a cause of fatal injury, and
it is estimated that guns will pass them by 2003. Clearly, marketing is
paying off. When sales slumped in the 1980s, gunmakers began to expand the
market with niche marketing campaigns aimed at women and youth. Calamity
Jane revisited.
Meanwhile, concerned parents argue over the merits of the V-chip, which lets
them deny their children access to the ever-increasing number of
pornographic TV channels. "One does not need to endorse the finger-wagging
moralism of zealots to think that a society whose films, TV magazines and
conversation are so obsessed with the business of sexual gratification is
not a healthy one. Other generations left such mysteries to the beating of a
private heart. That is now called hypocrisy, but it was not unwise," writes
Newsweek International editor Michael Elliott.
True, the times are a-changing. aids has cast its skull and crossbones
shadow over the promiscuity prominently advertised and hyped by Hollywood as
signs of American permissiveness since the decadent ’60s. "Yes, there
certainly is a change over the last two decades in the attitudes people have
over sexuality," says New York pollster John Zogby. "The baby boomers (born
between 1945 and 1964) tend to be liberal. That and the growth of the
Christian Right has polarised attitudes. On one hand, there’s growing
tolerance toward alternate lifestyles, on the other there are attacks on
gays."
Dr Janice Epp, a professor of human sexuality, however, warns that all
survey data "about sexuality is debatable. There’s no monolithic attitude
about sexuality in the US". But certainly the "attitudes have changed," she
admits. Some 30 or 40 years ago, the American electorate would not have
tolerated their president being an adulterer. "But now they don’t want to
remove Clinton for adultery, but for lying or perjury...what was not
acceptable then has now become acceptable." The populace is now also more
tolerant toward same-sex marriages.
Sex, according to the Americans, is of two types—pre and post-marital. And
the statistics speak for themselves. Specifically, 79 per cent of Americans
feel it is always wrong for a married person to have extramarital sexual
relations, and another 11 per cent says it is "almost always" wrong. Yet,
almost 80 per cent say half or more of all married men have committed
adultery at some point. And women? Sixty per cent say half or more of
married women have committed adultery.
Perhaps, frightening thought, that accounts for all the guns sold in the
country. If Obelix the Gaul had lived today, he would have no hesitation at
all in tapping his right temple and pronouncing: "These Americans are
crazy."
****
By Vibhuti Patel in New York
In 1992, Murphy Brown, a popular TV sitcom character epitomising an
intelligent, highly paid, professional woman, decided to bear a child out of
wedlock. With righteous indignation, vice president Dan Quayle invoked
"family values", the Republican party’s watchword in that year’s
presidential campaign, to attack the show and its star, Candice Bergen.
Families, the Republican platform insisted, "must continue to be the
foundation of our nation". And, as envisioned by the Bible-thumping
Christian right, a family consists of a legally married heterosexual couple
with their minor children.
Never mind that this nostalgic fantasy is unmatched by the demographics in
today’s America. Openly gay lifestyles, divorce and teenage problems have
combined to undermine the nuclear family. Still, most Americans yearn for it
because it conjures up a simpler, better America. For example, in a
midwestern district where only 58 per cent of the voters prefer
"conservative" candidates, 95 per cent wanted their Congressman to be a
"family man".
As Republicans in 1992 exploited this anxiety over the loss of family,
candidate Bill Clinton addressed the newly changing family’s needs:
affordable daycare to help working mothers, family leave for parents caring
for sick children or elders, legal ways to ensure divorced dads pay child
support, legislation to prevent discrimination against gays, universal
healthcare. These were Democratic agendas but Clinton shrewdly veered to the
centre—seemingly away from the liberal "left"—as he tried to be all things
to all people.
Hillary Clinton—a feminist who continued to use her maiden name after she
was married, and a lawyer who made more money than her husband—also played
the game. She adopted Clinton’s name, gave up her job, dressed to soften her
image and baked cookies. If this is what America wanted, the Clintons would
give it to them. Until voters asked if this power couple had a family, the
Clintons had jealously guarded their only child’s privacy. Then, it became
imperative to prove they were "normal".
Family values thus encompassed traditional social standards of civility,
decorum and restraint; subliminally, they displayed a fear of the different,
the unknown, the unconventional. Such values are a top priority in America’s
Deep South which, not surprisingly, has a greater mistrust of differences
(blacks, immigrants, non-Christians and liberals) than, say, the northeast.
This conservative heartland is home to Clinton and his opponents—Kenneth
Starr, Newt Gingrich, Judiciary Committee chairman Henry Hyde, to name a
few. Here, family comes first, religion a close second. (Starr’s zeal can
best be understood in light of the fact that he is a preacher’s son, he sold
Bibles in his youth, and he never misses Sunday church.)
In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville said: "Religion...must be
regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of the United
States." Is it surprising, then, that Congressmen and ordinary Americans
alike are first deeply concerned about the suffering of Clinton’s family
but, then, on TV talkshows, they refer repeatedly to "sin", "repentance",
"penance", "the Ten Commandments"? The real America reflects neither the
permissiveness of Hollywood, nor the secularism of its liberal media.
Its values have their roots in the Judaeo-Christian ethic which underscores
that adultery is wrong, that there are absolutes in the areas of integrity
and tolerance.
In any case, thanks to aids, the sexual revolution is definitely over. A
1994 survey found their sexual behaviour was dominated by the three
Ms—marriage, monogamy and the missionary position. The Washington Post
declared: "The neo-Puritans have taken back Peyton Place."
Seventy-five per cent of Americans find sex in what sociologists call a
"pair bond", and of those so committed, 75 per cent men and 85 per cent
women remain faithful to their partner. Serial monogamy is the flavour du
jour. The silent TV majority likes its entertainment hot, even steamy, but
infidelity is rare in the general population.
Viewed in this light, the president’s affair with Monica Lewinsky puts him
out of sync with his constituents; 66 per cent say they do not share his
moral values, though almost as many still approve his job performance. Some
think this is sexual McCarthyism.
Parents are outraged because they have to explain this to their children—the
president has violated the sanctity of the American family not just by
adultery but by kinky sex with a girl young enough to be his daughter.
"Clinton has lived a lie," says one Congressman. "He has damaged my family,
what can I tell my children?" asks a radio talkshow hostess.
(Vibhuti Patel is an editor with Newsweek International.)
http://www.outlookindia.com/issue3/frinternational.htm
Adina Greiner
caused.
How they looted without any regard for the people of India!
The British should be made to pay every penny that is needed for Indian
economic development.
What is the UN doing about this?
In article <6ued32$pf5$1...@winter.news.erols.com>, "****"
Nitin Batra
colonized, not by harrapans, not by mauryas or guptas or any dynasties
between these three, not by muslims, not by europeans was-with the
exception of cochin---Kerala. The singular place in subcontinent. And
clearly, Kerala is better off than everyone, not only in human development
but in preservation of culture. imperialists bite! and yes that includes
ashoka and akbar the "greats", absolutely despicable politicians and
usurpers. simple dickheads too! Nitin Batra. within 50 years of Ashok
Maurya's death, Orissa won back its freedom- i do hope that gave him a
good turning is his grave.
Nusrat Rizvi
>In article <6ued32$pf5$1...@winter.news.erols.com>, "****"
><imagi...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> How the British Looted India
>>
>> In 1787 a former army officer wrote: In former times the Bengal countries
>> were the granary of nations, and the repository of commerce, wealth and
>> manufacture in the East...But such has been the restless energy of
>> misgovernment, that within 20 years many parts of those countries have been
>> reduced to desert. The fields are no longer cultivated, extensive tracks are
>> already overgrown with thickets, the husbandman is plundered, the
>> manufacturer (handicraftsman) oppressed, famine has been repeatedly endured
>> and depopulation ensured.
>> As India became poor and hungry, Britain became richer. Colossal fortunes
>> were made. Robert Clive arrived in India penniless - activities of Company
>> investigated by House of Commons. The Hindi word loot was introduced into
>> English language because of the plunder of India. Colossal fortunes helped
>> fund Britain's Industrial Revolution e.g.:
>> 1757 - Battle of Plassey
>> 1764 - Hargreaves spinning jenny
>> 1769 - Arkwright's water frame
>> 1779 - Crompton mule (whatever that is)
>> 1785 - Watt's steam engine
Another word introduced to British lexicon was Nabob a corruption of
Indian word Nawab meaning a fabously waelthey person, a derisive
sobriquet given to nou-veau riche British adventurers who came back
from India loded to the gill.
>> India's annual net revenues of Ł44m flowed out of India. The number of
>It is truly amazing how much destruction the jealousy of the British
>caused.
>
>How they looted without any regard for the people of India!
>The British should be made to pay every penny that is needed for Indian
>economic development.
>
>What is the UN doing about this?
The population of India has been stabilized at 50 million for
millennia, is it than not to British credit that when they parted
after 150 years of rule the number has jumped to 400 million.
I feel there is little to be gained by living in the past or
recrimination against previous generations. UK has offered substantial
aid to India in many field and has done more than its fair share to
make up for the misdeeds of British people of earlier generation.
Nusrat Rizvi
Kano Ako
<imagi...@hotmail.com> writes:
>
>The Ten Commandments in the Land of the Free
>
>By Vibhuti Patel in New York
>
>In 1992, Murphy Brown, a popular TV sitcom character epitomising an
>intelligent, highly paid, professional woman, decided to bear a child out of
>wedlock. With righteous indignation, vice president Dan Quayle invoked
>"family values", the Republican party’s watchword in that year’s
>presidential campaign, to attack the show and its star, Candice Bergen.
>Families, the Republican platform insisted, "must continue to be the
>foundation of our nation". And, as envisioned by the Bible-thumping
>Christian right, a family consists of a legally married heterosexual couple
>with their minor children.
>
>Never mind that this nostalgic fantasy is unmatched by the demographics in
>today’s America. Openly gay lifestyles, divorce and teenage problems have
Never mind that Candice Bergen did eventually say that Dan was right. Also
please note that the majority of single mothers and their children are
impoverished and typically have one heck of a hard time breaking out that
dreadful cycle.
>
>In any case, thanks to aids, the sexual revolution is definitely over. A
>1994 survey found their sexual behaviour was dominated by the three
The sex revelution? The main beneficiaries of the sexual revelution have been
men! The single mothers & their children get the shaft.
FROM: Kano Ako
HOME: kan...@lsol.net
HTTP: mamaya na!
Remove NOSPAM from e-mail address to e-mail me.
Magignat kayong lahat, kanoako daw!
****
Author: Avro Manhattan
ISBN: 0-937958-16-6
Price: $11.50
Pages: 304 - Paperback
Catholic church is wealthier than you might think
With devastating thoroughness, Avro Manhattan explains how the popes stole
the wealth of the world through the centuries. He exposes the incredible
tricks played on kings, and the papal involvement with the Bolsheviks. You
will read with amazement the list of corporations in Catholic hands, and see
why the papacy claims ownership of the Americas.
Table of Contents:
The Historical Genesis of the Vatican's Accumulation of Wealth
Historical genesis of the Vatican's accumulation of wealth -- How the
Apostolic tradition of poverty was abandoned.
The Origin of the Church's Temporal Riches
The cult of the Blessed Peter--Sale of the filings from his iron chains--
Origin of the wealth of the church--The pontiffs become kings.
The Church as the Inheritor of the Former Roman Empire
She claims the ownership of all territories of the Roman Empire--The
Donation of Constantine and its subsequent profound repercussions for the
West.
The Church Claims Ownership of the Western World
The Church commands secular rulers to pay her--She claims the ownership of
all lands, with all their inhabitants and riches.
The Church Claims the Ownership of All Isles and Lands As Yet Undiscovered
A Pope sells Ireland to England--All Irishmen to pay an annual tribute of
one penny to the Holy See--The Church "lends" the Americans to Spain and
Portugal.
When the World Was About to End - A.D. 1000
Why the world would come to an end in the year A.D. 1000--What caused the
credence--Believers give all their possessions to the Church.
Pay to be a Christian - Whether Alive or Dead
The Pope who sold a million Italians for 800 ounces of gold--Fines on the
confessional -- The Exeter farmers' trick--Direct and indirect church
taxation--The Church claims 33 per cent of personal riches of all "dead
Christians"--Collects money from lepers, beggars and prostitutes.
Holy Mass Tourism for Each Generation
Origin of the first Jubilee--Go to heaven via Rome...but pay first!
Miracles, Portents and Wonders For Sale
Grasshoppers, caterpillars, leeches and snails excommunicated--Florins and
vermin--Too many miracles--The saint who had to work a miracle to stop
miracles.
Stock Exchanges in Indulgences
Pay for the release of a soul--Buy one million years of indulgences, to
avoid Hell and shorten Purgatory with money
The Church Claims the Americas
The Church "leases" the Americas to Spain, "subleases" part of them to
Portugal.
The Economic Factor Behind the Reformation
Extortion, greed and rapacity--Luxury conclaves and papal extravaganzas
The Catholic Church and the Fabulous Wealth of the Spanish Colonies
The riots of Mexico City --Conflict between the church's temporal revenue
and that of the State--The Catholic Church consolidates her economic
strangle-hold on the Spanish-American Empire.
Revolutions and the Church's Revenues
The North American, French and South American Revolutions reduce the
Church's wealth--The Church discovers new means to make money--The invention
of the "miraculous medal."
The Catholic Church is Once More Despoiled of Her Wealth in Europe and the
Americas
The Church and the dawn of the Industrial Age--The Catholic Church again
becomes a billionaire in Latin America--The Church's alliance with the U.S.
Oil Corporation--Attempt to involve the U.S. in a war against Mexico to
recover her wealth.
The Catholic Church Welcomes the Rise of Bolshevism
Secret negotiations with Lenin. She plans to replace the Orthodox Church,
and prepares to administer the latter's wealth--Failure of the
Vatican--Kremlin deal.
First Foundations of a Twentieth-Century Catholic Financial Empire
The Catholic Church invests her billion lire in real estate, stocks, shares
in Fascist Italy--She backs industrial war machinery to make quick profits--
Causes of her spectacular success--Her vast properties on the Iberian
peninsula.
The Total Wealth of the Church Before and During the Second World War
Economic motivations which prompted the Catholic Church to support Nazi
Germany--Her riches in European countries--Her policy of investment in South
America and the U.S.--Approximate total wealth of the Catholic Church at the
beginning and at the end of the Second World War.
The Vatican Invests Millions in War Industries Transfers Most of Them to the
U.S.A.
The Church's interest in Italian and German war industries --The General who
wanted to bomb the Vatican--The Catholic Church's financial and economic
presence in Italy.
Why the Catholic Church is the Richest Church of America
Three-billion-dollar income a year for organized religion in the U.S.--Why
the Vatican sent its millions to the U.S.
Member of the Billionaire Club of the U.S.A.
Characteristics of American Catholicism --Identification of the Catholic
Church with U.S. big business --The Catholic Church as a member of the
exclusive Billionaire Club of America
Cardinals into Stockbrokers
Stockbroker of the Holy Mother Church--the 636-million dollar diocese--The
Catholic Church "second" only to the U.S. government.
Catholic Urban Take-over in the U.S.A.
The tale of the three clerics--"The Yankee Stadium? That's ours, too!"--The
real estate clerical brigade--Catholic urban take-over--Typical unedifying
instances.
The Wealthiest Giant Theocracy of the Americas
Catholic financial penetration of the U.S.--Schools and hospitals financed
by taxpayers--Monks and nuns and their untaxed profits--The Jesuits, the
Bank of America and their links with the U.S. air corporations--The "poor
nuns" with one-billion-dollar assets.
The Richest and the Poorest, the Church in America and the Church in Russia
The Million Dollars and the "Mendicant Orders"--The clerical-master builders
of America--Closed Churches, empty Churches and Church-Museums in Soviet
Russia--Lenin in place of Christ--What the KGB said during a service --The
cross and the star in Moscow Red Square.
Origin of the Current Colossal Wealth of the Catholic Church
Origin of her contemporary wealth--The Vatican invests millions in Turkish
securities--The House of Rothschild and Vatican investments--Catholic gold
reserves larger than those of France and England--The Vatican as the richest
estate owner in the world--Vatican colossal evasion of taxation--The Vatican
milks the German taxpayer--The Vatican investment with the giant
corporations--How wealthy is the Church?
The Best Thing to Have Happened Since Jesus Christ
The Vatican pleads poverty--Sound re-investment of its funds--Secret
financial information from the U.S.A. --Pope Pius XI discovers "The best Jew
since Jesus Christ"--Investment without theology--Paul VI finds a promising
successor
The Popes Very Own Financial Little Fox
The Archbishop and the chicory-seller's son--The wealthiest self-made man of
Europe--Financial advisor and solver of imbroglios--He extracts the Church
from embarrassing situations--The Pope calls him "his very own little
fox"--The Vatican financial advisor's dazzling progress--The Vatican chooses
18 top businessmen to advise its advisor --Phenomenal growth of the Vatican
portfolio--European hostility--Move to the U.S.A.
The Catholic Church, Nixon, the Freemasons, and the Jailed "Vatican Wizard"
The Vatican and one million dollars for the Nixon campaign--Rumors of
million dollar losses--The Church and the Freemason to the rescue--A suit in
U.S. Federal Court--Secret meeting in Europe with the Pope's Nuncio--A
federal judge is snubbed by the Vatican--The Vatican Bank's director is
questioned by the U.S. about a suspected $900 million in counterfeit
bonds--The Pope's financial wizard is found guilty on 65 charges.
God's Banker, Lodge P2, and the Vatican
The corpse across a railway line and the Bank of Rome--The Vatican financial
advisor discovers a bright pupil--The pupil becomes God's banker--The
mystery of P2 lodge--The riddle of Catholic Masons--400 million dollars
interest to pay--A Vice-president is shot in the legs--God's banker's
secretary commits "suicide".
The Vatican Mafia Operators and Operations
An investigator is killed, before his report--The Opus Dei offers to help
the Vatican Bank--The IOR is accused of holding numbered Swiss bank
accounts--Cannot, or is prevented from withdrawing its alleged
millions--Warnings from the chief of the anti-terrorist police--The 100
bullets assassination--The tip of the conspiratorial iceberg.
Riddle of an Enigma, The Vatican Bank
Six billion in deposits--Money, religion and power--The Pope's and the
Vatican's secret funds--Duality of the Vatican Bank's activities--The Borgia
seizure of the Vatican's treasury.
1983-1984: The Unholy Holy Year, Indulgences, Cash and Pope-Idolatry
Unholy Holy Year, the great money spinner--The youngest Pope in history buys
the Papacy--The Pope who invented a "Sacred Commemoration"; to pay a 1,000
million dollar debt--Two historical comments.
The Intangible Billions of the Catholic Church
The immense real and intangible wealth of the Catholic Church--The most
incalculable art collector in the world--Value of her art treasures; one
thousand millions worth of pictures--How much for the Sistine Chapel?--Other
imponderable sources of income--What would Christ do with it?
Arbiter of the Western World
The Catholic Church as the owner of one-third of all the wealth of Europe
and of the Americas by the end of this century.
Sandeep Cariapa
the English. Indians have a long way to go to get over this goddamn
victim mentality. We kicked out the bloody wankers 50 years ago, now
lets go on to make our nation stronger and richer.
Sandeep Cariapa
In article <360b797f...@news.pipeline.com>,
Nusrat Rizvi <rizv...@pipeline.com> wrote:
>cgre...@mindspring.com (Adina Greiner) wrote:
>
>>In article <6ued32$pf5$1...@winter.news.erols.com>, "****"
>><imagi...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> How the British Looted India
>>>
>>> While there was prosperity for British cotton industry there was ruin for
>>> millions of Indian craftsmen and artisans. India's manufacturing towns were
>>> blighted e.g. Decca once known as the Manchester of India, and
>>> Murshidabad-Bengal's old capital which was once described in 1757 as
>>> extensive, populous and rich as London. Millions of spinners, and weavers
>>> were forced to seek a precarious living in the countryside, as were many
>>> tanners, smelters and smiths.
>>>
Nitin Batra
Indo-European Studies article-- carbon-14 dating works to over 40,000
years, but within 10,000 years, it is amazing, accurate to a tee. I don't
know much about dates beyond 40,000- how accurate all the fluorine dating
junk is and whether you can say this animal is at same layer as skull so
must be this old-could be, i don't know. anyways, the 3,400 years old from
the article is correct. There is excellent article in '97 second hald of
year called "Brahmin, Non-Brahmin, and Aryan..something..something" genius
insights and clever but almost can't-go-wrong methods- journal of
indo-european studies-check it out. indians have articles from time to
time but not a single indian on the editorial board- someone change that.
Nitin Batra
****
Making India stronger, prosperous for ALL its citizens.
But its always good to revisit the past and remember our history so that we
can tell the next generation about why India known as (the Jewel in the
Crown ) became poor.
BTW, talking of jewels, we should still insist that the British hand over
the treasures stolen by them.
Specially the "Kohinoor" diamond.
Kohinoor, the (Mountain of Light) was found in the Godavari River 4,000
years ago. At that time it weighed 186 carats.
It was owned by the Raja of Malwa, then by the Moghuls, then Nadir Shah,
later the British.
Queen Victoria had it cut and at a cost of $40,000.
Today it is part of the British crown jewels.
___________________________________________________
Sandeep Cariapa wrote in message <6uh5bs$7un$1...@shell8.ba.best.com>...
>Yep it is time to stop whining constantly about the misdeeds of
>the English. Indians have a long way to go to get over this goddamn
>victim mentality. We kicked out the bloody wankers 50 years ago, now
>lets go on to make our nation stronger and richer.
>
>Sandeep Cariapa
>
>In article <360b797f...@news.pipeline.com>,
>Nusrat Rizvi <rizv...@pipeline.com> wrote:
>>cgre...@mindspring.com (Adina Greiner) wrote:
>>
****
In 1990, the Journal of Indo-European Studies carried an article entitled
"Analysis of an Indo-European Vedic head- Fourth Millennium B.C."
The life size head has a hairstyle that the Vedas describe ad being unique
to the family of Vasistha, one of the great seers who composed parts of the
Rig-Veda. The hair is oiled and coiled with a tuft on the right, and ther
ears are riveted...Carbon -14 tests.. indicate that it was cast around 3,700
B.C.
This questions the Aryan Invasion Theory.
Source: The Empire of the Soul
By Paul William Roberts
pg 306
****
What is Mission of Joy?
Mission of Joy is a non-profit Christian organization whose purpose is to
reach India with the Gospel. Mission of Joy has built numerous churches, and
three orphanages in Andhra Pradesh, South India. Clothing, food, shelter,
Christian education, and staff support is presently provided for 75 orphaned
children. Funds are provided by caring American Christians. A monthly
newsletter is sent to all interested. Mission of Joy is not funded or
supported by any church or denomination.
Who Began Mission of Joy?
Christian believers with a heart for India began this work in the late
1980's. Started on a shoestring and faith in God's leading, Christian
volunteers gave their time, money and lives to bring the Gospel to those
without Christ in India. Since its founding, Mission of Joy has launched and
supported numerous Indian missionaries who carry out the work of Christ.
Through Mission of Joy, compassionate Christians in America can comfort the
hungry, orphaned, and lost in India.
NATIVE MISSIONARIES:
Mission of Joy supports numerous Indian-born missionaries. The financial
support provided by MOJ makes it possible for these poor believers to bring
the Gospel to remote villages. Over 1 million villages exist in the nation
of India. Most have never heard the name "Jesus." Our prayer is to send 100
new missionaries a year into the mission field.
CHURCHES:
MOJ builds churches as God opens the door. Many of our native missionaries
enter villages with little more than their Bibles and clothes on their back.
We help them establish a church by providing modest sums to construct simple
churches. (The cost of these rarely exceeds $1,500).
EVANGELISTIC CRUSADES:
MOJ conducts approximately 25 crusades each year in India. During the winter
of 1994, MOJ saw more than 10,000 Hindus and Muslims commit their lives to
Christ. These crusades target the remote villages of India.
FOOD:
Many people live on the edge of starvation in the nation of India. A bowl of
rice is all that stands between life and death for many. MOJ attempts to
feed as many as come to our door. Needless to say, this task is capable of
outstripping our financial resources. But God has helped us provide tens of
thousands of meals since our inception.
http://missionjoy.org/info.htm
Sid Harth
How is life in your reincarnated, "****" incarnation? Pretty hectic eh?
Shuttling between putting direct delivery of mafia manure, bringing the bacon,
keeping the wifey barefoot and pregnant, searching for something, anything, no
matter how trivial it may be to glorify Indian culture, risking the depravity by
harping American morality issues while brushing burning, barely alive Indian,
moral, social, political, economic issues under the saffron rug, lying, cheating
and practically setting the country that feeds you on fire, you must be a heck
of a fast typist, producing pages after pages of type wrtten garbage, sometimes
couple of them a minute to be posted on the internet news groups.
Good luck buddy, There are millions of pages of material, already published
about America, your ten cent's worth is not going to break that camel's back,
not in your lifetime, I assure.
The idea is to take care of your penny, your personal attitude, personal
philosophy, and let the pound take care of itself, merely pounding with a
borrowed Hindu hammer ain't gonna do it, bubba. The smart people see your game
in as much time as you take to post, merely thirty seconds.
Search your soul, I know that it is hard to find, what with your busy mutton
militia schedule and all. The answers you are supposedly parlaying and laying on
the doorsteps of village idiots, for free, are freely available for personal
consumption.
Morality, a vast uncharted territory, even for the philosophers, may seem an
easy wilderness for the dirt bikers like you. No. Definitely not. It is a deep
chasm in human psyche. The answers as to its depth cannot be found
superficially, not with a fish pole and a length of fishing tackle.
Bill Clinton is in a doghouse over Monica sex scandal. Serves him well, the
Gypsy dog, NRI Gypsy dog that he is. The top dog position that he has in
American politics is hard to displace. The complex personality traits that he
possesses would be a legend in future political planning and punditry.
Human mind, not any different by the racial and political divisions, can
only be fathomed by individual search, for private consumption. The best results
are obtained if one knows what one is trying to knock down and what one decides
to call good or bad. Bill is a bad boy, no two ways about it, but so is HIV
virus. Both need to be studied in depth with highest scientific tools available,
not to be put in a basket of good things and bad things of the world and washing
one's hands from observing as to how they work. They certainly, work, either
produce or destroy things near and dear to us.
Thanks to the USA Today dated, September 27, 1998.
http://www.usatoday.com/elect/ew/eb113.htm
Sid Harth..."The generations of Brahmin brat boys were fed on Brahmin philosophy
of calling others names and leaving their festering problems from being
debated."
**** wrote:
> When Billy the Kid Met the Playboy Bunny
>
Malte Winter
Sid Harth
**** wrote:
> Porn in the USA: All Is Legitimate in the House
>
My dear Ramanand,
Feeling like little throat clearing in the wilderness? I have posted number
of articles on porn being as popular in America as in Bangalore and Bombay elite
societies. What is thing you have about porn in America? Porn was not, and I
repeat not inventing in America. India, maybe. The monuments to Indian porn are
still available at Khajuraho, bringing in busloads of trendy Americans to visit
the site. Indian government is milking Indian porn cow for whatever it is worth.
Krishna fucking with Radha, a married lady much older than he was and
hundreds and thousands of virgin village bimbos is a centerpiece of Vaishnavaite
cult. Thousands of lines of literature on their pornographic exploits are
written and recited by millions of Vashnavaites since time immemorial. Thousands
of graphic pictures were painted in the days of Hindu kings, adoring the walls
of international museums and walls of the private collectors.
The greatest works of human sex treatises were written, first in India and
are still circulated among the most trendy and sexually liberated western
countries. Show me a devote Hindu girl, woman and old lady taking a ritual bath
in a holy river and I shall show you tens of Hindu men ogling till they
ejaculate in their pants, dhotis and langootas.
Talk about the female attire in India, highlighting the bosom and buttocks,
bellies and belly buttons, low necklines and high hemlines displaying all the
sexually arousing parts prominently to anyone who cares and spares his time to
ogle. Sale and distribution of such pornographic material as Playboy and Hustler
are brisk in India.
Child molestation. child prostitution of both sexes is not only prevalent
but run on the most sophisticated manner, involving the law officers, rich
merchants, middle men and women trading human flesh as if it was side of beef or
pork bellies, in an open market.
Bubba, the world is getting smaller. Your piece is fit to be printed in a
saffron rag, not on the internet. Thanks to the USA Today dated, September 27,
1998.
http://www.usatoday.com/elect/ew/ew257.htm
Sid Harth..."Pornography is a pornography it is not geographical entity."
Sid Harth
Christian pep talk. Be as what may, Anil Londhe, RSS covert operative has his
orders from Zandewalan quarters and he is dutifully reproducing all that serves
his lords and masters, Hindu, Brahmin mafia don Rajju's mafia handlers.
Anil Londhe, a Brahmin brat boy, has no courage to sign his name, so that he
would, subsequently, called Saint Anil. These selfless Brahmin brat boys, I just
love them. Such humility, such temerity, such stinking devotion to their task,
not job, jobs are done by intellectuals, he ain't got anything upstairs, like a
robot, he collects things and spills them out.
I have nothing nice to say about Christian dummies, they are neither
original nor the best, so I don't. The question as to all that Christian money
seeking untamed souls is a joke. Merely two hundred years ago, white American
slave owners believed in their hearts that their black slaves were heathens,
little more than animals who, for the grace of god were meant to serve white
Americans. Blacks did not have souls.
Blacks had prosperous societies in their native lands. Any such society, in
order to stay together must have some kind religious belief system, good or bad,
who is to say what is good and what is bad. Some, if not most of them were
already converted to Islam by the Arab, Moroccan slave traders.
What American whites did to these human beings is unconscionable. God may
never forgive them for that and he shouldn't. The money that started flowing in
the hands of the free slaves is what made Christian missionaries go after them
with Christ's message.
That is Christian money morality. As long as they have money to spend, they
don't mind buying some cheap souls for the sake of Christ. This kind of activity
was never conducted by Brahmins. I lie. I have to. Brahmins were not interested
in buying some cheap souls but they surely did buy some cheap native gods of
Shudras and Tribals, made the enterprise into multimillion dollars ventures and
Shudras did not even know how and when this thing happened to them.
Tirupati Venkat god was a Tribal god, a Shudra god, the same Shudras and the
same Tribals were forced outside of such temple sanctum sanctorums, being too
uncouth to worship their own ancestral god in a razzle dazzle new Brahmin
settings. Even Hollywood image makers would not do a trick better than Brahmins,
I admit.
So what is it with these brain washed Brahmin bozos that cannot stand some
competition in making religion as a prosperous money making enterprises? They
want it all or nothing. The monopoly made American robber barons richer beyond
their own dreams. Brahmins want their backyard free from any foreign
competition, so that they can suck the life blood out of their religious sheep
like vampires. That India is Hindu, Brahmin vampire empire. You dare to enter
their ancient castles and you are going to get zapped.
Thanks to the PBS News dated, August 12, 1998.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/gergen/august98/otoole_8-12.html
Sid Harth..."For heaven's sake, India is a secular country by her constitution,
what rights these Brahmin butt wipes have to keep any religious belief out of
it?"
**** wrote:
Sid Harth
be going thru his Christian, Catholic phase, it so appears to me. When these
Brahmin brat boys, computer coolies talk about Christianity, they sort of
produce oodles of their nose noodles, nosing around, sort of fucking around with
their noses instead of their fascist dicks, these dickheads.
If Vatican has billions so do the Brahmins. The last public account proudly
posted by one Hindu, Brahmin brat boy for the benefit of Brahmin brat boy,
computer coolies, separated from their country, India and their money making
god, Venkata of Tirupati, the numbers were amazing. 400 crore rupees collected
in the kitty on Venkata day, just one day of the year from the village idiot
offerings.
Let me do some arithmetic. There are three hundred fifty million gods in
India times 400 crore rupees times, equals, oops, my calculator just gave me an
error message, maybe the battery conked out or lord Venkata stepped on it or
something.
Mother fucking Brahmins are dishonest as far as doing some real arithmetic
exercises. If the money is Christian, Muslim there calculators do double time,
overtime to flash fancy numbers, obviously.
Thanks to the PBS News dated, August 5, 1998.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/gergen/august98/carter_8-5.html
Sid Harth..."In Christian America, if the word spreads out that RSS is
demolishing their backyard with RSS missiles, the results would, certainly,
backfire."
**** wrote:
Sid Harth
Sid Harth wrote:
> ****, aka Anil Londhe, a certified Brahmin brat boy, computer coolie, must
> be going thru his Christian, Catholic phase, it so appears to me. When these
> Brahmin brat boys, computer coolies talk about Christianity, they sort of
> produce oodles of their nose noodles, nosing around, sort of fucking around with
> their noses instead of their fascist dicks, these dickheads.
>
> If Vatican has billions so do the Brahmins. The last public account proudly
> posted by one Hindu, Brahmin brat boy for the benefit of Brahmin brat boy,
> computer coolies, separated from their country, India and their money making
> god, Venkata of Tirupati, the numbers were amazing. 400 crore rupees collected
> in the kitty on Venkata day, just one day of the year from the village idiot
> offerings.
>
> Let me do some arithmetic. There are three hundred fifty million gods in
> India times 400 crore rupees times, equals, oops, my calculator just gave me an
> error message, maybe the battery conked out or lord Venkata stepped on it or
> something.
>
> Mother fucking Brahmins are dishonest as far as doing some real arithmetic
> exercises. If the money is Christian, Muslim there calculators do double time,
> overtime to flash fancy numbers, obviously.
>
> Thanks to the PBS News dated, August 5, 1998.
>
> http://www.pbs.org/newshour/gergen/august98/carter_8-5.html
As long as you are on the Anil Londhe reading wagon, why not try some other
stuff, including but not limited to V S Naipaul books. Some if not all these reviews
feature the first chapter, verbatim, sort of gives incentive to read further. As far
as Anil Londhe's writings are concerned, lose them, ain't worth a holy Hindu cow
patty. Thanks to the New York Times dated, September 28, 1998.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/yr/mo/day/home/contents.html
Milind Saraph
Sid Harth <sirsi...@netscape.net> writes:
>Anil Londhe, a Brahmin brat boy, has no courage to sign his name, so that he
>would, subsequently, called Saint Anil.
Hmm, Sid Harth is not your real name. Is it?
-- Milind Saraph
Sakkarbar
by your logic, no man in the world has balls, because you dont have any.
/begin marathi transliteration
kaaya re DhungaNa Dokyaachyaa(DhungaNa hech jyaache Doke aahe asaa, karmadhareya
samaasa,) tulaa hindu, brahmaNa soDuna dusaraa kaahi vishaya miLata naahi ka? aataa
yeLkoTa baasa karaa aaNi kaahitari vidhaayaka kaarya karaavayaasa ghyaa. nusatecha
sa.nDaasaata basuun divasa ghaalavu nakaa.
/end marathi transliteration
A friendly piece of advice, keep this up if you want to get your ass fried.
Sakkarbar, savior of the slaves, killer of the slave-runners(and their cock-suckers)
****
Thank you for coming to my defense.
this man has a real vendetta against all Hindu Brahmins.
reading his posts are like putting your head in the "gutter"
his language is sick, despicable, vulgar and uncultured to say the least.
Any mother would be ashamed to read this stuff.
****
aka - Ms. S.L.
William Hazlitt said:
If your enemies can't find a flaw in your reasoning, they will quickly go
for your reputation.
_________________________________________________________
Milind Saraph wrote in message <6uoegn$b...@news.nd.edu>...
>(newsgroups trimmed, posted and emailed)
>
****
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/swar/Invasion.htm
by Michel Danino and Sujata Nahar
Since the nineteenth century, India's ancient history from Vedic times and
the true content of the Veda have both been distorted by a blinkered and
unsympathetic scholarship. British rulers, European scholars and
missionaries combined in a campaign to disparage the roots of Indian
civilization, and used the wholly groundless Aryan Invasion theory to sow
seeds of division in the Indian society - "divide and rule," but also
"divide and convert." The same fallacies continue to be promoted today.
The first part in this book examines the birth of the Aryan myth, and the
misuses it has bred; it then gives a fresh look at the invasion theory in
the light of recent scientific evidence, and shows how it now stands
overwhelmingly disproved. The second part offers the essence of the Veda's
true message in the light of Sri Aurobindo's rediscovery of the Rishis'
experience recorded in their pregnant hymns.
The result is a new perspective, in which India's bygone civilization and
its fountainhead come alive, rejuvenated. We can now understand why, in Sri
Aurobindo's words, "the recovery of the perfect truth of the Veda is a
practical necessity for the future of the human race."
Mira Aditi, Mysore, India
I. The Birth of a Myth
"Inconvenient Guests"
When, in the eighteenth century, a few European thinkers began to try and
fathom India's philosophy and religion, they were so struck by the depth,
the ancientness, the richness they saw, that they soon declared India to
have been the "cradle of the human race" and the "birthplace of
civilization" in the words of Dohm, a German scholar, and the Hindus to be
"the gentlest of people." The great Voltaire lent his name to this view: "We
have shown how much we surpass the Indians in courage and wickedness, and
how inferior to them we are in wisdom. Our European nations have mutually
destroyed themselves in this land where we only go in search of money, while
the first Greeks travelled to the same land only to instruct themselves."1
He concluded, "I am convinced that everything has come down to us from the
banks of the Ganges, astronomy, astrology, metempsychosis, etc."2 Many of
the early travellers to India of the time (the exceptions being found mostly
among the missionaries) tended to share this enthusiasm. "All history points
to India as the mother of science and art," William Macintosh wrote. "This
country was anciently so renowned for knowledge and wisdom that the
philosophers of Greece did not disdain to travel thither for their
improvement." Pierre Sonnerat, a French naturalist, concurred: "We find
among the Indians the vestiges of the most remote antiquity.... We know that
all peoples came there to draw the elements of their knowledge.... India, in
her splendour, gave religions and laws to all the other peoples; Egypt and
Greece owed to her both their fables and their wisdom."3
This generous estimate started changing as Britain's hold over India grew
more firm and widespread, especially after the victories over Tipu Sultan
and the Marathas at the turn of the nineteenth century. The supremacy of the
British over most of India was left with little challenge, and they could
now embark in right earnest on their set task: the draining of India's
fabulous wealth. While most eighteenth-century European travellers to India
described her as "flourishing," less than a century later she had sunk into
depths of dismal misery. One British historian noted in 1901: "Time was, not
more distant than a century and a half ago, when Bengal was much more
wealthy than was Britain."4 Another even asserted that Britain's Industrial
Revolution could not have taken off without the influx of money that
followed the conquest of Bengal: "Very soon after Plassey [in 1757], the
Bengal plunder began to arrive in London, and the effect appears to have
been instantaneous, for all the authorities agree that the 'industrial
revolution'... began with the year 1760.... Possibly since the world began
no investment has ever yielded the profit reaped from the Indian plunder."4
In 1778, Anquetil-Duperron, a French Orientalist who spent some seven years
in India, had recorded this moving testimony:
"Peaceful Indians,... did the rumour of your riches have to penetrate a
clime in which artificial needs know no bounds? Soon, new foreigners reached
your shores; inconvenient guests, everything they touched belonged to
them...; it was not enough that they should invade your commerce, make the
price of foodstuffs and goods triple, alter their quality; your factories
almost wiped out, the workers taking refuge in the mountains, a dying son
asking his father what harm he did those foreigners who have taken the bread
out of his mouth - nothing touches or softens their hearts: 'Your gold,' the
Peruvians and Mexicans were told; here, the revenue of Industan is what we
demand, even if for that streams of blood have to flow. At least,
unfortunate Indians, you will perhaps learn that in the space of two hundred
years, one European who saw you and lived among you, has dared to plead your
cause and present to the Court of the Universe your wounded rights, those of
mankind blackened by a vile interest.5
"If the British... neglect any longer to enrich Europe's scholars with the
Sanskrit scriptures.... they will bear the shame of having sacrificed
honour, probity, and humanity to the vile love for gold and money, without
human knowledge having derived the least lustre, the least growth from their
conquests."6
Voltaire, too, had painted the motives for Europe's interest in India in
stark language:
"No sooner did India begin to be known to the Occident's barbarians than she
was the object of their greed, and even more so when these barbarians became
civilized and industrious, and created new needs for themselves.... The
Albuquerques and their successors succeeded in supplying Europe with pepper
and paintings only through carnage."7
But unlike the Portuguese, the British were anxious to clothe their greed in
lofty ideals: the "white man's burden" of civilizing (and, naturally,
Christianizing) less enlightened races, the "divinely ordained mission" of
bringing to India the glory of Europe's commercial and industrial
civilization, and so forth. Articles, pamphlets, speeches, thick volumes
began pouring forth by the hundreds year after year in praise of the
"tremendous task of rescuing India" from the darkness into which she had
fallen. Understandably, the recognition of India's far more ancient and
refined civilization made such noble motives untenable. Thus began a
systematic campaign to disparage not only this civilization, its culture and
society, but the very roots of Hinduism.
Scholarly Trickery
To this end, the knowledge of Sanskrit, which a few scholars had only
recently succeeded in mastering after coaxing the Brahmins for decades into
instructing them in this mysterious language, was seen as a boon. From the
end of the eighteenth century, English translations of the Hindu scriptures
had begun to appear; but the initial admiration they generated among the
translators turned to overweening scorn in the nineteenth century. Sadly,
but mistakenly, the majority of Europe's Sanskrit scholars were now certain
that these translations would "carry their own condemnation,"8 in the words
of one of them. Even the celebrated Max Müller (whose research work,
interestingly, was commissioned and generously paid for by the East India
Company after he had been engaged by Macaulay), wrote to his wife: "This
edition of mine and the translation of the Veda, will hereafter tell to a
great extent on the fate of India and on the growth of millions of souls in
that country. It is the root of their religion and to show them what the
root is, I feel sure, is the only way of uprooting all that has sprung from
it during the last three thousand years."9
That this plan misfired and eventually led to renewed interest in India is
another story, one that is a testimony to the strength of her culture. In
the meantime, most Sanskritists vied with each other in running down Indian
scriptures, especially the Veda. "What can be more tedious than the Veda?"
asked Max Müller, who found many of its hymns to "yield no sense whatever."
"The verses of the Veda appear singularly prosaic," echoed Wilson, "and at
any rate their chief value lies not in their fancy [sic] but in their facts,
social and religious." Monier-Williams found the Vedic hymns "to abound more
in puerile ideas than in striking thoughts and lofty conceptions." Griffith
was struck by the "intolerable monotony of a great number of the hymns,"
whose language and style, according to Cowell, "is singularly artificial."
This last, however, was so generous as to concede that "far wider and deeper
study is needed to pierce to the real meaning of these old hymns."10 The
unanimity was almost complete. Is it surprising, then, that these scholars'
translations of the Veda was mostly gibberish - exactly what they said the
Veda was? Yet these translations are even today regarded as monuments of
scholarship and reverently referred to.
Now, the study of Sanskrit soon revealed an unexpected fact: there were
numerous striking similarities between Sanskrit and Greek and Latin,
pointing to an ancient link between these languages. While this discovery
would have come as no surprise to the eighteenth-century scholars, their
successors could now hardly accept that they owed their languages and
civilization to a benighted India - this would have been dealing a blow to
the very foundation of Europe's mission in India, and in particular to the
British Empire now at the height of its glory. These proud scholars, jumping
at "linguistic evidence" which they claimed to find in the Veda, explained
that it was just the other way round: the Vedic Dasyus were arbitrarily
identified with the Dravidians, and the wars between them and the Aryans
became "proof" of the bloody conquest of Northern India by "the great army
of Aryan immigrants in their onward march"10 from Central Asia (or Iran, or
even Tibet, in some variants of this sublime myth). These Aryans became
therefore "Indo-Europeans," or "Indo-Germans" as we shall see, whose
original tongue was the hypothetical reconstruction called Indo-European,
still today postulated to be the source of Greek, Latin and Germanic on one
side, and Indo-Iranian and Sanskrit on the other. Thus the Rig-Veda was
shown as being "rather Indo-European than Hindu, and representing the
condition of the Aryans before their final settlement in India,"10 as one
European Sanskritist put it. Which is another way of saying that Hinduism
really came from "Indo-European" regions, wherever they may be.
Never mind that this so-called evidence did not stand a moment's scrutiny,
that the Rig-Veda itself made it clear that the wars between Aryans and
Dasyus were battles between powers of light and darkness, that the word
"Aryan" was plainly used in the Veda to describe not a racial group but a
quality of being and a culture, a dedication to the truth and readiness to
fight for it - all this was simply brushed aside, and a whole edifice was
promptly erected on these non-existent foundations.
Nor was that all. The Aryan invasion theory - now almost a proved "fact" -
was soon put to new perverted uses, as the British became aware of the
benefit they could derive from it to buttress their rule. It was found
effective not only in cutting down the Indian's pride in his past and
nation, but also in sharpening the divisions of Hindu society and
exacerbating caste conflicts so as to give fresh legitimacy and intensity to
the efforts at conversion that had been going on for several centuries. For
instance, since the Hindus were shown to be themselves former invaders of
the same family as the Europeans', that made it easier to legitimize
Britain's rule in India as merely one more "Aryan wave" which, this time,
would bring India the true light: "What has taken place since the
commencement of the British rule in India is only a reunion, to a certain
extent, of the members of the same family," John Wilson, a missionary,
declared with a straight face, and naturally this happy reunion had now
brought India into contact "with the most enlightened and philanthropic
nation in the world."11 More seriously, scholars and missionaries, [[Both
clearly the two sides of the same coin: "[In missionaries] scholarship is
warmed with the holy flame of Christian zeal,"11 wrote W. W. Hunter.]] not
content with sowing division between supposedly different races, declared
the Brahmins to be the "pure descendants of the Aryan invaders," who, soon
after their conquest, created the caste system in order to perpetuate their
supremacy over the native inhabitants. It followed that the lower castes and
the Dravidians, both victims of the Aryan "oppressors," were to be
encouraged to rebel and reject every "Aryan import," beginning of course
with Hinduism. Christianity, shown as being more "egalitarian," was
projected as the natural "liberating" force for these sections of Indian
society, among which mass conversions did take place as a result. A special
effort was made for the conversion of India's aboriginal tribes: "They have
yet to start on the path of progress," wrote Hunter. "It remains for us to
decide whether that path is to lead them to Hinduism, or to the purer faith
and civilization which we represent."11 A few decades later, Islam too
started using the same arguments, with the help of some Indian intellectuals
who loved to look down on Hindu society without ever attempting to
understand its true roots and what had given it the strength to live through
centuries of onslaught and decay. It is not for nothing that India is still
today home to the only ancient culture to have survived the combined waves
of Christianity and Islam - all others have disappeared under the sands of
Time.
Divide and Convert
This was, with rare exceptions, the deeply inimical attitude prevalent
through the nineteenth century, especially in Britain. Rulers, scholars,
civil servants and missionaries shared it in generous measure. Thomas B.
Macaulay, the first Law Member of the Governor-General's Legislature, wrote
in his notorious 1835 Minute that Hinduism was based on "a literature
admitted to be of small intrinsic value... [one] that inculcates the most
serious errors on the most important subjects... hardly reconcilable with
reason, with morality... fruitful of monstrous superstitions." Hindus had
therefore been fed for millennia with a "false history, false astronomy,
false medicine... in company with a false religion."12 About the same time,
Alexander Duff, a prominent missionary, wrote, "Of all the systems of false
religion ever fabricated by the perverse ingenuity of fallen man, Hinduism
is surely the most stupendous."13 Charles Trevelyan, an officer with the
East India Company asserted in a widely circulated tract: "The multitudes
who flock to our schools... cannot return under the dominion of the
Brahmins. The spell has been for ever broken. Hinduism is not a religion
that will bear examination.... It gives way at once before the light of
European science."14 Richard Temple, another high officer, said in a 1883
speech to a London missionary society intended to generate donations to
missions: "India presents the greatest of all fields for missionary
exertion.... India is a country which of all others we are bound to
enlighten with eternal truth.... But what is most important to you friends
of missions, is this - that there is a large population of aborigines, a
people who are outside caste.... If they are attached, as they rapidly may
be, to Christianity, they will form a nucleus round which British power and
influence may gather. Remember, too, that Hinduism, although it is dying,
yet has force... and such tribes, if not converted to Christianity, may be
perverted to Hinduism.... You may be confident that the missions in India
are doing a work which strengthens the imperial foundations of British
power.... I say that, of all the departments I have ever administered, I
never saw one more efficient than the missionary department."15 We meet
Temple again a few years later addressing more missions in New York in the
most explicit terms: "Thus India is like a mighty bastion which is being
battered by heavy artillery. We have given blow after blow, and thud after
thud, and the effect is not at first very remarkable; but at last with a
crash the mighty structure will come toppling down, and it is our hope that
some day the heathen religions of India will in like manner succumb."16 Fond
hope indeed.
This is not the place to dwell on the tragic consequences of such tactics
(even less on the hypocrisy of Britain's civil servants in India, who
professed not to meddle in religious matters); we can only stress that the
convert now found himself cut off from his ancient roots, attached to a
foreign godhead and a foreign culture, and taught to despise and revile
everything that for millennia had been an object of worship for his
ancestors - including his own country. We should also point out that, then
as now, the clinching factor in most conversions was the use of all kinds of
inducements, monetary and other, often taking advantage of a great poverty.
And we can lastly observe that the same tactic of denigrating India's
ancient heritage in order to create divisions in her society continues today
with full vigour - only with a little more subtlety.17 [[It is also not the
place to show the vaunted "just and merciful rule" of the British for the
barbaric tyranny it was. The burning of ancient books on Ayurveda in Kerala
so as to impose the European system of medicine on the natives, the cutting
of weavers' thumbs in Bengal with a view to crippling the production of
superior Indian cloth and ensuring the sale of British products, the
ruthless, often bloody, extortion of revenue from the peasants for decades
on end, even in the midst of the worst famines, the whippings, hangings and
tortures that awaited those who opposed the Empire - these are only a few
among the unending examples of the "providential character" of the British
rule. But they took place too far from the "civilized" world to attract any
notice. The Britons liked the relief of high-sounding speeches in London's
salons, adorned with a few pagan objets d'art purloined from India.]]
The "invasionist" syndrome thus used depths upon depths of tangled deceit
and deliberate distortion, with the chief aim of convincing Indians that
this new "invasion" of British Aryans was meant to finally save them from
the aberrations that stemmed from the first invasion!
Unfortunately, many of the wounds the Aryan invasion theory inflicted on
Indian society are still painfully open today, nurtured as they have been by
missionaries, Marxist historians and politicians, who together have made
sure that divisions between castes have been sharpening rather than
subsiding - for the simple reason that without such divisions they would all
be out of business. A typical example of this short-sighted strategy is the
use of the word adivasi (i.e., original inhabitant) to depict the Harijans
and the tribals, thus trying to put a stamp of evidence on the
"colonization" of India by the higher castes: if the former are Adivasis,
what are the latter?18 Yet, as we will see, the so-called Adivasis are no
more "add" than Brahmins or any other higher castes.
Another instance can be found in South Indian politics, where an
all-too-frequently heard refrain has been, with varying shades of intensity,
that the Dravidians came to India long before the "Aryan invaders," and that
the latter's descendants, the Brahmins and most North Indians, have tried to
"impose their culture on the non-Aryans" and should therefore be resisted.
Not only has the teaching and study of Sanskrit been discouraged, but there
even was an attempt (mostly in the 1940s and 1950s) to "cleanse" the Tamil
language of all its Sanskrit words! [[Even of five letters needed to write
and pronounce these Sanskrit words with some precision: the five so-called
"Grantha" letters, regarded as "Northern letters." But if they are
"Northern," then so is the entire Tamil alphabet, since, like the Grantha
letters, it derives from the Brahmi script.]] Although to be fair, the seed
in this case was, once again, planted by nineteenth-century
scholars-cum-missionaries, notably Bishop Caldwell, who insisted that the
so-called Dravidian languages formed a family wholly unconnected with the
family of "Indo-Aryan" languages. As a result, all Tamil grammar books
prepared by or for Christian missionaries - since knowing the language of
potential converts is indispensable - never miss an opportunity to assert
that while Tamil is a South Indian language, Sanskrit is a "North Indian
language." Divide and rule, but also divide and convert.
The following recent observation of a noted South Indian writer and academic
in a history book is a painful index of how deep these divisive doctrines
have penetrated: "Again and again Tamil has had, during its long history, to
stand the impact of alien influences and cultures. Sanskrit, Persian and
Urdu, French and English, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam and Christianity - these
in successive or concurrent waves have threatened to overrun the Tamil
language or destroy the character of Tamil culture. But Tamil has always
managed to assimilate the foreign matter...."19[[All emphasis ours.
Sanskrit, Buddhism or Jainism are foreign to Tamil culture! We may contrast
this astonishing statement with Swami Vivekananda: "The South had been the
repository of Vedic learning." We will come back to this point.]] As we will
see, however, South Indian languages are deeply related to Sanskrit, and no
such North-South or Aryan-Dravidian division exists in reality.
In large parts of India, frictions, riots and loss of life have been the
inevitable reaping of such sowing. It is indeed a wonder that in the face of
such relentless battering the Indian society has not by now completely
disintegrated - as could have any other not endowed with the deep cultural
unity that India had fostered over millennia. But after two centuries, the
strain is beginning to tell.
The Aryan Invasion of Europe
What is not so well known in India is that our footloose Aryans, not content
with overrunning the Indian subcontinent, invaded Europe too! And thereby
hangs an instructive tale. For Christian Europe, long uncomfortable with
what it thought to be a Hebrew ancestry, was eager to find for itself an
identity distinct from the Jewish;20 the sudden appearance of the Aryan race
out of the misty plateaus of Central Asia was seen as a godsend, especially
in the strongly anti-Semitic atmosphere of the nineteenth century. Thus was
born one more myth, this time of the Aryan European, Christian of course,
and preferably Germanic. It had the added advantage of confirming the
"natural" supremacy of the white race. As a Swiss linguist wrote in 1859
with some elan: "Before history began, a whole race was destined by
Providence to reign one day supreme over the entire earth.... They were the
race of the Aryas, endowed from the beginning with the very qualities which
the Hebrews lacked.... The former was destined to absorb the other. The
religion of Christ became the torch of humanity. The genius of Greece
adopted it. The power of Rome propagated it. Germanic energy gave it new
strength. The whole race of the European Aryas... came to be the main
instrument of God's plan for the destiny of mankind."21
That there was not a shred of evidence in support of this bloated rhetoric
was not going to deter these daydreaming scholars. The "European Arya" soon
became the "Indo-German," and the growth of the Aryan invasion theory became
intimately linked with that of nineteenth-century theories of racial
supremacy, especially of a Teutonic or Nordic sort. Dissenting voices, which
pointed out that the Aryan doctrine was "a figment of the professional
imagination," were drowned in the enthusiasm generated by the delirious rise
of German nationalism. Ernest Renan, the French historian of religion, wrote
in 1860, "The Semites are incapable of doing that which is essential. Let us
remain Germans and Celts; let us keep our 'eternal gospel,' Christianity....
[After] the Semitic race declined, the Aryan race alone was left to lead the
march of human destiny."22 Linguists vied with anthropologists, and
historians with craniologists, in depicting the features of the
Indo-Germans: they were of course "a noble race of fair-haired, blue-eyed
people," asserted Posche, a German author, and whole treatises were devoted
to the Aryans' cranial features, "nasal index" and other such
will-o'-the-wisps.
It is not widely known that this racial element contributed in no small
measure to the spread of the theory of an Aryan invasion of India. "Max
Müller [in his lectures in London] repeatedly hammered away at the idea that
the terms Indo-European and Indo-Germanic must be replaced by Aryan," writes
the American historian Synder, "because the people who invaded India and who
spoke Sanskrit called themselves Arya. This primitive Aryan language
indicated that there was an Aryan race, the common ancestor of Germans,
Celts, Romans, Slavs, Greeks, Persians, and Hindus." Yet, stresses Synder,
"all attempts to correlate the Aryan language with the Aryan race are not
only unsuccessful, but absurd."23
Years later, when Germany was reunified following its victory over France in
1870-71 and began ominously growing in power, people like Max Müller and
Renan did make a brave attempt to reject this racial aspect of the Aryan
theory to which they had earlier lent their full support. They now argued
that the word "Arya" only referred to a linguistic group, not to a race. But
it was too late: the harm had been done. The heady vision of these glorious
ancestors endowed with "nobility of blood and gift of intelligence"21
continued to gain momentum. Year after year, raging debates went on across
borders to determine which European people was the true descendant of the
Aryan "master-race," and therefore which nation could claim a divine right
to dominate others. Europe witnessed "the ridiculous and humiliating
spectacle of eminent scholars subordinating their interest in truth to the
inflation of racial and national pride."24 The most vociferous were
undoubtedly the pro-Germanic. Pseudo-scholars like the Count de Gobineau (a
noble Frenchman later revered by the Nazis as one of their prophets),
non-scholars like the composer Wagner, all and sundry added their voice to
the swelling wave. "After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, Aryanism
became a nationalist dogma in the newly unified German state."23 In fact it
came to be doubted that the Aryans' "original homeland" was at all Central
Asia, and several scholars sought to prove on "scientific grounds" that it
really was Germany (Central and Western Germany, to be precise!). When in
1924 Hitler wrote in his Mein Kampf, "The Aryan alone can be considered as
the founder of culture... a conqueror who subjugated inferior races," he was
merely echoing and amplifying dozens of nineteenth-century savants who had
written as many thick tomes to buttress their fantasy. A few years later,
full-blown Nazism was no more than a monstrous - but in a way perfectly
logical - application of their race theories, with the consequences we know.
With the Second World War, all these scholarly castles in the air collapsed
with a thud, and no one dared speak of an Aryan race any more: "The belief
in an Aryan 'race' had become accepted by philologists who knew nothing of
science.... What these men have written on the subject has been cast by
historians into the limbo of discarded and discredited theories,"25 wrote
the British biologist Julian Huxley. "Aryan has no validity as an
ethnological term," says the Webster dictionary (1980).
This was the end of the Aryan Myth - but only as far as Europe was
concerned. For the Aryan invasion theory was still good enough for India:
the same Webster declares in the same breath that the word Aryan was "used
[in India] as tribal name to distinguish from indigenous races"! This is
like saying that, all right, the Earth now revolves round the Sun, but the
planets are still revolving round the Earth. The ways of the human mind are
unfathomable. But the reason for this apparent paradox is simple: in India
the mainspring of the Aryan invasion theory - the aim of perpetuating the
domination of the Western view of the world over the Indian - remains very
much alive today.
II. Indian Protests
Let us go back to the nineteenth century, when the Aryan invasion theory
began to be trumpeted, and see what the reactions were in India. At first it
met with no opposition: the Indian mind had become largely subservient to
the West (is it much better today?), and would rather listen to Europe's
worthy scholars than to India's own savants and seers.
Swami Dayananda Saraswati was perhaps the first to dispute the Aryan myth,
emphasizing that the word arya referred in the Veda to a moral or inner
quality, not to any race or people. In fact it was the whole European view
of the Veda that he rejected: "He seized justly on the Veda as India's Rock
of Ages," wrote Sri Aurobindo. "In the matter of Vedic interpretation I am
convinced that whatever may be the final complete interpretation, Dayananda
will be honoured as the first discoverer of the right clues."1 By the same
token, Dayananda forcefully opposed the Christian missionaries' vilification
of India's ancient culture, and engaged in public debates with some of them
(with maulanas too), especially in Punjab where a wave of conversions had
taken place. "His performance in public debates not only stopped further
conversions," writes the historian Sita Ram Goel, "but also gave birth to a
new movement - shuddhi (purification) of those who had been enticed away
from Hindu society.... It sent a wave of consternation through the
missionary circles and restored Hindu confidence. In days to come, the
missionaries became more and more reluctant to meet Dayananda in open
forums."2
________________________________________________
more at this site.
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/swar/Invasion.htm
****
Famous Women of India Series:
Lakshmi Bai, the Rani of a principality called Jhansi in northern India, led
an uprising against a takeover of her homeland by the British. She became a
heroine and a symbol of resistance to the British rule.
Lakshmi Bai was born around 1830 into a wealthy, high-caste family. She was
named Manukarnika, which is one of the names of the holy river Ganges. As a
young woman, she learned to read, write and debate. She also learned to ride
horses and use weapons while playing with her adopted brothers. She accepted
the name Lakshmi Bai when she married Gangadhar Rao, the maharajah of Jhansi
and became the Rani (short for maharani, the wife of maharajah) of Jhansi.
Gangadhar Rao was between forty and fifty years of age at the time of their
wedding. This was his second marriage. His first wife died without producing
an heir. The new Rani of Jhansi gave birth to a son, but he died when he was
three months old. Subsequently, Damodar Rao, Gangadhar's relative, became
their adopted son. In 1853, Gangadhar Rao died.
The Governor-General of India, the Marquess of Dalhousie, announced that
since Gangadhar Rao left no heir, the state of Jhansi would be annexed by
the British Government. The British rejected the claim that Damodar Rao was
the legal heir. According to Hindu law, little Damodar Rao was Gangadhar's
heir and successor. In the Hindu religion, a surviving son, either
biological or adopted, had an obligation to perform certain sacrifices after
his father's death to prevent his father from being condemned to punishment
or hell. The refusal of the British to acknowledge the legitimacy of Rajah's
adopted son caused a serious consternation in the local population. Rani
appealed her case to London, but that appeal was turned down.
Not wishing to give up her kingdom, Lakshmi Bai assembled a volunteer army
of 14,000 rebels and ordered that defenses of the city itself be
strengthened. Jhansi was attacked by the British in March 1858. Shelling of
Jhansi was fierce and the British were determined not to allow any rebels to
escape while Rani was determined not to surrender. The British noted that
the Indian soldiers fighting them showed more vigor than they ever had while
following British orders. Women were also seen working the batteries and
carrying ammunition, food and water to the soldiers. Rani, herself, was seen
constantly active in the defense of the city. Jhansi, however, fell to the
British forces after a two week siege. A priest from Bombay who witnessed
the British victory, said that what followed were four days of fire,
pillage, murder and looting without distinction. He said it was difficult to
breathe due to strong smell of burning flesh. British historians, on the
other hand, suggested that while four to five thousand people died in
battle, the civilians were spared.
The Rani managed to escape on horseback under the cover of darkness and
within twenty-four hours rode over one hundred miles to the fortress of
Kalpi. Several other Indian rulers joined the rebel forces there. It is
believed that the Rani was influential in convincing the others to go on the
offensive and seize the fortress of Gwalior. This maneuver was successful
and helped rally the rebel forces together.
It wasn't long, however, before the British forces determined to win Gwalior
back. A fierce battle ensued. Rani was in charge of the eastern side of
defense, however she lost her life on the second day of fighting. The
British won back Gwalior. Rani's body was given a ceremonial cremation and
burial by the faithful servants. Sir Hugh Rose, the commander of the British
force, wrote later, "The Ranee was remarkable for her bravery, cleverness
and perseverance; her generocity to her Subordinates was unbounded. These
qualities, combined with her rank, rendered her the most dangerous of all
the rebel leaders." A popular Indian ballad said,
How valiantly like a man fought she,
The Rani of Jhansi
On every parapet a gun she set
Raining fire of hell,
How well like a man fought the Rani of Jhansi
How valiantly and well!
Contributed by Danuta Bois
References:
1. The Warrior Queens. The Legends and the Lives of the Women Who Have Led
Their Nations in War by Antonia Fraser, Vintage Books, 1994
2. Herstory. Women Who Changed the World, edited by Ruth Ashby and Deborah
Gore Ohrn, Viking, 1995
Sid Harth
Are you planning to retire, put out of business, your buddy, conservative
cabal leader, Newsweek leader writer, TV talking head, George Will or what?
Stick to what you know, sewers of India, your expertise is necessary. As a
roving reporter, a raving mad, lunatic roving reporter, what with your
impeccable Newsweek editorial credentials, you could dunk yourself in Indian
morality sewers, I don't think you can cover the arena with one single foray,
maybe take a sabbatical or something, and bring all that stinking moral shit
pot, puss bucket and dump on crazy Americans.
America, certainly, needs some working models to follow. Half of the
Hollywood elite are chasing Bhagwans, Gurus, Swamies, Mahatmas and mafia
mercenaries faking all kinds of genuine spiritual saffron skins anyway. The
average Joe Blows have less of an appreciation for superior Indian cultural
heritage.
Just do it. Stop fucking around in a territory that you have little or no
experience. Writing to some Indian saffron rag is not journalism. Moreover, they
have MTV. Who reads your articles in India? with fifty percent illiteracy and
one hundred percent poverty?
Thanks to the Washington Post dated, September 29, 1998.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/discretion092998.htm
Sid Harth..."Anil Londhe, a designated Brahmin brat boy warrior is fucking a dry
hole, millions of lines are written about American moral issues, does he care?"
**** wrote:
****
looking out for new imaginary enemies.
he thinks America ( the land of violence, school-shootings,crime,drugs,
sex) is paradise.
creating terror with his foul mouth.
No wonder those "imaginary Brahmins and Hindus" in his head hated him.
they have disowned him. hence the "sour grapes syndrome"
deserves to be converted to a christian.
He is so defensive about Catholics he must be kissing the Pope's derriere
everyday.
or
could it be, he has plain old "PMS like us women"
S.L. (Ms)
****
shiva...@my-dejanews.com
more such posts. He may actually reform. THAT would be tragic. As for his
Brahmin-hating Kafkaish stammerings, igore them if you don't like them. There
are many many Brahmin haters, Muslim haters, Christian haters, human race
haters etc on this planet. Was'nt it PG Wodehouse that said, "It takes all
kinds to make the world"?
In article <6uqhvn$llo$1...@winter.news.erols.com>,
-----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==-----
http://www.dejanews.com/rg_mkgrp.xp Create Your Own Free Member Forum
Milind Saraph
"****" <imagi...@hotmail.com> aka S.L. writes:
>he thinks America ( the land of violence, school-shootings,crime,drugs,
>sex) is paradise.
(he refers to "Sid Harth")
U.S. may not be a "paradise" but many people all over the world want to
work and/or settle in U.S. There are good reasons for that.
-- Milind Saraph
Kishore Joshi
Sid Harth <sirsi...@netscape.net> wrote:
> My dear Vibhuti,
>
>experience. Writing to some Indian saffron rag is not journalism. Moreover, they
>have MTV. Who reads your articles in India? with fifty percent illiteracy and
Ever given the above a thought, SHIT-HARD, lord of the sewers, your gutter-trail has runneth over.
Ever thought who follows your trash on the net?
Stop shitting and and do your self some good by seeing a psychiatrist.
The hate that flames you will engulf you one day. Or maybe you are you are burning
which is why you blow so much smoke with URL's not related to your filth.....
>one hundred percent poverty?
Do you understand what 100% means .......
>
Rest of SHIT-HARD's crap flushed away.......
>
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Money is not the root of All Evil, It is the perceived lack of it....
****
Its like asking a snake not to be poisonous!!!
well, I got news for you.
anybody who attacks a person for "merely posting" tidbit of news is insane!
What ever happened to "Freedom speech"?
His constant filthy language is a disgrace for all users including Indian
women and children. Even a "sewer" would smell sweeter than his crap.
S.L.(Ms)
****
William Hazlitt said:
"If your enemies can't find a flaw in your reasoning, they will quickly
go for your reputation."
______________________________________________________
shiva...@my-dejanews.com wrote in message
<6uqt9v$aae$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>...
Sid Harth
should fuck Christian nuns. As a matter of fact, in a recent revolutionary
finding of one of the foremost Indian scientist, Anil Londhe, aka S.L. "****",
****, in his various incarnations, a Morrisville moron, there was no
Christianity at that time and thus Aryan Brahmins, could not have fucked the
Christian nuns, then or ever. It is a Christian propaganda to vilify the great
million year Aryan, Hindu, Brahmin culture. I take that back. There was no such
mother fucking Hindu religion that could have been practiced by this fucking
head. No one denies this absolute truth. Though, some Christians like Prem
Thomas et al are challenging this irrefutable archaeological find.
Thanks to the Rediff dated, September 30, 1998.
http://209.194.80.218/news/1998/sep/29jhab.htm
Sid Harth..."All Indian Christians should be deported to America along with all
Aryan Brahmin brat boys and computer coolies, so they can fuck each other."
**** wrote: