The meet … expressed its deep concern over the reported increase in Christian evangelical activities at Tirumala and Tirupati. The meet cited a High Court ruling which said "the rights of Tirumala-Tirupati vest with Lord Venkateswara himself and the trust board and the E.O. are only trustees of the property. None can take any measures violating the right.
Shedding light on the secretive talks, a Chinese government official said in May the Dalai Lama’s envoys raised the issue of Greater Tibet which China cannot accept.
Parts of the western Chinese provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan are home to large ethnic Tibetan populations and claimed by Tibetan exiles as part of Greater Tibet. But Beijing rejects the claim.
"It is easy for one to see the Dalai Lama’s ulterior motive: eventually seeking Tibetan independence," the commentary said.
Echoing Section 377 of India’s anachronistic penal code, which criminalizes homosexual activity, the Supreme Court of India proclaimed last year that homosexual relationships are "unnatural," and that Indian society is "not yet ready" to accept homosexuals on their own terms.
Now, a group in India is once again arguing in India’s courts that legalizing homosexuality will encourage the closeted homosexual community to seek treatment for HIV infection. Estimates indicate that 8 percent of India’s homosexuals are HIV positive (as compared to 1 percent of the general population), so I think they make a strong case for reducing the overall rate of HIV infection and AIDS.
I suspect that the great majority of middle-class Indians are not particularly averse to homosexuality, provided that gay couples carry on discreetly. A similar outlook can be found in the small towns of southern United States, where gay "roomates" are allowed to live together without excessive scutiny. The comedian Russell Peters often quips that a good family background would be important to Indian parents of same-sex partners.
Ruth Vanita has argued for a modern Hinduism comfortable with homosexuality. She notes:
The pre-modern, modern and post-modern exist simultaneously in India, so much so that those categories have very little explanatory power when looking at things Indian. Yes, there are pundits performing gay weddings, but I have no doubt that most religious leaders view homosexuality very unfavorably. Yes, there is a celebratory gay rights parade in Kolkata, but homosexuals are also abused, villified and physically harmed.
Besides seeking legal recognition for homosexuals, we need to continue putting forth the types of arguments that Ruth Vanita is ably marshalling.
"Cities are the engines of growth since it is an urbanized population which has the productive capacity to create economic wealth and thus lead to development. India’s largely rural population has to be urbanized and since the existing cities are basically incapable of absorbing the population, new cities have to be developed."
Atanu Dey, in an excellent blog entry about Mukesh Ambani, which discusses, among other things, his vision to build two new metros outside of Delhi and Mumbai as part of a comprehensive makover plan for India.
Besides increasing productivity, cities also emancipate rural migrants from village caste hierarchies. In anonymity we stand a chance of being judged by our worth and not by an arbitrary birth order. Religion becomes charismatic and egalitarian, transmitted by television and open-air celebrations rather than by wandering gurus and seasonal fairs. And no one is denied entry to temples.
Ambedkar exhorted the Dalits to head to the cities, because, he felt, the village was a superstitious milieu where time and progess did not matter.
India’s metros have burgeoned into chaotic enormities. Mumbai is projected to have 30 million people in the next quarter century, half the population of Great Britain. Most of the second-tier cities are mofussil towns with superannuated infrastructure and provincial vibes. It’s time to usher in the new.
It’s the perfect confluence of events: Immense buisness opportunities in India for American multinationals; the heightened geopolitical importance of India in the "war on terror" and as a check against Chinese hegemony; and the emergence of a univocal Indian-American lobbying arm comprised of rich to very rich Indian-Americans. Welcome to the Hindu Industrial Complex. The brown men have been invited to the back rooms…for now.
For India, which wants the U.S. Congress to approve an accord allowing it to acquire nuclear technology, it helps to have friends in high places.
Top executives at J.P. Morgan Chase, General Electric and Boeing are among those lobbying lawmakers to approve the agreement - a demonstration of the rapid emergence of pro- India groups as a political force in Washington.
The effort has already yielded results. Last month, after hearing pleas from the companies, U.S. business groups and Indian-American business executives, House and Senate committees overwhelmingly approved the outlines of the agreement, which would give India access to power- plant technology from companies including GE
Deborah Lynn is correct in asserting that India’s former unouchables (Dalits) are oppressed in parts of India, that state law enforcement agencies either willfully turn a blind eye to atrocities or simply don’t care, and that much needs to be done to improve their situation.
Beyond that, she’s thoroughly misinformed. There is no evidence that Dalits join Islamic terrorist outfits to inflict harm on Hindus (most Dalits are Hindus); and while Dalits do join Maoist organizations, Maoists do not consider their cause a Dalit struggle, for Indian Maoism has always been framed in Marxist class terms.
Also, Dalits are much less oppressed than they were a century ago. India reserves 25 percent of government jobs and 22.5 percent of elite university seats for Dalits. (Contrast India with the United States, where state institutions like the University of California have abolished affirmative action.) It would surprise Ms. Lynn to know that several Dalits have risen to the top of India’s political hierarchy. India’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh, had a woman Dalit Chief Minister (thanks to the glowing political clout of Dalits in North India); and India has also had a Dalit President.
The organization Ms. Lynn touts as "secular" and which appears to be the cause of her awakening-the Dalit Freedom Network- is very much a Christian-funded organization.
We respond to terrorism by invoking brotherhood, charity, fortitude, resilence and heroism.The reflective narratives written immediately after a terrorist attack are stories about these qualities. In the specimen below, the people of Mumbai may as well be the people of Madrid or New York or any other terror-struck city. As the story goes, their "indomitable spirit" and allegiance to the rebirth of the polis transcends mere trivialities like language or religion. But we all know that is only part of the truth. Terrorism also brings paranoia and loathing; it makes bigots out of the merely opinionated. And there is fear.
Those made suspect are welcomed by glances held too long; quick steps to marginally safer spaces on the platform; clutchings of bags and children. But this does not make for good storytelling - especially when a whole city must be raised and reassured of its imminent return to the mundane.
"Profiling" is, in its most benign sense, a way of finding order amid uncertainty. It’s comforting to think that our ill-wishers look a certain way and believe in one simple thing: it gives us something to sneer at and someone to run from. I wonder how this plays out in repeatedly-struck Mumbai, where everyone is a different shade of brown.
India’s Indestructible Heart - New York Times
Stories of exceptional selflessness have flooded in all evening. One came from my friend Aarti, who was in one of the trains on which a bomb went off. As she jumped out of her compartment, she saw streams of slum dwellers from the bleak shanties along the tracks rushing toward the train with bed sheets. They knew that there would be no stretchers to be found and were offering their threadbare cottons to be used as hammocks to carry victims away.
I suspect British Hindus want to ditch the Asian tag to distance themselves from Muslims. There is an effort in the United States to create a common "South Asian" identity for the immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. In due time, I expect that identity to fail. Muslims from all South Asian countries will opt for the emerging American Muslim identity and Hindus will identify as Indian-Americans.
Hindus say it’s time to ditch the Asian tag - Britain - Times Online
Lord Parekh, who is a Hindu, writes in the report that the community is politically “invisible” because it makes “few noises when confronted with injustices”. He says that British Hindus, drawn mainly from Asia and East Africa, have quietly concentrated on building their careers, holding families together and nurturing their children’s education.
In three generations, he says, they have risen to senior positions in most of the professions and have a larger middle class than any other ethnic minority except the Jewish community. Yet only two MPs are Hindu.
Although relations with other communities are described as excellent, “those with Muslims leave much to be desired”, the Labour peer says.
"If you are late for work in Mumbai and reach the station just as the train is leaving the platform, don’t despair. You can run up to the packed compartments and find many hands unfolding like petals to pull you on board. And while you will probably have to hang on to the door frame with your fingertips, you are still grateful for the empathy of your fellow passengers, already packed tighter than cattle, their shirts drenched with sweat in the badly ventilated compartment. They know that your boss might yell at you or cut your pay if you miss this train. And at the moment of contact, they do not know if the hand reaching for theirs belongs to a Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian or a Brahmin or an Untouchable. Come on board, they say. We’ll adjust."
-Suketu Mehta
Al Qaeda Signature : outlookindia.com
The expert orchestration of the terrorist strikes in Jammu & Kashmir and Mumbai and the targeting of tourists in J&K and the railway system in Mumbai resulting in the death of close to 150 innocent civilians carry the signature of Al Qaeda, which has been carrying on an anti-India and anti-Hindu campaign since the visit of President Bush to India in March,2006.
Since the visit, Al Qaeda has been talking of a Crusader-Jewish- Hindu conspiracy against Islam. …
While there is no reason to believe that the terrorist strikes of July 11 might have been carried out by the Arab members of Al Qaeda, the inspiration and planning are likely to have come from Al Qaeda. The execution could have been through Al Qaeda’s surrogates in the Lashkar-e-Toiba or other Pakistani members of the Al Qaeda-led International Islamic Front (IIF) or the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) or the followers of Dawood Ibrahim.
