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Archaeologists find Hindu temple under Indian mosque rubble
(AFP, August 25, 2003)
Indian archaeologists have
found a medieval Hindu temple under the remains of an Islamic shrine that was
razed by Hindus in 1992 sparking deadly nationwide riots, a report unveiled
in court showed.
Muslim leaders immediately vowed to challenge the study, which described a 10th
century temple with Hindu carvings, that was found under the rubble of the Babri
mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya.
More than a decade ago thousands of Hindu zealots pulled down the 16th century
mosque saying it was built after a temple to their mythological warrior god
Ram was destroyed.
The act sparked off nationwide Hindu-Muslims riots that left 2,000 people dead
and became a key issue in the electoral campaign of the Hindu nationalist BJP
party, which now heads the coalition government.
The dispute over the site is now in the hands of the courts which ordered the
report by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
Monday's release of the sensitive document was followed almost immediately by
two car bomb blasts that killed at least 44 people and injured 100 in India's
financial capital Bombay. It was not known if there was any connection.
A summary of the report, released by the court, said there was "archaeological
evidence of a massive structure just below the disputed structure (the mosque)
and evidence of continuity in structural phases from the 10th century onwards
up to the construction of the disputed structure."
In the report, archaeologists said they found decorated bricks as well as a
"mutilated sculpture of a divine couple", a circular shrine with a
waterchute and 50 pillar bases with temple-style carvings including lotus motifs.
The lotus is a symbol associated with the Hindu religion, while waterchutes
are seen usually only in Hindu temples.
These were "indicative of remains which are distinctive features found
associated with the temples of the north," said the report.
ASI, a government body which cares for historical monuments, Friday handed over
the sealed report on its excavations to the Lucknow High Court, which Monday
held a closed-door hearing to study the findings.
Mohammad Shameem, one of the top lawyers representing the Muslims in the high-profile
case, told AFP that people should not jump to conclusions about the mosque being
positioned over a temple.
"Whatever structures have been found are located at least 150 feet (45
metres) away from the disputed site," Shameem told reporters after coming
out of the hearing.
"It would be wrong to jump to conclusions."
Meanwhile, Zafaryab Jilani, convenor of the All India Babri Masjid Action Committee,
a Muslim group that is a plaintiff in the case, said the ASI report was "vague
and self-contradictory and prepared under political pressure."
"We have sought a month's time to go through the report after which we
will file our objections," said Jilani, who also attended Monday's court
hearing.
The court said it would grant both parties six weeks to file their objections
to the findings of the ASI report.
ASI has declined to disclose the report's contents but others say it runs to
574 pages and contains substantial visual evidence.
The dig at India's most sensitive religious site began on March 12 and was supposed
to be finished in a month, but the court granted ASI several extensions.
Monkey god's incarnation earns his keep at massive Indian pilgrimage
(AFP, August 29, 2003)
For Ram Das
Gusain, who has a wife and two children to support, festivals are peak times
for business. He believes he is an incarnation of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman
-- and dresses and behaves accordingly.
Holy men seeking alms are frequenting the western Indian city of Nashik, which
is packed with millions of Hindus coming for a sacred bath in an event being
held here for the first time in more than 100 years.
Many pilgrims offer charity to the holy men, some naked, some with matted hair
and flowing beards, and others clad in yellow robes and carrying tridents.
For Gusain, the connection to the monkey god stretches into every aspect of
life. His diet consists mostly of bananas.
"I have more than 50 to 60 bananas every day. I have imbibed every trait
of god Hanuman," he said with a smile as pilgrims dropped coins into his
steel bowl.
Gusain paints his body orange and has a curling tail made of spiralling cloth
tied to his waist.
The death of 45 devotees here Tuesday in a stampede at the Kumbh Mela, or Nectar
Pot festival, during a sacred bathing ritual at a river has not shaken the 55-year-old
holy man.
"It is a question of time. When each person's time is up then he dies,"
Gusain said. "I am a believer who is still alive and have to take care
of my family and my stomach."
"I start my day by offering prayers to Hanuman," Gusain said. "Then
I apply orange colour mixed with oil all over my body and put on the crown.
I have taken this form because I believe in god."
Gusain greets every pilgrim by saying "Jai Ram," or "Long live
the god Ram," and earns about 600 rupees (13 dollars) a day.
"I am married and have two kids. This money will help sustain my family,"
he said.
As he works, his family spends time around the temples. At night they all sleep
on the street.
Gusain remains barefoot and walks about 15 kilometers (nine miles) daily.
"It is a long walk and I start everyday by about 10.00 am and end the day
at about 3.00 pm," Gusain said. "Wherever a major festival happens
in India I see to it that I spread the message of Hanuman and earn a living."
"I will be here (at the Kumbh Mela) for a week," he said. "I
visit all the famous temples in India during the festivals."
The six-week Kumbh Mela is held every three years, rotating among four areas
in India.
The bathing area at the Godavari river lies near the spot where the Hindu warrior
god Ram, accompanied by his wife Sita and brother Laxman, is reputed to have
spent his years in the jungles after being forced into exile by his father.
Devandas Maharaj came to Nashik from the Hindu kingdom of Nepal and said he
has toured all of India's major temples. He travels with a 20-member entourage
of holy men.
Financing his trip, he said, "is not much of a problem."
"I have never fallen short of money in any of the trips," Maharaj
said. "When short of money we travel by bus or walk," he said. "When
we are hungry we request a devotee to give some money."
Faithful Attend Indian Fests Despite Risks
by Neelesh Misra (AP, August 29, 2003)
Ever since
they were newlyweds decades ago, Moti Ram and his wife, Kashi Bai, dreamed of
bathing in a holy river during the Hindu Kumbh festival.
The elderly couple finally made it to the Kumbh — among the largest religious
gatherings in the world — only to find themselves swept up in a stampede
on Wednesday that killed 39 Hindu pilgrims.
Ram, 70, and his wife fell and would have been crushed if others had not pulled
them to the banks of the Godavari River. But they expressed no regrets.
"Outsiders may not understand this, but we Hindus come here from all over
the country because we want to seek our destiny and attain salvation,"
Bai, 65, said.
The couple and their 30-year-old son, Ram Phool Maina, who fractured his right
arm in the stampede, traveled hundreds of miles in a packed train to reach Nasik.
"We were too poor to come, but we always dreamed about it, because we wanted
to clean our sins and wash them away into the river," said Ram, a farmer
in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
Some 60 million people journeyed to Nasik, 110 miles northeast of Bombay, this
month, leaving behind their work, farms and shops to attend the Kumbh festival.
They come expecting inconveniences, such as sleeping in shanties and walking
for miles in the sun, often without food or water. They know they might get
separated from each other, hurt, or even killed in the festival. More than 750
people have been crushed or drowned at the event in the last two decades.
"We came here because it was destiny, and we survived because it was destiny,"
said Bai, wearing a brown printed sari as she visited her son in the city's
government hospital on Thursday.
About 125 people were injured in Wednesday's riverside chaos; most of the dead
were women who had been trampled.
Despite the potential heartache, the faithful still come.
"Many of those coming here are either poor people, or those who are anguished
because of personal problems. Clinging to religion is the last resort for them,"
said university professor Madan Thapliyal, currently visiting friends in Nasik.
He, too, went for a holy dip.
Although India has no state religion and a secular constitution, religious values
run deep. More than 80 percent of India's 1 billion people are Hindus.
The Kumbh Mela, literally meaning "festival of the water pitcher,"
is held every 12 years, timed in connection with the alignments of the sun and
Jupiter. The main festival is held near the northern holy city of Allahabad,
while the Nasik festival is one of the "mini-kumbhs" held more often.
The Kumbh Mela originates from an ancient Hindu myth revolving around a joint
effort by gods and demons to churn the oceans and attain immortality. The churning
brought about a pitcher of "amrit," or nectar — and the two sides
began squabbling over it.
In the melee, according to legend, the pitcher spilled and the four places where
it dropped on earth are those where Kumbh festivals are held.
Millions of devout — from villagers in turbans to Indian movie stars —
jostle and rush to the ghats, or riverside bathing areas. They chant mantras,
shed clothes and leap into the water. Those who can't swim stand waist deep,
scooping up water and pouring it over their heads in a centuries-old gesture.
They believe a dip will purify them — and are indifferent to the pollution
in India's rivers.
The childless want children; relatives seek good health for ailing kin; and
the elderly desire salvation from Hinduism's endless cycle of reincarnation.
Mark Twain, who visited the Kumbh festival in the 1890s, wrote: "The power
of faith like that can make multitudes of the old and the weak and the young
and the frail to enter without hesitation or complaint."
Non-Muslims persecuted in Bangladesh: Human Rights activist
(“PTI,” August 27, 2003)
Accusing
Bangladesh of persecuting the minorities, a prominent Human Rights activist
has said attacks on non-Muslims have increased since October 2001, when the
Bangladesh National Party came to power in a coalition with hardline Islamic
parties.
Director of Hotline Bangladesh, Rosaline Costa, a former nun, now visiting US,
told The Washington Times that Bangladesh is now a land of terror for many of
its Hindu, Buddhist and Christian citizens.
She told the paper that in the Bhola islands on the southern coast of the country,
98 per cent of Hindu women interviewed "had been raped by Muslim thugs."
Costa pointed out that before partition non-Muslims had made up 33 per cent
of the population. They now number only 9.9 per cent. Thousands of people have
fled to India, Japan and other countries, especially Britain.
The Washington Times points out that Amnesty International and the State Department
too have condemned the abuses in Bangladesh though the State Department says
that the Government "generally respected" religious freedom.
Costa, contradicting the State Department's stand, said that local police do
little or nothing to investigate the attacks.
Sitangshu Guha, a Hindu-American accompanying her in her tour, said Bangladesh
has become a breeding ground for militant Islam.
Friday afternoons, said Costa, who lives near one of the largest mosques
in Bangladesh, are the worst.
She alleged that angry Muslims, inflamed by mullahs at Friday services, pour
out of the mosque, looking for any available Christian, Hindu or Buddhist on
whom to vent their fury.
The situation, she said, was worse in the rural areas. There, Muslim mobs have
"ethnically cleansed" many areas of their non-Muslim inhabitants.
Hindus are the most affected, she said, because they traditionally have owned
the most land.
"Rape," said Costa, "is a most useful tool to evict a family.
Rape makes it impossible for a family to stay in the area," she said, explaining
that the female victims were frequently blamed for disgracing their families.
Animal sacrifice in temples banned
(The Hindu, August 28, 2003)
In another
initiative pleasing to animal rights activists, the Tamil Nadu Government today
banned animal and bird sacrifice in temples throughout the State.
This is the second time in three days the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, has
intervened in the interest of animals put to suffering in temples.
On Tuesday, she ordered that temple elephants be given a one-month holiday every
year.
The Chief Minister has now written to District Collectors, Superintendents of
Police and range Deputy Inspectors-General, asking them to prevent the killing
of animals in the name of propitiating gods. Stringent action should be taken
against violators, she told them.
Tracing the events which led to her intervention, an official release said about
500 buffaloes were sacrificed at a village temple near Tiruchi recently.
The event, which took place right in front of the Deputy Superintendent of Police,
who was in charge of the security of the area, was brought to the notice of
the Chief Minister, who ordered the Director-General of Police to place the
DSP under suspension.
In her letter to the district authorities, she pointed out that the Tamil Nadu
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1950, and its subsequent amendment, banned
the killing of animals and birds in temples and on their premises.
She told the authorities to advise and prevent people from indulging in such
cruel acts to seek the blessings of Gods. Offenders would have to be dealt with
sternly, she said.
In recent weeks, cow slaughter and animal rights became politicised following
a proposal to bring in a bill in Parliament to ban cow slaughter.
While Ms. Jayalalithaa expressed herself in favour of the Bill, the DMK president,
M. Karunanidhi, opposed the measure, saying it was discriminatory.
He said if it all a ban were to be imposed, it should cover all animals.
VHP to launch reconversion drive in Kerala
(Kerala News, August 28, 2003)
KOCHI: Encouraged by the
overwhelming response to its reconversion drive in some North Indian States,
the Vishwa Hindu Parishad is all set to attempt a similar movement in Kerala.
'Dharma Prasar,' a VHP outfit which spearheaded the drive in selected states,
will chalk out its Kerala strategies at its three-day national meet slated to
begin here on August 29.
A communiqué detailing the project has been sent to NSS, SNDP and Devaswom
Boards. Sources said the initial feedback from the Devaswom Board has been quite
encouraging.
Meanwhile, the Dharma Prasar has made elaborate groundwork in Kerala as a prelude
to its drive in line with the modus operandi of Christian missionaries.
Its "missionaries" have already begun their works in Idukki district,
one of the most potential areas identified by its research team.
According to Dr Puthezhathu Ramachandran, the VHP's national vice-president,
they have already deputed six missionaries in the interiors of Idukki who regularly
hold Sunday gatherings at Pampanar Sri Subramania Temple in Peermedu.
"We have also plans to open "Ekal Vidyalayas" in selected districts
in the State, in addition to launching several social service projects, including
opening of orphanages across the State," he said.
Maintaining that the movement was not aimed at reconversion but to facilitate
"home coming" of the "transgressed sect," Dr Ramachandran
said "there is a demand for self-preservation of the Hindu society from
the grassroots. The Kochi meet will prepare a blueprint of Kerala operations."
According to him, the Dharma Prasar's mission has proved a great success in
the Christian-dominated Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, and a few districts in Rajasthan.
The VHP has already opened its missionary training centre at Peermedu.
"Our idea is to train at least 10 missionaries every six months. We know
our mission requires large resources. But going by the initial response we feel
that funds would not be a constraint to carry out the agenda. Several religious
institutions, including all Devaswom Boards, have offered their total co-operation
to our historic venture," said another top VHP leader.
"Like any other State in India, a major section of Dalit Christians in
Kerala feels that it is being discriminated by the Church. The promises given
to it by the Churches have not been fulfilled. The Dalits feel cheated. The
Kochi meet will chalk out strategies that would enable them to embrace their
ancestral tradition," said Mohan Joshi, VHP's central secretary who is
here to attend the meet.
Over 100 top leaders of VHP from various states, including Acharya Giriraj Kishore,
R Vedantham, and Mohan Joshi will attend the three-day meet.
Religious Bias in India's Textbooks?
(“UPI,”
August 21, 2003)
Critics say government's religious agenda shows through in books' treatment
of beef-eating, caste, non-Hindus, history & more
A top Indian minister recently said the country's scientific community should
shed its skepticism and use astrology to predict earthquakes and other natural
disasters.
"It ... (is) scientific fundamentalism to dismiss warnings from Indian
astrologers," said Murli Manohar Joshi, India's Human Resources and Development
minister. He was inaugurating a workshop on "Predicting Earthquakes and
Calamities" in New Delhi. "Scientists with advanced computers sometimes
fail to predict major earthquakes," he said. "Ancient Indian astrology
does have the tools to roughly foretell the time and sometimes even the exact
date and time of an earthquake."
Last year, Joshi proposed that astrology be introduced in schools, and at least
one state government has begun offering the subject. The trend, critics say,
is an attempt by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to impose its Hindu nationalist
agenda on the country.
Last year, the Indian government made a series of changes to high school history
textbooks, prompting criticism from opponents who said the amendments reflected
the ruling BJP's pro-Hindu policies.
The BJP, however, denies this. The textbooks, it says, offended religious sentiment
and were written by left-leaning academics. The changes, it says, represent
a more nationalistic portrayal of events. It also labeled previous history texts
as having a Western bias.
Under the Constitution, India is a secular state and, like the United States,
endorses no one religion. The country, however, is overwhelmingly Hindu. The
Indian government's 2001 census, the most-recent data available, shows Hindus
make up 82 percent of the country's population; Muslims follow with 12.12 percent;
and Christians with 2.34 percent. The numbers--even relatively small percentages--are
significant because of India's population--1 billion people.
The country is ruled by the National Democratic Alliance -- a coalition of more
than two dozen parties, not all of them religion- oriented, that is headed by
the BJP. The BJP has ties to militant Hindu groups and some of its leaders have
been accused of crimes against religious minorities.
Human-rights groups have noted that militant Hindu groups have stepped up attacks
on minorities since the BJP took office at the federal level in 1998.
There have been sporadic attacks against Christian missionaries and the southern
state of Tamil Nadu, ruled by a BJP ally, passed a law that bans what it calls
"forced conversions." Religious riots in the western state of Gujarat
last year killed more than 1,000 people, the vast majority of them Muslim.
Critics--mostly left-leaning academics, the country's opposition parties and
non-governmental organizations--say the new religious agenda can be seen most
clearly in education.
Last year's changes in textbooks prescribed by the National Council for Educational
Research and Training, the federal-level body that controls education in thousands
of schools across the country, are a case in point.
References to beef eating, which is prohibited by Hinduism, and cattle sacrifices
were deleted. Also cut were a critical evaluation of ancient Hindu religious
texts and epics on the basis of archaeological and epigraphic testimony; the
opposition of Brahmans, the priestly class in the four-fold caste system, to
the Buddhist King Ashoka, who is regarded as one of India's greatest rulers;
and references to the exploitative aspects of the caste system. References to
the early life of the founder of the Jain religion were also removed
Details of the execution of Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur by Muslim rulers were deleted.
Another reference to the plundering by the Jat community rulers of the area
Bharatpur was also taken out.
The government officially said nothing. But NCERT on its Web site listed praise
from some of those communities that deemed the passages offensive.
NCERT said the passages offended the Sikhs, Jain and Jat sentiments. Hindus
were also offended, it says, by the references to cow sacrifice and beef eating,
and by the passages on archeological and epigraphic evidence.
The deletion of passages referring to Brahmin hostility and the caste system
were not explained.
The issue remains controversial but is unlikely to change. Last December, the
country's Supreme Court ruled that the changes were legitimate.
Criticism against the BJP and its education policy is not new. In the early
1990s, when the party first came into prominence and took over a number of state
governments, its history and social studies curriculum was condemned.
In the BJP-ruled Gujarat state, for instance, high school textbooks praised
Hindu culture to the detriment of others. The social studies textbook for the
ninth-grade equivalent class all but lauded the much-derided caste system. "The
Varna system was a precious gift of the Aryans to the mankind," it said,
referring to the four-tier caste hierarchy. " ... The importance of the
' Varna' system as an ideal system of building the social and economic structure
of a society cannot be overlooked."
The book was also not very flattering to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes, the term used to refer to the lowest tier of the caste system and the
so-called untouchables. In a section titled "Problems of Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes," the authors say: "Of course, their ignorance,
illiteracy and blind faith are to be blamed for lack of progress because they
fail to realize the importance of education in life."
Whether the book was biased is debatable, but the factual errors in it are not.
In its chapter, "Problems of the Country and Their Solutions," the
book has a subheading that reads "Minority Community." In it, Muslims,
Christians and Parsees -- members of a Zoroastrian sect -- are all labeled "foreigners."
" ... (A )part from the Muslims, even the Christians, Parsees and other
foreigners are also recognized as the minority communities," the book says.
"In most states, the Hindus are in a minority and Muslims, Christians and
Sikhs are in majority."
The last statement is incorrect because as per the 1991 census Hindus were the
majority by a substantial margin in 21 of 26 states.
In the 10th-grade equivalent history textbook, the issue of the Holocaust is
completely glossed over and Nazism is referred to with veiled admiration. "Hitler
lent dignity and prestige to the German government within a short time by establishing
a strong administrative set up ... He adopted the policy of opposition towards
the Jewish people," it says. " ... He adopted a new economic policy
and brought prosperity to Germany ... He made untiring efforts to make Germany
self-reliant within one decade ... He instilled the spirit of adventure in the
common people."
In the western state of Maharashtra, south of Gujarat, a college-level history
text refers to India's largest minority, the Muslims, thus: "The advent
of Islam might have been a boon to the Arabs who got united under its banner
... but it has been a curse for the people outside Arab world because wherever
the Islamic hordes went, they not only conquered the countries, but killed millions
of people and plundered their homes and places of worship and destroyed their
homes, places of worship and above all their artworks," it says. It adds:
"Why these atrocities? Because Islam teaches only atrocities." After
Indonesia, India has the second-largest Muslim population in the world. Despite
the criticism, the BJP is strong and is seen to have a reasonable chance to
retain power in the general election, dates for which are expected soon.
Whether the BJP wins, however, the fight over textbooks is likely to stay.
Muslim group boycotts Nanavati Commission
by Sukrat Desai ("Indo-Asian News Service," July 16, 2003)
The Nanavati Commission, probing last year's sectarian violence in Gujarat, started its hearings in Ahmedabad on Wednesday under a cloud of controversy with a prominent Muslim organization boycotting the proceedings.
"Our stand has been clear from the day Justice KG Shah was inducted into the commission. We knew that justice would elude us," chairperson of the Gujarat chapter of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Mohammed Safi Madni said.
The group, which has been involved in relief work, is currently engaged in helping rehabilitate the riot victims.
As the two-member commission began hearing depositions of the riot victims, there were others who expressed their lack of faith in it.
Senior High Court advocate Mohsin Quadri said it was a state government tool.
"The commission is the state government's tool to collect evidence in support of the perpetrators of the communal violence," Quadri alleged.
The two-member commission, headed by retired Justice GT Nanavati, has been entrusted with the task of investigating the causes of last year's riots, which killed at least 1,000 people.
The hearings in Ahmedabad, the last stop before the commission completes its investigation, are considered particularly crucial because the city accounted for about half of the killings.
In the first phase of the hearings until July 22, the commission will hear only
those from the predominantly Hindu neighbourhoods of western Ahmedabad.
It is only in the second phase, scheduled to begin from July 28, when the commission will investigate the killings in Naroda-Patia and Gulbarg Society -- 85 people were killed in Naroda-Patia and 39, including former Congress parliamentarian Ehsan Jafri, in Gulbarg Society in eastern Ahmedabad.
Thus, the riot victims of two of the most brutal incidents in last year's violence will have to wait before they get a chance to depose.
Human rights activists pointed out that only incidents of looting of Muslim property and minor skirmishes were reported from western Ahmedabad. The major incidents of violence occurred in the eastern Ahmedabad, which has a mixed population of Hindus and Muslims.
But controversy is not new for the commission.
Two months ago in May, Nanavati created a storm when he gave a clean chit to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. He said the government had no role to play in the communal violence and there was no clinching evidence available against it.
This was despite several rights groups and victims who said the state government had actively colluded with rightwing Hindu groups in the riots.
Following the widely criticized statement, the commission's hearing in Vadodara last month was boycotted by several NGOs and civil liberties groups.
The commission began its hearing last year from Godhra, from where the riots had sparked off after the killing of 59 train passengers.
The commission has so far held hearings in 22 of the 25 districts and received more than 4,000 representations from the riot victims narrating incidents of violence.
Narayanappa, a priest
at the Chowdeshwari Temple at Dasarighatta, took his daughter, Ambika (12), to
Tiptur on the last new moon day (June 29) on the pretext
of buying her textbooks.But the next day, he returned home without her.His wife,
Gowramma, who suspected foul play, lodged a police complaint about the missing
girl
after a week.
Police found the body
of Ambika at Galibande hillock about one km away from Madlehalli on Wednesday.
Her head was tonsured.There were signs of sacrificial
rites at the spot. Her plaited hair was also found at a distance.
The Deputy Superintendent of Police, L. Shivashankar, visited the spot. The priest is reported to be absconding.
Salman Khan, Bollywood's bad boy, has dropped plans
to play the role of the Hindu god Lord Rama after receiving threats allegedly
from Hindu hardliners, according to his personal friend Bunty Walia.
Khan, 37, who has been in the news for beating girlfriends and a fatal
hit-and-run controversy, announced earlier this year that he was to star as Lord
Rama in the big-budget Ramayana.
"He (Khan) as well as I have received a number of threats from certain people,
following which we have decided not to make the movie, at least for now," said
Walia.
The Asian Age newspaper reported that Khan, a Muslim, had received threats from
the Hindu right-wing group Bajrang Dal for taking the role.
The emergence of godmen like Baba Ashutosh and Piara Singh Bhaniara, the episode at Talhan, the distribution of trishuls and lathis were stagemanaged to erode Sikhism, which championed the cause of humanity, he said. He also held that the satellite channels responsible for diluting spiritual values. He attributed the present plight of Sikhism to the penchant for taking religious preachings casually.
The Punjab Social Welfare Minister, Mr
Joginder Singh Mann, while addressing the congregation, eulogised Guru
Hargobind as the author of the concept of saint-soldier. Sikhism stood for the
well-being of one and all, added Mr Mann. Both Jathedar Bhaur and Mr Mann were
honoured with siropas. Noted ‘Dhadi’ singers included Swaran Singh Maheru,
Jawala Singh Patanga, Jaswant Singh Josh and Ram Singh Raftar.
|
Burning the dead:
Ancient Hindu ritual poses
environmental crisis
(AP, July 14, 2003)
|
| Tears rolling down his face, Bachchan Singh
Bahadur poured cups of melted butter on the wood fire of his father's
funeral pyre on the outskirts of New Delhi. He was in keeping with a centuries-old Hindu funeral tradition, but it's also the stuff of ecological nightmares for the Indian government. |
The Pope cited “ample evidence” in the bishops’ reports that the Church’s missionary efforts in India were taking root. He noted numerous adult baptisms despite social obstacles faced especially by aspiring converts who are poor, the high percentage of Catholics who attend Sunday Mass, and increasing numbers of laity “properly participating” in the liturgy.
The issue of conversions is controversial in India, where right-wing Hindu organisations accuse Christians of seeking to convert Hindus by force. Six states have passed conversion laws, which Hindu groups say protect poor Indians against forced conversions and which Christians say are discriminatory and curtail religious freedom. Last month, the Pope expressed his concerns about India’s conversion laws, provoking a barrage of criticism from Hindu groups and a prominent politician.
At its annual gathering earlier this month, India’s most prominent right-wing Hindu group again accused the Pope of interfering in Indian affairs. The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), which has close ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which leads the country’s coalition adminstration, demanded that the central government “lodge a protest” with the Pope. It warned that India’s legacy of tolerance should not be construed as a licence to others “to infringe on our national ethos and disturb peace”. The issue dominated discussionsat the group’s two-day meeting in Kanyakumari, a town on India’s southernmost tip.
In Rome, Archbishop Ignatius Pinto of Bangalore told the Pope that many non-Christians in India “would love to come into the fold, but the fear of social ostracism, deprivation of hereditary rights and privileges and other similar benefits keep them from embracing Christianity”.
Christians account for two per cent of the overwhelmingly Hindu population
of India
It's not the physical attributes or medical history of sperm donors that worry many Indian couples opting for assisted reproduction.
Their main concern is religion, a report said yesterday.
Infertility specialists in the western city of Bombay said two in every 10 couples contemplating in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) insisted on knowing the religion of the donor, the Asian Age newspaper reported.
Gynaecologist Hrishikesh Pai said: "Recently a couple insisted the sperm be from a Catholic donor. After a lot of counselling, they agreed to a general donor. Muslims, too, are particular about the religion of the donor."
One couple from the Parsi community decided to remain childless after their request for a Parsi donor was turned down, the report said.
Another doctor, Nandita Palshetkar, said: "A Parsi man had a very low sperm count. He was adamant the donor be Parsi. We tried our best but they would not listen to us. The husband refused IVF for his wife, saying it was better not to have a baby."
Dr Pai said: "What is the religion of the sperm or egg? It's not possible to get donors of a particular caste or religion. Couples going for IVF must not be biased."
In one case, a Hindu vegetarian couple insisted the donor also be vegetarian, the report said.
