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Before the whining drowns it out, Listen to the New India - By Arun Shourie

Arun Shourie, India's Union Minister for Disinvestment, Communications & Information Technology, tells us why we need to listen to the New India.

Twenty to twenty-five years ago, even 10 years ago, few of us had heard of Information Technology. Today, exports from this industry are worth $10 billion — that is, over Rs 45,000 crore a year. That figure is 20 per cent of our total exports.

In spite of the fact that each of the markets to which we supply IT software and solutions has been in the trough of recession for years, IT exports have grown by 26 per cent this year.

Infosys had not even been born 25 years ago. Wipro was a company selling vegetable oil. Indeed, other than the ‘‘Tata’’ in Tata Consultancy Services, there is scarcely a name in the IT industry that was known then. And guess what the average age is in the industry? Just 26 and a half! These 26/27-year-olds have changed the world’s perception of India. 

It’s not just a country of snake-charmers, it’s a country against which protectionist walls have to be erected. Of course, we can also charm snakes. And these 26-year-olds are changing India’s perception also of itself: that India can; that, therefore, we should face the world with confidence.

At a moment’s notice, my friends Amit Mitra of FICCI and Tarun Das of CII send me particulars of firm after firm, in sector after sector, that has broken new ground. A sample:

• Fifteen of the world’s major automobile manufacturers are now obtaining components from Indian firms. 
• Just last year, exports of auto-components were $375 million. This year they are close to $1.5 billion. Estimates indicate they will reach $15 billion within six to seven years. 
• Hero Honda is now the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world—with an output of 17 lakh motorcycles a year. 
• One lakh Indica cars of the Tatas are to be marketed in Europe by Rover, one of the United Kingdom’s most prestigious auto-manufacturers under its — that is, Rover’s — brand name. 
• Bharat Forge has the world’s largest single-location forging facility — of 1.2 lakh tonnes per annum. Its client list includes Toyota, Honda, Volvo, Cummins, Daimler Chrysler. It has been chosen as a supplier of small forging parts for Toyota’s global transmission parts’ sourcing hub in Bangalore. 
• Asian Paints has production facilities in 22 countries spread across five continents. It has recently acquired Berger International, which gives it access to 11 countries, and SCIB Chemical SAE in Egypt. Asian Paints is the market leader in 11 of the 22 countries in which it is present, including India. 
• Hindustan Inks has the world’s largest single stream, fully integrated ink plant, of 1 lakh tonnes per annum capacity, at Vapi, Gujarat. It has a manufacturing plant and a 100 per cent subsidiary in the US. It has another 100 per cent subsidiary in Austria. 
• For two years running, General Motors has awarded Sundaram Clayton its ‘Best Supplier Award’; the volumes it sources out of India are growing every year. 
• Ford has presented the ‘Gold World Excellence Award’ to Cooper Tyres. 
• Essel Propack is the world’s largest laminated tube manufacturer. It has a manufacturing presence in 11 countries including China, a global manufacturing share of 25 per cent, and caters to all of P&G’s laminated tube requirements in the US, and 40 per cent of Unilever’s. 
• Aston Martin, one of the world’s most expensive car brands, has contracted prototyping its latest luxury sports car to an India-based designer. This would be the cheapest car to roll out of Aston Martin’s stable. 
• Maruti has been the preferred supplier of small cars under the Suzuki brand for Europe. Suzuki has now decided to make India its manufacturing, export and research hub outside Japan. 
• Hyundai Motors India is about to become the parent Hyundai Motors Corporation’s global small car hub. In 2003, HMC will source 25,000 Santros from HMI’s plant in India. By 2010 HMI is targeted to supply half a million cars to HMC. It was only in 1999 that HMI got its first outsourcing contract and already, in 2003, 20 per cent of its sales will be what it supplies as an outsourcing hub. It is exporting cars to Indonesia, Algeria, Morocco, Columbia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. 
• Ford India got its first outsourcing contract in 2000. Within 3 years outsourcing accounts for 35 per cent of its sales. Ford India supplies to Mexico, Brazil and China. The parent Ford is sourcing close to $40 million worth of components from India, and plans to increase these in the coming years. 
Ford India is already the sole manufacturing and supply base for Ikon cars and components. These are being exported to Mexico, China and Africa. 
• Toyota Kirloskar Motors chose India over competitive destinations like Philippines and China for setting up a new project to source transmissions as this option proved more economical. 
• Europe’s leading tractor maker, Renault, has chosen International Tractors (ITL) as its sole global sourcing hub for 40 to 85 horsepower tractors. 
• Tyco Electronics India bagged its first outsourcing contract in 1998-99. So successful has it been that components and products others have contracted from it already account for 50 per cent of its total sales. It supplies to the parent, Tyco Europe. 
• TISCO is today the lowest cost producer of hot-rolled steel in the world. 
• TVS Motor Company has been awarded the coveted Deming Prize for Total Quality Management. Many of the largest of organisations, even American ones—like GE—have not managed that recognition yet!

India’s pharmaceutical industry has come to be feared as much as its infotech industry. It is already worth $ 6.5 billion and it has been growing at 8-10 per cent a year. It’s the fourth largest pharmaceutical industry in terms of volumes and 13th in value. Its exports have crossed $2 billion, and have increased by 30 per cent in the past five years. India is among the top five manufacturers of bulk drugs. Even more telling is another figure. We are always being frightened, ‘‘Multinational drug companies are about to takeover.’’ In 1971 the share of these MNCs in the Indian market was 75 per cent. Today it’s 35 per cent!

There’s another feature we should bear in mind: India’s strengths are becoming evident across the technology spectrum:

• We are among the three countries in the world that have built supercomputers on their own, the US and Japan being the other two: two months ago, the fourth generation PARAM super-computer was inaugurated in Bangalore. 
• We are among six countries in the world that launch satellites. We launch some of our own satellites of course; we have launched satellites for others too, among them such countries as Germany and Belgium. We have the largest set of remote sensing satellites. Our INSAT system is also among the world’s largest domestic satellite communication systems.

At the other end:

• India is one of the world’s largest diamond cutting and polishing centres. CLSA estimates nine of every 10 stones sold in the world pass through India. 
• Trade of Indian medicinal plants has crossed Rs 4,000 crore.

Our foreign exchange reserves are at an all-time high—$82 billion. We have announced that we will not be taking aid from a string of countries.

• We are giving aid to 10 or 11 countries.
• We are pre-paying our debt.
• We have just ‘‘loaned’’ $300 million to the IMF!

How distant the days when we used to wait anxiously for the announcement about what the Aid India Club meeting in Paris had decided to give us. 

(source: Before the whining drowns it out, listen to the new India - By Arun Shourie and When sky is the limit - By Arun Shourie - indian-express.com August 15, 16 and 17). In a 3-part provocative series, India's Union Minister for Disinvestment, Communications & Information Technology, tells us why we need to listen and act. For more on Arun Shourie refer to The Arun Shourie Site.

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Hindu Temple lays beneath the Ayodhya structure

In what could be a turning point in the Ayodhya dispute, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has reported to the High Court here that its excavations found distinctive features of a 10th century temple beneath the Babri mosque site even as the Sunni Central WAQF Board termed the report as "vague and self-contradictory".

The report said there was archaeological evidence of a massive structure just below the disputed structure and evidence of continuity in structural activities from the 10th century onwards upto the construction of the disputed structure (Babri mosque). 

Among the excavation yields it mentioned were stone and decorated bricks as well as mutilated sculpture of divine couple and carved architectural members including, foliage patterns, Amalaka, Kapotapali, Doorjamb with semi-circular shrine pilaster, broke octagonal shaft of black schist pillar, lotus motif, circular shrine having pranjala (watershute) in the north and 50 pillar bases in association with a huge structure.   

Among the excavation yields it mentioned were stone and decorated bricks as well as mutilated sculpture of divine couple and carved architectural members. 

For more images refer to chapter on GlimpsesVIII).

Watch History of Ayodhya - videogoogle.com.

The archaeological evidence and other discoveries from the site were indicative of remains which are distinctive features found associated with the temples of north India, the ASI report said.

The ASI report said there is sufficient proof of existence of a massive and monumental structure having a minimum dimension of 50x30 metres in north-south and east-west directions respectively just below the disputed structure.  In course of present excavations nearly 50 pillar bases with brick bat foundation below calcrete blocks topped by sandstone blocks were found, the report said.

(source: Hindu Temple lays beneath - dailypioneer.com - August 26 2003).  

For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

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Rampant Negationism : The Indian Marxists - By Koenraad Elst

One should know that there is a strange alliance between the Indian communist parties and the Muslim fanatics. Marxism dehumanizes people to impersonal pawns, or “forces” in the hands of god History. The Marxist historians had the field all to themselves, and they set to work to “decommunalize” Indian history-writing, ie. To erase the importance of Islam as a factor of conflict. 

In Communalism and the Writing of Indian History, Romila Thapar, Harbans Mukhia and Bipin Chandra, professors at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU, the Mecca of “secularism” and negationism) in Delhi, write that the interpretation of medieval wars as religious conflicts is in fact a back-projection of contemporary religious conflict artificially created for political purposes. They explicitly deny that before the modern period there existed such a thing as Hindu identity or Muslim identity. Conflicts could not have been between Hindus and Muslims, only between rulers or classes who incidentally also belonged to one religious community or the other. It is of course a fact that in the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw the Nazis employed Jewish guards: this does not disapprove Nazi-Jewish enemity. Time and again, the negationist historians (including Bipan Chandra, K N Panikkar, S. Gopal, Romila Thapar, Harnans Mukhia, Irfan Habib, R S Sharma, Gyandra Pandey, Sushil Srivastava, Asghar Ali Engineer, as well as the Muslim fundamentalist politician Syed Shahabuddin) have asserted that the tradition according to which the Babri mosque forcibly replaced a Hindu temple, is nothing but a myth purposely created in the 19^th century. To explain the popularity of the myth even among local Muslim writers in the 19^th century, most of them say it was a deliberate British concoction, spread in the interest of the “divide and rule” policy. They affirm this conspiracy scenario without anyhow citing, from the copious archives which the British administration in India has left behind, any kind of positive indication for their convenient hypothesis – let alone the rigorous proof on which a serious historian would base his assertions, especially in such controversial questions. 

Personal Attacks on Opponents 

In December 1990, the leading JNU historians and several allied scholars, followed by the herd of secularist pen-pushers in the Indian press, have tried to raise suspicions against the professional honesty of Prof. B B Lal and Dr. S P Gupta, the archaeologists who have unearthed evidence for the existence of a Hindu temple at the Babri Masjid site. Rebuttals by these two and a number of other archaeologists have received minimal coverage in the secularist press. 

I have been thinking of the behavior of our Marxist friends and historians, their unprovoked slander campaign against many collegues, hurling abuses and convicting anyone and everyone even before the charges could be framed and proved. Their latest target is so sober and highly respected a person as Prof. B B Lal, who has all his life never involved himself in petty politics or in the groupism so favorite a sport among the so-called Marxist intellectuals of this country. But then slander is a well-practised art among the Marxists.” 

(source: Negationism in India - By Koenraad Elst   p. 37 -41). Refer to My People, Uprooted: "A Saga of the Hindus of Eastern Bengal"  - By Tathagata Roy.

Watch History of Ayodhya - videogoogle.com.

For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

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Grave allegation to lob against a reputed body

Marxist historian Irfan Habib trashed the Archaeological Survey of India’s (ASI’s) report submitted to the Allahabad High Court at a press conference organised by the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust on Friday. He said the ASI’s excavations actually proved the Babri Masjid was built on the ruins of a mosque. But he couldn’t explain why a mosque would have been razed to build a new one. 

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But the likes of Habib and Suraj Bhan don’t seem to have the patience to wait. They have sought to disparage the ASI’s competence. 

Actually, the hostility goes back to the very beginning of the ASI exercise. When the Allahabad High Court ordered the excavation, Habib and Bhan insisted there was no need to do so. In their opinion, nothing lay beneath the former site of the Babri Masjid. They also questioned the competence of Tojo Vikas, which had reported anomalies beneath the surface after an imaging survey. After the excavation, Habib and Bhan objected to horizontal digging as it would destroy the flooring of the mosque, pretending this had historical value. They ignored that in the event of reconstruction of the mosque, the flooring would in any case have to removed.

Eminent scholars as they are, Habib and Bhan ought to know antiquity of a structure is determined not by tiles, lime and mortar but by carbon dating of organic substances. This was reportedly undertaken by the ASI.

If animal bones found by the ASI date the structure to at least the 10th C, it can be safely concluded the structure was pre-Islamic. Animal sacrifice was common enough in Hindu temples. That apart, it is not understood how Habib and Bhan ignored numerous terracotta figurines and divine sculptures, suggestive of Hindu origin. Their silence in this regard is baffling. It would appear that the two scholars have a political agenda, of prejudicing public opinion against the ASI report even before judicial scrutiny. Should the court ratify the ASI report, Indian Muslims have no reason to be apologetic for what Babar, an invading outsider, may have done 500 years ago. 

(source: Temple and the truth - By Bulbul Roy Mishra - indianexpress.com).

Considering that only 15 per cent of all the archaeological excavations undertaken in India since Independence are properly published, the submission of a full report on any excavated site in the country should be a matter of great rejoicing among archaeologists.

To cast a slur on the findings of what is undoubtedly the best and most dependable professional archaeological organisation in the country is an act of pure political expediency. Whatever we can accuse the ASI of, conscious falsification of data cannot be one of them.

(source:  It’s the archaeology, stupid! - by Dilip K. Chakrabarti August 29 2003). 

For more on Eminent Marxists JNU historians refer to ICHR's The Eminent Entrepreneurs! - By Arun Shourie

Watch History of Ayodhya - videogoogle.com.

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Slinging mud at a respected national institution, one that has earned international praise for its competence in the field- Angkor Vat's conservation in Cambodia is only one of its celebrated achievements. Charges of the report being "doctored" are even more unbecoming when lobbed by 'secular' academics, on the specious ground none of the interim reports had mentioned a temple.

(source: Ayodhya - What lies ahead - dailypioneer.com -  Editorial August 27 2003 ).

Nayanjot Lahiri, a leading archaeologist in the country, who has gone through the ASI report, thinks that some of the points raised by Habib are "themselves very questionable". Lahiri, Reader in Delhi University's history department, finds the charge baseless and points out that it was the Allahabad High Court which had ordered the ASI to excavate the site to attest the anomalies mentioned in an earlier ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey report. "The ASI was simply covering the area the GPR survey had covered," she said. Lahiri's most serious charge against the ASI's critics is that they are "communalising artefacts along religious lines".

Koenraad Elst (1959 -) Dutch historian, born in Leuven, Belgium, on 7 August 1959, into a Flemish (i.e. Dutch-speaking Belgian) Catholic family. He graduated in Philosophy, Chinese Studies and Indo-Iranian Studies at the Catholic University of Leuven. During a stay at the Benares Hindu University, he discovered India’s communal problem and wrote his first book about the budding Ayodhya conflict - Ayodhya and After: Issues Before Hindu Society.

He writes: "While the true fanatics led by Marxist Historian Irfan Habib simply ignore the new evidence as they have ignored the old, we see the slightly more cautious secularists retreat to the next line of defence. They use these fanatics as a counterbalance to the scientific findings, which they in turn conflate with the "Hindu chauvinists", to create a semblance of even-handedness with themselves in the reasonable middle position between two fanatical parties, one of these in effect including the ASI. This way, they can still maintain that there is no conclusive proof for the temple, as if Habib's dogmatic denials are equal in value with the scientific findings of a team of top archaeologists.

The BBC correspondent (and following her, most of today's European newspapers) claims that the issue remains unresolved. But if you read on, you find that this only means that some of the long-standing evidence deniers merely keep on denying the evidence. So yes, there are still two positions: those who stand by the evidence and those who deny it or explain it away with contrived and totally ridiculous stories.

But no fair reporter would treat those two positions, science and anti-science, as being of equal validity or equal seriousness in any other controversy."

(source: Hindu Unity.com). For more on Koenraad Elst refer to chapter Quotes201_220).

Dr. N S Rajaram said the facts that emerged from the recent excavations were already known during ASI's investigation 20 years back.  "The facts released decades back have been already used by me for my book on the issue 'Profile in Deception- Ayodhya and the Dead Sea Scrolls' which was published in 2000. The new report reveals nothing different. These facts have been known for decades,'' Dr Rajaram said. 

Dr Rajaram has appealed to the people to accept the existence of the 10th century old temple at the site. "It was already known that the Ram Janmabhoomi temple was on the Ayodhya site. Previous excavations have shown this. The government should first accept this reality before it frames its policies on the matter.''

(source: Accept temple existed at Ayodhya, says historian - timesofindia.com).  

Sir V S Naipaul has supported the Ram Janmabhoomi movement and the idea to build a temple at Ayodhya and expressed his sympathy for Hindu Revivalism. 

For more about Ayodhya refer to V S Naipaul - chapter on Quotes251_270 and Islamic Onslaught).

A Civilisational failure among our elite

It reveals a civilisational failure among our elite, an unwillingness, or inability, to grapple with fundamental issues of identity and ethos that are fast crystallising in the nation as a whole. These issues will not subside, not least because a religion-inspired terrorism is undermining the very secular state that protects its right to exist. None but the most obtuse can fail to see that this contradiction must give way, sooner or later. Nothing encapsulates the twin issues of national identity and civilisational ethos like Ayodhya. The ASI's unearthing evidence of an ancient Hindu temple is a powerful vindication of the millions of Ram bhakts who kept alive the memory of the God's birthplace through centuries of displacement and disempowerment.

The nation owes a deep debt of gratitude to Dr Hari Majhi, Dr BR Mani and their colleagues, who submitted their professional honour and credibility to constant hostile scrutiny through five months of excavations, and maintained a dignified silence in the face of patently false media reports about the findings, which intended to intimidate them from making a definitive statement about the nature of their discoveries. Thus, there is credible evidence that a temple/structure was demolished and a mosque built. Other findings include stone and decorated bricks, a mutilated sculpture of a divine couple, carved architectural members including foliage patterns, amalaka, kapolapali, doorjamb with semi-circular pilaster, broken octagonal shaft of black schist pillar, lotus motif, circular shrine with a pranala (water-chute) in the north, 50 pillar bases, all of which are distinctive features of North Indian temples.

(source: A civilisational failure among our elite - By Sandhya Jain - dailypioneer.com - September 8, 2003).

Watch History of Ayodhya - videogoogle.com.

For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

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Secular spoilers and Ayodhya - By MC Joshi

Amongst these, Hindu secular fundamentalists are more loyal than the king. They have made it a habit of blaming and interrogating only their own community. They insist the dispute be seen only from 1992, not from 1526. While they go thousands of years back to dig out cases of oppression by Hindus, they want Hindus to forget the history of 800 years of oppression at the hands of Muslim invaders and rulers. 

The status of Ayodhya as the birthplace of Lord Ram and its sacred association for Hindus are beyond question. Nobody can deny that Babar's men built the disputed mosque in Ayodhya. In spite of the historical background, many Hindus openly condemn the demolition of the mosque. These 'secularists' do not even accept that Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura did not and do not bear any legitimate significance for Muslims. 

They are only laid claims to as symbols of Hindu humiliation. There was no other reason mosques were built at the sites of three of the holiest Hindu shrines by Muslim rulers. 

There have been other moderate Muslim voices that have used the Western media to say no mosque exists in Ayodhya presently and Muslims know that-even if a court verdict goes in their favour-no power in the world could enable them to build a mosque at the site. In contrast, while reacting to the suggestion that a solution may emerge if Muslims take the lead in 'give-and-take' by offering the disputed site to Hindus, a Hindu journalist has said that breaking the impasse without a court verdict would initiate similar demands in villages across the country. Virtually questioning the existence of a Ram temple at the site, he said even the most well-known Ram-bhakt, Tulsidas, made no mention of it. It is such illogic that makes reconciliation impossible. Tulsidas was neither a journalist nor a historian. His literature dwelt on the lifetime of Lord Ram, thousands of years before the birth of Islam. 

There can, of course, be an amicable settlement if Muslims do make a grand gesture on Ayodhya and Hindu organisations respond by abandoning all further attempts to right "historical wrongs", as suggested by Mr Mitra. But that does not seem to suit the 'secular' spoilers. 

(source: Secular spoilers and Ayodhya - By MC Joshi July 28 2003).  

Watch History of Ayodhya - videogoogle.com.

For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

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Hindu Kush - Hindu Holocaust
Learning from History - By Francois Gautier

Like the Jews, Hindus too have suffered a terrible Holocaust, probably without parallel in human history. Take the Hindu Kush, for instance; probably, one of the biggest genocides in the history of Hindus. There has practically been no serious research on the subject or mention in history books. The Hindu Kush is a mountain system nearly 1,000 miles long and 200 miles wide, running north-east to south-west and dividing the Amu Darya valley and the Indus valley. The Hindu Kush has over two dozen summits of more than 23,000 feet and historically its passes, particularly the Khyber, have been of great military significance, for they provide access to the northern plains of India. Most foreign invaders have used the Khyber Pass: Alexander the Great in 327 BC, Mahmud of Ghazni, in 1001 AD; Timur Lane in 1398 AD; and, Nadir Shah in 1739 AD.

 Hindu Kush mountains and valley
Hindu Kush: "The name means literally 'Kills the Hindu', a reminder of the days when Hindu slaves from Indian subcontinent died in harsh Afghan mountains while being transported to Moslem courts of Central Asia."

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Yet, in the first millennium before Christ, two major Hindu kingdoms, those of Gandhaar (Kandahar) and Vaahic Pradesh (Balkh of Bactria) had their borders extending far beyond the Hindu Kush. The kingdom of Gandhaar, for instance, was established by Taksha, the grandson of Bharat of Ayodhya, and its borders went from Takshashila (Taxila) to Tashkent (corruption of Taksha Khand) in present day Uzbekistan. In the later period, the Mahabharat speaks of Gandhaari as a princess of Gandhaar and her brother, Shakuni, as a prince and later as Gandhaar's ruler (the last Hindu Shahiya king of Kabul, Bhimapal, was killed in 1026 AD). 

Then came, in 3rd century BC, Buddhist emperor Kanishka, whose empire stretched from Mathura to the Aral Sea (beyond the present day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Krygzystan) and under his influence Buddhism flourished in Gandhaar. The two giant Buddha sandstones carved into the cliffs of Bamian, which were destroyed by the Taliban, date from the Kanishka period. In Persian, the word 'Kush' is derived from the verb 'Kushtar' - to slaughter or carnage. Encyclopaedia Americana says of Hindu Kush: "The name means literally 'Kills the Hindu', a reminder of the days when Hindu slaves from Indian subcontinent died in harsh Afghan mountains while being transported to Moslem courts of Central Asia."

Encyclopaedia Britannica on its part mentions "that the name Hindu Kush first appears in 1333 AD in the writings of Ibn Battutah, the medieval Berber traveller, who said the name meant 'Hindu Killer', a meaning still given by Afghan mountain dwellers". Unlike the Jewish holocaust, the exact toll of the Hindu genocide suggested by the name Hindu Kush is not available. "However, writes Hindu Kush specialist Srinandan Vyas, "the number is easily likely to be in millions." , "1,500,000 residents perished". "Thus," writes Vyas, "it is evident that the mountain range was named as Hindu Kush as a reminder to the future Hindu generations of the slaughter and slavery of Hindus during the Muslim conquests."

Why does not the Government of India tell Indian children about the Hindu Kush genocide? 

The horrors of the Jewish holocaust are taught not only in schools in Israel and the US, but also in Germany, because both Germany and Israel consider the Jewish holocaust a "dark chapter" in the history. Yet, in 1982, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) issued a directive for the rewriting of school texts. Among other things, it stipulated: "Characterisation of the medieval period as a time of conflict between Hindus and Muslims is forbidden." Thus, denial of history, or negationism, has become India's official "educational" policy. Fortunately, the present Government of India has initiated a rewriting of History school books, although this policy has come under attack as "a dangerous saffronisation" of history.

(source: Learning From History - By Francois Gautier - dailypioneerc.om - September 2, 2003). For more on Hindu genocide refer to chapters -  Islamic Onslaught and European Imperialism). For more visit Francois Gautier and Afghan Hindus and Sikhs).

Afghanistan was a full part of the Hindu cradle up till the year 1000, and in political unity with India until Nadir Shah separated it in the 18th century. The mountain range in Eastern Afghanistan where the native Hindus were slaughtered, is still called the Hindu Kush (Persian: "Hindu Slaughter"). It is significant that one of the very few place-names on earth that reminds us not of the victory of the winners but rather of the slaughter of the losers, concerns a genocide of Hindus by the Muslims.

(source: Ayodhya and After - By Koenraad Elst Voice of India SKU: INBK2650 p.278).  

For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

Refer to My People, Uprooted: "A Saga of the Hindus of Eastern Bengal"  - By Tathagata Roy

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Lolarkakhund - Ancient Sun shrines in Benares 

Surya, the god of sun, worshipped daily by millions in the Gayatri Mantra. Surya has his festival twice a year at Lolarkakhund.

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One of the most ancient sites in Benares. Three giant stairways lead steeply down to a well which was in the shape of a keyhole. Sheer walls enclosed the barrel part, which from the top looked like any other well. 

First mentioned in the Rig Veda. This is the most southerly of the twelve sun shrines along the Ganga at Benares. It’s incredible that the ancient Indians could have exercised such scientific precision.  

Each of the twelve marks the exact spot of the cusp between one zodiacal sign and the next – a time which in India is considered highly potent a and auspicious. Recent astronomical observations have shown the setting to be absolutely correct. In June the sun is directly overhead the middle of this well, and that is the most sacred time for this Surya shrine. Surya, the god of sun, worshipped daily by millions in the Gayatri Mantra. Surya has his festival twice a year.  

(source: Travels Through Sacred India - By Roger Housden p. 124).  

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Akshardham Temple attack was planned in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)

In a startling development, the Ahmedabad city crime branch arrested five people, claimed to conspirators and executors of the terror attack on the Akshardham temple on September 24 last year which killed persons. Two of those arrested are Muslim clerics,who ran relief camps in Ahmedabad after the riots, and it is believed that they were picked up much earlier the week even though the police claimed that they were picked up on Thursday night. 

They settled for Akshardham, because it was a crowded venue and a soft target”. The terrorists, armed with AK 56 assault rifles, explosives and rations, entered the temple complex right opposite the VIP enclave in Gandhinagar and started a gunbattle that claimed 33 lives, and lasted until they were finally killed by NSG commandos. Police commissioner KR Kaushik told press conference that the crime branch picked up Salim Hanif Shaikh, a resident of Dariapur who now works in Riyadh, late on Thursday evening, which led to the arrest of four others through the night. He said Salim provided logistic support to the two terrorists who had come from Pakistan. 

“Preliminary interrogation and investigation reports suggest that the attack had been a joint operation of Jaishe-Mohammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) with support from the ISI. The plot had been hatched in Saudi Arabia and discussed at Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) after last year’s communal violence,” asserted Kaushik. 

(source:  Akshardham attack was planned in Riyadh - timesofindia.com).  For more on Akshardham Temple refer to chapter Glimpses IV).

Refer to My People, Uprooted: "A Saga of the Hindus of Eastern Bengal"  - By Tathagata Roy

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Shyamji Krishna Verma (1857 - 1930)  - Noted freedom fighter 

The important personality in the revolutionary movement for freedom of india, Shyamji Krishna Verma was born on 4th Oct. 1857 in village Mandwa. Maharishi Dayanand inspired him to go abroad for study and was the first indian graduate from Oxford University. He held important jobs like minister and chief minister at Ratlam, Udaipur and Junagarh states. In 1905 he established India Home Rule Society to work for freedom of india. He inspired Bhai Parmanand, Lala Hardayal and veer Savarkar for revolutionary struggle for freedom. Shyamji Krishna Verma expired on 31st March 1930.

A contemporary of Madame Bhikaji Cama and Sardarsingh Rana, he inspired leaders like Bhai Parmanand, Lala Hardayal and Veer Savarkar. Verma is said to have arranged Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's secret submarine passage from Germany to Japan during India's freedom struggle.

Verma had raised the voice of India for Independence in the last decade of the 19th century, a full 25 years before Gandhiji came onto the Indian scene. It is regrettable that even 50 years after Independence, the nation did nothing to honour this great Indian whose scholarship and political activism are universally recognised. 

In fact, even the idea of satyagraha came from him much before Gandhiji developed it into political action. He wrote in 1905: “It is not necessary for Indians to resort to arms for compelling England to relinquish its hold on India... If the brown man struck work for a week, the Empire would collapse like a house of cards... If anyone refused to buy or sell any commodity, or to have any transaction with any class of people, he commits no crime known to the law. It is, therefore, plain that Indians can obtain emancipation by simply refusing to help their foreign master without incurring the evils of a violent revolution.”

Thus there is no doubt that it was Shyamji who first advocated non-violent means of getting rid of the British and using withdrawal of cooperation with the colonial administration as the most effective weapon for this purpose. Gandhiji built on this and evolved satyagraha as a tool to oust the British much later. 

(source: Independence Initiative - By Balbir Punj - timesofindia.com).

Modi brings ashes of Indian revolutionary back from Geneva 

It's unfortunate that no earlier government tried to fulfill Verma's wishes," Modi, the chief minister of Verma's home state of Gujarat said. Hundreds of supporters turned out for the urn's procession through Bombay, chanting "Long live Verma!" The urn will be taken around western India before being interred in December in Verma's hometown Mandvi in Gujarat. 

(source: http://www.gujaratindia.com/Events/1714(1).htm ).

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Masada and Ancient India
Israel - A Natural ally

On the 15th of Xanthicus (roughly, April), AD 74, Eleazer ben Yair, the son of Judah the Galilean and leader of a Jewish community besieged by invading Romans in their rock fortress of Masada, rose to address his people. He had a simple message: There would be no surrender. They would all have to die, kill each other, with the last man killing himself.

Eleazer’s listeners demurred. Sensing their fear, the charismatic leader rose again, to deliver a final exhortation. Eleazer’s pulsating tour de force was not about Israel, the Jewish faith and the barbarians at the gate.

It was, the historian Josephus was to later record, an evocation of the Hindu rite of passage, of seeing death in the flesh as just another milestone on the soul’s immortal journey. ‘‘Are we not,’’ Eleazer asked, ‘‘ashamed to have lower notions than the Indians? And by our own cowardice?’’

"We, therefore, who have been brought up in a discipline of our own, ought to become an example to others of our readiness to die. Yet, if we do stand in need of foreigners to support us in this matter, let us regard those Indians who profess the exercise of philosophy; for these good men do but unwillingly undergo the time of life, and look upon it as a necessary servitude, and make haste to let their souls loose from their bodies; nay, when no misfortune presses them to it, nor drives them upon it, these have such a desire of a life of immortality, that they tell other men beforehand that they are about to depart; and nobody hinders them, but every one thinks them happy men, and gives them letters to be carried to their familiar friends [that are dead], so firmly and certainly do they believe that souls converse with one another [in the other world]. So when these men have heard all such commands that were to be given them, they deliver their body to the fire; and, in order to their getting their soul a separation from the body in the greatest purity, they die in the midst of hymns of commendations made to them; for their dearest friends conduct them to their death more readily than do any of the rest of mankind conduct their fellow-citizens when they are going a very long journey, who at the same time weep on their own account, but look upon the others as happy persons, as so soon to be made partakers of the immortal order of beings. Are not we, therefore, ashamed to have lower notions than the Indians? and by our own cowardice to lay a base reproach upon the laws of our country, which are so much desired and imitated by all mankind?"

For more refer to Wars of the Jews -  By Flavius Josephus

(source:  Hail Mogambo - By Ashok Malik - indianexpress.com and Josephus: Wars of the Jews., Book VII, Chapter VIII, section vii).  For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

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Queen's Bravery at Chittor

The Rani Padmini and her entire entourage of women, slid their farewells, and singing ancient hymns, boldly entered the mahal and performed jauhar.

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Sacks of Chittor: In 1303 Allauddin Khilji, Sultan of Delhi, intrigued by tales of the matchless beauty of Padmini, Rani of Chittor, of her wit and charm, decided to verify this himself. His armies surrounded Chittor, and the sultan sent a message to Rana Rattan Singh, Padmini's husband, to say that he would spare the city if he could meet its famous queen. The compromise finally reached was that the sultan could look upon Padmini's reflection if he came unarmed into the fort. Accordingly, the sultan went up the hill and glimpsed a reflection of the beautiful Padmini standing by a lotus pool. He thanked his host who courteously escorted Allauddin down to the outer gate-where the Sultan's men waited in ambush to take the rana hostage.

There was consternation in Chittor until Padmini devised a plan. A messenger informed the sultan that the rani would come to him. Dozens of curtained palanquins set off down the hill, each carried by six humble bearers. Once inside the Sultan's camp, four well-armed Rajput warriors leaped out of each palanquin and each lowly palanquin bearer drew a sword.In the ensuing battle, Rana Rattan Singh was rescued-but 7,000 Rajput warriors died. The sultan now attacked Chittor with renewed vigor. Having lost 7,000 of its best warriors, Chittor could not hold out. Surrender was unthinkable. The rani and her entire entourage of women, the wives of generals and soldiers, sent their children into hiding with loyal retainers. They then dressed their wedding fine, slid their farewells, and singing ancient hymns, boldly entered the mahal and performed jauhar.

(source: Bravery at Chittor - http://www.rajasthaninfoline.com/rinfo/chittorgrahh.htm).

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The Battle for Indonesia

Distance from Islam's Arab heartland, in time as well as space, imbued Indonesia's version of the religion with an eclecticism absent in converted lands closer to the first flush of Arab power. 

As the anthropologist Clifford Geertz has said: "In Indonesia, Islam did not construct a civilization, it appropriated one."

Preceded by nearly a millennium and a half of Hinduism and Buddhism, Islam evolved here as a mélange of core Islamic beliefs and older Hindu-Buddhist customs that bore little resemblance to the desert faith of Yemenis, Iraqis or Syrians. In "The Year of Living Dangerously," set in the mid-1960s, the dwarf photographer Billy Kwan explains this to his colleague, an Australian journalist fresh off the boat: "Spiritually, this place is still a colony -- not of Holland, of Hindustan. It's the old Hindu kingdoms that are most real here."

By the mid-'80s, Arab names began to edge out their Sanskrit predecessors in kindergartens. (Note that Megawati, the president's name, is Sanskrit for "Lady of the Clouds." Indonesia is the only Muslim country in which a pre-Islamic nomenclature stubbornly survives,. Underlying all this is the cultural cringe of the convert, most acutely documented by V.S. Naipaul in his "Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples." Indonesian Islamists who wax lyrical about Muslim Spain fall silent when it comes to the grandeur of Indonesia's own (pre-Islamic) Majapahit empire.

(source: The Battle for Indonesia - By Sadanand Dhume - Wall Street Journal - August 11 2003). For more on Indonesia refer to chapter on Suvarnabhumi).

Refer to My People, Uprooted: "A Saga of the Hindus of Eastern Bengal"  - By Tathagata Roy

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Ancient Ganesh in Indonesia

Ganesh Chaturthi is one of the biggest festivals held every year in Maharashtra. The Ganesh itself that makes this festival a mammoth one. A journey to ancient Hindu-influenced parts of this world which almost all of them reside in Southeast Asia reveals the fact.

Just like in Cambodia, Vietnam, and some other Southeast Asian countries, Hinduism was a big part of the beliefs of Indonesians. Decrepit and remnants of more than 300 years (some are more than 1000 years) aged temples found and excavated in Indonesia. There located prominent Ganesh statues. Most of them are still intact and preserved in museum and some are still on their places where they were placed more than one hundred decades ago. There are at least more than 15 spots all over Indonesia where Ganesh statues were found.

Ganesha was extremely popular in the art of Indonesian islands, especially of Sumatra and Java and compare favorably with the eighth-century Ellora caves, in images, style and iconography. At Candi Sukuh in central Java, a remarkable fifteenth century relief shows three figures, with a dancing Ganesha in the centre. There are paintings and stone sculptures of the deity found in China, apart from the textual references to Ganesha in the Chinese Buddhist canon. 

The worship of Rishi Agastya, the sage responsible for the diffusion of Hindu culture in Java, the frequent occurrence of Ganesha images, the organization of rural economy and village administration, the shadow and puppet plays and Vedic hymns and rituals of Bali, all point to the extension of Indian religious and cultural influences of these islands. A statue of Agastya is found at Candi Banon - early 9th century Batavia)

For more refer to chapter on Suvarnabhumi - Greater India. 

Ganesha Statues at Pura Luhur Uluwat in Bali

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(source: Ancient Ganesh in Indonesia - esamskriti.com).  For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

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Jews chant Hare Rama Hare Krishna on Janmashtami

Harish (Israel): Janmashtami has been celebrated with much fanfare in this small town in the north of Israel, with devotees thronging the place from all parts of the country chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Rama.

The small township has attracted the attention of the devout, who have formed a small community and settled down here in isolation from the mainstream. All the followers are Jews, most of whom came in touch with the Vaishnava ideals during their visit to India and have started practicing them rigorously.

On the occasion of the birth of the lord they staged plays revolving around stories of Krishna's childhood, besides singing and dancing late into the night just like the bhaktas in India. They also served 108 delicious dishes, a number that has come to be attached with the faith.

The followers of the group also frequent Vrindavan and Mayapuri, in India every year.
First secretary, Subrata Das, present on the occasion called the occasion "another manifestation of the strengthening Indo-Israeli cultural ties".

(source: Jews chant Hare Rama Hare Krishna on Janmashtami - newindpress.com).

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Murderous Monday - Twin Blasts in Mumbai

Bomb blasts rip through Mumbai in replay of 1993. It was a horrifying reprise of 1993. Now, as then, the murderous bomb blasts which rocked Mumbai on Monday seemed to be well-planned and co-ordinated to inflict maximum damage on the city’s symbols of civic pride and financial power. Is it merely coincidental that the attacks have taken place at a time when the Indian stockmarkets had entered a bullish phase for the first time in two-and-a-half years? The targets chosen were Zaveri Bazar, the gold and diamond bourse which is close to the Mumba Devi temple from which the city derives its name; and the Gateway of India. These densely populated areas were obviously chosen so as to ensure maximum number of casualties.

Police put the death toll at 46, but hospital officials said 48 had died. At least 153 people were wounded, according to hospital officials. The carnage shocked even to those accustomed to bloodshed. "I have never seen anything so horrible," said S. Manoj, a doctor at Bombay's J.J. Hospital. "It was just body parts, some with their abdominal organs hanging out, some with no faces at all. The bodies were all burnt."

100 detonators found near Nasik

100 detonators found near Nasik.

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Hours after twin car bomb blasts in Mumbai killed 46 people, more than 100 detonators were recovered from a railway track at a place about 60 km from here just an hour before an express train carrying mostly Kumbh pilgrims was to pass, senior police and railway officials here said. Hours later, nine mine detonators were found on a railway track on a major line 85 kilometers (about 50 miles) north of Mumbai at Kafara, said Chhagan Bhujbal, provincial home minister. The detonators were planted on a line to the city of Nashik, where a major Hindu festival is under way through Wednesday. 

World condemns Mumbai blasts - Bombings 'senseless and cowardly': US

The United States has publicly condemned the twin bomb blasts in Mumbai that killed 46 people and injured over 150 as 'senseless and cowardly terrorist attacks'. US, Britain and Germany on Monday strongly condemned the car bombings in Mumbai and expressed their firm determination to fight the scourge of international terrorism. US Secretary of State Colin Powell, on vacation on Long Island, New York, called External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha and expressed his "outrage at these senseless and cowardly terrorist bombings".

There is a tendency, distressingly familiar among the global fraternity of liberals, to shy away from facing awkward realities. India is no exception to this escapism. 

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There is a tendency, distressingly familiar among the global fraternity of liberals, to shy away from facing awkward realities. India is no exception to this escapism. In the aftermath of the two bomb blasts that killed at least 50 people and injured another 160 in the center of Bombay -- India's largest city and the nerve center of its entrepreneurial culture -- there are some self-serving explanations doing the rounds. The first is that Monday's explosions constitute the militant Muslim reaction to the riots in Gujarat in March 2002. More bizarre is the suggestion that they coincided with the release of a report by the Archaeological Survey of India suggesting that a 10th century Hindu temple predated a 16th century mosque demolished by Hindu activists in 1993.

Compelling as these theories are, they willfully skirt a grim phenomenon -- the expansion of Islamist terror networks into the heart of India. Monday's fierce explosions in Bombay were not isolated occurrences. They were preceded by five blasts, the first on Dec. 2 last year, that have killed 17 people and injured 189.

(source: Islamist Terror Comes To India’s Streets  - By Swapan Dasgupta - Wall street Journal - August 27, 2003). Refer to Kashmir Holocaust  http://www.hinduhumanrights.org/kashmirspecial.pdf

Refer to My People, Uprooted: "A Saga of the Hindus of Eastern Bengal"  - By Tathagata Roy</