Dr. Subramanian Swamy writes to the President to call for all papers relating to Lutyens Scam & order SIT Probe.
Kalyanaraman
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Kalyanaraman
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President should call for papers on Lutyens Scam & order SIT probe -- Dr. Swamy writes to Pranab Babu
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ALL SoniaG family ghotala: Next Govt. should probe. Next court hearing March 6, 2014
Smash and grab of National Herald properties needs probing
Sandhya Jain4 Mar 2014As the scam-tainted UPA prepares to bow out of the office, it is to be hoped that the relevant administrative authorities will find the courage to scrutinise all business and real estate deals associated with the family of the Congress president. It may be recalled that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) made its political debut with an exposé of Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra’s cosy relationship with realty major DLF. On Monday, a television news channel ‘Times Now’ exposed a dodgy real estate deal in the vicinity of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. It is an Adarsh-style deal that should never have been cleared and that possibly benefitted from the acumen Vadra brings to projects he is associated with.
Ten years of Sonia Gandhi dominated UPA rule has made probity in public life the principal demand of the people. While umpteen scandals involving Government Ministries and Departments have come to light, one of the least reported and possibly most outrageous scandal is the surreptitious takeover of the prime properties of the National Herald, Navjivan and Qaumi Awaz by a closely held private company which is totally controlled by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
The monetary value of the scam is estimated at over Rs 5000 crore, when calculated only in terms of real estate but it could be more once the full holdings of the National Herald is known. What’s pertinent is that the National Herald was set up wholly as an Indian-owned and financed newspaper to support the freedom movement. The individuals and Indian companies that donated funds for this enterprise were contributing to the Congress party for the freedom movement. After 1947, the rise of the independent media made this essentially party-controlled newspaper unviable and after floundering for years, publication finally ceased to exist in 2008.
With most of the original shareholders dead and shareholding companies defunct, the holding company, The Associated Journals Ltd should have been legally dismantled. Since, the real estate in various parts of the country was given by the Government to Press at below market prices to support their freedom, it should have been returned to the State. Instead, the ownership of properties in prime locations across the nation was spirited away into the private coffers of a family which is feeling insecure as the nation slips out of its grip.
In April 2012, a private company managed by Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Moti Lal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey and Satyan G Pitroda took over the estate and properties of The Associated Journals Ltd by a circuitous route to recapitulate it. At the present market price, worth of the National Herald building on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg alone would be several thousand crore. It was taken over for mere Rs 50 lakhs with the help of an ‘extinguished’ loan of over Rs 90 crore forwarded by the All India Congress Committee.
The prize acquisition was made without any tender or public notice by Young Indian(Registration no. 55-210686), a private company registered under section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956. Rahul Gandhi is a Director in this company and holds 76 per cent its shares together with his mother Sonia Gandhi. The aim of the company is to inculcate democratic and secular ideals in the youth. While driving along Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, one can see that the said property is being used by the Ministry of External Affairs for its passport office; the monthly rental is said to be a handsome Rs. 60 lakh.
The whole transaction is fraudulent from beginning to end. The Associated Journals was started by Jawaharlal Nehru, Purushottamdas Tandon, J Narendra Deva, Kailash Nath Katju, Rafi Ahmad Kidwai, Mohan Lal Sakra and Krishna Dutta Paliwal in 1937 under the Indian Companies Act, 1913. It had a capital of Rs 5 lakhs divided into 2000 Preference Shares of Rs 100 each carrying a fixed but non-cumulative dividend of 5 per cent per annum and 30,000 ordinary shares of Rs 10 each. There were about 5000 odd shareholders.
Now their rights have covertly been given to a private firm managed by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi by using funds from the AICC. There is no legality in a political party giving a loan – a huge unsecured loan – to a private person to set up a private firm. It is such a gross misuse of tax-exempt donations given to political parties to serve public purpose. It is a matter that the Election Commission and the Income Tax authorities should not ignore. Incidents like this support the case to bring political parties under the ambit of Right to Information Act, so that the public can learn about the use (or misuse) of party funds by individuals who control the levers of power in a party and are not accountable to ordinary party members.
The available information suggests that Young Indian took a loan of over Rs 90 crores owed by The Associated Journals Ltd. (to pay off staff) for a sum of Rs 50 lakhs. This was converted into 9,02,16,898 ordinary shares of Rs 10 each which were fully paid. The official address of Young Indian is 5A, Herald House, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi –110002, that is, the official address of publications owned by The Associated Journals Ltd, the registered office of which is Nehru Bhawan, 1 Bisheshwar Nath Road, Lucknow, UP.
There was no general body meeting of shareholders to discuss and approve this huge gift of prime estate to a private firm. Moti Lal Vora, Chairman of The Associated Journals Ltd, informed the Board of Directors in a meeting held on February 26, 2011, that 9,02,16,898 equity shares of Rs 10/- each be allotted to Young Indian in consideration of the extinguishment of the amount of Rs 90,21,68,980/- due to Young Indian under loan facility availed by the Company from All India Congress Committee. (The language is convoluted and intentionally so, because there is really no legal explanation for this transaction).
This loan facility and all benefits thereunder was approved by the board in a meeting held on December 21, 2010 and by the shareholders by a Special Resolution in the Extraordinary General Meeting of the members held on January 21, 2011. Accordingly, the AICC loaned and wrote off Rs 90 crores plus to Young Indian, but Young Indian paid only Rs 50 lakhs for the entire transaction and became owner of the vast estates of The Associated Journals Ltd.
This unedifying exercise has a long gestation period. The Associated Journals Ltd.’s List of Shareholders and Debenture Holders 2008 shows that the name of Rahul Gandhi is written by hand on Page 49 with no shares or debentures allotted. In the List for 2011,Young Indian figures as the last entry, address N-125 Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-17; shares allotted are 9,02,16,898. Moti Lal Vora has signed this document in his capacity as Managing Director.
By 2011, the list of shareholders furnished to the Registrar of Companies included names of persons who were dead (about 80 per cent) and firms long defunct. Some prominent names include Jawaharlal Nehru of Anand Bhawan, Allahabad (died 1964), Rafi Ahmad Kidwai (d 1954), Feroze Gandhi (d 1960), Indira Nehru Gandhi (d 1984), Ghanshyam Das Birla (d 1983), NS Pandit and Vijay Lakshmi Pandit (died 1990), Kailash Nath Katju (d 1968), Dr Radha Kumud Mukherji, former Chief Justice of India Mirza Hameedullah Beg (d 1985), Yagya Dutt Sharma (d 1996), Sucheta Kripalani (d 1974), Yashpal Kapoor, Mohammed Yunus (d 2001), BRCC president Rajni Patel, Jitendra Prasad (d 2001), HY Sharda Prasad (d 2008), Lalit Suri (d 2006).
Remarkably, when these and other shareholders died, The Associated Journals did not pass on the shares to their legal heirs; this is a legal issue that the relevant authorities need to look into. Yet members of the Nehru-Gandhi family and their close associates somehow entered the shareholders list from time to time; Indira Gandhi, Feroze Gandhi and later their grandchildren. Some trusts like Rattan Deep Trust controlled by RD Pradhan, Rahul Gandhi and Janhit Nidhi controlled by Rahul Gandhi, Rameshwar Thakur, Priyanka Gandhi Vadera (spelling as per list) were involved in this business, the legality of which is questionable.
The BJP leader Subramanian Swamy doggedly pursued a private complaint in this matter, which was finally taken cognizance of by Metropolitan Magistrate Gomti Manocha on March 15, 2013. The next hearing is slated for March 6, 2014.http://www.niticentral.com/2014/03/04/smash-and-grab-of-national-herald-properties-must-be-probed-195939.html
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Japan to establish 'Marines'. India should follow suit. Make Indian Navy protector of Indian Ocean.
Japan Plans Special Force for Island Defense
The 3,000-Troop Amphibious Unit Would Be Similar to U.S. Marines Corps
Updated March 3, 2014 9:20 a.m. ET
An amphibious assault vehicle lands during the U.S.-Japan military exercise Iron Fist outside Camp Pendleton in California on Feb. 19. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
TOKYO—Japan plans to establish a 3,000-troop unit specializing in amphibious operations "as swiftly as possible," the defense minister said, publicly outlining details of the new unit for the first time as tensions with China continue over disputed islands.
Japan has undertaken an ambitious project to create a force similar to the U.S. Marine Corps, and Japanese Self-Defense Force Troops have been receiving increasingly frequent training from their U.S. counterparts in the past few years.
A plan to strengthen amphibious capabilities was laid out in Japan's new defense guidelines released in December. In detailing some of the specifics Sunday, Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said the new force is expected to include units specializing in handling types of equipment currently unfamiliar to Japanese troops, such as amphibious vehicles and the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.
He said the new unit will likely be based on the southern island of Kyushu or in the Nansei Islands, which include Okinawa, considering its island mission. He added that Tokyo plans to negotiate with local governments to find a host community.
In discussing the need to Japanese protect islands, Mr. Onodera didn't mention China or Japan's territorial dispute with Beijing over small islands in the East China Sea.
"Our nation has numerous remote islands and islands of various sizes, and they give us the basis for our exclusive economic zone that ranks sixth in the world," Mr. Onodera told troops during a tour of Kyushu on Sunday. "That makes it important to provide defense for islands over the coming years."
An exclusive economic zone is an area surrounding a nation's territory in which it has the right to explore natural resources.
Currently, a Kyushu-based, 700-troop Ground Self-Defense Force unit is designated as a specialist amphibious unit, and it has been undergoing intensive training.
To train large numbers of personnel in a short time, Japan plans to step up exercises with the U.S. military, particularly the Marines, Mr. Onodera said. This week, troops from the two nations are finishing a seven-week amphibious exercise called "Iron Fist 2014" at Camp Pendleton in California, with 270 Japanese troops and 500 U.S. troops participating.
Mr. Onodera said Japan hopes to use training facilities to be built on the U.S. Pacific island territory of Guam as some U.S. Marines transfer from Okinawa.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news briefing Monday that the Japanese government's actions, especially in the military sphere, were being closely watched by the international community for "historical reasons."
"We hope the Japanese side will make good on its commitment of pursuing the path of peaceful development and make a contribution to regional peace and stability," he said.
Write to Yuka Hayashi at yuka.hayashi@wsj.com
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304360704579416773197120350?
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Wendy Doniger: An academic caricature -- Madan Lal Goel
My comment:
What Wendy has written is NOT alternative history of Hindus. It is an auto-psycho-analysis in the Freudian genre. The horse presented on the cover is in fact a mare showing Univ. of Chicago faculty with the jutting through hand from the hindlegs of the donkey making the mare to pretend to be a horse. It is a classic study in Freudian nutcase masquerading as a non-falsifiable discipline: Freudian libido of the Wendy, Martha types.
Kalyanaraman
Wendy Doniger: An academic caricature
| by Madan Lal Goel | on 05 Mar 2014 | 1 Comment |
Wendy Doniger’s 779-page tome titled, The Hindus: An Alternative History (2009) is a hurtful book, laced with personal editorials, folksy turn of the phrase and funky wordplays. She has a large repertoire of Hindu mythological stories, and often narrates the most damning story - Vedic, Puranic, folk, oral, vernacular - to demean, damage and disparage Hinduism. After building a caricature, she laments that fundamentalist Hindus (how many and how powerful are they?) are destroying the pluralistic, tolerant Hindu tradition. But, why save such a vile, violent religion, as painted by the eminent professor? There is a contradiction here.
This article, however, focuses on only one aspect of Doniger’s very large book: the chapters dealing with the incursion of Islam into India. As is well known, Islam entered the Malabar Coast in south India with Arab merchants and traders in the 7th century, peacefully. Later, Islam came to India as a predatory and a conquering force. Mohammad bin Qasim ravaged Sindh in 711. Mahmud Ghazni looted and destroyed numerous Hindu temples around 1000 CE. Muslim rule begins with the Delhi Sultanate, approximately 1201 to 1526; it gave way to the Mughal Empire in1526, which ended with the arrival of the British Raj, about 1757.
Wendy Doniger makes the following dubious points on Muslim imperial rule in India (1201-1707).
- Muslim marauders destroyed some Hindu temples, not many (Ch 16)
- Temple destruction was a long standing Indian tradition. In an earlier period, Hindus destroyed Buddhist and Jain stupas and rival Hindu temples and built upon the destroyed sites - “the Muslims had no monopoly on that” (P 457)
- Muslim invaders looted and destroyed Hindu temples because they had the power to do so. If Hindus had the power, they would do the same in reverse (P 454-57)
- The Jizya - the Muslim tax on non-Muslims - was for Hindu protection and a substitute for military service (P 448-49)
- Hindu “megalomania” for temple building in the Middle Ages was a positive result of Muslim demolition of some Hindu temples (P 468)
- The Hindu founders of the Vijayanagar Empire double-crossed their Muslim master in Delhi who had deputed them to secure the South (P 467)
Each argument is false. First, beginning with Mahmud Ghazni in 1000 CE, the invaders looted, pillaged and destroyed several thousand Hindu and Buddhist temples, as attested by the Muslim chroniclers who accompanied these expeditions and described the destruction of many Hindu shrines. The destruction of infidel places of worship is a meritorious act under Islam (See, The Mohammedan period as described by its own historians, Sir HM Elliot, The Grolier Society, 1906).
Alberuni, who accompanied Mahmud Ghazni, describes one such event: “Mathura, the holy city of Krishna, was the next victim. In the middle of the city there was a temple larger and finer than the rest, which can neither be described nor painted. The Sultan was of the opinion that 200 years would have been required to build it. The idols included 'five of red gold, each five yards high,' with eyes formed of priceless jewels... The Sultan gave orders that all the temples should be burnt with naphtha and fire, and leveled with the ground. Thus perished works of art which must have been among the noblest monuments of ancient India” [1]
At the destruction of another famous temple, Somnath, some 50,000 were massacred. The fabulous booty of gold was divided according to Islamic tradition – the Sultan getting the royal fifth, the cavalry man getting twice as much as the foot soldier. Women were sold into concubinage and the children raised as Muslims.
The esteemed professor asserts that during an earlier period, Hindus persecuted Jains and Buddhists and destroyed their shrines. She narrates the discredited story about the impaling of Jains at the hands of Hindu rulers in the Tamil country, but admits that “there is no evidence that any of this actually happened, other than the story” (p 365). Then why narrate the story?
Whatever the sectarian tensions, Jainism and Buddhism are an integral part of Indian tradition. The Buddha is regarded as an Avatar. Exquisite Jain temples at Mt Abu at the border of Gujarat and Rajasthan built around 1000 CE in a region ruled by Hindu Rajputs, falsify notions of Hindu carnage of Jain temples.
Wendy Doniger suggests that Hindus would do the same to Muslims if they had the power to do so (p 457). Hindus did come to power when Mughal rule rapidly declined after the death of Aurangzeb in 1707. The Hindu Marathas were the strongest power in western and southern India, as were the Sikhs and Jats in north India. There is no account of large scale demolition and looting of Muslim places of worship either by the Marathas or the Sikhs. If a copy of the Quran fell into the hands of Maratha soldiers, Shivaji instructed that the same should be passed on to a Muslim follower rather than being burned.
Doniger claims that Jizya levied on non-Muslims was for Hindus protection and a substitute for military service. Jizya is a long held Muslim tradition; it was levied to begin with on the defeated Jews and Christians, the People of the Book, as a price for the cessation of Jihad. Hindus, not being People of the Book, did not deserve to live by paying the special tax. If defeated in battle, their only option was Islam or death. This was the position taken by the leading Islamic clergy. But Muslim rulers were practical men; if they killed the Hindus en masse for failing to adopt Islam, who would build their palaces, fill their harems, cut their wood and hue their water? [2]
Doniger says the Hindu ‘megalomania’ for temple building resulted from Muslim destruction of some Hindu temples. The truth is that in northern India which experienced 500 years of Islamic rule (1201-1707), all great temples were destroyed; Hindus built new temples wherever they could preserve territory. Temple architecture of some beauty survived in southern India that escaped long Muslim occupation. The slur that the Hindu founders of the Vijayanagar empire ‘double-crossed’ their Muslim masters in Delhi must be seen in this context.
The invasion of Sindh by Arab soldier of fortune Muhammad bin Qasim is described as follows: Qasim invaded Sindh in 713. The terms of surrender included a promise of guarantee of the safety of Hindu and Buddhist establishments. Hindus and Buddhists were allowed to govern themselves in matters of religion and law. Qasim kept his promises. The non-Muslims were not treated as kafirs. Jizya was imposed but only as a substitute for military service for their “protection.” He brought Muslim teachers and mosques into the subcontinent (paraphrased)
This makes it seem as though Qasim was a blessing. Andrew Bostom (The Legacy of Islamic Jihad in India) provides the following disquieting picture from Islamic sources [3]:
The Muslim chroniclers… include enough isolated details to establish the overall nature of the conquest of Sindh by Muhammad b. Qasim in 712 CE… Baladhuri (an Islamic writer), for example, records that following the capture of Debal, Muhammad b. Qasim earmarked a section of the city exclusively for Muslims, constructed a mosque, and established four thousand colonists there. The conquest of Debal had been a brutal affair … Despite appeals for mercy from the besieged Indians (who opened their gates after the Muslims scaled the fort walls), Muhammad b. Qasim declared that he had no orders (i.e., from his superior al-Hajjaj, the Governor of Iraq) to spare the inhabitants, and thus for three days a ruthless and indiscriminate slaughter ensued. In the aftermath, the local temple was defiled, and “700 beautiful females who had sought for shelter there, were all captured.”
RC Majumdar, another distinguished historian, describes the tragic outcome:
Muhammad massacred 6,000 fighting men who were found in the fort, and their followers and dependents, as well as their women and children were taken prisoners. Sixty thousand slaves, including 30 young ladies of royal blood, were sent to Hajjaj, along with the head of Dahar [the Hindu ruler]. We can now well understand why the capture of a fort by the Muslim forces was followed by the terrible jauhar ceremony (in which females threw themselves in fire kindled by themselves), the earliest recorded instance of which is found in theChachnama (cited in Bostom.)
Doniger extensively cites Romila Thapar, John Keay, Anne Schimmel and AK Ramanujan as her sources for Islamic history, to showcase meticulous scholarship, but entirely ignores distinguished historians such as Jadunath Sarkar, RC Majumdar, AL Srivastava, Vincent Smith, and Ram Swarup.
Doniger claims (p 458) that when Muslim royal women first came to India, they did not rigidly keep to purdah (the veiling and seclusion of women) but picked up the more strict form of purdah from contact with Hindu Rajput women. She finds much to praise in Muslim women during this period: some knew several languages; others wrote poetry; some managed vast estates; others set up “feminist” republics within female quarters (harems); some debated fine points on religion; some even joined in drinking parties (ch 16, 20). Such descriptions are patently negated by other historians (See KS Lal, The Mughal Harem (1988), available on the Internet).
If Hinduism is the source of strict purdah among Muslim women, as Doniger contends, how does one explain the strict veiling of women in the Middle East, a region far removed from Hindu influence? Or, the absence of purdah in southern India, a region that escaped extended Islamic domination?
Doniger says “the Vedic reverence for violence flowered in the slaughters that followed Partition” in both India and Pakistan (p 627). One is at a loss what to understand from this weighty pronouncement from the University of Chicago’s tenured professor. But if this is her understanding of historical facts for which there is no dearth of unimpeachable evidence, then her inability to fathom the profound and multi-dimensional meanings of Hindu dharma and its deities and philosophies is perhaps understandable.
Notes
1] Vincent Smith, The Oxford History of India, Delhi, 1981, pp. 207-08. Smith derives his account of Mahmud’s raids from the account written by Alberuni, the Islamic scholar who traveled with Sultan Mahmud to India.
2] See Ram Swarup’s Hindu View of Christianity and Islam, 1992. And Andrew Bostom, The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims, 2005, at:
3] Published in 2005 in the American Thinker by Andrew Bostom and available at:
http://www.weeklyblitz.net/2014/03/wendy-donigers-book-ghost-indian-subcontinent/
The Ghost of Indian Subcontinent
The Hindus; is a new vision for the mind set mental slavery of Indian subcontinent with a great scientific heritage of Indus Valley and Vedas. It has been sacrificed on the name of Hindu, which was never a religion like Muslim or Christian, and ghost of Indian subcontinent buried silently to check the thinking on Hinduism with compromise. She has compared it with ‘Watergate scandal for money and Hinduism is race for power like monkey or horse. The Victorian British rule has corrupted modern Indian society with opium of religion on the name of this Hindu or that Hindu in the race of power politics.
The Ghost of Indian Subcontinent
The Hindus; is a new vision for the mind set mental slavery of Indian subcontinent with a great scientific heritage of Indus Valley and Vedas. It has been sacrificed on the name of Hindu, which was never a religion like Muslim or Christian, and ghost of Indian subcontinent buried silently to check the thinking on Hinduism with compromise. She has compared it with ‘Watergate scandal for money and Hinduism is race for power like monkey or horse. The Victorian British rule has corrupted modern Indian society with opium of religion on the name of this Hindu or that Hindu in the race of power politics.
Dr.Chandra P Trivedi
1 Minute ago
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'On Hinduism' book by Wendy Doniger pulled out by Aleph. No news yet on pulping.
After Penguin, another publisher recalls Wendy Doniger's book
Wendy Doniger’s book — 'On Hinduism'— was pulled out by Aleph Book Company from from across Karnataka. The book was published in 2009.
RELATED
BANGALORE: Within weeks of Penguin controversially recalling Wendy Doniger's book, 'The Hindus: An Alternative History', another publisher, Aleph, pulled out the American author's previous work, 'On Hinduism', on Tuesday. Bookshops across Bangalore received calls from representatives of Aleph Book Company, promoted by Rupa Publications, seeking return of all copies of the book.
Confirming the move, an Aleph spokesman said, "We don't want to get involved in any controversy. Officials from our Delhi office sent a clear message to us — recall all copies of 'On Hinduism' we had sold to across Karnataka. We got back about 100 copies till Tuesday evening."
'On Hinduism' was published in 2013 while 'The Hindus: An Alternative History' was published in 2009. Mayi Gowda of Blossom Book House told TOI that the publisher sought the return all copies of the book. On Monday, this bookshop had sold all 95 copies of the book following renewed interest in Doniger's work post- Penguin's withdrawal of 'An Alternative History'.
Another city bookshop, Bookworm, said it returned a few copies of the book Tuesday morning. The staff at different book shops said they got emails from the publisher seeking their cooperation.
Advocate Lawrence Liang of the Bangalore-based Alternative Law Forum, who had filed a legal notice on Penguin India over the withdrawal of Doniger's book, described Aleph's step as "terrible".
"It's absolutely shameful and ridiculous. If you want a publisher to withdraw a book, all you have to do is file a police complaint. Reading has no future in this country," Liang said.
'The Hindus' had been recalled by Penguin following protests by a little-known organization' Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti, on grounds that its contents were "derogatory and offensive to Hinduism" and misrepresented facts. The Samiti upped the ante last week and demanded 'On Hinduism' be withdrawn as well, as it too was "malicious and offending."
Confirming the move, an Aleph spokesman said, "We don't want to get involved in any controversy. Officials from our Delhi office sent a clear message to us — recall all copies of 'On Hinduism' we had sold to across Karnataka. We got back about 100 copies till Tuesday evening."
'On Hinduism' was published in 2013 while 'The Hindus: An Alternative History' was published in 2009. Mayi Gowda of Blossom Book House told TOI that the publisher sought the return all copies of the book. On Monday, this bookshop had sold all 95 copies of the book following renewed interest in Doniger's work post- Penguin's withdrawal of 'An Alternative History'.
Another city bookshop, Bookworm, said it returned a few copies of the book Tuesday morning. The staff at different book shops said they got emails from the publisher seeking their cooperation.
Advocate Lawrence Liang of the Bangalore-based Alternative Law Forum, who had filed a legal notice on Penguin India over the withdrawal of Doniger's book, described Aleph's step as "terrible".
"It's absolutely shameful and ridiculous. If you want a publisher to withdraw a book, all you have to do is file a police complaint. Reading has no future in this country," Liang said.
'The Hindus' had been recalled by Penguin following protests by a little-known organization' Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti, on grounds that its contents were "derogatory and offensive to Hinduism" and misrepresented facts. The Samiti upped the ante last week and demanded 'On Hinduism' be withdrawn as well, as it too was "malicious and offending."
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Doctrine of academic freedom is oppression. Needed just impeachment procedures against academics.
Thomas Helgerman should be complemented for questioning the foundation of the so-called doctrine of academic freedom. It ain't a doctrine, it is a false holy cow image constructed by the academe as a self-aggrandizing cop-out to cover up irresponsible and unethical behavior.
Exaggerating one's own importance, power, or reputation, that is self-aggrandizing is oppression of community interests which must be inviolate.
How can the accused, the jury and the judge be rolled into one? How can the academe arrogate to itself the so-called principles of academic freedom and tenure? The cat is out of the bag; it is the mixing of two objectives: academic freedom and tenure. Academic freedom is a cover to ensure tenure. Many democracies have retirement ages set for judges and also procedures for impeachment of judges for a just cause. Shouldn't such justice apply to the academe for getting impeached for irresponsible behavior and indulging in seditious actions impairing friendly and peaceful ties among sovereign nations?
Both are evil and likely to be abused as demonstrated by the lies perpetrated by Wendy Doniger and Martha Nussbaum in public space. One writes hate pulp porno; the other tries to defend the pulp -- lying in the process. The lies have been fully exposed. Is there a law, Martha, for irresponsible behavior? Say, lying as an academic?
Surely, there should be an independent body, a jury to adjudicate when the line is crossed and academic freedom becomes hate-mongering and hate speech.
In the context of the academe, hate speech may also be harmful material as defined in Chapter 43 of US Penal code since the academic unethical behavior is likely to rub off on minors and likely to arouse minors' prurient interests.
It is good that Thomas Helgerman has flagged the issue of academic freedom and called for a re-evaluation.
I suggest that a start be made with the study of Hinduism in the American academe by constituting a US Commission of Inquiry with the objective of ensuring that the civil rights of Hindus in America are safeguarded.
Clearly there are double-standards applied while tomtoming academic freedom for Wendy's of the academe while denying the same freedom to Subramanian Swamy. The double-standards are rotten examples of hypocrisy in the academe.
Civil responsibilities to ensure Public Order and Public Decency are the fountain of civil rights, exemplified by the revolutionary Susan B. Anthony. This tradition has to be re-visited in the context of the recurrent abuses of academic freedom in America.Before a mare hypocritically pretends to be a male donkey ready for immaculate conception, it is time to review the fraud called Freudian psychoanalysis and applying it to community traditions many of which are held sacred in many parts of the globe.
Let the doctrine of academic freedom be ripped apart on the altar of justice and respect for communities. Such respect should be inviolate.
S. Kalyanarman
What is so just about the doctrine of academic freedom?
Posted: Tuesday, March 4, 2014 11:50 pm
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As a country, the United States holds its allies close and its First Amendment rights closer. Just as freedom of speech is cherished in the public sphere, academic freedom is held dear by those in academia.
Academic freedom is more or less the idea that academics should be able to research and publish material without censorship based on the content of their studies. The American Association of University Professors fleshes this out in its Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, first released in 1940, which was the de facto statement on what composes the concept.
Two weeks ago, a piece published in The Harvard Crimson challenged this as a standard for academic work and suggested that we replace this with what the author called academic justice: “When an academic community observes research promoting or justifying oppression, it should ensure that this research does not continue.”
As with analogous suggestions to curtail freedom of speech in particular situations, this piece has received criticism, mostly from the politically right. The arguments advanced by critics are similar, decrying the standards underlying academic freedom as subjective, “value-based” rules constructed in a nebulous fashion.
While this is certainly valid criticism, these points are part of the standard canon of libertarian critiques. By sticking to their ideological guns, detractors have missed the gaping holes in the argumentation backing academic justice.
First, upon closer inspection, it appears that academic justice is actually compatible with academic freedom. This is because to argue against the doctrine of academic freedom, the author sets up a straw man to criticize and replace it rather than grappling with the full concept.
The Crimson piece cites that the AAUP’s statement defines academic freedom as the notion that “teachers are entitled to full freedom in research and in the publication of the results.” However, the document itself defines academic freedom as the collection of three tenets, and the Crimson article cites only one.
It is really the third tenet with which academic justice conflicts, particularly when it states, “When [teachers] speak or write as citizens, they should be free from institutional censorship or discipline.” This clearly contradicts the example of “appropriate and commendable” action cited by the author, in which a Harvard summer school instructor was unable to teach at the university because of a community reaction to hateful comments he had published.
Nevertheless, farther down in the AAUP’s document, the body writes that it is acceptable for universities to take action against educators if they violate certain principles, including showing “respect for the opinions of others.” Clearly, instances of hate speech seemingly step over this line.
Thus, at the point at which the doctrine of academic freedom includes a list of acceptable circumstances to take action against academics who have stepped out of line, academic justice becomes an interpretation or proposed change to a tenet of the former, not a framework intended to replace it.
Second, most of the examples — all excluding the American Studies Association boycott of Israeli universities, a highly controversial issue — given by the author of academic justice being delivered by the community fit her definition of the concept very poorly.
In sum, two are presented: the expulsion of the Harvard summer school instructor discussed earlier and the Harvard-Radcliffe Students for a Democratic Society’s protests of Richard Herrnstein’s psychology lectures at Harvard in response to his public support of the thesis that intelligence is genetically determined and thus, varies from race to race.
There are a couple of things to note about these examples. The first is that they were largely unsuccessful. In the case of Herrnstein, not only did the university decline to take action against him, but he was able to write and release a New York Times best-selling (and highly controversial) book “The Bell Curve” with political scientist Charles Murray, which brought his thoughts on the matter to the forefront of public discussion.
Even in the other example, in which Subramanian Swamy was not invited back to lecture at Harvard, he is still a prominent figure in Indian politics. The question is, why have attempts to enact academic justice repeatedly failed? The answer is simple: Criticism has never originated from within the academic community.
In her definition of academic justice, the author of the Crimson article writes that the academic community must act to counter oppressive research, but the majority of her examples showcase student action. While students might be physically present where most academic work takes place, they are not part of the abstract academic community, as they are not yet experienced enough in their field to contribute meaningfully.
Thus, it seems that academic justice not only fails to contradict the current doctrine of academic freedom, but its action as imagined by the Crimson is also ineffectual. The idea is not without promise, but it certainly needs to be reworked to be taken seriously.
Write Thomas at teh18@pitt.edu.
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Protect the Civilisational integrity & identity of Bharatvarsh - Patriots' Forum writes to Pranab Babu.
Dear Friends,
Subject: Appeal to Protect the Civilisational integrity & identity of Bharatvarsh.
Forwarded.
While the basic mail was a petition to be signed by all of us, we have taken the liberty of taking up the issue with the President of India directly.
We would urge you all to sign the petition as well and also add your support to our submission to the President of India on this issue.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: D C Nath <dcnath.private@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 5, 2014 at 12:08 PM
Subject: Appeal to Protect the Civilisational integrity & identity of Bharatvarsh.
To: secy.president@rb.nic.in
From: D C Nath <dcnath.private@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 5, 2014 at 12:08 PM
Subject: Appeal to Protect the Civilisational integrity & identity of Bharatvarsh.
To: secy.president@rb.nic.in
Shri Pranab Mukherjee,
President of India,
Rashtrapati Bhawan,
New Delhi-110001
Respected Rashtrapatiji,
Subject: Appeal to Protect the Civilisational integrity & identity of Bharatvarsh.
On behalf of citizens, at least of a section of citizens, of the country, we submit this appeal to you, Sir, the “First Citizen” of the country, to protect and prevent distortion in the civilisational integrity and identity of the country.
Sir, the attached mail on Kashmir, in circulation for a few days, will tell you the story. It will be clear that neither the State Government nor the Central Government is taking any interest in the matter. The Archeological Society of India has changed the name of the historicalSankaracharya Hill to an Islamic name. The ASI could not have done this on its own. Who has given them the authority to do so?
Even if Kashmir, once a Hindu Kingdom, is now—thanks to demographic evolution and other supporting factors, a Islam-majority State, it happened to be the “Crown-Jewel” ofBharatvarsh and continues to be an integral part of the Indian Union, as repeatedly asserted in Indian Parliament. Should not, therefore, the Government of India take up this significant signage of cultural identity of Hindu/Indic Civilisation for not allowing this savage distortion that appears a part of malicious and deliberate design? Sir, we are sure we do not have to explain our submission in more details to you.
May we now look forward to very early and appropriate remedial action to rectify this mischief and restore the glory of the historic Sankaracharya Temple at the earliest, lest the situation gives rise to avoidable protest and unrest among some sections of the people?
We are confident we shall receive due justice at your hand.
goo.gl/XBOKrQ Click to sign petition
Do not change the name of Shankaracharya Hill in Kashmir
Petition by
Berkeley, CA
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has renamed the Shankaracharya Hill overlooking the Dal Lake in Srinagar, to 'Takht-e-Suleiman'. ASI has also presented a selective version of history of the Shankaracharya Hill on the tourist information plaque. As for the name of Solomon being associated with this hill, it is based on a spurious and absurd myth claiming that this was a hill once controlled by Jews. Therefore the name 'Takht e Suleiman' or 'Throne of Solomon'.
The structure on the Shankaracharya hill has stood there for centuries before the arrival of Islam in India and yet the plaque makes no mention of it. Instead it says the Mughals renovated the structure. The very name 'Shankaracharya hill' has been in use for one thousand three hundred years since Shankaracharya traveled to the four tips of the country and established Sharada Peeths in all four corners. Any number of reputed Indian, American and European scholars will testify that this was a hill dedicated to Shankaracharya long before the advent of the Semitic people on the sub-continent of India.
This is a shameful act of appeasement to win over innocent Muslims. Politicians are hoping to ingratiate themselves with the Muslims of India by exploiting their sentiments. Any intellectual Muslim will react with anger at such distortions of history. Any Muslim, Jew, or Christian who knows about Jerusalem, knows how the history of every square inch of Jerusalem is hotly contested by the Jews, Christians, and Muslims; and any attempt at re-writing history will be met with deep resentment, anger, protests and violence.
Why are we letting some officials of the ASI beholden to political interests, to re-write history in this sad and shameful fashion?
This will cause a deep rift in the country between Hindus and Muslims. This will be seen as yet one more instance of how the minority is usurping the majority. These mindless acts, though it may seem insignificant at the time, will fester into full blown religious riots, and even wars, in the future. We should stop it now.
Let us stop this by making people aware, whether they are Hindus, Christians, Jews or Muslims, that it does not help any religion if it is a party to lies and deceit.
We are appealing to all Hindu organizations to rise up and stop this. We are also appealing to all Jewish, Christian and Muslim organizations in India to support us to re-name this hill back to its true name 'Shankaracharya Hill' and remove the offending plaque from that site.
To:
Shharat Sharma, Additional Director General
Dr. B. R. Mani, Additional Director General
Haji Dr. Syed Jamal Hasan, Director (Exploration & Excavation)
Ms. Subhra Pramanik, Director (Institute of Archaeology)
T.R Sharma, Director (CEP & Publication)
Ms. Urmila Sant, Director (Museum & Exhibition)
Pravin Srivastava, Director General
Dr. R.S. Fonia Joint Director General, Joint Director General
B.B. Samaddar, Director (Administration,Planning)
Janhwij Sharma, Director (Conservation, NCF)
D. Dayalan, Director (Monument)
Smt. Satyabhama Badreenatha, Director (NMMA & WH Section)
Shri. Pranab Mukherjee, The President of India
Shharat Sharma, Additional Director General
Dr. B. R. Mani, Additional Director General
Haji Dr. Syed Jamal Hasan, Director (Exploration & Excavation)
Ms. Subhra Pramanik, Director (Institute of Archaeology)
T.R Sharma, Director (CEP & Publication)
Ms. Urmila Sant, Director (Museum & Exhibition)
Pravin Srivastava, Director General
Dr. R.S. Fonia Joint Director General, Joint Director General
B.B. Samaddar, Director (Administration,Planning)
Janhwij Sharma, Director (Conservation, NCF)
D. Dayalan, Director (Monument)
Smt. Satyabhama Badreenatha, Director (NMMA & WH Section)
Shri. Pranab Mukherjee, The President of India
Do not change the name of Shankaracharya Hill in Kashmir
Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your name]
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Register. Vote ! Vote NaMo for Swarajyam India, that is Bharat.
- Thankful to EC for giving all eligible voters 1 last chance on 9th March to ensure they are registered. This opportunity must be used.
- My special welcome to 10 crore new voters! You have an important role to play in strengthening & continuing democratic tradition of India.
- Poll bugle has been sounded! Best wishes to EC in conducting polls & congrats to people on commencement of biggest festival of democracy.
- Published: March 5, 2014 11:21 IST | Updated: March 5, 2014 12:06 IST
9 phase Lok Sabha elections to be held from April 7
![Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath. File photo.]( "Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath. File photo.")
The HinduChief Election Commissioner V S Sampath. File photo.Elections for the 16th Lok Sabha will be held from April 7 to May 12 spread over nine days in the highest number of polling days so far involving an electorate of 81.4 crore, the Election Commission announced on Wednesday.Counting of votes in all the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies will be held on a single day on May 16, Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath announced at a press conference flanked by ECs H.S. Brahma and S.N.A. Zaidi.Assembly elections will also be held simultaneously in the states of Andhra Pradesh, including Telangana region, Odisha and Sikkim.Nation will go to polls on April 7, 9, 10, 12, 17, 24, 30, May 7 and May 12.The first polling day on April 7 will cover six Lok Sabha constituencies in two states, while the second on April 9 will cover seven constituencies in five states.92 constituencies will go to polls in 14 states on the third day on April 10, while a small number of five constituencies in three states will be covered on the fourth day on April 12.The largest chunk of 122 Lok Sabha seats will go to polls in 13 states on April 17, the fifth day of poll, while the sixth day will witness polling in 117 seats in 12 states on April 24.The seventh day of polling on April 30 will choose representatives in 89 constituencies spread over nine states and the eighth day on May 7 will cover 64 seats in seven states.Polling will conclude on the ninth day on May 12 with elections in 41 constituencies in three states.Announcing the election schedule, Chief Election Commissioner V.S. Sampath said, this should not be viewed as phases. “They are poll days,” he said.Special camps will be organised at all polling stations on March 9 for voters to verify, add or modify their details in the electoral list.Election Commission has decided to distribute photo election slips with polling station details at his/her doorstep, within 3-7 days from the date of the poll.With the election schedule announced on Wednesday, Model Code of Conduct for elections comes into force with immediate effect.State-wise polling days:Andhra Pradesh: April 30, May 7Arunachal Pradesh: April 9Assam: April 7, 12, 24Bihar: April 10, 17, 24, 30, May 7 and 12Chhattisgarh: April 10, 17, 24Goa: April 17Gujarat: - April 30Haryana: April 10Himachal Pradesh: May 7Jammu and Kashmir: April 10, 17, 24, 30, May 7Jharkhand - April 10, 17, 24Karnataka: April 17Kerala: April 10Madhya Pradesh: April 10, 17, 24Maharashtra: April 10, 17, 24Manipur: April 9, 17Meghalaya: April 9Mizoram: April 9Nagaland: April 9Odisha: April 10, 17Punjab: April 30Rajasthan: April 17, 24Sikkim: April 12Tamil Nadu: April 24Tripura: April 7, 12Uttar Pradesh: April 10, 17, 24, 30, May 7, 12Uttarakhand: May 7West Bengal: April 17, 24, 30, May 7, 12Andaman and Nicobar Islands: April 10Chandigarh: April 10Dadra and Nagar Haveli: April 30Daman and Diu: April 30Lakshadweep: April 10NCT/Delhi: April 10Puducherry: April 24
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AAP has CIA links -- AAP founding member Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay
AAP founding member revolts, says party has CIA links
By Surajit Dasgupta on5 Mar 2014
Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, a member of the AAP National Council, suspects his party — or its leadership at least — has connections with the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Upadhyay is addressing a Press conference at 2 pm at the Press Club of India on Wednesday. Earlier, he contacted this correspondent on several occasions over the phone saying he wished to get in touch with all founding members of the party who were dissatisfied with the way the party had been functioning (about 50 of the 300 National Council members are either sulking or have resigned).
It now transpires that Upadhyay is not a ticket seeker who is cross with the party for being denied a chance to contest in the coming Lok Sabhaelections. His email addressed to the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and Minister for Home Affairs among others, shows that his concern is nationalistic.
Titled, ‘Antinational activities of CIA, ISI, Ford Foundation & foreignfunded Indian NGOs & Individuals’, Upadhyay’s email dated March 4 reads (unedited),
Dear Sir,
» Many Indian NGOs & Individuals are directly or indirectly funded by American CIA, Pakistan’s ISI, USA based NGO Ford Foundation, NGOAavaz&also funded by many other foreign countries.
» Many of the Ford Foundation / Foreign Funded Indian NGOs & Individuals are Pro-Separatist, Pro-Naxal, Pro-Maoist, Pro-Terrorist and directly or indirectly involved in antinational activities.
» These Ford Foundation / foreign funded NGO people & individuals are mobilizing people on Caste, Creed, Religion &Social issues &weakening our social unity& integrity of the nation.
» American CIA, Pakistan’s ISI, Ford Foundation and foreign funded NGO people & individuals are very serious threat for our democracy, sovereignty and internal security of nation.
» Many Ford Foundation / foreign funded NGO people & individuals are contesting Parliament & Assembly election as a part of major conspiracy of American CIA & Pakistan’s ISI.
» It’s well known truththat American CIA / Pakistan’s ISI used to send their agents in USSR as a Social Activists / ResearchScholars&Ford Foundation played a key role in collapse of USSR.
» It is in public domain that American CIA / Pakistan’s ISI is dividingunity of society && weakening Integrity of the Nation thru Ford Foundation / Foreign Funded Indian NGOs& individuals.
» Entire nexus can be busted & truth will come out by enquiring Ford funded Social Activists &their family, Ford team members& Ford Foundation India representatives since 2000-2012.
Dear Sir,
» Pl order a time bound CBI/SIT / Judicial Commission enquiry against Indian NGOs & Individuals,who are directly or indirectly funded by Ford Foundation,Aavaz, CIA, ISI & foreign countries.
» Pl publish the list of Indian NGOs & individuals within 30 days, who are directly or indirectly funded by CIA, ISI, NGO Ford Foundation, NGO Aavaz&other foreign countries in last 10 years.
» Pl bring an ordinance to close the Ford Foundation and Foreign NGO offices in India & ban the CIA, ISI, Ford Foundation & foreign funded Antinational Social Activists from contesting election.
Regards
Hours after the email above, Upadhyay sent an email addressed to party national convener Arvind Kejriwal with copies to other senior members of the party. It is titled ‘National First (sic) Party Next and Self Last.’ It reads (unedited):
Dear Arvind Ji,
» Many National Council & founder members requested for 2-3 days National Council meet but it was held just for 1 day i.e. 31st January and entire time spent in speech only & time not given to National council & founder members to put their views.
» I tried to meet you many times after national council meet to discuss these issues with you personally but you couldn’t spare 10 minutes time for this.
» I emailed you 6 letter after the national council meet but you not replied any one. Then I mailed you again these and CC to national executives also.
» National First Party Next and Self Last is my conviction of life. Now I am putting my letters in public domain. PFA my letters dated 1st, 4th, 6th, 8th, 11th & 13th.
Regards
About an hour prior to the above email, he had written another to the AAPleadership with similar content. He thought his address to the high command was not being taken with the seriousness it deserved. Hence, he sent another.
A copy each of Upadhyay’s emails is in the possession of this correspondent.
Upadhyay was apparently trying to forge a lobby within the party. A lawyer by profession, he has been inviting frustrated and disgruntled elements of the party to his chamber at the Supreme Court campus. Now that internal pressure has failed to work on the AAP high command, he has decided to bring the issue out in the public domain.
However, Upadhyay clarified to this correspondent that today’s Pressconference addressed by him is to stage an open protest against the AAP’s act of giving election tickets to ‘anti-nationals’ like Raja Muzaffar Bhat, who had protested the hanging of Parliament House attack convict Afzal Guru, in Kashmir and Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda in Odisha.
Upadhyay will hold another Press conference by the end of this week to cover the issue of the AAP’s suspected CIA connection. He has been associated with Arvind Kejriwal’s NGO Parivartan and Manish Sisodia’s NGO Kabir since their formative days.
The AAP national council comprises all its founding members who attended its national convention held on November 24, 2012 to adopt the party constitution. Begun with a strength of 300, its numbers are now fluid, as every now and then some or the other founding member is resigning.
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Publisher clears air on another Doniger book. No decisions so far -- Doniger
Published: March 5, 2014 20:08 IST | Updated: March 5, 2014 20:08 IST
Publisher clears air on another Doniger book
Amid reports from Bangalore that Aleph Book Company had pulled out American Indologist Wendy Doniger’s bookOn Hinduism from book shops in the city, the publishing house on Wednesday denied that any such instructions had been issued.
In a statement, Aleph Book Company and partner Rupa Publications said: “We are not aware of any such thing except that we are looking forward to the right resolution of the situation.” The statement is the first and only official word that has come out of the publishing house after Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti (SBAS) on Saturday gave Aleph Book Company time till March 10, 2014 to withdraw the book from India and pulp all copies.
In a statement following the news reports from Bangalore, SBAS said it would not abandon its planned course of action unless the publishing house gave a written undertaking that the book would be withdrawn from the Indian market and all copies pulped.
Though the statement in the afternoon cleared the air for now, bookshops in Delhi said they anticipated a fate similar to Ms. Doniger's Penguin publication The Hindus: An Alternative History awaited On Hinduism.
In the first fortnight of February, Penguin had agreed to withdraw all copies of The Hindus from the Indian marketand pulp them in an out-of-court settlement with SBAS which had moved the court against the book on grounds of “distortion” aimed at “denigrating Hindu traditions”.
Ever since the controversy over the Penguin book, On Hinduism has occupied pride of place in the show windows of book stores. And, there has been an upswing in takers for the book as its withdrawal appears imminent. Ms. Doniger is an Indologist with The University of Chicago Divinity School and has penned several books on Hinduism includingSiva: The Erotic Ascetic, and Gender and Myth in Ancient Greece and India.
Though Penguin withdrew her book, Ms. Doniger was full of praise for the publishing house for defending the book in court for four years, both as a civil and a criminal suit. “I do not blame Penguin Books, India. Other publishers have just quietly withdrawn other books without making the effort that Penguin made to save this book. Penguin, India, took this book on knowing that it would stir anger in the Hindutva ranks...” she had said in her statement.
On the latest row over her book brought out by Aleph Book Company in 2013 and whether there were similar threatsto her other two books on Hinduism with Penguin, Ms. Doniger’s reply to queries from The Hindu was: “Penguin and Aleph are considering what to do next. No decisions so far.”
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Anti-nationals parading as anti-corruption, gram-sabha activists: Stop AAP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
What exactly happened after cops stopped Arvind Kejriwal in Gujarat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
What exactly happened after cops stopped Arvind Kejriwal in Gujarat
Ever since AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal, who is leading a roadshow in Gujarat, was stopped at Radhanpur in north Gujarat by the police and told that the Model Code of Conduct had kicked in with the Election Commission declaring the poll schedule, a whole deal of misinformation is being spread by the AAP with the help of friendly media in NCR. It is being repeatedly alleged that Kejriwal was “detained” and “arrested”. The allegation was used to fuel attacks on BJP offices in Delhi and Lucknow by AAP stormtroopers led by Ashutosh and Shazia Ilmi.
The Model Code of Conduct which governs election campaigning comes into effect immediately after polls are announced. The police and district administration become answerable to the Election Commission on all issues related to political and electoral activity.
Niticentral decided to get in touch with the District Collecter of Pattan Harish N Thakkar to find out what exactly happened at Radhanpur. This is what he told us:
“There was no detention or arrest of Arvind Kejriwal. Nor was any case registered against him. He was stopped to explain his roadshow and asked to get permission for his cavalcade as per the Code. Since the roadshow passed through this area after the Election Commission announced the poll schedule and the coming into effect of the Model Code of Conduct, we stopped his convoy of cars and asked him about it. Most of the cars had mediapersons in them and we were not aware of it this. So we asked for an explanation. Arvind Kejriwal and his two colleagues who were called in were offered tea. That’s about all that happened.”
http://www.niticentral.com/↧
Medieval Mint Uncovered in Bohar Majra, Haryana India
Medieval Mint Uncovered in India
March 5, 2014 HARYANA, INDIA—Salvage excavations in the village of Bohar Majra in northern India have uncovered a rectangular structure identified as a mint dating to King Mihira Bhoja, who ruled between 836 and 885 A.D. According to B.R. Mani of the Archaeological Survey of India, the mint was in use until the eleventh century. “The site has yielded hundreds of terracotta coin molds and crucibles from the last phase of the site,” he told The Hindu
Published: March 1, 2014 20:14 IST | Updated: March 2, 2014 02:38 IST
ASI salvages history from urbanisation
Salvage operation brings to light a thousand year old mint in Haryana.
Thanks to the efforts of a vigilant retired professor, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has managed to salvage a part of India’s numismatic history dating back to the 8 Century A.D. from the seemingly all-consuming sweep of urbanization.
Last month, the ASI excavated remains of a rectangular structure considered to be a mint of 8 Century vintage after a brief exploratory survey yielded 31 pieces of terracotta coin moulds for casting coins of King Mihira Bhoja, the ruler of the Pratihara dynasty between 836 and 885 A.D.
The exploratory survey was carried out after a retired professor of Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Manmohan Kumar, informed ASI about ancient mounds at Bohar Majra village in the district running the risk of being levelled as part of the building of new colonies in the area by the Haryana Urban Development Authority. Prof. Kumar cited the discovery of some terracotta moulds for making coins from the site as proof of the area being of archaeological value.
After the exploratory dig bore fruit, regular salvage excavation at the site was launched on February 15. So far seven trenches have been excavated revealing remains of a rectangular structure considered to be the mint, of almost 20 x 10 m which seems to have belonged to about 8 century and probably continued to exist till about 11 century AD.
According to ASI Additional Director General B.R. Mani, “The ceramic assemblage and other evidences of material culture suggest that it is a single culture site, though there are three structural places connected with the habitational deposit…The site has yielded hundreds of terracotta coin moulds and crucibles from the last phase of the site and an interesting fact is that some potsherds are having glazed surfaces of primitive type over red ware pottery. Knife edge bowls are the features of all the three phases of the site.”
The mint site is spread over an area of about 100 m in east-west and 50 m in north-south direction amidst a comparatively very large spread of an early medieval city site at village Majra which seems to have been occupied after the destruction of the earlier city site of Rohtak which is located at Khokra-Kot a few kilometres towards north-west from Majra.
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Underworld, IPL and Sunanda murder -- India Legal (March 2014 issue full text)
IndiaLegal/March 15,2014 Issue
India's first politico-legal magazine in new avtaar has arrived. Grab the issue to get 360 degree perspective of issues that concern our country. No Loud debate. No over-the-top coverage. Simple, Straight and Accurate.
The issue has variety of special stories. However one that would definitely catch attention is first exclusive pictures of Sunanda Pushkar, showing "unexplained" injuries. Her death still remains mystery. But keep reading more here to remain updated.
The issue has variety of special stories. However one that would definitely catch attention is first exclusive pictures of Sunanda Pushkar, showing "unexplained" injuries. Her death still remains mystery. But keep reading more here to remain updated.
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Wooden shoe maker and calligrapher, India's dying professions -- Shanoor Seervai
Mar 5, 2014
Wooden Shoe Maker and Calligrapher, India’s Dying Professions
![]()
- Christopher Lin of Woon Son Shoes used to custom-make wooden shoes to the size of each customer, but now uses standard sizes, Kolkata.
- Clare Arni
Clare Arni has spent seven years traveling across seven Indian cities — Bangalore,Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Jaipur and Goa – capturing the changing urban landscape through the livelihoods of artisans, traders and laborers.
“Disappearing Professions of Urban India,” her first solo show, opened in Mumbai at Tarq, a new contemporary art gallery, on Monday.
The 51-year-old began photographing the changing urban landscape of Bangalore in 2007, and found that certain professions quintessential to the city were vanishing.
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- Dhobi Ghats, open-air laundries, are closing down as more people use washing machines, Bangalore.
- Clare Arni
In the southern city, for instance, she saw generation-old silk handloom workshops, where artisans would typically work four days to weave one Sari, rapidly shut up shop. Handmade silk Saris were being replaced with machine-made synthetic fabrics or silks imported from China.
Until then, Ms. Arni was photographing in Bangalore for a project commissioned by a German cultural institute. But fascinated with how fast India was changing, and in turn, how people were adapting to that change, she decided to make this the subject of a long-term personal project.
The show displays 50 photographs out of a series of 120, including some of Koli fisherfolk, Mumbai’s native fishermen, who now face stiff competition from larger boats, as well as Kolkata’s leather tanners who were recently relocated outside the city.
![]()
- Tinning, the process of lining copper pots on the inside with tin, is vanishing because more people use cheaper, stainless steel vessels, New Delhi.
- Clare Arni
“It’s sad that some skills are being lost,” Ms. Arni, who was born in Scotland and raised inIndia, said while setting up the show. But “sometimes the old has to give way to the new,” she added.
While greater mechanization and urbanization have hurt some traditional professions, access to education has allowed people to aim higher. “Most people were very passionate about what they did, but didn’t want their children to do it, and the children didn’t want to do it either,” said Ms. Arni, who spent hours chatting over tea with each of the people she photographed.
Oriole Henry, her sister, recorded these conversations, and they were subsequently published in an exhibition catalog.
![]()
- Duza Siguiera is one of a few remaining potters who makes clay pots by hand in the coastal state of Goa.
- Clare Arni
Duza Siguiera, among the many interviewees to appear in the show and catalog, is among a few remaining Indian potters to mold clay pots entirely by hand, without a potter’s wheel. Ms. Arni, who met Mr. Siguiera at his workshop in the coastal state of Goa, remembers his niece telling her that she found terracotta pots “good for the health” and “delicious to eat from.” She added that the demand for clay vessels had fallen with the widespread availability of plastic containers and stainless steel.
In New Delhi, Ms. Arni tracked professions traditionally associated with royal Mughal courtrooms: calligraphers, miniature painters and jewelers. She found Quri Mohd Yaqub, one of the few calligraphers still in business, primarily because computers cannot produce the Urdu script yet. Mr. Yaqub says he receives orders from businessmen who scan his elegant Urdu calligraphy for their shop hoardings, letterheads, or business cards.
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- Calligrapher Quri Mohd Yaqub still plies his trade, making business cards, letterheads, and shop signs in Urdu, New Delhi.
- Clare Arni
While some professions have completely disappeared — artists in Bangalore who hand painted Hindi film posters, for instance — others have found ways to adapt. Textiles embellished with woodblock printing in vegetable dyes, for example, are now sold at ethnic boutiques such as Anokhi and Fab India. The cloth, delicately interlaced by textile workers in the northwestern city of Jaipur, was once sold by vendors in bazaars and on sidewalks.
Ms. Arni says she also made a deliberate effort to select not only craftsmen, but also urban professionals and laborers. These include Unani hakims, or medicine men, who now compete with modern medicines, as well as dhobis, who typically hand wash clothes against blocks of stone in open-air laundries. The exhibition also displays images of old theatres and cafes, many of which are being replaced with multiplexes and coffee chains.
![]()
- Ram Jain, who makes traditional medicines, is going out of business as more people turn to modern medicine, New Delhi.
- Clare Arni
“Once people learned what I was doing, they would keep calling to update me if a store was closing down,” Ms. Arni said. As soon as they did, she would rush to the spot with her camera, creating a digital archive before the shutters closed for the last time.
“Disappearing Professions of Urban India” is on display Monday through Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at Tarq, F35/36, Dhanraj Mahal, C.S.M. Marg, Apollo Bunder, Colaba, Mumbai. The show concludes late April.
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2014/03/05/photo-essay-disappearing-professions-of-urban-india/
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After Penguin, Aleph too pulls out Doniger book? -- Outlook India News Ed
Co Publisher of Aleph Publications, Ravi Singh, however, had completely denied any such move to The Sunday Express: “We are not withdrawing the book and we are not terminating any contract.”
But now the Times of India reports that the book has indeed been withdrawn from Karnataka:
Confirming the move, an Aleph spokesman said, "We don't want to get involved in any controversy. Officials from our Delhi office sent a clear message to us — recall all copies of 'On Hinduism' we had sold across Karnataka. We got back about 100 copies till Tuesday evening."Read the full story at the TOI: Another Wendy Doniger book pulled out, copies of ‘On Hinduism’ recalled from Karnataka
'On Hinduism' was published in 2013 while 'The Hindus: An Alternative History' was published in 2009. Mayi Gowda of Blossom Book House told TOI that the publisher sought the return all copies of the book. On Monday, this bookshop had sold all 95 copies of the book following renewed interest in Doniger's work post- Penguin's withdrawal of 'An Alternative History'.
Another city bookshop, Bookworm, said it returned a few copies of the book Tuesday morning. The staff at different book shops said they got emails from the publisher seeking their cooperation.
Also read: The SBAS's objections to On Hinduism: 'A Conspiracy Hatched By The Children Of Marx And Macaulay'
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11/D-27 MAR 06, 2014 05:14 AM | Wendy’s Menial Sepoys centreright.in/2014/03/wendys-menial-sepoys/ As I showed in my critique, The Doniger Book Controversy, Wendy Doniger shamelessly claimed that the vicious Christian canard about Thomas’ visit to India is a historical fact. This canard has been instrumental in legitimizing the forced conversions of India’s natives. Martha Nussbaum falsely claimed that Hindus had issued death threats to Jeffrey Kripal for his abusive portrayal of Hinduism. However, Aravindan Neelakandan proves that Kripal admitted that he has never received any threats. Arvind Kumar demonstrates that Nussbaum is a repeat offender: “Nussbaum (falsely) alleged that Hindus threatened violence against the employees of Harvard University Press in order to prevent the publication of her book. A phone call to the number listed on the website of Harvard University Press in order to verify this charge resulted in the veracity of her claim quickly evaporating. The person who answered the phone repeatedly denied that any such incident had taken place and even laughed at it and brushed off the claim.” Wendy’s Children and Wendy’s Menial Sepoys abandon all scruples to demonize the Hindus when Hindus refuse to be the native informants subservient to their imperial masters. It must be quite lucrative for the members of the fifth column when they don’t let ethics come in the way of fulfilling imperial agenda. However, an honest person would seek a better way to earn one’s livelihood than to prostitute oneself to imperial agendas and turn oneself into the lickspittle of one’s imperial handlers. |
10/D-25 MAR 06, 2014 04:59 AM | >> Warning is about about fundus like you, Dinanath Batra, Pravin Togadia and Akbar Owaisi And about the a**holes who start whining like stuck pigs if they think a logo looks like the name of their prophet in a language most Americans don't understand. |
9/D-24 MAR 06, 2014 03:55 AM | Kolbatla, >>>> ""The fundus are coming, the fundus are coming, run for your life!" >> 'giving a warning about himself and his CAIR terrorist crowd?' Warning is about about fundus like you, Dinanath Batra, Pravin Togadia and Akbar Owaisi. CAIR is just a civil rights advocacy group, neither a political nor a religious organization, but since that fact does not suit your hate/slander agenda, you have to lie and distort! |
8/D-23 MAR 06, 2014 03:45 AM | Pinaki Ray, >> CAIR is funding her also, just as they funded LeT in the past to fire at Indian soldiers in Kashmir. You are such a habitual liar! No CAIR funding or CAIR involvement has ever been charged in that dastardly action. |
7/D-13 MAR 06, 2014 02:27 AM | Faces of extremism in South Asia By Syed Badrul Ahsan: Executive Edtor, The Daily Star " Secular forces are under assault while fundamentalism seeks to destroy order and civility from within. The Taliban dictate terms to Pakistan's ruling classes. Hindutva remains on the march in India. In Bangladesh, the government goes tough against the backward-looking right, but understands too that the battle will be hard and long. "The ultimate question: how long will it take for South Asia to roll the forces of fundamentalism back, to prise religion out of politics and to restore politics to where it should belong, namely, a secular and therefore democratic perch?" www.thedailystar.net/op-ed/faces-of-extremism-in-south-asia-14067 |
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'A Conspiracy Hatched By The Children Of Marx And Macaulay'
Now Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti (SBAS) targets Wendy Doniger's On Hinduism, listing limericks, doggerel and even statements about ' the Sangh’s complacency' with British rule as "objectionable passages"
After successfully getting Penguin Books India to agree to pulp all copies of Wendy Doniger'sThe Hindus: An Alternative History, Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti (SBAS) demanded on Saturday, March 1, 2014 that the Aleph Book Company stop sales and pulp all remaining copies of Doniger's book On Hinduism, published in 2013.
Addressing a press conference on March 1, Dina Nath Batra, who had led the campaign against Doniger's previous book, said that the contents of On Hinduism were "malicious and offending" like The Hindus: An Alternative History:
Page- xviiAfter the attacks on me on the Internet, particularly after the publication of The Hindus, vii I almost lost my old sense of trust in my readers, and for a while I actually thought I would stop writing about India altogether;
Page-18Vivekananda set himself firmly against all forms of caste distinction and advised people to eat beef.12
Page- 510Unbelievers and infidels, Dalits and women, were forbidden to learn Sanskrit, the sacred language, because they might defile or injure the magic power of the words;
Page-513precisely in order to limit it to an elite, exclusive group, Sanskrit confined certain forms of the Indian classics (particularly sacred texts) to males of upper castes.
Page-515‘But these Jains’ they continued, ‘ who are actually Shudras, since they have abandoned the true works of the Puranas, babble things about the Pandavas which are contrary to the smritis.’
SHADOWS OF THE RAMAYANA
Page- 525Rama’s mother, and then Lakshmana, who says, ‘ I don’t like this. The king is perverse, old and debauched by pleasure. What would he not say under pressure, mad with passion as he is?
Page 526
You are so perverse, You think that if Rama dies you can have me, but I will never let you posses me, Bharata has gotten you to follow Rama as his spy. That’s what it must be. And you’ve stayed here is order to get me………….while pretending to be a friend. And that’s why you won’t come to his aid. But I will never have anything to do with any man but Rama.’
Page 532
Rama then pretends to grieve for sita, pretends to fight to get her back, and lies to his brother Lakshmana, who genuinely grieves for Sita.
Page 535
One day, when Ravana was full of passion, he saw the celestial courtesan Rambha and went mad with lust for her. She reminded him that she was his daughter-in-law, more precisely the wife of Nalakubara, the son of Ravana’s brother Vaishravana. But Ravana replied, ‘ You say you are my daughter-in-law. For those who have but one husband, this argument is valid, but in their world the gods have established a law said to be eternal, that celestial courtesans have no appointed consorts, nor are the god monogamous.’ Then he raped her.
WOMEN IN THE MAHABHARATA
Page 539
But Kunti had already had one son, secretely, out of wedlock: when she was still a young girl, she had decided to try out her mantra, just fooling around. The Sun god, Surya, took her seriously; despite her vigorous protests and entreaties, he raped her and afterwards restored her virginity.vii She gave birth to karna, whom she abandoned in shame; a charioteer and his wife adopted him and raised him as their own.{1.104; 3.290-294;5.144.1-9}
Page541
She objected, saying that it is against the law for a woman to have more than one husband, for then there would be promiscuity; moreover, her one husband should have her as a virgin. But Shiva reassured her that a woman is purified every month with her menses and therefore there would be no lapse from dharma in her case, since she had asked repeatedly for a husband. Then she asked him of she could be a virgin again for each act of sexual union, and he granted this, too. {1.189;1.1.157}
Page573
The three primary advocated of Hindutva ideologies are the Rashtiry Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS, National Volunteers’ Organization or National Corps of Volunteers), the Vishva Hindu Parishad(VHP, World Hindu Council), and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, peoples’ Party of India or National People’s Party),often known collectively as the Sangha(with perhaps unfortunate, perhaps intended, resonances with the Sangha as the ancient tern for Buddhism), and sometimes called the Hindutvavadis.”
Page573
I had cited from Valmiki’s Ramayana in which Sita, the wife of Rama, accuse her brother-in-law Lakshmana of wanting her for himself. vi The web message stated:
Last November, I was chairing a lecture on the great Hindu epic, the Ramayana, at the school of Oriental and African studies in London. The lecture had been sponsored by a wealthy Hindu philanthropist, and was given by the celebrated Sanskrit scholar, Professor Wendy Doniger…. Midway through the lecture, a man stood up, walked threateningly towards the podium and threw and egg at Doniger, which narrowly missed her. During the questions that followed the lecture, Doniger faced a barrage of heated insults from a group who had come with the egg-thrower, and who maintained that as a non-Hindu she was unqualified to comments on their religion. Other SOAS lectures in India have since been broken up in similar circumstances.
Page-577
Ancinet Hindu texts wisely divide life into three basic stages of life: in the first, you study; in the second, you marry and become a householder; and in the third, you go and live in the forest. ( It has similarly been said about dogs that in the first stage, they play; in the second, they eat; and in the third,they sleep).
Page 580
A Hindu who didn’t like kama
Refused to take off his pajama,
When his bride’s lustful finger
Reached out for his linga
He jumped up and ran home to Mama.
Page -41
The Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists, however, deny the Vedas and are complete outcastes.
Page-51
“ So, friar(bhiksho), I see you have a taste for meat
Not that it’s any good without some wine.
You like wine too, then? Better when I dine
With pretty harlots, surely such girls eat
No end of money, ‘ Well, I steal, you see,
Or win at dance, ‘ A thief and gambler. Too?
Why, certainly, What else is there to do?
Aren’t you aware I’m vowed to poverty?
Page -57
HERESY CREATED BY THE GODS
Brahman and Vishnu were arguing, each shouting that he was supreme. In anger, Brahma cursed Vishnu: ‘ You will be deluded and your devotees will have the appearance of Brahmins, but they will be against the Vedas and the true path to release. They will be Tantric Brahmins, initiated into the Pancharatra, ever averse to the Vedas, law-books and the proper rituals that give release.
Page-58Reviles himself just enough to make Himalaya lose his pure devotion and remain on earth.141
A similar episode occurs in the Mahabharata:
Formerly, all creatures were virtuous, and by themselves they obtained divinity. Therefore the gods became worried, and so Brahma created women in order to delude men. Now women, formerly virtuous, became wicked witches by the will of Brahma, who filled them with wanton desires that they in turn inspired in men. He created anger, and henceforth all creatures were born in the power of desire and anger. Here, as so often in Hindu mythology, women are the root of evil, though in this case, not through their own fault.
Page 68
Even Queen Vicotira Found a place in the Hindu pantheon; when a plague broke out in Bombay just after her statue had been insulted, certain pious Hindus believed that the disease was “ the revenge inflicted by her as insulted divinity
Page 119
Yogis also posed sexual threats, through an ancient Hindu belief in the crotic powers, of yogis, along a spectrum from genuine ascetics, who were said to be able to use their unspent sexual powers to bless infertile women and thus make them fertile, to false ascetics, who were said to use their status as yogis as mask through which to gain illicit access to women.
Page 121
Indians shamefacedly agreed; Indian children in Gandhi’s days used to chant a popular poem: ‘ Behold the mighty Englishman / He rules the Indian small, / Because being a meat-eater/ He is five cubits tall. The playing fields of Eton had made the English frightfully brave, as Noel Coward pointed out , but so had a regimen of exercise that they now imported into India.
Page -122
since yoga was often associated with sex in India and came to be
Page -127
The concept of tolerance in the positive sense is a product of the Western Enlightenment. Yet, just because Hindus do not have a word for it does not mean that they do not have a set of intellectual concepts that might approximate the Western concept of ‘ tolerance’
Page-136
Classical Hindu India was violent in its politics(war being the raison d’etre of every king), in its religious practices(animal sacrifice, ascetic self-torture, fire-walking, swinging from hooks in the flesh of the back, and so forth), in its criminal law ( impaling on stakes and the amputation of limbs being prescribed punishment for relatively minor offences), in its hells(cunningly and sadistically contrived to make the punishment FIR the crime) and, perhaps at the very heart of it all, in its climate, with its unendurable heat and unpredictable monsoons.
Page- 137
Swami Vivekanand claimed, wrongly, that ‘India is the only country where there never has been a religious persecution.”
Page- 137
Shortly after Partition, a member of the fundamentalist and anti-Muslim Hindu associations, the RSS, remarked that, since Hindus are, as it well-known, the most tolerant people in the world, they deserve to have the land of India to themselves, and, therefore, the(less tolerant) Muslims should be disenfranchised.
Page-137
Here it is perhaps appropriate to recall that it was an RSS man who killed Gandhi. On the lighter side, the widening gap between the ‘tolerant’ scriptures and the intolerant interpretation of them was evinced in India Today in 1991:
Page- 138
hese same political and economic factors, inflamed and perhaps manipulated by the rhetoric of religious intolerance, resurfaced to demolish Babur’s mosque in Ayodhya in 1992, to inspire the killing of Sikhs in Delhi in 1984 and of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, and to exacerbate the extreme suspicion and hatred.
Page- 139
Yet here, too, we must curb our optimism by noting that bhakti did not overthrow the caste system and that it was in the name of bhakti to Rama that the militant Hindus tore down Babur’s mosque.
Page 144The accurate historical account would illustrate the Sangh’s complacency with British rule in the years leading up to Partition.
Page-146Placing the Ramayana in its historical contexts demonstrates that it is an epic poem created by human authors who lived various times.
Addressing a press conference on March 1, Dina Nath Batra, who had led the campaign against Doniger's previous book, said that the contents of On Hinduism were "malicious and offending" like The Hindus: An Alternative History:
"It is part of a conspiracy hatched by the children of (Karl) Marx and (Thomas) Macaulay to tarnish the image of Hindu culture. There are certain pseudo secularists who are behind this conspiracy. She has used derogatory terms for Hindu deities, which hurts the sentiments of devotees...Article 295 (A) states that deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs shall be punished with imprisonment or fine, or both."These are the "Objectionable passages from Wendy Doniger's second book On Hinduism"according to Shiksha Bachao Andolan, some of which in particular—starting with the very first—are, of course, likely to leave one mystified as to what exactly is being objected to:
Page- xviiAfter the attacks on me on the Internet, particularly after the publication of The Hindus, vii I almost lost my old sense of trust in my readers, and for a while I actually thought I would stop writing about India altogether;
Page-18Vivekananda set himself firmly against all forms of caste distinction and advised people to eat beef.12
Page- 510Unbelievers and infidels, Dalits and women, were forbidden to learn Sanskrit, the sacred language, because they might defile or injure the magic power of the words;
Page-513precisely in order to limit it to an elite, exclusive group, Sanskrit confined certain forms of the Indian classics (particularly sacred texts) to males of upper castes.
Page-515‘But these Jains’ they continued, ‘ who are actually Shudras, since they have abandoned the true works of the Puranas, babble things about the Pandavas which are contrary to the smritis.’
SHADOWS OF THE RAMAYANA
Page- 525Rama’s mother, and then Lakshmana, who says, ‘ I don’t like this. The king is perverse, old and debauched by pleasure. What would he not say under pressure, mad with passion as he is?
Page 526
You are so perverse, You think that if Rama dies you can have me, but I will never let you posses me, Bharata has gotten you to follow Rama as his spy. That’s what it must be. And you’ve stayed here is order to get me………….while pretending to be a friend. And that’s why you won’t come to his aid. But I will never have anything to do with any man but Rama.’
Page 532
Rama then pretends to grieve for sita, pretends to fight to get her back, and lies to his brother Lakshmana, who genuinely grieves for Sita.
Page 535
One day, when Ravana was full of passion, he saw the celestial courtesan Rambha and went mad with lust for her. She reminded him that she was his daughter-in-law, more precisely the wife of Nalakubara, the son of Ravana’s brother Vaishravana. But Ravana replied, ‘ You say you are my daughter-in-law. For those who have but one husband, this argument is valid, but in their world the gods have established a law said to be eternal, that celestial courtesans have no appointed consorts, nor are the god monogamous.’ Then he raped her.
WOMEN IN THE MAHABHARATA
Page 539
But Kunti had already had one son, secretely, out of wedlock: when she was still a young girl, she had decided to try out her mantra, just fooling around. The Sun god, Surya, took her seriously; despite her vigorous protests and entreaties, he raped her and afterwards restored her virginity.vii She gave birth to karna, whom she abandoned in shame; a charioteer and his wife adopted him and raised him as their own.{1.104; 3.290-294;5.144.1-9}
Page541
She objected, saying that it is against the law for a woman to have more than one husband, for then there would be promiscuity; moreover, her one husband should have her as a virgin. But Shiva reassured her that a woman is purified every month with her menses and therefore there would be no lapse from dharma in her case, since she had asked repeatedly for a husband. Then she asked him of she could be a virgin again for each act of sexual union, and he granted this, too. {1.189;1.1.157}
Page573
The three primary advocated of Hindutva ideologies are the Rashtiry Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS, National Volunteers’ Organization or National Corps of Volunteers), the Vishva Hindu Parishad(VHP, World Hindu Council), and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, peoples’ Party of India or National People’s Party),often known collectively as the Sangha(with perhaps unfortunate, perhaps intended, resonances with the Sangha as the ancient tern for Buddhism), and sometimes called the Hindutvavadis.”
Page573
I had cited from Valmiki’s Ramayana in which Sita, the wife of Rama, accuse her brother-in-law Lakshmana of wanting her for himself. vi The web message stated:
I was struck by the sexual thrust of her paper on one of our most sacred epics. Who lusted/laid whom,it was not only Ravan who desired Sita some I had never heard of, from our other shastras were thrown in to weave a titillating sexual tapestry. What would these clever, ‘Learned’ western people be doing for a living if they did not have our shastras and traditions to nitpick and distort?5My defence in the news coverage about the egg incident was :-
The Sanskrit texts {cited in my lecture} were written at a time of glorious sexual openness and insight, and I have often focused on precisely those parts of the texts……… The irony is that I have praised these texts and translated them in such a way that many people outside the Hindu tradition--- people who would otherwise go on thinking that Hinduism is nothing but a caste system that mistreats Untouchables-have come to learn about it and to admire the beauty, complexity and wisdom of the Hindu texts.”Page 574
Last November, I was chairing a lecture on the great Hindu epic, the Ramayana, at the school of Oriental and African studies in London. The lecture had been sponsored by a wealthy Hindu philanthropist, and was given by the celebrated Sanskrit scholar, Professor Wendy Doniger…. Midway through the lecture, a man stood up, walked threateningly towards the podium and threw and egg at Doniger, which narrowly missed her. During the questions that followed the lecture, Doniger faced a barrage of heated insults from a group who had come with the egg-thrower, and who maintained that as a non-Hindu she was unqualified to comments on their religion. Other SOAS lectures in India have since been broken up in similar circumstances.
Page-577
Ancinet Hindu texts wisely divide life into three basic stages of life: in the first, you study; in the second, you marry and become a householder; and in the third, you go and live in the forest. ( It has similarly been said about dogs that in the first stage, they play; in the second, they eat; and in the third,they sleep).
Page 580
A Hindu who didn’t like kama
Refused to take off his pajama,
When his bride’s lustful finger
Reached out for his linga
He jumped up and ran home to Mama.
Page -41
The Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists, however, deny the Vedas and are complete outcastes.
Page-51
“ So, friar(bhiksho), I see you have a taste for meat
Not that it’s any good without some wine.
You like wine too, then? Better when I dine
With pretty harlots, surely such girls eat
No end of money, ‘ Well, I steal, you see,
Or win at dance, ‘ A thief and gambler. Too?
Why, certainly, What else is there to do?
Aren’t you aware I’m vowed to poverty?
Page -57
HERESY CREATED BY THE GODS
Brahman and Vishnu were arguing, each shouting that he was supreme. In anger, Brahma cursed Vishnu: ‘ You will be deluded and your devotees will have the appearance of Brahmins, but they will be against the Vedas and the true path to release. They will be Tantric Brahmins, initiated into the Pancharatra, ever averse to the Vedas, law-books and the proper rituals that give release.
Page-58Reviles himself just enough to make Himalaya lose his pure devotion and remain on earth.141
A similar episode occurs in the Mahabharata:
Formerly, all creatures were virtuous, and by themselves they obtained divinity. Therefore the gods became worried, and so Brahma created women in order to delude men. Now women, formerly virtuous, became wicked witches by the will of Brahma, who filled them with wanton desires that they in turn inspired in men. He created anger, and henceforth all creatures were born in the power of desire and anger. Here, as so often in Hindu mythology, women are the root of evil, though in this case, not through their own fault.
Page 68
Even Queen Vicotira Found a place in the Hindu pantheon; when a plague broke out in Bombay just after her statue had been insulted, certain pious Hindus believed that the disease was “ the revenge inflicted by her as insulted divinity
Page 119
Yogis also posed sexual threats, through an ancient Hindu belief in the crotic powers, of yogis, along a spectrum from genuine ascetics, who were said to be able to use their unspent sexual powers to bless infertile women and thus make them fertile, to false ascetics, who were said to use their status as yogis as mask through which to gain illicit access to women.
Page 121
Indians shamefacedly agreed; Indian children in Gandhi’s days used to chant a popular poem: ‘ Behold the mighty Englishman / He rules the Indian small, / Because being a meat-eater/ He is five cubits tall. The playing fields of Eton had made the English frightfully brave, as Noel Coward pointed out , but so had a regimen of exercise that they now imported into India.
Page -122
since yoga was often associated with sex in India and came to be
Page -127
The concept of tolerance in the positive sense is a product of the Western Enlightenment. Yet, just because Hindus do not have a word for it does not mean that they do not have a set of intellectual concepts that might approximate the Western concept of ‘ tolerance’
Page-136
Classical Hindu India was violent in its politics(war being the raison d’etre of every king), in its religious practices(animal sacrifice, ascetic self-torture, fire-walking, swinging from hooks in the flesh of the back, and so forth), in its criminal law ( impaling on stakes and the amputation of limbs being prescribed punishment for relatively minor offences), in its hells(cunningly and sadistically contrived to make the punishment FIR the crime) and, perhaps at the very heart of it all, in its climate, with its unendurable heat and unpredictable monsoons.
Page- 137
Swami Vivekanand claimed, wrongly, that ‘India is the only country where there never has been a religious persecution.”
Page- 137
Shortly after Partition, a member of the fundamentalist and anti-Muslim Hindu associations, the RSS, remarked that, since Hindus are, as it well-known, the most tolerant people in the world, they deserve to have the land of India to themselves, and, therefore, the(less tolerant) Muslims should be disenfranchised.
Page-137
Here it is perhaps appropriate to recall that it was an RSS man who killed Gandhi. On the lighter side, the widening gap between the ‘tolerant’ scriptures and the intolerant interpretation of them was evinced in India Today in 1991:
Page- 138
hese same political and economic factors, inflamed and perhaps manipulated by the rhetoric of religious intolerance, resurfaced to demolish Babur’s mosque in Ayodhya in 1992, to inspire the killing of Sikhs in Delhi in 1984 and of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, and to exacerbate the extreme suspicion and hatred.
Page- 139
Yet here, too, we must curb our optimism by noting that bhakti did not overthrow the caste system and that it was in the name of bhakti to Rama that the militant Hindus tore down Babur’s mosque.
Page 144The accurate historical account would illustrate the Sangh’s complacency with British rule in the years leading up to Partition.
Page-146Placing the Ramayana in its historical contexts demonstrates that it is an epic poem created by human authors who lived various times.
- Saravana Selva Kumar Velu · Adhiyamaan, Hosur/MadrasSanjukta, by the means of freedom of speech may i call u & ur mother as "_____"? Wendy didnt wrote a history book. Thats purely a porn book to ridicule Hinduism. So, pls shut ur mouth.
↧
Shame on you, UChicago. Your faculty: Wendy, Martha in the Katherine Mayo genre, are drain inspectors. Drain Inspector's report -- MK Gandhi (Young India, 15 Sept. 1927).
The Drain Inspector's report of MK Gandhi begins with the verse and its translation:
On the lips of the good vice becomes virtue,
And even virtue appears as vice in the mouth of the evil-minded: this need not surprise us.
For, do not the mighty clouds drink the salt waters of the ocean and return it as sweet refreshing rain,
And does not the cobra, drinking sweet milk, belch it forth as the deadly poison?
Rivers drink not of their own waters, the trees do not themselves eat the fruit which they bear.Nor do the clouds partake of the grains they grow; even so the good devote their powers to the good of others.
Mahatma Gandhi, wrote about Katherine Mayo's Mother India as follows (further elaborated in the full text of his Drain Inspector's Report embedded):
This book is cleverly and powerfully written. The carefully chosen quotations give it the false appearance of a truthful book. But the impression it leaves on my mind is that it is the report of a drain inspector sent out with the one purpose of opening and examining the drains of the country to be reported upon, or to give a graphic description of the stench exuded by the opened drains. If Miss Mayo had confessed that she had come to India merely to open out and examine the drains of India, there would perhaps be little to complain about her compilation. But she declared her abominable and patently wrong conclusion with a certain amount of triumph: 'the drains are India'.
From: The collected works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol34, English by Navajivantrust (Pages 539-547) Young India, 15 September 1927
↧
NCERT textbook case. Demand for removal of reference to Bhagat Singh as terrorist. Prashant Bhushan opposed in Delhi HC.
PROOF: Prashant Bhushan opposed removing references to Bhagat Singh as Terrorist - Delhi High Court Order (Full text)
Dina Nath Batra had filed a case against Government / NCERT for removing references to Bhagat Singh as a terrorist in a NCERT textbook. Prashant Bhushan was one of the advocates for NCERT opposing the same.
Dina Nath Batra had filed a case against Government / NCERT for removing references to Bhagat Singh as a terrorist in a NCERT textbook. Prashant Bhushan was one of the advocates for NCERT opposing the same.
Download / View Delhi High Court Order: http://www.scribd.com/
↧
↧
Banned in Bangalore -- Wendy Doniger. Drain inspector's report of Wendy and Martha -- Kalyan
Drain inspector's report of Wendy and Martha
Is doublespeak the governing ethic in Univ. of Chicago? Martha Nussbaum a UChicago faculty defending her colleague Wendy D indulges in doublespeak. Now it is Wendy D's turn. There is nothing called blasphemy law in India and the Court which had received Batra's complaint did NOT have to decide in the case because the Publisher Penguin chose to voluntarily withdraw the book and pulp it, as out of court settlement. If in fact, Penguin did not pulp the books as voluntarily agreed in the out-of-court settlement, was the settlement made in good faith?
She should know that India has a penal code which has Section 295A which is in vogue since 1860, one of the clauses under which Batra had made the complaint.
It is shocking that she has expressed no apologies for hurting the sentiments of Hindus whose history she is trying to narrate by her alternative method driven by libido. The cover of her book is a mare pretending to be a horse showing a jutting hand of a woman between the hindlegs. In fact, it is a donkey and depicts the University of Chicago faculty. Go, Wendy, psycho-analyse yourself and write a Drain Inspector'sReport -- the title given by MK Gandhi in 1927, to Katherine Mayo's book on India.
Surely, there is a US Penal Code and Chapter 43 clearly defines harmful material which may arouse the prurient interests of minors. Wendy D's book can be established to be harmful material which calls for punishment under this Code for Public Decency. Civil responsibility of US academe? Respect for the civil rights of over one billion Hindus? Does it ring a bell, Wendy and Martha -- the bell rung by Susan B. Anthony?
S. Kalyanaraman
Sarasvati Research Center.
Banned in Bangalore
CHICAGO — LAST month a retired Hindu schoolteacher named Dinanath Batra, who had brought a lawsuit against me and Penguin Books, India, succeeded in getting my book, “The Hindus: An Alternative History,”withdrawn from publication in India. The book, the court agreed, was a violation of India’s blasphemy law, which makes it a crime to offend the sensibilities of a religious person.
Within hours I was receiving hundreds of emails from colleagues, students, readers, high school friends and even complete strangers — in the United States, India and beyond — commiserating with me in my dark hour. But their sympathy, while appreciated, was also wasted: I was in high spirits.
I have devoted my entire academic career, going back to the 1960s, to the interpretation of Hinduism and Indian society, and I have long been inured to the vilification of my books by a narrow band of narrow-minded Hindus.
Their voices had drowned out those of the broader, more liberal parts of Indian society; it reminded me of William Butler Yeats’s line: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.”
What is new, and heartening, this time is that the best are suddenly full of passionate intensity. The dormant liberal conscience of India was awakened by the stunning blow to freedom of speech that had been dealt by my publisher in giving in to the demands of the claimants, agreeing to take the book out of circulation and pulp all remaining copies.
I think the ugliness of the word “pulp” is what struck a nerve, conjuring up memories of “Fahrenheit 451” and Germany in the 1930s. The outrage had been pent up for many years, as other books, films, paintings and sculptures were forced out of circulation by a mounting wave of censorship.
My case was simply the last straw, in part because of its timing, just when many in India had begun to view with horror the likelihood that the elections in May will put into power Narendra Modi, a member of the ultra-right wing of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
If Mr. Batra’s intention was to keep people from reading the book, it certainly backfired: In India, not a single copy was destroyed (the publisher had only a few copies in stock, and those in bookstores quickly sold out), and e-books circulate freely. You cannot ban a book in the age of the Internet. Its sales rank on Amazon has been in single-digit heaven. “Banned in Boston” is a selling label.
Attention has now shifted, rightly, to the broader problems posed by the Indian blasphemy law. My case has helped highlight the extent to which Hindu fundamentalists (Hindutva-vadis, those who champion “Hindutva,” or “Hindu-ness”) now dominate the political discourse in India.
Two objections to the book cited in the lawsuit reveal something about the Hindutva mentality. First, the suit objects “that the aforesaid book is written with Christian Missionary Zeal.” This caused great hilarity among my friends and family, since I grew up in a Jewish family in Great Neck, N.Y.
But when I foolishly decided to set the matter straight — “Hey,” I wrote to an accuser, “I’m Jewish” — I was hit with a barrage of poisonous anti-Semitism. One correspondent wrote: “Hi. I recently came across your book on hindus. Where you try to humiliate us. I don’t know much about jews. Based on your work, I think jews are evil. So Hitler was probably correct in killing all jews in Germany. Bye.”
It’s hard to have a religious dialogue with someone who begins the conversation like that. I was doing better in my role as a Christian missionary.
But there is a bitter irony in this mischaracterization of my religion, since Christian missionaries are actually a part of the problem.
The Victorian Protestant British scorned Hinduism’s polytheism, erotic sculptures, spirited mockery of its own gods and earthy mythology as filthy paganism. They also preferred the texts created and perpetuated by a small, upper-caste male elite, and regarded as beneath contempt the vast oral and vernacular literatures enriched and animated by the voices of women and lower castes. It is this latter, “alternative” Hinduism that my book celebrates throughout Indian history.
Many of the Hindu elite who worked closely with the British caught the prejudices of their masters. In the 19th century, those Hindus lifted up other aspects of Hinduism — its philosophy, its tradition of meditation — that were more palatable to European tastes and made them into a new, sanitized brand of Hinduism, often referred to as Sanatana Dharma, “the Eternal Law.”
That’s the Hinduism that Hindutva-vadis are defending, while they deny the one that the Christian missionaries hated and that I love and write about — the pluralistic, open-ended, endlessly imaginative, often satirical Hinduism. The Hindutva-vadis are the ones who are attacking Hinduism; I am defending it against them.
The Victorian factor also accounts for the Hindutva antipathy to sex. (Here it is not irrelevant that India recently passed a law criminalizing homosexuality.) The lawsuit objects that my “focus in approaching Hindu Scriptures has been sexual in orientation.” In my defense, I can tell you there is a lot of sex in Hinduism, and therefore a lot of puritanism in Hindutva; where there are lions, there are jackals. The poems and songs that imagine the god as lover, like the exquisite statues of goddesses, are a vital part of the religion of those Hindus who did not cave under the pressure of colonial scorn.
But I must apologize for what may amount to false advertising on my behalf by Mr. Batra, who pronounced my book “filthy and dirty.” Readers who bought a copy in hope of finding such passages will be, I fear, disappointed. “The Hindus” isn’t about sex at all. It’s about religion, which is much hotter than sex.
Wendy Doniger is a professor of the history of religions at the University of Chicago and the author of “The Hindus: An Alternative History.”
RELATED COVERAGE
Indian Publisher Withdraws Book, Stoking Fears of Nationalist Pressure
Rad
Radvia 1 hour agoThe quoted law on homosexuality is not recent; it is from 1861 (British). The high court reversed legislation from the bench by a lower court.
The case by Batra is partly for equal protection - for e.g., Satanic Verses was banned by the government to appease the minority muslim population. The blasphemy law should be removed for all or applied to all.
Invoking Modi and Hindutva. is an irrelevant strawman. Batra et al followed due process; no one took to the streets, issued fatwas, etc.
Hinduism is very wide - it includes ultra-conservatives, catholic theists, atheists, rationalists, tribals, etc., and will include also the Doniger point of view, if it is genuine. But a bit of controversy never hurt book sales, what?
The case by Batra is partly for equal protection - for e.g., Satanic Verses was banned by the government to appease the minority muslim population. The blasphemy law should be removed for all or applied to all.
Invoking Modi and Hindutva. is an irrelevant strawman. Batra et al followed due process; no one took to the streets, issued fatwas, etc.
Hinduism is very wide - it includes ultra-conservatives, catholic theists, atheists, rationalists, tribals, etc., and will include also the Doniger point of view, if it is genuine. But a bit of controversy never hurt book sales, what?
bala
sunnyvale 1 hour agoI think the comment about Narendra Modi (Namo) is quite uncalled for. it is not objective. It gives the impression that the folks that are supporting Wendy are against Namo. it gives the impression that Namo had anything to do with the ban on this book. I am quite excited that Namo might become the next prime minister. At the same time I quite support freedom of speech and support Wendy. I think it would have been a stronger piece had Wendy stuck to the facts and left Namo out.
Ajoy K Thamattoor
California 1 hour agoBanning of books, cartoons, movies, dramas, songs and maps in India is not really Hindu specific. The noise-makers of very religion, every caste, every group demand it frequently. Mostly they succeed. The logic is always the same: if you don't ban it, the extremists among us, the ones we can't control, will trash your land and riot against its people. It is not just sex that insults them; anything that shows any group in an unflattering light gets the axe. Christian fundamentalists got Kazantzakis's "Last Temptation of Christ" (and the Scorsese movie) blocked; Muslim ones got Rushdie's "Satanic Verses" out; Hindu fanatics went after another Rushdie book: "The Moore's Last Sigh"; all are examples from decades ago.
Debate on the issue often degenerates into a "but books do get banned in the West too" defense. True enough, at least outside the US. Sorrily so. The situation in India is, however, worse and the scope of the bans broadening; even a book about a business family, the Ambanis, was withdrawn. Where free speech is my right to say what doesn't offend you, those with things to say stay silent. Demagogues fill that vacuum and their poison destroys democracy: the nation's main, perhaps sole, functioning civil right.
Debate on the issue often degenerates into a "but books do get banned in the West too" defense. True enough, at least outside the US. Sorrily so. The situation in India is, however, worse and the scope of the bans broadening; even a book about a business family, the Ambanis, was withdrawn. Where free speech is my right to say what doesn't offend you, those with things to say stay silent. Demagogues fill that vacuum and their poison destroys democracy: the nation's main, perhaps sole, functioning civil right.
Niloy
Malaysia 1 hour agoMs Doniger - I am one of those Indians who is apalled by this desire to ban books and completely militate against it.
And the funny thing is the number of people who will now read your book has just gone up by a factor of 1000X.
However I do wish you would get more of your facts straight. It does strike me that for someone who has obviously done so much research there are some stunning wrong assertions in your book.
Not wanting to dilate too much and take credit away from the person who has actually dissected the book fully I will leave you with one sample -
India is not mainly in the northern hemisphere Ms Doniger - it's southern most extremity ends at 8 deg N!
And the funny thing is the number of people who will now read your book has just gone up by a factor of 1000X.
However I do wish you would get more of your facts straight. It does strike me that for someone who has obviously done so much research there are some stunning wrong assertions in your book.
Not wanting to dilate too much and take credit away from the person who has actually dissected the book fully I will leave you with one sample -
India is not mainly in the northern hemisphere Ms Doniger - it's southern most extremity ends at 8 deg N!
Pradeep
MA 1 hour agoA classmate's mail about a month back introduced me to the name "Doniger" and the apparent transgression of her book. The mail initiated a brouhaha that has now come full circle. Indeed I chuckled as I read it for someone in my forum had used the word “vulgar” to describe the references in Hinduism by this author. U of Chicago being a bastion of conservative politics, made me wonder at that time and I stand vindicated reading this article. I am proud of Hinduism with its sexual sculptures on temples - one of which I went to see with my mom at the age of 15, speak of embarrassment, LOL. It demonstrates the bigger vision of that religion - the celebration of life, in addition to after life, if that exists. I am essentially in argument with what Doniger is stating in the op-ed about Hinduism's BIG canvass rather that the colonial Sanskrit centric (possibly also upper class male dominated) historiography. I only disagree with the last line. As an agnostic, Hindu to boot, to me, “Sex is hotter than religion”, after all without sex, there would be no one bothered about such inconsequential diatribe of whose god is better.
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RB
Bombay 1 hour agoI am Indian, upper caste Hindu, libertarian, and support free speech in ALL circumstances.
However, I must say the Ms. Doniger is either ill informed or mendacious in this Op-Ed. Select factual errors: 1) India does not have a blasphemy law. It has a law against hate speech, and writings that are solely aimed at offending the religious sentiments of people. 2) Ms. Doniger gives the impression it protects only Hinduism from blasphemy. Actually, it has been used more often by Muslims or Christians and "protects" people of all religions. 3) No Court in India has ruled that her book was a violation of this law. Her publisher voluntarily decided to settle the case, perhaps based on an economic analysis of the cost of litigation (which could have been taken to the High Courts and Supreme Court even if the lower courts ruled against them) vs. the benefit from selling the book. 4) Mr. Modi is not a member of the ultra right wing of the BJP. His campaign is based on development, and would be to the left of Republicans like Rick Santorum. Yes, his government messed up in 2002 but that was not unique to him or the BJP, and he has been held personally not culpable by the Supreme Court of India. 5) India did not pass a law criminalizing homosexuality recently. A 2 judge bench of the Supreme Court merely overturned a lower court verdict and allowed (wrongly, in my view) an 19th century law to stand. Justice Scalia would have ruled the same way. The GOI is appealing this verdict.
However, I must say the Ms. Doniger is either ill informed or mendacious in this Op-Ed. Select factual errors: 1) India does not have a blasphemy law. It has a law against hate speech, and writings that are solely aimed at offending the religious sentiments of people. 2) Ms. Doniger gives the impression it protects only Hinduism from blasphemy. Actually, it has been used more often by Muslims or Christians and "protects" people of all religions. 3) No Court in India has ruled that her book was a violation of this law. Her publisher voluntarily decided to settle the case, perhaps based on an economic analysis of the cost of litigation (which could have been taken to the High Courts and Supreme Court even if the lower courts ruled against them) vs. the benefit from selling the book. 4) Mr. Modi is not a member of the ultra right wing of the BJP. His campaign is based on development, and would be to the left of Republicans like Rick Santorum. Yes, his government messed up in 2002 but that was not unique to him or the BJP, and he has been held personally not culpable by the Supreme Court of India. 5) India did not pass a law criminalizing homosexuality recently. A 2 judge bench of the Supreme Court merely overturned a lower court verdict and allowed (wrongly, in my view) an 19th century law to stand. Justice Scalia would have ruled the same way. The GOI is appealing this verdict.
Adam Phillips
New York 1 hour agoWonderful piece! Go Wendy!
I can tell you this: Wendy Doniger is one of the most brilliant and vibrantly alive and deep-spirited people I have ever had the opportunity to meet and spend significant time with. Wonderful piece.
(For those wishing to listen to the 1990 audio documentary I produced about Wendy and her complex and delightful take on Hindu myth for the University of Chicago, please respond here and I will send you an mp3.)
I can tell you this: Wendy Doniger is one of the most brilliant and vibrantly alive and deep-spirited people I have ever had the opportunity to meet and spend significant time with. Wonderful piece.
(For those wishing to listen to the 1990 audio documentary I produced about Wendy and her complex and delightful take on Hindu myth for the University of Chicago, please respond here and I will send you an mp3.)
Critic
1 hour ago
"The Hindutva-vadis are the ones who are attacking Hinduism; I am defending it against them."
I found this to be a quite condescending. Fine, you are writing about religious aspects of South Asia that have been inadequately represented in mainstream Hindutva politics. The idea that you are "defending""Hinduism "seems to imply that your book focuses on the true "Hindusim" and the Hindutva "Hinduism" is false. I would argue that all aspects--from Upanishads to erotic sculptures--are a part of the tradition. I respect the need to have all voices heard and appreciate the effort to give voice to those who may not have a pen (women/lower castes). And obviously the laws leading to the book not being published are outrageous. But the idea you have expressed in this piece-- that you are defending us Hindus from the Hindutva is a little ridiculous. I do believe the Upanishads are a wee bit older than British colonialism - it wasn't solely invented for the purpose of satisfying British tastes.
I found this to be a quite condescending. Fine, you are writing about religious aspects of South Asia that have been inadequately represented in mainstream Hindutva politics. The idea that you are "defending""Hinduism "seems to imply that your book focuses on the true "Hindusim" and the Hindutva "Hinduism" is false. I would argue that all aspects--from Upanishads to erotic sculptures--are a part of the tradition. I respect the need to have all voices heard and appreciate the effort to give voice to those who may not have a pen (women/lower castes). And obviously the laws leading to the book not being published are outrageous. But the idea you have expressed in this piece-- that you are defending us Hindus from the Hindutva is a little ridiculous. I do believe the Upanishads are a wee bit older than British colonialism - it wasn't solely invented for the purpose of satisfying British tastes.
Exdetroiter
New Delhi 1 hour agoThough I haven't read this book, it is tragic that a handful of fanatical people in India who come up with their own interpretation of literary works force their views on the rest. Hinduism, and I say that being a Hindu myself, has indeed become a milieu of spirituality, superstition, fables and an unfathomable mix of both sexual permissiveness as well as prohibition. It is difficult to tell what amounts to blasphemy and what does not. There has long been a crying need to sanitize and reform this great religion and this can happen only if Hindus demonstrate that they can look at their religion with an open mind and appreciate the good as well as the undesirable. A whole lot of the stuff that passes off as part of Hinduism has been passed on from generation to generation by just hearsay - a sad legacy of the fractious social structures of the past. Doniger's book needs to be appreciated and understood in that light. If it does hurt someone's religious sentiments then s/he needs to introspect and question the basis for such sentiments before calling for a ban on the book.
chickenlover
Massachusetts 1 hour agoI think Ms. Doniger should count her blessings and thank the Hindu fundamentalists for sky rocketing her book into the top ten. I ask Mr. Batra, "Who is laughing now?"
Kali
California 1 hour agoBeing lucky enough to have read Dr. Doniger's book a while ago while it was still in circulation, I can attest, that the book is a celebration of all that is good with Hinduism. It is what I remember growing up with as a child. India has changed since and the muscular Hinduism that grew out of that change bore little resemblance to the polytheistic society that it sort to transform. Now a narrative that celebrated a single god, Ram, was shoved down everybody's throat via TV, things like lack of progress, disunity etc. that had been blamed on the Brits were now blamed on the Muslims and a small but viciously vocal group turned on anyone turned who dare question the mythical Hindu greatness. They've turned on a scholar now and I feel great sadness. Pastor Martin Niemoller comes to mind.
Vexray
Spartanburg SC 1 hour agoAnother case of religion and free speech - a toxic combination.
All religion is personal as understood by its practitioners. There is no need for "scholars" to explain the religion of others as fiction or opinion. It is not art but faith.
All religion is personal as understood by its practitioners. There is no need for "scholars" to explain the religion of others as fiction or opinion. It is not art but faith.
SPT
Delhi 1 hour agoThe problem is that everybody except Hindus are considered an authority on Hinduism. Jews, Christians, Muslims, all have declared themselves as experts on Hindu culture and religion and Hindus who say that the interpretation of these "scholars" are just a caricature of the real thing, are cursed as "Hindu fundamentalists." However, for Christianity, Islam and Judaism, only practicing scholars are allowed to write about them and considered an authority. This privilege is not assigned to Hindus for Hinduism, where non-Hindus as a matter of right try to grab the intellectual leadership.
Kam Banerjee
Stamford, CT 1 hour agoWendy Doniger is wrong in asserting that "India recently passed a law criminalizing homosexuality". What actually happened is that India's Supreme Court let stand a colonial era law, stating that only Parliament had the authority to rescind the law.
Sam Wilen
Durham NC 1 hour agoMazel tov on getting your book banned, Wendy! As long as we live in a silly world, may we all have such luck!
Sonya
Menlo Park 1 hour agoProf Doniger: Buying your book was on my To Do list for a while but reading the news that Penguin was going to be required to pulp the remaining copies in India made me order my copy pronto in the US. Also, my circle of friends and family in India who could not order the book in the US have been downloading the PDF to read it. Thank you for making it available for free online. I guess if one is incapable of writing one's own book on any topic, there is always the refuge of "one's religious sentiments being hurt." Sad and pitiful.
theni
phoenix 1 hour agoDear Wendy, I hope that my humble note will negate the evil anti-semitic message you received. I am afraid that sometimes I can no longer speak kindly about all that is happening recently in my birth-place. India and its hindu population are an abode for different religious thought and existence. As a Christian in India I always marveled at how hindus would attend Mass or Novenas for the Virgin Mary at our Church in India. Gandhi, a devout hindu, very easily quoted the bible. Just look at the number of religions still practiced in India. Religious tolerance was the norm and yes I cannot deny that there are streaks of violence between Hindus and Muslims.
Modern India unfortunately, has shown a greater level of intolerance. Hopefully this is a passing phase and will eventually die off. Censorship of your book is wrong and I am glad that the internet era will nullify any chances Mr Batra has to stifle your book and its message.
Please do not pay too much attention to the anti-semitic comment made by an obvious hateful person. The world will proceed on with the free flow of knowledge and ideas. Anyone trying to suppress this flow will eventually be overrun.
Modern India unfortunately, has shown a greater level of intolerance. Hopefully this is a passing phase and will eventually die off. Censorship of your book is wrong and I am glad that the internet era will nullify any chances Mr Batra has to stifle your book and its message.
Please do not pay too much attention to the anti-semitic comment made by an obvious hateful person. The world will proceed on with the free flow of knowledge and ideas. Anyone trying to suppress this flow will eventually be overrun.
artist
CT 1 hour agoHooray for Wendy!
fjsalazar
Massachusetts 1 hour agoI currently am living and working in India on assignment for my employer. I am also one who immediately bought Prof. Doniger's book upon hearing it was banned. Both the content of the book and the controversy around it confirm for me something I have been seeing since my arrival here nearly two years ago, namely: India is imprisoned by its myths more than it is helped by them. All the Indians I know are steeped in the stories related in this book, about Ram and Sita, Hanuman, Arjun, and others. Yet the conclusions they seem to draw from these stories are rarely positive, and tend more towards inevitability and confirmation of class structure than any progressive agenda. One colleague has even regaled me with how the Brahmanic heroes had actually discovered nuclear fission, fighter planes, antibiotics and more.
Here, too much energy is spent looking back for validation, and not enough looking forward. India has immense potential, but also immense problems, of poverty, inadequate infrastructure and blatant social injustice. If the Indian elites don't stop pining for their days of ancient glory and actually do something, they risk coming to a time that will make the Mahabharata look like a picnic.
Here, too much energy is spent looking back for validation, and not enough looking forward. India has immense potential, but also immense problems, of poverty, inadequate infrastructure and blatant social injustice. If the Indian elites don't stop pining for their days of ancient glory and actually do something, they risk coming to a time that will make the Mahabharata look like a picnic.
bk
bethesda,MD 1 hour agoi disagree with Ms Donigar. I am an American and an extreme liberal and an Indian by birth. I was born as a Hindu. However, of all religions Hinduism is the only religion that i extremely tolerant. My husband was an atheist but never minded me calling myself a Hindu. My mom says her prayers from home and does not care if we go tot he temple or not. If you are not born as a Hindu and lived in a Hindu family you are in capable of writing about Hinduism. Westerners do not understand Hinduism. So i would suggest people top pretending to understand Hinduism when they don't.
Sriram
India 1 hour ago"...just when many in India had begun to view with horror the likelihood that the elections in May will put into power Narendra Modi, a member of the ultra-right wing of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party."
I'm sorry, but this statement betrays your political leanings, and renders all that you say suspect. It could be that your book depicts the evolution of Hinduism truly, but if one's agenda shows in the way everything remotely "Indian" or "Hindu" is mocked and denigrated, there's no reason for a dialogue either.
"many in India" do not actually fear Narendra Modi ji coming to power. These constant attempts to conflate Hindu self-respect with such terms as Hindutva and ultra-right Hindu nationalism forces even secular Hindus to see a hidden agenda in these causes that are seemingly espoused.
Disclaimer: I haven't read your book, but I do intend to so I can decide for myself whether this pulping was justified.
I'm sorry, but this statement betrays your political leanings, and renders all that you say suspect. It could be that your book depicts the evolution of Hinduism truly, but if one's agenda shows in the way everything remotely "Indian" or "Hindu" is mocked and denigrated, there's no reason for a dialogue either.
"many in India" do not actually fear Narendra Modi ji coming to power. These constant attempts to conflate Hindu self-respect with such terms as Hindutva and ultra-right Hindu nationalism forces even secular Hindus to see a hidden agenda in these causes that are seemingly espoused.
Disclaimer: I haven't read your book, but I do intend to so I can decide for myself whether this pulping was justified.
rajivnaval
london,ky 1 hour agoLove your books , my conservative well educated Tamil Brahmin father sent me a copy for my American girlfriend and told her to read it before her next visit to india. Your books are well researched and quite accurate and it's high time india changes it's anti-blasphemy laws which are only there to appease minorities.
Prof.Jai Prakash Sharma,
Jaipur, Indiaternal 2 hours agoWendy Doniger faced rough weather in India for her scholarly work, " The Hindus:An Alternative History" not because she had little regard for the faith or wanted to pervert its intrinsic worth and appeal or even wanted to hurt the believers of Hindu religion any way, but it seems her publishers The Penguins India had perhaps I'll timed the release of the book when the national elections were approaching fast, and the political contenders wanted to grab any opportunity or issue which could promise electoral dividends to them. The Doniger book proved to be a Godsend for the Forces to whom Hinduism, far from being the liberating spiritual experience, has always been a tool of political mobilization and self-claimed vigilantism. it was this fringe section of Hindu zelots that felt unnerved by the book publication and turned the usual intellectual exercise into a full blown controversy to encah it in elections, especially when their champion of Hindutva. the Gujarat pogrom famed PM aspirant was busy turning dream into reality. It was the insensitive nerves of the practioners of political Hinduism that got hurt this time with anticipated cries of pain.
Diana Moses
Arlington, Mass. 6 hours agoWhat is the most effective way to get the strand of Hindu practice being championed by the author accepted by those who focus on drier aspects of Hinduism, if I may call them that? I am actually quite sympathetic in my own way to what I've read of the author's point of view about spiritual practice, but I am concerned is that riposte may make such acceptance less likely, not more. But I don't know Indian culture well enough to know whether my concern is well-founded.
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Post bank of India. Next NaMo government should make this a reality, to transform the 6.5 lakh villages
Can Sonia, Rahul clarify why the Finance Ministry is blocking Post Bank of India?
by Mar 6, 2014
Inclusive growth is the buzzword that Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and the apostles of Sonianomics brandish at every possible opportunity, but when the world's greatest opportunity for financial inclusion knocks at the their door, they look the other way.
The opportunity comes in the form of a private bank of the India Post, which has 1.54 lakh branches across the country, 90 per cent which are in rural areas. The Reserve Bank has approved the idea, but the finance ministry is trying to block it.
Out of the 27 applicants (only 25 in the fray now) for a new banking license, the Indian Post's bank is among the five or six that has passed the strict guidelines of the Reserve Bank. While other licensees can start their operations once the Reserve Bank announces their clearances, the Indian Post's bank cannot because the finance ministry mandarins don't like the idea.
Is there any particular reason that even with a Reserve Bank license an arm of thegovernment of India cannot start something that will help tens of millions because another arm has a say over it?
The only motives that one can assume are the following.
1. Bureacratic ego of the finance ministry: officers of the finance ministry think that they are of a higher class than the officers of the humble postal department. It's simple arrogance of one ministry over another
2. Turf issues : Banking operations are overseen by the Department of Financial Services(DFS) in the finance ministry. Why should the postal services, whose job is to deliver post, should get involved in financial services or banking?
3. Possible collusion with the public sector banks: DFS officials are on the board of these banks, which may want to prevent competition from such a massive network. Nobody can match the infrastructural strength of the postal services, particularly in the rural areas.
The opportunity comes in the form of a private bank of the India Post, which has 1.54 lakh branches across the country, 90 per cent which are in rural areas. The Reserve Bank has approved the idea, but the finance ministry is trying to block it.
Out of the 27 applicants (only 25 in the fray now) for a new banking license, the Indian Post's bank is among the five or six that has passed the strict guidelines of the Reserve Bank. While other licensees can start their operations once the Reserve Bank announces their clearances, the Indian Post's bank cannot because the finance ministry mandarins don't like the idea.
Is there any particular reason that even with a Reserve Bank license an arm of thegovernment of India cannot start something that will help tens of millions because another arm has a say over it?
The only motives that one can assume are the following.
1. Bureacratic ego of the finance ministry: officers of the finance ministry think that they are of a higher class than the officers of the humble postal department. It's simple arrogance of one ministry over another
2. Turf issues : Banking operations are overseen by the Department of Financial Services(DFS) in the finance ministry. Why should the postal services, whose job is to deliver post, should get involved in financial services or banking?
3. Possible collusion with the public sector banks: DFS officials are on the board of these banks, which may want to prevent competition from such a massive network. Nobody can match the infrastructural strength of the postal services, particularly in the rural areas.
]![India Post has the widest reach in the nation]()
India Post has the widest reach in the nation
Let's take a look at the possibilities of the proposed bank of the postal services called the Indian Post Bank.
India Post has the widest reach in the nationOnce operational, all the 1.54 lakh post offices, out of which about 90 per cent are in rural areas, by default will become a “bank”. These “banks” will be more accessible to the common people, because they have been right there for decades in their neighbourhood: there is a post office for every 7176 people in the country and in rural areas, the coverage is even better - one for every 5682 people.
In fact, when the UPA government was struggling to find a way to transfer the wages of NREGA beneficiaries, it was this network that came to its rescue. About 2.2 crore people get their NREGA payments through post offices.
Financial services are not new to the post offices because for several decades, they have been running the post office savings scheme. Besides the extremely high penetration of the post offices, in rural areas, there are about 2.69 lakh agents (Grameen Dak Sevaks) who come home to help people with banking.
Almost all these agents are also people from the neighbourhood and are familiar with the beneficiaries. It is a unique banking eco-system that only Indian Post can claim credit for. It is a model that has evolved over time and is very hard to replicate because it is driven by the sheer needs of people, and nourished by trust and relationships.
It's impossible to find another system, than the Indian Post, that has such penetration and coverage anywhere in the world. Unarguably, there is no other network of such scale.
At present, the post office savings banks are only about savings and do not offer credit and other services which are essential to make them real banks, and work more inclusively. The main idea behind the Post Bank of India is to make available the entire range of banking services.
Now let's look the financial muscle of the post banks savings scheme as it exists today.
The savings banks scheme has a whopping cash balance of about Rs 6 lakh crore and about Rs 22.5 crore accounts. It also includes more than a million of senior citizens' savings schemes. The most striking part of this is that 89 per cent of it serves the country's rural areas. Significantly, all this money is lent to state governments (its main source of public borrowing) and not to loss-making airline companies.
The postal system also runs a low-premium Postal Life Insurance scheme serving about 1.69 crore people. In the last two years, the Department has invested about 10-20 per cent of the premiums in mutual funds with considerable success. Its portfolio managers are as good or better than that of the regular banks.
How will the Post Bank of India work?
For the Post Bank of India, the postal department will set up a non-operating financial holding company which will float the bank, which will be a private entity. it will have about 150 branches for which the head post offices will be a correspondent. The access of the network will go all the way down to the neighbourhood post office. The bank will have various products and services that will strengthen financial inclusion.
The idea, for which everything is ready, is about real financial inclusion that the existing banks will never be able to achieve in near future. All that it requires from the government is an investment of Rs 700 crore.
Reportedly the RBI governor Rahguram Rajan will meet with finance minister Chidambaram before announcing the licenses. If Chidambaram raises his ministry's objection, Rajan will have to either drop the license or defy the government, although the latter is quite unlikely.
Sonia and Rahul, are you listening?
According to sources, Rahul Gandhi had been briefed about situation and he had promised action, but as in other cases there was not enough follow up from him.
If Rahul and Sonia are really keen about financial inclusion and inclusive growth, it's time that they intervened and broke one more silo that's preventing people-friendly policies and programmes. Blocking the Post Bank of India is patently anti-people.
If they don't do it, it will be a fantastic opportunity for the next government to make an impact. Perhaps, the BJP should take notes too.
(Editor's note: some text from an earlier report has been used in this story)
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Drain inspectors' report of Wendy and Martha. UChicago should enforce civil responsibility of faculty.
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Is doublespeak the governing ethic in Univ. of Chicago? Martha Nussbaum a UChicago faculty defending her colleague Wendy D indulges in doublespeak. Now it is Wendy D's turn. There is nothing called blasphemy law in India and the Court which had received Batra's complaint did NOT have to decide in the case because the Publisher Penguin chose to voluntarily withdraw the book and pulp it, as out of court settlement. If in fact, Penguin did not pulp the books as voluntarily agreed in the out-of-court settlement, was the settlement made in good faith?
She should know that India has a penal code which has Section 295A which is in vogue since 1860, one of the clauses under which Batra had made the complaint.
It is shocking that she has expressed no apologies for hurting the sentiments of Hindus whose history she is trying to narrate by her alternative method driven by libido. The cover of her book is a mare pretending to be a horse showing a jutting hand of a woman between the hindlegs. In fact, it is a donkey and depicts the University of Chicago faculty. Go, Wendy, psycho-analyse yourself and write a Drain Inspector's Report -- the title given by MK Gandhi in 1927, Katherine Mayo's book onIndia.
Surely, there is a US Penal Code and Chapter 43 clearly defines harmful material which may arouse the prurient interests of minors. Wendy D's book can be established to be harmful material which calls for punishment under this Code for Public Decency. Civil responsibility of US academe?
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