[Attachment(s) from afroz sahil included below]
--
Let's have pledge on the pious occasion of the New Year, that we will stamp out the stigma of corruption in this New Year, 2011
HAPPY NEW YEAR to all….
On Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 3:37 PM, <rti4empowerment@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
There are 8 messages in this issue.
Topics in this digest:
1. Emailing: A mockery of justice Chhattisgarh Binayak Sen Indian Ex
From: Urvi Sukul Singh
2. release jailed for life human rights activist binayak sen - petition
From: Syed Tanveeruddin
3. Info about Munni Giri and Sheila Giri
From: Amitabh Thakur
4. Munni/Sheila info from Noida
From: Amitabh Thakur
5. Intelligence Bureau wants ISPs to log all customer details.
From: Rahul
6. Subramaniam Swami calls for Inquiry of Rahul Gandhi's Connection to
From: R. Singh
7. Not Cast in Stone/ Column in today's Daily Pioneer
From: R. Singh
8. Fw: [AWARE] Intelligence Bureau wants ISPs to log all customer detai
From: Urvi Sukul Singh
Messages
________________________________________________________________________
1. Emailing: A mockery of justice Chhattisgarh Binayak Sen Indian Ex
Posted by: "Urvi Sukul Singh" usukulsingh@hotmail.com usukulsingh
Date: Thu Dec 30, 2010 2:25 am ((PST))
A mockery of justice | Chhattisgarh | Binayak Sen | Indian Express
http://expressbuzz.com/opinion/columnists/a-mockery-of-justice/235002.html
A well-written article on an issue increasingly contentious.It surely is some indication if the Indian Medical Association is standing by him!
Regards
Urvi
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Jyoti PunwaniFirst Published : 28 Dec 2010 11:04:00 PM ISTLast Updated : 28 Dec 2010 11:51:00 PM IST
The conviction wasn't unexpected. Too much was at stake in this particular prosecution that had invited international attention. What was unexpected was the sentence. A day after the verdict, Chhattisgarh DGP Vishwa Ranjan looked suitably impassive while commenting on the conviction of Dr Binayak Sen on TV, but surely this would have been a memorable X'Mas for this 'poet-policeman'. A life sentence for the man because of whom he had had to tolerate all that hatred from people like him — he with his love for the liberal arts, and a St Stephen's background.
Now finally, the soft-spoken doctor would stop giving interviews about the state's military campaign against the poor. Everyone else had been dealt with. Dantewada and Bastar became a 'no-go' zone where troops carrying out Operation Green Hunt against the Maoists were the only outsiders allowed. What was going on in those jungles? No news came out. Just one man kept fighting there, former CPI MLA Manish Kunjam, but he was reminded again and again that in Chhattisgarh, anyone who dared work openly among the Adivasis would be treated like a criminal. His party leaders were jailed on charges of murder, Adivasis going for his rallies assaulted.
There was, of course, the Supreme Court, which ever so often, responding to prayers from the tireless Prof Nandini Sundar (and her co-petitioners), lashed out at the Chhattisgarh government for arming Adivasis to fight other Adivasis through the Salwa Judum, and allowing troops to take over schools. But so far, the Raman Singh government has made sure no one monitors the court's orders. On the ground, the police still rule.
As they do in court. Comparing Additional Sessions Judge B P Verma's judgment with the notes of evidence, one agrees with Sen's lawyer Mahendra Dubey that judge chose to ignore most of the cross-examination, relying only on the special PP's examination-in-chief. The most far-fetched police testimonies have been accepted. Consider this: Exhibit A 37, the crucial unsigned computer printout sent ostensibly by Maoists to Sen, was, according to the police, found in his house. But, unlike the other articles seized from his house, it does not bear either Sen's signature or that of the investigating officer. It bears only the signature of the two seizure witnesses. Had he allowed the defence to play the video of the seizure, the judge would have seen the police taking away the seized documents from Sen's house in an open bag. A copy of this letter was not given to Sen, though copies of all the other seized articles were. Nor is it mentioned in the seizure memo.
Asked to explain, both the inspectors handling the case gave the same explanation: "Either we forgot, or this paper got overlooked because it was stuck to some other document seized during the search.'' How then did the police remember to get the two witnesses sign this letter?
But Judge Verma accepts this explanation! This isn't the only one. Piyush Guha, the Kolkata-based businessman also convicted to life, was, according to the police themselves, arrested from two different places. The police told the court he was arrested from Station Road, Raipur, where he was hanging around suspiciously.
However, in their reply to his bail application in the Supreme Court, the police stated his place of arrest as Mahendra Hotel, Raipur. Produced before the magistrate after his arrest, Guha had also said that he had been arrested from Mahendra Hotel. Asked to explain, investigating officer Rajpoot told the court: "I dictated Station Road, but the typist took down Mahendra Hotel.'' Judge Verma described this typing mistake as "natural''.
Again, in the course of the trial, two different places and dates were given for the arrest of Narayan Sanyal. Policemen from Andhra Pradesh testified that Sanyal had been arrested from Bhadrachalam. But the judge chose to rely on the testimony of one Deepak Choubey who said he had taken Sanyal as a tenant in his house on the recommendation of Binayak Sen, and that Sanyal had been arrested from his house. Under cross-examination, Choubey admitted that that he had no direct knowledge of Sanyal's arrest, someone else had told him about it.
If Choubey's hearsay evidence could be accepted, why not that of policemen? The judge relies on the fantastic testimony of two policemen that Binayak Sen, Ilina Sen, and former PUCL general Secretary Rajendra Sail used to attend meetings with Naxalites in the jungle. Under cross-examination, the policemen admitted they had been told this by villagers, whose statements they had not taken down.
On such evidence has Judge B P Verma accepted that a seditious conspiracy was hatched between "Naxalite" Narayan Sanyal (who has yet to be convicted in any of the cases against him), Binayak Sen and Piyush Guha, and sent them to jail for life. "Naxalite" prisoner Sanyal passed on letters to Sen, Sen delivered them to Guha. In addition, literature critical of Salwa Judum was found in Sen's house, says the judgment. Significantly, the judge, disregarding the Supreme Court's criticism of Salwa Judum, accepts the official version that it is a voluntary peace movement by Adivasis.The judgment is completely silent on the testimony of two jailors that it was not possible for Sanyal to hand over anything to Sen in jail, for their meetings, cleared by the police, were held under strict supervision. The judge relies, instead, on the examination-in-chief of the jail staff, which said that Sen would pass himself off as Sanyal's relative. Under cross-examination, they admitted that applications to meet Sanyal were made by Sen as PUCL general secretary, on the PUCL letter-head. These applications are part of the court's record.
With all the skills they commanded, the Chhattisgarh police could not prove that Sen and Guha ever met. A hotel owner and a hotel manager told the court they had never seen Sen visiting Guha in their hotels. But this finds no mention in the judgment. Instead, the testimony of one Anil Singh is relied upon, a man who apparently happened to be passing by when Guha was being arrested, and who overheard Guha tell the police that the letters found on him had been given by Sen. These letters find no mention in Guha's arrest panchnama. Guha, points out the judge, is an accused in a Naxalite case in West Bengal. Again, he ignores the crucial date when Guha's name was added as an accused in that case — after his arrest in Raipur.
Interestingly, Judge Verma, the third judge to hear this case, in which 473 documents were produced and 80 judgments cited, delivered his verdict in a record eight days after six days of arguments concluded. And then he chose a day before the high court closed for X'Mas.
About the author:
Jyoti Punwani is a Mumbai-based journalist and political commentat
Topics:Chhattisgarh,Binayak Sen,Vishwa Ranjan
Email PrintDelicious Digg Google Facebook Yahoo Twitter Stumble Comments IT IS A NATIONAL SHAME. THE COURT'S JUDGMENT IS A CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY AND SEDITIOUS- COIMBATORE HUMAN RIGHTS FORUM.
By V P SARATHI
12/30/2010 12:56:00 PM What more you expect form a Indian Tribal democracy. This coutry is run by corporates and their henchmen. The word "social justice" does not have a context in Indian life. Here you can mow down people with your BMW. Or, maqke a fool pf prople by doing a scam of $ 32 billion. Nobody dare ask you questions. The current Indian standard is: Silence all the dissent of bad governance. I believe that there is a tussle going on betwen Corporate/Politicians and Democratic India. We need leaders like Gandhi, Bose or Patel.
By Avi
12/29/2010 10:43:00 PM The same lady had earlier blasted the BJP when some of their leaders visited Sadhwi Pragya Singh, who until then had no record of committing any crime and who they believed was falsely implicated in the Malegaon Terror attack. Now, she is defending a so-called rights activist who was in frequent contact and who had been allegedly acting as a courier to the leader of a terrorist organization which even the PM(not the right wingBJP, RSS or other Hindu orgainzations) had said was the biggest threat to the country. The Maoists are the extremists amongst the communists who want to keep the poor people poor for ever by obstructing any development programme. And they have a reason for that. Communism and Maoism will lose its relevance if there is no poverty around and therefore, they use even violence to keep the poor in poverty forever.
By N.V.SANKARAN
12/29/2010 9:36:00 PM We should follow Pakistan's example over the arrest and conviction of their "innocent" terrorist lady, Dr. Aafiya Siddiqui, and call Dr. Binayak Sen the "son of the nation". It would be fitting. Indeed, the ""Naxalite"" Dear Leader, Narayan Sanyal, remains to be convicted for his crimes - like having fellow ""Naxalites"" Rabindranath and Anandamayee Kar burnt alive in the presence of their daughter for having the temerity to question his authority. It would be unfair not to allow Sanyal follow the footsteps of other communist Dear Leaders like Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot who were also never convicted for their crimes against humanity. As for Dr. Binayak Sen, he was only being a faithful henchman, just like all the other well-meaning "intellectuals" who abetted their respective Dear Leaders in cracking eggs to make omelets.
By Charu
12/29/2010 3:27:00 PM It is evident Binayak Sen chose the wrong profession, who in their right minds will serve the poor , shouldnt they be eliminated for the larger good and for the shining India rich and middle class.... He should have left India immediately on graduation and landed a plum job as a consultant in the US, naturalized there ..and then met the who is who of Indian polity to argue for dual citizenship for such NRIs or the right to free land for a starting medical tourism project and I am sure he would have been lauded and feted and by now managed to get some illustrious Pravasi Bharatiya award and invited to dinner at the PMs home and breakfast at Rashtrapathi Bhavan.........That is true desh seva...! devi
By Devi
12/29/2010 1:36:00 PM New tactic by media to protect half terrorists like Sen and foreign funded NGO's.
By Jay
12/29/2010 12:14:00 PM Dr. Binayak Sen denied justice, what hope is there for some unknown citizen in India? The Judgment in case of Dr. Binayak Sen is attracting a lot of criticism to disrepute India. It is being rightly said that today people ask: if even high-profile people like Sen can be denied justice, what hope is there for some unknown citizen being picked and charged of being a Maoist sympathiser or a terrorist in India? The justice should be seen done with Dr. Binayak immediately without carry on playing politics of human rights as remained practice in action always on behalf of or at the instance of the political parties in India in order to mislead the world by intending only for external propaganda. For the reason, the human rights organizations known for their reputation internationally must intervene for adequate, meaningful and effective prompt results in this case on merits to save India from further getting her reputation damaged as well as reputation of its political administration justice
By Balbir Singh Sooch, Advocate, Ludhiana
12/29/2010 8:41:00 AM In a normal appeal, a very soft way of describing the learned judge's decision in the plaint would be to call it lack of application of mind. Let us be very charitable and leave it at that. An easier way out for the government would have been to arrange for a quiet encounter. Less egg on their face, extension of the normal middle-class support for extra-judicial killings and proof aplenty of the doctor's guilt would be the very welcome consequences. Why repeat the mistake the Britishers did when they gave people like Tilak and Gandhi a podium to spout their seditious ideas? We have to recognize the fact that if we give exposure to people like this, the janta might start labeling some of the actions of the security forces and the non-existent Salva Judum as atrocities. Bhaiya, better nip this in the bud!
By Jayadevan
12/29/2010 6:39:00 AM Post your comments * Comments Sholud not be Empty..! Email * EMail ID Should not be Empty Invalid EMail ID Name * Name Should not be Empty Verification Code * Enter numbers shown in image *
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Messages in this topic (1)
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2. release jailed for life human rights activist binayak sen - petition
Posted by: "Syed Tanveeruddin" emailindian1@yahoo.co.in emailindian1
Date: Thu Dec 30, 2010 5:07 am ((PST))
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/release-binayak-sen/
Messages in this topic (1)
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3. Info about Munni Giri and Sheila Giri
Posted by: "Amitabh Thakur" amitabhth@yahoo.com amitabhth
Date: Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:38 am ((PST))
Friends,
My wife Dr Nutan Thakur has filed a PIL in Allahabad High Court to ban the two songs
"Munni" and "Sheila" and has asked for other reliefs like not allowing
such vulgar songs in the names of individuals who are harassed by such
songs. The hearing is on 3rd January.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/ban-munni-badnam-hui-sheila-ki-jawani/728824/
Meanwhile, we have come to know of a incidence related with Pune, the relevant part of which I quote here----
Sheila Giri and Munni Giri these days don't even step out
of their houses for fear of being harassed by neighbours with 'Munni'
and 'Sheila' barbs. The fact that they are siblings only provides
mischief-mongers so much more scope.
On Thursday, the sisters –
Sheila, a resident of Naupada, Thane (west); and Munni, a resident of
Kopri, Thane (east) – filed independent applications at the Government
Gazette Office seeking change of name. Munni, 35, wants her name changed
to Seema; and Sheila, 27, wants to be called Sheetal. Both will soon
issue mandatory advertisements to change names.
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/printarticle.aspx?page=comments&action=translate§id=2&contentid=2010120820101208024005602337e0ba2&subsite=
Could it be possible for someone to present some more factual information and official data on these two cases?
Amitabh Thakur
IPS,
Currently at IIM Lucknow
94155-34526
Messages in this topic (1)
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4. Munni/Sheila info from Noida
Posted by: "Amitabh Thakur" amitabhth@yahoo.com amitabhth
Date: Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:41 am ((PST))
Friends,
Continuing the same PIL matter by wife Dr Nutan Thakur related with Munni/
Sheila case (http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/report_pil-demands-ban-on-munni-badnaam-hui-and-sheila-ki-jawani_1485201), we have come to know of another event related with Noida
which I quote. Actually as per section 5B(1) of the Cinematography Act 1952, any thing that can incite violence can not be allowed for public exhibition.
Could be grateful, if some one among you could help by providing more details of the case-
At least 25 persons, including BPO employees, were injured and over 12
vehicles damaged after a scuffle between two parties over the playing of
Tees Maar Khan number Sheila ki jawani… in Sector 127 of Noida on
Sunday. This is the second such major incident reported from the area
within a week.
The incident took place when four members of a
family, including a woman named Sheila, was heading towards Sector 127
in her Maruti Alto, police said. They stopped at a shop near a call
centre. One of the cab drivers of the company, identified as Monu, was
playing the song Sheila ki jawani… in his car which was parked outside
the BPO. He was also allegedly making indecent gestures.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/306861/Noida-bristles-with-rage-over-Sheila-ki-jawani-rage.html
Amitabh Thakur
IPS
Currently at IIM Lucknow
94155-34526
Messages in this topic (1)
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5. Intelligence Bureau wants ISPs to log all customer details.
Posted by: "Rahul" bruntno1@yahoo.com bruntno1
Date: Thu Dec 30, 2010 12:01 pm ((PST))
Good day Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Its Thursday, December 30th, 2010
NEW DELHI: The Intelligence Bureau wants internet service providers, or
ISPs, to keep a record of all online activities of customers for a
minimum of six months, a move that can add to operational costs for
companies and pose privacy concerns.
IB, in a communication to
the department of telecom, or DoT , has sought that addresses of
websites visited with date and time and financial transactions of all
customers be stored by internet operators for six months.
If implemented, it may pose a threat to online privacy as internet service providers such as Bharti Airtel , Reliance Communications , BSNL and MTNL will now
become custodians of citizens' online records.
Currently,
mobile phone companies and internet service providers do not keep online
logs that track the web usage pattern of their customers. They
selectively monitor online activities of only those customers as
required by intelligence and security agencies, explained an executive
with a telecom company.
"At present, we only keep a log of all
our customers' Internet Protocol address, which is the digital address
of a customer's internet connection. We are not aware of the IB
proposal, but such a move will pose huge logistical challenge for ISPs
and increase costs," said Rajesh Chharia, president of the Internet
Service Providers' Association of India.
The Intelligence Bureau
communication to DoT, which was reviewed by ET, says its demands are in
line with the security and monitoring provisions that already exist for
mobile and landline calls. Mobile phone companies are
mandated to maintain call logs for all their customers for a minimum of
six months.
It added that both internet and mobile telephony
permits contain several clauses that state companies offering access to
the world wide web are obliged to provide tracking facilities to
authorised government officials, including the police, Customs, excise
and intelligence department when such information is required to detect
crimes, or in the interest of national security.
But, the
telecom ministry, in an internal note, is of the view that the
inter-ministerial group currently looking into monitoring of internet
services and networks in the country must take a final call on this
issue.
In a related development, IB has asked the telecom and IT
departments to work with mobile phone companies and the National
Informatics Centre to put in place a system that can uniquely identify
any person using the internet across the country.
The project
aims to develop a technology platform where users will have to
mandatorily submit some form of an online identification or password to
access the internet every time they go online, irrespective of the
service provider.
NIC is involved in active promotion and
implementation of information and communication technology (ICT)
solutions in the government and spearheads the centre's e-governance
drive.
The IB communication also asks the departments of telecom
and IT to expedite the creation of a national internet registry while
adding that this facility would be a major facilitator for creating the
technological platform to uniquely identify any person using the
internet in India.
Most nations have a national internet
registry that coordinates all IP address allocations and other internet
resource management functions at the national level.
The telecom
ministry is also of the view that the IB proposal can be examined and
implemented only after India's indigenously-built Centralised
Monitoring System (CMS), which can track all communication
traffic—wireless and fixed line, satellite, internet, e-mails and voice
over internet protocol (VoIP) calls—and gather intelligence inputs,
becomes functional.
The centralised system, modeled on similar
set-ups in several Western countries, aims to be a one-stop solution as
against the current practice of running several decentralised monitoring
agencies under various ministries, where each one has contrasting
processing systems, technology platforms and clearance levels. Planning
for CMS , which was aimed at strengthening the country's internal
security apparatus, began in 2007, but the project was put on a fast
track after the Mumbai attacks, when terrorists received orders via VoIP
(internet telephony).
Comment : This is a draconian attempt at playing big brother like in the US
where all privacy and personal rights are being sacrificed in the name of
war against terror .
This is nothing more than another attempt by the Government to
acquire greater control over our Lives for an ultimate dictatorship
Oppose it.
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6. Subramaniam Swami calls for Inquiry of Rahul Gandhi's Connection to
Posted by: "R. Singh" rsingh631@yahoo.com rsingh631
Date: Thu Dec 30, 2010 8:29 pm ((PST))
Bharat is in danger. Sonia is a foreign agent statiioned in India to destroy
Hinduism, charges Shri Ashok Shinghal. Dr. Subramaniam Swami alleges nexus
between Rahul Gandhi and Pakistan's spy agency ISI and calls for inquiry. This
is a dangerous situation.
Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy while addressing a press conference in
New Delhi on Sunday accused Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi of having
connections with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency. Swamy said
that CBI should investigate into this matter as it is a question of national
security. While commenting upon Rahul's Hindu terror remarks published in
WikiLeaks, he alleged that this may be one of the government's conspiracies to
divert attention from the core issue of Islamic militancy to Hindu radicalism.
Please watch the video:
http://www.indianexpress.com/videos/national/6/probe-rahul-for-isi-links-swamy/3832
Ashok Shingal has exposed the conspiracy of Antonio Maino and Rahul Khan. His
press statement needs serious attention.
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/india-news/ashok-singhal-accuses-sonia-gandhi-of-attempt-to-destroy-hindu-culture_100480860.html
Ashok Singhal accuses Sonia Gandhi of attempt to destroy Hindu cultureWednesday,
December 29, 2010 10:35:17 PM by ANI ( Leave a comment )
Pune, Dec 30 (ANI): Lashing out at Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Vishwa
Hindu Parishad (VHP) chief Ashok Singhal has alleged that she was destroying
Hinduism and that she was "deputed by the Vatican."
Speaking to reporters here on Wednesday, Singhal said: "She (Sonia Gandhi) wants
to destroy Indian religion, culture and traditions. We are opposing this, since
we will not let this happen. She realises that our strength is growing, and she
is scared of our power. That is why she is opposing us. We are not in any way
connected to extremism. Neither the VHP, nor the saints and RSS are involved in
any way to militancy."
He questioned Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's intelligence for his
criticism of the RSS and reported remarks that Hindu terror was a bigger threat
than LeT.
"He (Rahul Gandhi) has also come out to oppose us. He has said that the RSS is
more dangerous to India than the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). I feel he
does not have the knowledge of what LeT is and what the RSS is. He does not know
what to speak when and where, nor is he aware of his duties. I cannot understand
how such dim-witted people dream of becoming leaders of the country," said
Singhal.
"The RSS was an organisation of 'people of character'. The organisation has been
gaining a lot of strength. However, some people have been opposing it as they
know it would be a challenge to their existence," he added.
On the issue of Ram Mandir, he said it was a subject of self-respect for Hindus
across the globe.
"Over 85 per cent Muslims want peace. However, the remaining 15 per cent have
been dominant and involved in terrorist activities. They purposely attack
Hindus," he added.
According to media reports, Rahul Gandhi had told U.S. Ambassador to India,
Timothy Roemer in July last year that "the growth of radicalised Hindu groups"
may be a "bigger threat" to India than activities of some Islamic terror groups.
The comment, revealed on international whistleblower website WikiLeaks, prompted
a wave of protests across the political spectrum when the matter came to light.
(ANI) R. Singh
Messages in this topic (1)
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7. Not Cast in Stone/ Column in today's Daily Pioneer
Posted by: "R. Singh" rsingh631@yahoo.com rsingh631
Date: Thu Dec 30, 2010 10:59 pm ((PST))
I saw the following column in Daily Pioneer on thev HAF's study and report on
Caste-ism.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/306132/Not-cast-in-stone.html
I lot of controversy about HAF report "Not Cast in Caste" has been created by a
few individuals on yahoogroups. I don't understand why Hindus, residents of any
country or any person from any where, can't discuss the caste system. HAF is
an advocacy group for Hindu rights, and it has done a superb job of defending
Hindu causes.
In the past in various fora, HAF has confronted the charges of discrimination in
Hinduism due to caste-ism. In response to such misinformation campaign, HAF
undertook a comprehensive study of the caste system with the assistance of many
Hindu experts and saints.
HAF report correctly states that caste-ism is not authorized by Hinduism and
Hindu scriptures. Hinduism is capable of solving the problem of caste-ism.
However, the reform has been slow-going due to complex political and economic
conditions.
We are sure that the report will be revised with contributions from the
community and the experience. However, the unnecessary criticism is not helpful
to the cause of Hinduism
Please read the column by Ashok Malik in today's Daily Pioneer.
Dr. R. Singh
Not cast in stone
December 31, 2010 11:26:11 AM
Ashok Malik
There is nothing which says Hindus living in America or elsewhere in the world
don't have the right to comment on Hinduism in India
Earlier this month, the Hindu American Foundation published a report named
Hinduism: Not Cast in Caste. The subtitle — 'Seeking an end to caste-based
discrimination' — summed up HAF's overall objective. The report itself is a
short introduction to the history of caste, and the agencies and processes —
from British imperial administrators to modern democratic politics — that have
encouraged it. It catalogues cases of discrimination in contemporary India as
well as carries messages from religious leaders who describe caste hierarchies
as un-Hindu and a repudiation of the essential message of Hinduism: That
divinity rests in every person.
The report argues, as others have, that evil practices such as untouchability
were absent in the Vedas and clearly a "later development". Citing among others
BR Ambedkar, it suggests sections of post-Vedic texts, the Smritis, were written
by dominant elites who had "vested interests" in sustaining "a system of
birth-based discrimination and spiritual privileges". Its verdict is
categorical: "HAF decries these later additions and practices as morally
repugnant and unacceptable."
Hinduism: Not Cast in Caste is not an academic treatise, much less a definitive
compendium of the phenomenon of caste within Hindu, Indian or South Asian
society. It should be viewed as what it is: An advocacy document.
Not everybody has chosen to see the HAF report in such terms. Internet-based
Hindu polemicists have decried it and used language that borders on xenophobia.
HAF has been charged with encouraging the United States Congress to intervene in
India's domestic social and political structures. It has been accused of
Semitising Hinduism by giving primacy to some 'books' over others. Finally, some
have put forward the absurd claim that Hindus who have migrated and live in
countries outside India have no business commenting on caste, Hinduism and
social and religious practices of the 'matrabhumi'. This is not just bizarre, it
is dangerous nonsense.
The episode has thrown up two issues that require deeper analysis:
* What are HAF's motivations?
* What is the political/ideological relationship between a collective of
American Hindus, and Hindu activists in Indian public life?
HAF believes its caste report is timely and necessary to establish its
credentials as an interest group that plays fair and is not shy of facing up to
the not-so-admirable aspects of Hindu society. In the US as in Britain, the
caste issue has often — and exaggeratedly — been used as a stick to beat both
Hinduism and India. There have been attempts to equate caste with racial
discrimination and present untouchability as the equivalent of apartheid. While
the latter may have been true for specific periods in Indian history, racial
segregation was official policy in apartheid-era South Africa. In today's India
untouchability and caste discrimination are illegal. However, they remain social
distortions.
HAF finds it ironical that the caste debate in American academic and advocacy
circles — those that carry weight with individual members of Congress or with
the State Department — has been more or less appropriated by groups that
self-identify as non-Hindu, and that represent positions that may be Marxist or
actively hostile to India. It wants to intervene as a group that is sympathetic
to the basic tenets of Hinduism but can take a rational and clearheaded call on
its shortcomings, in practice or even in theory.
The debate HAF has walked into is set within the framework of Indian society but
is actually a discussion between different groups of Americans, all of which
have a different interpretation of the prominence of caste in contemporary
Hinduism and each of which, in its own way, seeks to influence Washington, DC,
and its policy towards New Delhi. Given this matrix, HAF's entry into the wider
discourse on caste should be welcomed rather than cussedly rejected.
That apart, the right and ability of an external institution — American Hindu or
American non-Hindu for that matter — to study and assess a social phenomenon
that is broadly limited to the territory of another nation cannot be denied. It
is an irreversible reality, a collateral consequence of globalisation. The
globalisation of causes and concerns, of protest and activism and, ultimately,
of soft power is a manifestation of global networking. It uses the same tools
and communication technologies as its business counterpart and it cannot be
wished away.
Does this make HAF a US-based auxiliary of the Hindu politico-social Right in
India? It would be hazardous to arrive at that easy and lazy conclusion. There
will be times when the two will seem to move in parallel. For instance, each
year HAF publishes Hindus in South Asia and the Diaspora: A Survey of Human
Rights, recording prejudice against Hindus by state and non-state actors in,
among other places, Bangladesh and the Kashmir Valley.
Yet, there will also be occasion when the two entities — the domestic Hindu and
diaspora Hindu — will look at an issue very differently. HAF is a religious and
ethnic minority interest group in a multi-cultural nation. Its leadership and
the locus of its work are embedded in American society. Much of its endeavour
will carry little resonance with somebody residing in India.
Take the Ten Commandments controversy. Some years ago, the chief justice of the
Alabama Supreme Court ordered the installation, within the court complex, of a
sculpture depicting the Ten Commandments. His point was the Ten Commandments,
along with texts such as the Declaration of Independence, comprised a moral and
philosophical source of American law.
Left-liberal intellectuals and segments of religious minorities contested this.
They contended the display of a religious symbol violated the separation of
church and state and disputed the Christian foundations of American nationhood,
implicit in the Alabama chief justice's decision. HAF participated in this
process, campaigning against the placing of the Ten Commandments "in public
schools, courthouses, and other public buildings".
To the Hindu Right in India, this controversy made little sense. If anything,
there would have been sympathy for the Alabama judge's position. The original
copy of the Constitution of India carries Hindu religious iconography. If a
religious minority in India asks for this to be removed, the Hindu Right would
respond with an argument not dissimilar to that of the Alabama chief justice.
Rather than get entrapped in such conundrums, Hindu activists in India should
not grudge HAF its intellectual space. As for the caste issue, a serious
discussion is certainly needed within the Hindu Right. Pointing fingers at HAF
won't change that.
-- malikashok@gmail.com
________________________________
Email | Print | Rate: 12345
________________________________
Post Comment
COMMENTS BOARD ::
________________________________
Hindus and caste system
By Kumarpushp on 12/29/2010 5:45:35 PM
I think hindus has problem with caste system because they donot know how caste
system came into India but 160 million dalits are sure that they are not
hindus.once 160 million dalits will get educated and become Ambedkerised then
caste system will disappear from earth.Recently in mitchigan University ,all
intellectuals from south Africa and India gathered and discuss about Gandhi and
taken decision to remove the statue of gandhi from university campus.Hindus must
know that you people can not mak
Caste Structure in India
By Krish on 12/28/2010 4:28:42 PM
Untouchability is surely an abhorrent practice. But the rigid caste system has
had its positives according to some commentators. I can say with personal
knowledge, for I spent first 16 years of my life in a village in Haryana, that
apart from the shudras, each caste definitely has a sense of pride in itself.
Though they have social dealings with each other, even participating in the
marriage and other celebrations, but inter-caste marriages were not allowed, nor
sharing of things like the Hukkah
Right on Hindism and not India
By Gautham on 12/26/2010 6:54:23 PM
The author has rightly pointed out that any Hindu organization has a right to
openly discuss the vedas, irrespective of the country it belongs to.
However, the question is not about HAF speaking about Hinduism but about "Caste
System in India". Every right thiinking Hindu has to resist attempts by foreign
organizations to interpret India through their version of Hindu history.
They are free to interpret Hinduism, but not to interpret Hindu history in
India!
Right Hindus
By Jitendra Desai on 12/25/2010 7:59:59 PM
Hindu Right is actively involved in educating Hindus to grow beyond their castes
and acquire a pan Hindu identity. Very large segment of Hindu middle class has
become a near casteless Hindu. Serious discussion is needed among Indian Left
that has sided with castists political formations to defeat so called communal
forces.
only GOD knows in which world you are living in, reality is different
By abhishek rai on 12/25/2010 3:50:08 PM
even you seems to be suffering from the same prejudices which is a stereotype in
india. except for some tv channel sponsered events hardly anybody can see caste
system being practiced in a way that many wishes to be practiced so that they
can launch the crusade against it and earn their bread and butter by foreign
funding most probably sponsered by church. today's reality is that the brahmins
are the most weakened group of people.
Not cast in stone
December 31, 2010 11:26:11 AM
Ashok Malik
There is nothing which says Hindus living in America or elsewhere in the world
don't have the right to comment on Hinduism in India
Earlier this month, the Hindu American Foundation published a report named
Hinduism: Not Cast in Caste. The subtitle — 'Seeking an end to caste-based
discrimination' — summed up HAF's overall objective. The report itself is a
short introduction to the history of caste, and the agencies and processes —
from British imperial administrators to modern democratic politics — that have
encouraged it. It catalogues cases of discrimination in contemporary India as
well as carries messages from religious leaders who describe caste hierarchies
as un-Hindu and a repudiation of the essential message of Hinduism: That
divinity rests in every person.
The report argues, as others have, that evil practices such as untouchability
were absent in the Vedas and clearly a "later development". Citing among others
BR Ambedkar, it suggests sections of post-Vedic texts, the Smritis, were written
by dominant elites who had "vested interests" in sustaining "a system of
birth-based discrimination and spiritual privileges". Its verdict is
categorical: "HAF decries these later additions and practices as morally
repugnant and unacceptable."
Hinduism: Not Cast in Caste is not an academic treatise, much less a definitive
compendium of the phenomenon of caste within Hindu, Indian or South Asian
society. It should be viewed as what it is: An advocacy document.
Not everybody has chosen to see the HAF report in such terms. Internet-based
Hindu polemicists have decried it and used language that borders on xenophobia.
HAF has been charged with encouraging the United States Congress to intervene in
India's domestic social and political structures. It has been accused of
Semitising Hinduism by giving primacy to some 'books' over others. Finally, some
have put forward the absurd claim that Hindus who have migrated and live in
countries outside India have no business commenting on caste, Hinduism and
social and religious practices of the 'matrabhumi'. This is not just bizarre, it
is dangerous nonsense.
The episode has thrown up two issues that require deeper analysis:
* What are HAF's motivations?
* What is the political/ideological relationship between a collective of
American Hindus, and Hindu activists in Indian public life?
HAF believes its caste report is timely and necessary to establish its
credentials as an interest group that plays fair and is not shy of facing up to
the not-so-admirable aspects of Hindu society. In the US as in Britain, the
caste issue has often — and exaggeratedly — been used as a stick to beat both
Hinduism and India. There have been attempts to equate caste with racial
discrimination and present untouchability as the equivalent of apartheid. While
the latter may have been true for specific periods in Indian history, racial
segregation was official policy in apartheid-era South Africa. In today's India
untouchability and caste discrimination are illegal. However, they remain social
distortions.
HAF finds it ironical that the caste debate in American academic and advocacy
circles — those that carry weight with individual members of Congress or with
the State Department — has been more or less appropriated by groups that
self-identify as non-Hindu, and that represent positions that may be Marxist or
actively hostile to India. It wants to intervene as a group that is sympathetic
to the basic tenets of Hinduism but can take a rational and clearheaded call on
its shortcomings, in practice or even in theory.
The debate HAF has walked into is set within the framework of Indian society but
is actually a discussion between different groups of Americans, all of which
have a different interpretation of the prominence of caste in contemporary
Hinduism and each of which, in its own way, seeks to influence Washington, DC,
and its policy towards New Delhi. Given this matrix, HAF's entry into the wider
discourse on caste should be welcomed rather than cussedly rejected.
That apart, the right and ability of an external institution — American Hindu or
American non-Hindu for that matter — to study and assess a social phenomenon
that is broadly limited to the territory of another nation cannot be denied. It
is an irreversible reality, a collateral consequence of globalisation. The
globalisation of causes and concerns, of protest and activism and, ultimately,
of soft power is a manifestation of global networking. It uses the same tools
and communication technologies as its business counterpart and it cannot be
wished away.
Does this make HAF a US-based auxiliary of the Hindu politico-social Right in
India? It would be hazardous to arrive at that easy and lazy conclusion. There
will be times when the two will seem to move in parallel. For instance, each
year HAF publishes Hindus in South Asia and the Diaspora: A Survey of Human
Rights, recording prejudice against Hindus by state and non-state actors in,
among other places, Bangladesh and the Kashmir Valley.
Yet, there will also be occasion when the two entities — the domestic Hindu and
diaspora Hindu — will look at an issue very differently. HAF is a religious and
ethnic minority interest group in a multi-cultural nation. Its leadership and
the locus of its work are embedded in American society. Much of its endeavour
will carry little resonance with somebody residing in India.
Take the Ten Commandments controversy. Some years ago, the chief justice of the
Alabama Supreme Court ordered the installation, within the court complex, of a
sculpture depicting the Ten Commandments. His point was the Ten Commandments,
along with texts such as the Declaration of Independence, comprised a moral and
philosophical source of American law.
Left-liberal intellectuals and segments of religious minorities contested this.
They contended the display of a religious symbol violated the separation of
church and state and disputed the Christian foundations of American nationhood,
implicit in the Alabama chief justice's decision. HAF participated in this
process, campaigning against the placing of the Ten Commandments "in public
schools, courthouses, and other public buildings".
To the Hindu Right in India, this controversy made little sense. If anything,
there would have been sympathy for the Alabama judge's position. The original
copy of the Constitution of India carries Hindu religious iconography. If a
religious minority in India asks for this to be removed, the Hindu Right would
respond with an argument not dissimilar to that of the Alabama chief justice.
Rather than get entrapped in such conundrums, Hindu activists in India should
not grudge HAF its intellectual space. As for the caste issue, a serious
discussion is certainly needed within the Hindu Right. Pointing fingers at HAF
won't change that.
-- malikashok@gmail.com
________________________________
Email | Print | Rate: 12345
________________________________
Post Comment
COMMENTS BOARD ::
________________________________
Hindus and caste system
By Kumarpushp on 12/29/2010 5:45:35 PM
I think hindus has problem with caste system because they donot know how caste
system came into India but 160 million dalits are sure that they are not
hindus.once 160 million dalits will get educated and become Ambedkerised then
caste system will disappear from earth.Recently in mitchigan University ,all
intellectuals from south Africa and India gathered and discuss about Gandhi and
taken decision to remove the statue of gandhi from university campus.Hindus must
know that you people can not mak
Caste Structure in India
By Krish on 12/28/2010 4:28:42 PM
Untouchability is surely an abhorrent practice. But the rigid caste system has
had its positives according to some commentators. I can say with personal
knowledge, for I spent first 16 years of my life in a village in Haryana, that
apart from the shudras, each caste definitely has a sense of pride in itself.
Though they have social dealings with each other, even participating in the
marriage and other celebrations, but inter-caste marriages were not allowed, nor
sharing of things like the Hukkah
Right on Hindism and not India
By Gautham on 12/26/2010 6:54:23 PM
The author has rightly pointed out that any Hindu organization has a right to
openly discuss the vedas, irrespective of the country it belongs to.
However, the question is not about HAF speaking about Hinduism but about "Caste
System in India". Every right thiinking Hindu has to resist attempts by foreign
organizations to interpret India through their version of Hindu history.
They are free to interpret Hinduism, but not to interpret Hindu history in
India!
Right Hindus
By Jitendra Desai on 12/25/2010 7:59:59 PM
Hindu Right is actively involved in educating Hindus to grow beyond their castes
and acquire a pan Hindu identity. Very large segment of Hindu middle class has
become a near casteless Hindu. Serious discussion is needed among Indian Left
that has sided with castists political formations to defeat so called communal
forces.
only GOD knows in which world you are living in, reality is different
By abhishek rai on 12/25/2010 3:50:08 PM
even you seems to be suffering from the same prejudices which is a stereotype in
india. except for some tv channel sponsered events hardly anybody can see caste
system being practiced in a way that many wishes to be practiced so that they
can launch the crusade against it and earn their bread and butter by foreign
funding most probably sponsered by church. today's reality is that the brahmins
are the most weakened group of people.
Not cast in stone
December 31, 2010 11:26:11 AM
Ashok Malik
There is nothing which says Hindus living in America or elsewhere in the world
don't have the right to comment on Hinduism in India
Earlier this month, the Hindu American Foundation published a report named
Hinduism: Not Cast in Caste. The subtitle — 'Seeking an end to caste-based
discrimination' — summed up HAF's overall objective. The report itself is a
short introduction to the history of caste, and the agencies and processes —
from British imperial administrators to modern democratic politics — that have
encouraged it. It catalogues cases of discrimination in contemporary India as
well as carries messages from religious leaders who describe caste hierarchies
as un-Hindu and a repudiation of the essential message of Hinduism: That
divinity rests in every person.
The report argues, as others have, that evil practices such as untouchability
were absent in the Vedas and clearly a "later development". Citing among others
BR Ambedkar, it suggests sections of post-Vedic texts, the Smritis, were written
by dominant elites who had "vested interests" in sustaining "a system of
birth-based discrimination and spiritual privileges". Its verdict is
categorical: "HAF decries these later additions and practices as morally
repugnant and unacceptable."
Hinduism: Not Cast in Caste is not an academic treatise, much less a definitive
compendium of the phenomenon of caste within Hindu, Indian or South Asian
society. It should be viewed as what it is: An advocacy document.
Not everybody has chosen to see the HAF report in such terms. Internet-based
Hindu polemicists have decried it and used language that borders on xenophobia.
HAF has been charged with encouraging the United States Congress to intervene in
India's domestic social and political structures. It has been accused of
Semitising Hinduism by giving primacy to some 'books' over others. Finally, some
have put forward the absurd claim that Hindus who have migrated and live in
countries outside India have no business commenting on caste, Hinduism and
social and religious practices of the 'matrabhumi'. This is not just bizarre, it
is dangerous nonsense.
The episode has thrown up two issues that require deeper analysis:
* What are HAF's motivations?
* What is the political/ideological relationship between a collective of
American Hindus, and Hindu activists in Indian public life?
HAF believes its caste report is timely and necessary to establish its
credentials as an interest group that plays fair and is not shy of facing up to
the not-so-admirable aspects of Hindu society. In the US as in Britain, the
caste issue has often — and exaggeratedly — been used as a stick to beat both
Hinduism and India. There have been attempts to equate caste with racial
discrimination and present untouchability as the equivalent of apartheid. While
the latter may have been true for specific periods in Indian history, racial
segregation was official policy in apartheid-era South Africa. In today's India
untouchability and caste discrimination are illegal. However, they remain social
distortions.
HAF finds it ironical that the caste debate in American academic and advocacy
circles — those that carry weight with individual members of Congress or with
the State Department — has been more or less appropriated by groups that
self-identify as non-Hindu, and that represent positions that may be Marxist or
actively hostile to India. It wants to intervene as a group that is sympathetic
to the basic tenets of Hinduism but can take a rational and clearheaded call on
its shortcomings, in practice or even in theory.
The debate HAF has walked into is set within the framework of Indian society but
is actually a discussion between different groups of Americans, all of which
have a different interpretation of the prominence of caste in contemporary
Hinduism and each of which, in its own way, seeks to influence Washington, DC,
and its policy towards New Delhi. Given this matrix, HAF's entry into the wider
discourse on caste should be welcomed rather than cussedly rejected.
That apart, the right and ability of an external institution — American Hindu or
American non-Hindu for that matter — to study and assess a social phenomenon
that is broadly limited to the territory of another nation cannot be denied. It
is an irreversible reality, a collateral consequence of globalisation. The
globalisation of causes and concerns, of protest and activism and, ultimately,
of soft power is a manifestation of global networking. It uses the same tools
and communication technologies as its business counterpart and it cannot be
wished away.
Does this make HAF a US-based auxiliary of the Hindu politico-social Right in
India? It would be hazardous to arrive at that easy and lazy conclusion. There
will be times when the two will seem to move in parallel. For instance, each
year HAF publishes Hindus in South Asia and the Diaspora: A Survey of Human
Rights, recording prejudice against Hindus by state and non-state actors in,
among other places, Bangladesh and the Kashmir Valley.
Yet, there will also be occasion when the two entities — the domestic Hindu and
diaspora Hindu — will look at an issue very differently. HAF is a religious and
ethnic minority interest group in a multi-cultural nation. Its leadership and
the locus of its work are embedded in American society. Much of its endeavour
will carry little resonance with somebody residing in India.
Take the Ten Commandments controversy. Some years ago, the chief justice of the
Alabama Supreme Court ordered the installation, within the court complex, of a
sculpture depicting the Ten Commandments. His point was the Ten Commandments,
along with texts such as the Declaration of Independence, comprised a moral and
philosophical source of American law.
Left-liberal intellectuals and segments of religious minorities contested this.
They contended the display of a religious symbol violated the separation of
church and state and disputed the Christian foundations of American nationhood,
implicit in the Alabama chief justice's decision. HAF participated in this
process, campaigning against the placing of the Ten Commandments "in public
schools, courthouses, and other public buildings".
To the Hindu Right in India, this controversy made little sense. If anything,
there would have been sympathy for the Alabama judge's position. The original
copy of the Constitution of India carries Hindu religious iconography. If a
religious minority in India asks for this to be removed, the Hindu Right would
respond with an argument not dissimilar to that of the Alabama chief justice.
Rather than get entrapped in such conundrums, Hindu activists in India should
not grudge HAF its intellectual space. As for the caste issue, a serious
discussion is certainly needed within the Hindu Right. Pointing fingers at HAF
won't change that.
-- malikashok@gmail.com
________________________________
Email | Print | Rate: 12345
________________________________
Post Comment
COMMENTS BOARD ::
________________________________
Hindus and caste system
By Kumarpushp on 12/29/2010 5:45:35 PM
I think hindus has problem with caste system because they donot know how caste
system came into India but 160 million dalits are sure that they are not
hindus.once 160 million dalits will get educated and become Ambedkerised then
caste system will disappear from earth.Recently in mitchigan University ,all
intellectuals from south Africa and India gathered and discuss about Gandhi and
taken decision to remove the statue of gandhi from university campus.Hindus must
know that you people can not mak
Caste Structure in India
By Krish on 12/28/2010 4:28:42 PM
Untouchability is surely an abhorrent practice. But the rigid caste system has
had its positives according to some commentators. I can say with personal
knowledge, for I spent first 16 years of my life in a village in Haryana, that
apart from the shudras, each caste definitely has a sense of pride in itself.
Though they have social dealings with each other, even participating in the
marriage and other celebrations, but inter-caste marriages were not allowed, nor
sharing of things like the Hukkah
Right on Hindism and not India
By Gautham on 12/26/2010 6:54:23 PM
The author has rightly pointed out that any Hindu organization has a right to
openly discuss the vedas, irrespective of the country it belongs to.
However, the question is not about HAF speaking about Hinduism but about "Caste
System in India". Every right thiinking Hindu has to resist attempts by foreign
organizations to interpret India through their version of Hindu history.
They are free to interpret Hinduism, but not to interpret Hindu history in
India!
Right Hindus
By Jitendra Desai on 12/25/2010 7:59:59 PM
Hindu Right is actively involved in educating Hindus to grow beyond their castes
and acquire a pan Hindu identity. Very large segment of Hindu middle class has
become a near casteless Hindu. Serious discussion is needed among Indian Left
that has sided with castists political formations to defeat so called communal
forces.
only GOD knows in which world you are living in, reality is different
By abhishek rai on 12/25/2010 3:50:08 PM
even you seems to be suffering from the same prejudices which is a stereotype in
india. except for some tv channel sponsered events hardly anybody can see caste
system being practiced in a way that many wishes to be practiced so that they
can launch the crusade against it and earn their bread and butter by foreign
funding most probably sponsered by church. today's reality is that the brahmins
are the most weakened group of people.
DAILY PIONEER
Not cast in stone
December 31, 2010 11:26:11 AM
Ashok Malik
There is nothing which says Hindus living in America or elsewhere in the world
don't have the right to comment on Hinduism in India
Earlier this month, the Hindu American Foundation published a report named
Hinduism: Not Cast in Caste. The subtitle — 'Seeking an end to caste-based
discrimination' — summed up HAF's overall objective. The report itself is a
short introduction to the history of caste, and the agencies and processes —
from British imperial administrators to modern democratic politics — that have
encouraged it. It catalogues cases of discrimination in contemporary India as
well as carries messages from religious leaders who describe caste hierarchies
as un-Hindu and a repudiation of the essential message of Hinduism: That
divinity rests in every person.
The report argues, as others have, that evil practices such as untouchability
were absent in the Vedas and clearly a "later development". Citing among others
BR Ambedkar, it suggests sections of post-Vedic texts, the Smritis, were written
by dominant elites who had "vested interests" in sustaining "a system of
birth-based discrimination and spiritual privileges". Its verdict is
categorical: "HAF decries these later additions and practices as morally
repugnant and unacceptable."
Hinduism: Not Cast in Caste is not an academic treatise, much less a definitive
compendium of the phenomenon of caste within Hindu, Indian or South Asian
society. It should be viewed as what it is: An advocacy document.
Not everybody has chosen to see the HAF report in such terms. Internet-based
Hindu polemicists have decried it and used language that borders on xenophobia.
HAF has been charged with encouraging the United States Congress to intervene in
India's domestic social and political structures. It has been accused of
Semitising Hinduism by giving primacy to some 'books' over others. Finally, some
have put forward the absurd claim that Hindus who have migrated and live in
countries outside India have no business commenting on caste, Hinduism and
social and religious practices of the 'matrabhumi'. This is not just bizarre, it
is dangerous nonsense.
The episode has thrown up two issues that require deeper analysis:
* What are HAF's motivations?
* What is the political/ideological relationship between a collective of
American Hindus, and Hindu activists in Indian public life?
HAF believes its caste report is timely and necessary to establish its
credentials as an interest group that plays fair and is not shy of facing up to
the not-so-admirable aspects of Hindu society. In the US as in Britain, the
caste issue has often — and exaggeratedly — been used as a stick to beat both
Hinduism and India. There have been attempts to equate caste with racial
discrimination and present untouchability as the equivalent of apartheid. While
the latter may have been true for specific periods in Indian history, racial
segregation was official policy in apartheid-era South Africa. In today's India
untouchability and caste discrimination are illegal. However, they remain social
distortions.
HAF finds it ironical that the caste debate in American academic and advocacy
circles — those that carry weight with individual members of Congress or with
the State Department — has been more or less appropriated by groups that
self-identify as non-Hindu, and that represent positions that may be Marxist or
actively hostile to India. It wants to intervene as a group that is sympathetic
to the basic tenets of Hinduism but can take a rational and clearheaded call on
its shortcomings, in practice or even in theory.
The debate HAF has walked into is set within the framework of Indian society but
is actually a discussion between different groups of Americans, all of which
have a different interpretation of the prominence of caste in contemporary
Hinduism and each of which, in its own way, seeks to influence Washington, DC,
and its policy towards New Delhi. Given this matrix, HAF's entry into the wider
discourse on caste should be welcomed rather than cussedly rejected.
That apart, the right and ability of an external institution — American Hindu or
American non-Hindu for that matter — to study and assess a social phenomenon
that is broadly limited to the territory of another nation cannot be denied. It
is an irreversible reality, a collateral consequence of globalisation. The
globalisation of causes and concerns, of protest and activism and, ultimately,
of soft power is a manifestation of global networking. It uses the same tools
and communication technologies as its business counterpart and it cannot be
wished away.
Does this make HAF a US-based auxiliary of the Hindu politico-social Right in
India? It would be hazardous to arrive at that easy and lazy conclusion. There
will be times when the two will seem to move in parallel. For instance, each
year HAF publishes Hindus in South Asia and the Diaspora: A Survey of Human
Rights, recording prejudice against Hindus by state and non-state actors in,
among other places, Bangladesh and the Kashmir Valley.
Yet, there will also be occasion when the two entities — the domestic Hindu and
diaspora Hindu — will look at an issue very differently. HAF is a religious and
ethnic minority interest group in a multi-cultural nation. Its leadership and
the locus of its work are embedded in American society. Much of its endeavour
will carry little resonance with somebody residing in India.
Take the Ten Commandments controversy. Some years ago, the chief justice of the
Alabama Supreme Court ordered the installation, within the court complex, of a
sculpture depicting the Ten Commandments. His point was the Ten Commandments,
along with texts such as the Declaration of Independence, comprised a moral and
philosophical source of American law.
Left-liberal intellectuals and segments of religious minorities contested this.
They contended the display of a religious symbol violated the separation of
church and state and disputed the Christian foundations of American nationhood,
implicit in the Alabama chief justice's decision. HAF participated in this
process, campaigning against the placing of the Ten Commandments "in public
schools, courthouses, and other public buildings".
To the Hindu Right in India, this controversy made little sense. If anything,
there would have been sympathy for the Alabama judge's position. The original
copy of the Constitution of India carries Hindu religious iconography. If a
religious minority in India asks for this to be removed, the Hindu Right would
respond with an argument not dissimilar to that of the Alabama chief justice.
Rather than get entrapped in such conundrums, Hindu activists in India should
not grudge HAF its intellectual space. As for the caste issue, a serious
discussion is certainly needed within the Hindu Right. Pointing fingers at HAF
won't change that.
-- malikashok@gmail.com
________________________________
Email | Print | Rate: 12345
________________________________
Post Comment
COMMENTS BOARD ::
________________________________
Hindus and caste system
By Kumarpushp on 12/29/2010 5:45:35 PM
I think hindus has problem with caste system because they donot know how caste
system came into India but 160 million dalits are sure that they are not
hindus.once 160 million dalits will get educated and become Ambedkerised then
caste system will disappear from earth.Recently in mitchigan University ,all
intellectuals from south Africa and India gathered and discuss about Gandhi and
taken decision to remove the statue of gandhi from university campus.Hindus must
know that you people can not mak
Caste Structure in India
By Krish on 12/28/2010 4:28:42 PM
Untouchability is surely an abhorrent practice. But the rigid caste system has
had its positives according to some commentators. I can say with personal
knowledge, for I spent first 16 years of my life in a village in Haryana, that
apart from the shudras, each caste definitely has a sense of pride in itself.
Though they have social dealings with each other, even participating in the
marriage and other celebrations, but inter-caste marriages were not allowed, nor
sharing of things like the Hukkah
Right on Hindism and not India
By Gautham on 12/26/2010 6:54:23 PM
The author has rightly pointed out that any Hindu organization has a right to
openly discuss the vedas, irrespective of the country it belongs to.
However, the question is not about HAF speaking about Hinduism but about "Caste
System in India". Every right thiinking Hindu has to resist attempts by foreign
organizations to interpret India through their version of Hindu history.
They are free to interpret Hinduism, but not to interpret Hindu history in
India!
Right Hindus
By Jitendra Desai on 12/25/2010 7:59:59 PM
Hindu Right is actively involved in educating Hindus to grow beyond their castes
and acquire a pan Hindu identity. Very large segment of Hindu middle class has
become a near casteless Hindu. Serious discussion is needed among Indian Left
that has sided with castists political formations to defeat so called communal
forces.
only GOD knows in which world you are living in, reality is different
By abhishek rai on 12/25/2010 3:50:08 PM
even you seems to be suffering from the same prejudices which is a stereotype in
india. except for some tv channel sponsered events hardly anybody can see caste
system being practiced in a way that many wishes to be practiced so that they
can launch the crusade against it and earn their bread and butter by foreign
funding most probably sponsered by church. today's reality is that the brahmins
are the most weakened group of people.
Not cast in stone
December 31, 2010 11:26:11 AM
Ashok Malik
There is nothing which says Hindus living in America or elsewhere in the world
don't have the right to comment on Hinduism in India
Earlier this month, the Hindu American Foundation published a report named
Hinduism: Not Cast in Caste. The subtitle — 'Seeking an end to caste-based
discrimination' — summed up HAF's overall objective. The report itself is a
short introduction to the history of caste, and the agencies and processes —
from British imperial administrators to modern democratic politics — that have
encouraged it. It catalogues cases of discrimination in contemporary India as
well as carries messages from religious leaders who describe caste hierarchies
as un-Hindu and a repudiation of the essential message of Hinduism: That
divinity rests in every person.
The report argues, as others have, that evil practices such as untouchability
were absent in the Vedas and clearly a "later development". Citing among others
BR Ambedkar, it suggests sections of post-Vedic texts, the Smritis, were written
by dominant elites who had "vested interests" in sustaining "a system of
birth-based discrimination and spiritual privileges". Its verdict is
categorical: "HAF decries these later additions and practices as morally
repugnant and unacceptable."
Hinduism: Not Cast in Caste is not an academic treatise, much less a definitive
compendium of the phenomenon of caste within Hindu, Indian or South Asian
society. It should be viewed as what it is: An advocacy document.
Not everybody has chosen to see the HAF report in such terms. Internet-based
Hindu polemicists have decried it and used language that borders on xenophobia.
HAF has been charged with encouraging the United States Congress to intervene in
India's domestic social and political structures. It has been accused of
Semitising Hinduism by giving primacy to some 'books' over others. Finally, some
have put forward the absurd claim that Hindus who have migrated and live in
countries outside India have no business commenting on caste, Hinduism and
social and religious practices of the 'matrabhumi'. This is not just bizarre, it
is dangerous nonsense.
The episode has thrown up two issues that require deeper analysis:
* What are HAF's motivations?
* What is the political/ideological relationship between a collective of
American Hindus, and Hindu activists in Indian public life?
HAF believes its caste report is timely and necessary to establish its
credentials as an interest group that plays fair and is not shy of facing up to
the not-so-admirable aspects of Hindu society. In the US as in Britain, the
caste issue has often — and exaggeratedly — been used as a stick to beat both
Hinduism and India. There have been attempts to equate caste with racial
discrimination and present untouchability as the equivalent of apartheid. While
the latter may have been true for specific periods in Indian history, racial
segregation was official policy in apartheid-era South Africa. In today's India
untouchability and caste discrimination are illegal. However, they remain social
distortions.
HAF finds it ironical that the caste debate in American academic and advocacy
circles — those that carry weight with individual members of Congress or with
the State Department — has been more or less appropriated by groups that
self-identify as non-Hindu, and that represent positions that may be Marxist or
actively hostile to India. It wants to intervene as a group that is sympathetic
to the basic tenets of Hinduism but can take a rational and clearheaded call on
its shortcomings, in practice or even in theory.
The debate HAF has walked into is set within the framework of Indian society but
is actually a discussion between different groups of Americans, all of which
have a different interpretation of the prominence of caste in contemporary
Hinduism and each of which, in its own way, seeks to influence Washington, DC,
and its policy towards New Delhi. Given this matrix, HAF's entry into the wider
discourse on caste should be welcomed rather than cussedly rejected.
That apart, the right and ability of an external institution — American Hindu or
American non-Hindu for that matter — to study and assess a social phenomenon
that is broadly limited to the territory of another nation cannot be denied. It
is an irreversible reality, a collateral consequence of globalisation. The
globalisation of causes and concerns, of protest and activism and, ultimately,
of soft power is a manifestation of global networking. It uses the same tools
and communication technologies as its business counterpart and it cannot be
wished away.
Does this make HAF a US-based auxiliary of the Hindu politico-social Right in
India? It would be hazardous to arrive at that easy and lazy conclusion. There
will be times when the two will seem to move in parallel. For instance, each
year HAF publishes Hindus in South Asia and the Diaspora: A Survey of Human
Rights, recording prejudice against Hindus by state and non-state actors in,
among other places, Bangladesh and the Kashmir Valley.
Yet, there will also be occasion when the two entities — the domestic Hindu and
diaspora Hindu — will look at an issue very differently. HAF is a religious and
ethnic minority interest group in a multi-cultural nation. Its leadership and
the locus of its work are embedded in American society. Much of its endeavour
will carry little resonance with somebody residing in India.
Take the Ten Commandments controversy. Some years ago, the chief justice of the
Alabama Supreme Court ordered the installation, within the court complex, of a
sculpture depicting the Ten Commandments. His point was the Ten Commandments,
along with texts such as the Declaration of Independence, comprised a moral and
philosophical source of American law.
Left-liberal intellectuals and segments of religious minorities contested this.
They contended the display of a religious symbol violated the separation of
church and state and disputed the Christian foundations of American nationhood,
implicit in the Alabama chief justice's decision. HAF participated in this
process, campaigning against the placing of the Ten Commandments "in public
schools, courthouses, and other public buildings".
To the Hindu Right in India, this controversy made little sense. If anything,
there would have been sympathy for the Alabama judge's position. The original
copy of the Constitution of India carries Hindu religious iconography. If a
religious minority in India asks for this to be removed, the Hindu Right would
respond with an argument not dissimilar to that of the Alabama chief justice.
Rather than get entrapped in such conundrums, Hindu activists in India should
not grudge HAF its intellectual space. As for the caste issue, a serious
discussion is certainly needed within the Hindu Right. Pointing fingers at HAF
won't change that.
-- malikashok@gmail.com
________________________________
Email | Print | Rate: 12345
________________________________
Post Comment
COMMENTS BOARD ::
________________________________
Hindus and caste system
By Kumarpushp on 12/29/2010 5:45:35 PM
I think hindus has problem with caste system because they donot know how caste
system came into India but 160 million dalits are sure that they are not
hindus.once 160 million dalits will get educated and become Ambedkerised then
caste system will disappear from earth.Recently in mitchigan University ,all
intellectuals from south Africa and India gathered and discuss about Gandhi and
taken decision to remove the statue of gandhi from university campus.Hindus must
know that you people can not mak
Caste Structure in India
By Krish on 12/28/2010 4:28:42 PM
Untouchability is surely an abhorrent practice. But the rigid caste system has
had its positives according to some commentators. I can say with personal
knowledge, for I spent first 16 years of my life in a village in Haryana, that
apart from the shudras, each caste definitely has a sense of pride in itself.
Though they have social dealings with each other, even participating in the
marriage and other celebrations, but inter-caste marriages were not allowed, nor
sharing of things like the Hukkah
Right on Hindism and not India
By Gautham on 12/26/2010 6:54:23 PM
The author has rightly pointed out that any Hindu organization has a right to
openly discuss the vedas, irrespective of the country it belongs to.
However, the question is not about HAF speaking about Hinduism but about "Caste
System in India". Every right thiinking Hindu has to resist attempts by foreign
organizations to interpret India through their version of Hindu history.
They are free to interpret Hinduism, but not to interpret Hindu history in
India!
Right Hindus
By Jitendra Desai on 12/25/2010 7:59:59 PM
Hindu Right is actively involved in educating Hindus to grow beyond their castes
and acquire a pan Hindu identity. Very large segment of Hindu middle class has
become a near casteless Hindu. Serious discussion is needed among Indian Left
that has sided with castists political formations to defeat so called communal
forces.
only GOD knows in which world you are living in, reality is different
By abhishek rai on 12/25/2010 3:50:08 PM
even you seems to be suffering from the same prejudices which is a stereotype in
india. except for some tv channel sponsered events hardly anybody can see caste
system being practiced in a way that many wishes to be practiced so that they
can launch the crusade against it and earn their bread and butter by foreign
funding most probably sponsered by church. today's reality is that the brahmins
are the most weakened group of people.
Not cast in stone
December 31, 2010 11:26:11 AM
Ashok Malik
There is nothing which says Hindus living in America or elsewhere in the world
don't have the right to comment on Hinduism in India
Earlier this month, the Hindu American Foundation published a report named
Hinduism: Not Cast in Caste. The subtitle — 'Seeking an end to caste-based
discrimination' — summed up HAF's overall objective. The report itself is a
short introduction to the history of caste, and the agencies and processes —
from British imperial administrators to modern democratic politics — that have
encouraged it. It catalogues cases of discrimination in contemporary India as
well as carries messages from religious leaders who describe caste hierarchies
as un-Hindu and a repudiation of the essential message of Hinduism: That
divinity rests in every person.
The report argues, as others have, that evil practices such as untouchability
were absent in the Vedas and clearly a "later development". Citing among others
BR Ambedkar, it suggests sections of post-Vedic texts, the Smritis, were written
by dominant elites who had "vested interests" in sustaining "a system of
birth-based discrimination and spiritual privileges". Its verdict is
categorical: "HAF decries these later additions and practices as morally
repugnant and unacceptable."
Hinduism: Not Cast in Caste is not an academic treatise, much less a definitive
compendium of the phenomenon of caste within Hindu, Indian or South Asian
society. It should be viewed as what it is: An advocacy document.
Not everybody has chosen to see the HAF report in such terms. Internet-based
Hindu polemicists have decried it and used language that borders on xenophobia.
HAF has been charged with encouraging the United States Congress to intervene in
India's domestic social and political structures. It has been accused of
Semitising Hinduism by giving primacy to some 'books' over others. Finally, some
have put forward the absurd claim that Hindus who have migrated and live in
countries outside India have no business commenting on caste, Hinduism and
social and religious practices of the 'matrabhumi'. This is not just bizarre, it
is dangerous nonsense.
The episode has thrown up two issues that require deeper analysis:
* What are HAF's motivations?
* What is the political/ideological relationship between a collective of
American Hindus, and Hindu activists in Indian public life?
HAF believes its caste report is timely and necessary to establish its
credentials as an interest group that plays fair and is not shy of facing up to
the not-so-admirable aspects of Hindu society. In the US as in Britain, the
caste issue has often — and exaggeratedly — been used as a stick to beat both
Hinduism and India. There have been attempts to equate caste with racial
discrimination and present untouchability as the equivalent of apartheid. While
the latter may have been true for specific periods in Indian history, racial
segregation was official policy in apartheid-era South Africa. In today's India
untouchability and caste discrimination are illegal. However, they remain social
distortions.
HAF finds it ironical that the caste debate in American academic and advocacy
circles — those that carry weight with individual members of Congress or with
the State Department — has been more or less appropriated by groups that
self-identify as non-Hindu, and that represent positions that may be Marxist or
actively hostile to India. It wants to intervene as a group that is sympathetic
to the basic tenets of Hinduism but can take a rational and clearheaded call on
its shortcomings, in practice or even in theory.
The debate HAF has walked into is set within the framework of Indian society but
is actually a discussion between different groups of Americans, all of which
have a different interpretation of the prominence of caste in contemporary
Hinduism and each of which, in its own way, seeks to influence Washington, DC,
and its policy towards New Delhi. Given this matrix, HAF's entry into the wider
discourse on caste should be welcomed rather than cussedly rejected.
That apart, the right and ability of an external institution — American Hindu or
American non-Hindu for that matter — to study and assess a social phenomenon
that is broadly limited to the territory of another nation cannot be denied. It
is an irreversible reality, a collateral consequence of globalisation. The
globalisation of causes and concerns, of protest and activism and, ultimately,
of soft power is a manifestation of global networking. It uses the same tools
and communication technologies as its business counterpart and it cannot be
wished away.
Does this make HAF a US-based auxiliary of the Hindu politico-social Right in
India? It would be hazardous to arrive at that easy and lazy conclusion. There
will be times when the two will seem to move in parallel. For instance, each
year HAF publishes Hindus in South Asia and the Diaspora: A Survey of Human
Rights, recording prejudice against Hindus by state and non-state actors in,
among other places, Bangladesh and the Kashmir Valley.
Yet, there will also be occasion when the two entities — the domestic Hindu and
diaspora Hindu — will look at an issue very differently. HAF is a religious and
ethnic minority interest group in a multi-cultural nation. Its leadership and
the locus of its work are embedded in American society. Much of its endeavour
will carry little resonance with somebody residing in India.
Take the Ten Commandments controversy. Some years ago, the chief justice of the
Alabama Supreme Court ordered the installation, within the court complex, of a
sculpture depicting the Ten Commandments. His point was the Ten Commandments,
along with texts such as the Declaration of Independence, comprised a moral and
philosophical source of American law.
Left-liberal intellectuals and segments of religious minorities contested this.
They contended the display of a religious symbol violated the separation of
church and state and disputed the Christian foundations of American nationhood,
implicit in the Alabama chief justice's decision. HAF participated in this
process, campaigning against the placing of the Ten Commandments "in public
schools, courthouses, and other public buildings".
To the Hindu Right in India, this controversy made little sense. If anything,
there would have been sympathy for the Alabama judge's position. The original
copy of the Constitution of India carries Hindu religious iconography. If a
religious minority in India asks for this to be removed, the Hindu Right would
respond with an argument not dissimilar to that of the Alabama chief justice.
Rather than get entrapped in such conundrums, Hindu activists in India should
not grudge HAF its intellectual space. As for the caste issue, a serious
discussion is certainly needed within the Hindu Right. Pointing fingers at HAF
won't change that.
-- malikashok@gmail.com
________________________________
Email | Print | Rate: 12345
________________________________
Post Comment
COMMENTS BOARD ::
________________________________
Hindus and caste system
By Kumarpushp on 12/29/2010 5:45:35 PM
I think hindus has problem with caste system because they donot know how caste
system came into India but 160 million dalits are sure that they are not
hindus.once 160 million dalits will get educated and become Ambedkerised then
caste system will disappear from earth.Recently in mitchigan University ,all
intellectuals from south Africa and India gathered and discuss about Gandhi and
taken decision to remove the statue of gandhi from university campus.Hindus must
know that you people can not mak
Caste Structure in India
By Krish on 12/28/2010 4:28:42 PM
Untouchability is surely an abhorrent practice. But the rigid caste system has
had its positives according to some commentators. I can say with personal
knowledge, for I spent first 16 years of my life in a village in Haryana, that
apart from the shudras, each caste definitely has a sense of pride in itself.
Though they have social dealings with each other, even participating in the
marriage and other celebrations, but inter-caste marriages were not allowed, nor
sharing of things like the Hukkah
Right on Hindism and not India
By Gautham on 12/26/2010 6:54:23 PM
The author has rightly pointed out that any Hindu organization has a right to
openly discuss the vedas, irrespective of the country it belongs to.
However, the question is not about HAF speaking about Hinduism but about "Caste
System in India". Every right thiinking Hindu has to resist attempts by foreign
organizations to interpret India through their version of Hindu history.
They are free to interpret Hinduism, but not to interpret Hindu history in
India!
Right Hindus
By Jitendra Desai on 12/25/2010 7:59:59 PM
Hindu Right is actively involved in educating Hindus to grow beyond their castes
and acquire a pan Hindu identity. Very large segment of Hindu middle class has
become a near casteless Hindu. Serious discussion is needed among Indian Left
that has sided with castists political formations to defeat so called communal
forces.
only GOD knows in which world you are living in, reality is different
By abhishek rai on 12/25/2010 3:50:08 PM
even you seems to be suffering from the same prejudices which is a stereotype in
india. except for some tv channel sponsered events hardly anybody can see caste
system being practiced in a way that many wishes to be practiced so that they
can launch the crusade against it and earn their bread and butter by foreign
funding most probably sponsered by church. today's reality is that the brahmins
are the most weakened group of people.
Not cast in stone
December 31, 2010 11:26:11 AM
Ashok Malik
There is nothing which says Hindus living in America or elsewhere in the world
don't have the right to comment on Hinduism in India
Earlier this month, the Hindu American Foundation published a report named
Hinduism: Not Cast in Caste. The subtitle — 'Seeking an end to caste-based
discrimination' — summed up HAF's overall objective. The report itself is a
short introduction to the history of caste, and the agencies and processes —
from British imperial administrators to modern democratic politics — that have
encouraged it. It catalogues cases of discrimination in contemporary India as
well as carries messages from religious leaders who describe caste hierarchies
as un-Hindu and a repudiation of the essential message of Hinduism: That
divinity rests in every person.
The report argues, as others have, that evil practices such as untouchability
were absent in the Vedas and clearly a "later development". Citing among others
BR Ambedkar, it suggests sections of post-Vedic texts, the Smritis, were written
by dominant elites who had "vested interests" in sustaining "a system of
birth-based discrimination and spiritual privileges". Its verdict is
categorical: "HAF decries these later additions and practices as morally
repugnant and unacceptable."
Hinduism: Not Cast in Caste is not an academic treatise, much less a definitive
compendium of the phenomenon of caste within Hindu, Indian or South Asian
society. It should be viewed as what it is: An advocacy document.
Not everybody has chosen to see the HAF report in such terms. Internet-based
Hindu polemicists have decried it and used language that borders on xenophobia.
HAF has been charged with encouraging the United States Congress to intervene in
India's domestic social and political structures. It has been accused of
Semitising Hinduism by giving primacy to some 'books' over others. Finally, some
have put forward the absurd claim that Hindus who have migrated and live in
countries outside India have no business commenting on caste, Hinduism and
social and religious practices of the 'matrabhumi'. This is not just bizarre, it
is dangerous nonsense.
The episode has thrown up two issues that require deeper analysis:
* What are HAF's motivations?
* What is the political/ideological relationship between a collective of
American Hindus, and Hindu activists in Indian public life?
HAF believes its caste report is timely and necessary to establish its
credentials as an interest group that plays fair and is not shy of facing up to
the not-so-admirable aspects of Hindu society. In the US as in Britain, the
caste issue has often — and exaggeratedly — been used as a stick to beat both
Hinduism and India. There have been attempts to equate caste with racial
discrimination and present untouchability as the equivalent of apartheid. While
the latter may have been true for specific periods in Indian history, racial
segregation was official policy in apartheid-era South Africa. In today's India
untouchability and caste discrimination are illegal. However, they remain social
distortions.
HAF finds it ironical that the caste debate in American academic and advocacy
circles — those that carry weight with individual members of Congress or with
the State Department — has been more or less appropriated by groups that
self-identify as non-Hindu, and that represent positions that may be Marxist or
actively hostile to India. It wants to intervene as a group that is sympathetic
to the basic tenets of Hinduism but can take a rational and clearheaded call on
its shortcomings, in practice or even in theory.
The debate HAF has walked into is set within the framework of Indian society but
is actually a discussion between different groups of Americans, all of which
have a different interpretation of the prominence of caste in contemporary
Hinduism and each of which, in its own way, seeks to influence Washington, DC,
and its policy towards New Delhi. Given this matrix, HAF's entry into the wider
discourse on caste should be welcomed rather than cussedly rejected.
That apart, the right and ability of an external institution — American Hindu or
American non-Hindu for that matter — to study and assess a social phenomenon
that is broadly limited to the territory of another nation cannot be denied. It
is an irreversible reality, a collateral consequence of globalisation. The
globalisation of causes and concerns, of protest and activism and, ultimately,
of soft power is a manifestation of global networking. It uses the same tools
and communication technologies as its business counterpart and it cannot be
wished away.
Does this make HAF a US-based auxiliary of the Hindu politico-social Right in
India? It would be hazardous to arrive at that easy and lazy conclusion. There
will be times when the two will seem to move in parallel. For instance, each
year HAF publishes Hindus in South Asia and the Diaspora: A Survey of Human
Rights, recording prejudice against Hindus by state and non-state actors in,
among other places, Bangladesh and the Kashmir Valley.
Yet, there will also be occasion when the two entities — the domestic Hindu and
diaspora Hindu — will look at an issue very differently. HAF is a religious and
ethnic minority interest group in a multi-cultural nation. Its leadership and
the locus of its work are embedded in American society. Much of its endeavour
will carry little resonance with somebody residing in India.
Take the Ten Commandments controversy. Some years ago, the chief justice of the
Alabama Supreme Court ordered the installation, within the court complex, of a
sculpture depicting the Ten Commandments. His point was the Ten Commandments,
along with texts such as the Declaration of Independence, comprised a moral and
philosophical source of American law.
Left-liberal intellectuals and segments of religious minorities contested this.
They contended the display of a religious symbol violated the separation of
church and state and disputed the Christian foundations of American nationhood,
implicit in the Alabama chief justice's decision. HAF participated in this
process, campaigning against the placing of the Ten Commandments "in public
schools, courthouses, and other public buildings".
To the Hindu Right in India, this controversy made little sense. If anything,
there would have been sympathy for the Alabama judge's position. The original
copy of the Constitution of India carries Hindu religious iconography. If a
religious minority in India asks for this to be removed, the Hindu Right would
respond with an argument not dissimilar to that of the Alabama chief justice.
Rather than get entrapped in such conundrums, Hindu activists in India should
not grudge HAF its intellectual space. As for the caste issue, a serious
discussion is certainly needed within the Hindu Right. Pointing fingers at HAF
won't change that.
-- malikashok@gmail.com
* Post Comment
COMMENTS BOARD ::
________________________________
Hindus and caste system
By Kumarpushp on 12/29/2010 5:45:35 PM
I think hindus has problem with caste system because they donot know how caste
system came into India but 160 million dalits are sure that they are not
hindus.once 160 million dalits will get educated and become Ambedkerised then
caste system will disappear from earth.Recently in mitchigan University ,all
intellectuals from south Africa and India gathered and discuss about Gandhi and
taken decision to remove the statue of gandhi from university campus.Hindus must
know that you people can not mak
Caste Structure in India
By Krish on 12/28/2010 4:28:42 PM
Untouchability is surely an abhorrent practice. But the rigid caste system has
had its positives according to some commentators. I can say with personal
knowledge, for I spent first 16 years of my life in a village in Haryana, that
apart from the shudras, each caste definitely has a sense of pride in itself.
Though they have social dealings with each other, even participating in the
marriage and other celebrations, but inter-caste marriages were not allowed, nor
sharing of things like the Hukkah
Right on Hindism and not India
By Gautham on 12/26/2010 6:54:23 PM
The author has rightly pointed out that any Hindu organization has a right to
openly discuss the vedas, irrespective of the country it belongs to.
However, the question is not about HAF speaking about Hinduism but about "Caste
System in India". Every right thiinking Hindu has to resist attempts by foreign
organizations to interpret India through their version of Hindu history.
They are free to interpret Hinduism, but not to interpret Hindu history in
India!
Right Hindus
By Jitendra Desai on 12/25/2010 7:59:59 PM
Hindu Right is actively involved in educating Hindus to grow beyond their castes
and acquire a pan Hindu identity. Very large segment of Hindu middle class has
become a near casteless Hindu. Serious discussion is needed among Indian Left
that has sided with castists political formations to defeat so called communal
forces.
only GOD knows in which world you are living in, reality is different
By abhishek rai on 12/25/2010 3:50:08 PM
even you seems to be suffering from the same prejudices which is a stereotype in
india. except for some tv channel sponsered events hardly anybody can see caste
system being practiced in a way that many wishes to be practiced so that they
can launch the crusade against it and earn their bread and butter by foreign
funding most probably sponsered by church. today's reality is that the brahmins
are the most weakened group of people.
Post Comment
COMMENTS BOARD ::
________________________________
Hindus and caste system
By Kumarpushp on 12/29/2010 5:45:35 PM
I think hindus has problem with caste system because they donot know how caste
system came into India but 160 million dalits are sure that they are not
hindus.once 160 million dalits will get educated and become Ambedkerised then
caste system will disappear from earth.Recently in mitchigan University ,all
intellectuals from south Africa and India gathered and discuss about Gandhi and
taken decision to remove the statue of gandhi from university campus.Hindus must
know that you people can not mak
Caste Structure in India
By Krish on 12/28/2010 4:28:42 PM
Untouchability is surely an abhorrent practice. But the rigid caste system has
had its positives according to some commentators. I can say with personal
knowledge, for I spent first 16 years of my life in a village in Haryana, that
apart from the shudras, each caste definitely has a sense of pride in itself.
Though they have social dealings with each other, even participating in the
marriage and other celebrations, but inter-caste marriages were not allowed, nor
sharing of things like the Hukkah
Right on Hindism and not India
By Gautham on 12/26/2010 6:54:23 PM
The author has rightly pointed out that any Hindu organization has a right to
openly discuss the vedas, irrespective of the country it belongs to.
However, the question is not about HAF speaking about Hinduism but about "Caste
System in India". Every right thiinking Hindu has to resist attempts by foreign
organizations to interpret India through their version of Hindu history.
They are free to interpret Hinduism, but not to interpret Hindu history in
India!
Right Hindus
By Jitendra Desai on 12/25/2010 7:59:59 PM
Hindu Right is actively involved in educating Hindus to grow beyond their castes
and acquire a pan Hindu identity. Very large segment of Hindu middle class has
become a near casteless Hindu. Serious discussion is needed among Indian Left
that has sided with castists political formations to defeat so called communal
forces.
only GOD knows in which world you are living in, reality is different
By abhishek rai on 12/25/2010 3:50:08 PM
even you seems to be suffering from the same prejudices which is a stereotype in
india. except for some tv channel sponsered events hardly anybody can see caste
system being practiced in a way that many wishes to be practiced so that they
can launch the crusade against it and earn their bread and butter by foreign
funding most probably sponsered by church. today's reality is that the brahmins
are the most weakened group of people.
Messages in this topic (1)
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8. Fw: [AWARE] Intelligence Bureau wants ISPs to log all customer detai
Posted by: "Urvi Sukul Singh" usukulsingh@hotmail.com usukulsingh
Date: Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:24 pm ((PST))
From: प्रिय रंजन Priya Ranjan
Sent: Friday, December 31, 2010 9:12 AM
To: dev-aware
Subject: [AWARE] Intelligence Bureau wants ISPs to log all customer details.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rahul <bruntno1@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 1:31 AM
Subject: [humanrightsactivist] Intelligence Bureau wants ISPs to log all customer details.
To: Rahul <bruntno1@yahoo.com>
Good day Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Its Thursday, December 30th, 2010
NEW DELHI: The Intelligence Bureau wants internet service providers, or ISPs, to keep a record of all online activities of customers for a minimum of six months, a move that can add to operational costs for companies and pose privacy concerns.
IB, in a communication to the department of telecom, or DoT , has sought that addresses of websites visited with date and time and financial transactions of all customers be stored by internet operators for six months.
If implemented, it may pose a threat to online privacy as internet service providers such as Bharti Airtel , Reliance Communications , BSNL and MTNL will now become custodians of citizens' online records.
Currently, mobile phone companies and internet service providers do not keep online logs that track the web usage pattern of their customers. They selectively monitor online activities of only those customers as required by intelligence and security agencies, explained an executive with a telecom company.
"At present, we only keep a log of all our customers' Internet Protocol address, which is the digital address of a customer's internet connection. We are not aware of the IB proposal, but such a move will pose huge logistical challenge for ISPs and increase costs," said Rajesh Chharia, president of the Internet Service Providers' Association of India.
The Intelligence Bureau communication to DoT, which was reviewed by ET, says its demands are in line with the security and monitoring provisions that already exist for mobile and landline calls. Mobile phone companies are mandated to maintain call logs for all their customers for a minimum of six months.
It added that both internet and mobile telephony permits contain several clauses that state companies offering access to the world wide web are obliged to provide tracking facilities to authorised government officials, including the police, Customs, excise and intelligence department when such information is required to detect crimes, or in the interest of national security.
But, the telecom ministry, in an internal note, is of the view that the inter-ministerial group currently looking into monitoring of internet services and networks in the country must take a final call on this issue.
In a related development, IB has asked the telecom and IT departments to work with mobile phone companies and the National Informatics Centre to put in place a system that can uniquely identify any person using the internet across the country.
The project aims to develop a technology platform where users will have to mandatorily submit some form of an online identification or password to access the internet every time they go online, irrespective of the service provider.
NIC is involved in active promotion and implementation of information and communication technology (ICT) solutions in the government and spearheads the centre's e-governance drive.
The IB communication also asks the departments of telecom and IT to expedite the creation of a national internet registry while adding that this facility would be a major facilitator for creating the technological platform to uniquely identify any person using the internet in India.
Most nations have a national internet registry that coordinates all IP address allocations and other internet resource management functions at the national level.
The telecom ministry is also of the view that the IB proposal can be examined and implemented only after India's indigenously-built Centralised Monitoring System (CMS), which can track all communication traffic—wireless and fixed line, satellite, internet, e-mails and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) calls—and gather intelligence inputs, becomes functional.
The centralised system, modeled on similar set-ups in several Western countries, aims to be a one-stop solution as against the current practice of running several decentralised monitoring agencies under various ministries, where each one has contrasting processing systems, technology platforms and clearance levels. Planning for CMS , which was aimed at strengthening the country's internal security apparatus, began in 2007, but the project was put on a fast track after the Mumbai attacks, when terrorists received orders via VoIP (internet telephony).
Comment : This is a draconian attempt at playing big brother like in the US
where all privacy and personal rights are being sacrificed in the name of
war against terror .
This is nothing more than another attempt by the Government to
acquire greater control over our Lives for an ultimate dictatorship
Oppose it.
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but His Retirement plan isoutofthisworld.
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With best wishes,
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Priya Ranjan, Practicing Ph.D. in Internet Technologies
Official Internet Wanderer
दिलदार वेताल ऑफ़ इंद्रजाल :)
A riot is at bottom, the language of the unheard. Martin Luther King, Jr.
All history points to India as the mother of science and art,This country was anciently so renowned for knowledge and wisdom that the philosophers of Greece did not disdain to travel thither for their improvement.-William Macintosh
India had the start of the whole world in the beginning of things. She had the first civilization; she had the first accumulation of material wealth; she was populous with deep thinkers and subtle intellects; she had mines, and woods, and a fruitful soul.-Mark Twain (American playwrite)
How to defrog India and how to depig the US? More ideas welcome :)
Corruption is practical implementation of theoretical ideals :)
."If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions, I should point to India."- Mark Twain
To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to leave the world a better place, to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded. ( Ralph Waldo Emerson)
My challenge for India is to get rid of its chattering class-lovingly called chatterati:)Too many intellectuals and no work is our tragedy:)
Prof. Mohan Bhagat@UMD ate up all the money raised for adivasis :) He also wanted everyone else to move to Narmada valley. When I asked him if he is moving himself sucker says-"Do you think I am perfect?". Its time to teach him some perfection and value of making promises rather than just eating up public money. Let me know if you want to help me :)
So much for Delhi Univ. Ph.D. and putting glazed stickers of Mohandas Cowardchand Gandhi. Both Mohans turned out to be equally coward :) History does repeat itself.
All the fraud intellectuals are moving to Narmada valley :) News of the day :) Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi will lead the procession :)
"He who labors diligently need never despair, for all things are accomplished by diligence and labor." -Menander
Britain owes India 521,000,000,000,000 pounds :)
US owes the world $13,462,000,000,000 :)
"It dose not occur to Balfour to let the Egyptian speak for himself, since presumably any Egyptian who would speak out is more likely to be the "agitator [who] wishes to raise difficulties"
la vie est trop courte pour s'ennuyer :)
The sewer is the conscience of the city.
Victor Hugo, Les Miserables, 1862
For Jharkhand's social activities-http://jharkhand-achara.org/
Al-Cuhal has drowned more men than sea :)
यद्यपि सुवर्णमयी लक्ष्मण लंका मयि ना रोचते
जननी जन्मभूमिश्च स्वर्गादपि गरीयसी
मौन से विस्फोट होता है
Equality maximizes creativity, hierarchy maximizes control...make a choice..
पुरुष का निर्माण यदि पुरुष करे तो वह त्रासक होता है और पुरुष का निर्माण यदि नारी करे तो लड़ाई में वह हार जाता है. समस्या प्रेम की हो अथवा युद्ध की, कठिनाइयाँ सर्वत्र समान हैं!
-दिनकर, उर्वशी से.
Hypocrisy is the act of persistently professing beliefs, opinions, virtues, feelings, qualities, or standards that are inconsistent with one's actions. Hypocrisy is thus a kind of lie.
Put your fav hypocrisy pronounced hypocracy (in India) at hypocracy.in .
*************************************************
We need a theory of BOREDOM-NeuroScientist, Psychologists?!
We also could use a theory of HAPPENING i.e. how and why things happen-Emergent behavior folks??
One Billion overfed and one billion underfed
What we need is a nutrition bridge...
A government is like core of an electric motor, its torque is welfare of its people.
Communicate! It can't make things any worse.
-From Fortune on LINUX
सर्वे गुणाः कांचनं आश्रयन्ति-भर्तृहरि
All the qualities take shelter at gold.
-Bhartrihari
A Russian saying translated in english is correlated-When money talks, the truth is silent.
Visit www.jkmonitor.org www.ijaal.org, www.ijaal.in.
-Priya Ranjan
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