When we heard about Tsunami, our heart wept, because innocent people died in lakhs. Everyone rushed to help and the relief and rehabilitation is being carried out. Probabaly after a few months they will be back to normal.
Do we, the people, media, politicians, NGO's, Human rights activities etc. etc. etc....do the same whereever people suffer? If you all say 'yes definitely' then you are totally wrong.
Today is the 15th anniversary of the ethnic clensing of Kashmiri Pandits from the State of Kashmir. Till date those 3+ lakh people are not bothered about, cared about and noone is ready to give a solution to them. One entire generation itself lost its history,culture and tradition. Isnt this history? since we talk and care about history in our group, I thought this is the right forum to put this link.
Please go through the link given below. A very good article indeed.
But how many of us, Indians, will accept this. As the article says, no one....
On this day, atleast, lets pray for the lost souls, pray for the mental peace of the destitudes and pray for a solution to their problems. Prayer is the only thing which we can do.
A timely mail.Unfortunately this issue has become so political that whoever talks of pundits is branded as a BJP supporter and worst as a fundamentalist.I fully agree with what SPS said about this issue.However I dont accept nehru family as kashmiri pundits,since jawaharlal nehru was a sworn atheist and he detested castes and religion.He would not have wanted people to remember him as a kashmir pundit.So let us not call him like that.
Anyway pundits should take heart from jews who were chased away from their motherland for 2000 years and reclaimed it back by valour.The story of Israel should be a motivating factor for any race that has been chased away from their homeland.I am not getting into politics of palestine and Israel,but what jews lost at sword point they gained in gun point.
Sindhis are another race which was chased away from pakistan but now are prospering in businesses all over India.Parsis are another race.They were chased away from persia,but now Indias richest family Tata is a parsi family.They succeeded in businesses and are highly respected in North India.
Pundits should draw solace from these examples.They should take things positively and have parsis,sindhis and jews as their examples.Jews waited for 2000 years.Its been just 14 years in case of pundits.Miles to go still.
I am very much delighted to see responses from you both, becuase when someone whom we consider as learned and keep in high strature agrees with our point, naturally our heart jumps in joy. As you both pointed out, favouring Hindus is termed fundamental in our country and favouring Minorities is considered to be Secularism. I go one step ahead of this and feel, even being neutral is termed fundamentalism in India. If you be neutral and say what is right and what is wrong, then we are branded as fundamentalist. All expect that everyone should support the minorities whatever crime they do and that is secularism. God save our land.
As SPS pointed out, my heart too weeps to see my majority communitiy being thrashed in India. A year or so back, I read an article in Rediff titled 'Who is Minority?" by Rajeev srinivasan. He eloborated on the problem India is facing. To summarise he says, any community,irrespective of the number, which is subjected to harsh treatment,suppression and is ripped of its fundamental rights and live in constant fear and threat is minority community and in India, Hindus are minorities, because they fit in those parameters.
But I have always seen that, even learned people fear to express such points or dont like to talk about it. Talking about it itself considered a shame and insecular. Thats why I said, I really felt happy seeing your mails.
My point is, when we talk about our glorious past and feel proud of it, we should remember that our ancestors, let it be RR,Rj, the pallavas or pandiyas, ashoka or chandragupta or the nayakars or kambar or bharathi ...the list goes on, whoever it be,lived up to our expectations and left us a glorious history.Hope everyone agrees with this. But what we are leaving for our future generation? Isnt todays happenings tomorrows history? Today we know only the history for say a 1000 or 2000 years. Beyond that we dont have a trace...what will be the history 2000 years later. Then they wont be knowing about our glorious past.They dont know about RR or RJ, they only know about Satish or SPS or Samptha.et al. They will have a shameful history where the basic human rights have been ripped of from the public.
Though we cannot do anything immediately, we should atleast think about it, becuase thoughts leads to action and action leads to results. Only our thougths today can reap results atleast 2000 yeas later. 'Parthiban Kanavu' of great chola empire took nearly 350 years to realise. If he had not dreamt of a mightly chola empire, do you think RR and RJ could have realized it? If we cannot be a RR or RJ atleast lets try to be Parthiban.
I am giving this long lecture becuase, SPS, you said, lets leave this and concentrate on our distant past. Sorry if i have crossed my limits.
Again I say, prayer is the best medicine for this which our great faith advices. I dont know why, in the recent times I remember Hiranyakashipu and Narasimha avatharam on and off, and compare that puranam with the current situation. I dont want to get into the details here, but again as Narasimha came down to save the mass pleased by Prahaladans prayers, I belive he will come if we pray whole heartedly to rescue us also.
Nice bunch of mails on this topic.Even Kalki has mentioned this in his fifth part of PS.Chembian maadevi advises arulmozhi and vandhiya thevan in detail on this aspect.She points out to them that as warriors they should protect people belonging to different faiths in their country but also points out that in those days in north India temples were demolished and its the duty of vanthiya devan and arulmozhi to prevent it.
I think we should all follow the example of chola kings.They patronized all religions and even built buddhist viharas.Arulmozhi even mentions jesus christ as a passing remark.chola kings were highly devotional but never let that interfere with their justice.the ease with which alwarkadiyan argues his religion to sembian madevi and arummozhi all of whom are saivites show how tolerent cholas were.But i think rather it shows how tolerent our hindu dharma is.Even in ramayana rama listens patiently when jabali preaches atheism to him.
In mahabharatha too uthava preaches atheism to krishna.He asks krishna "If you are god why didnt you change the mind of duriyodana and prevent this war?".Krishna then gives the uthava geetha as answer.
Even in vedas many atheistic verses are given.If you need to insult krishna you need not go to DK meetings.You have to just read mahabharatha.Sisubala uses so many abuses on krishna,insulting his parents,calling him as a loafer and so many things.
All this only points out to the wonderful tolerance and magnanimity of hinduism.But many of us misunderstand that this magnanimity means cowardice.There is a thin line dividing magnanimity and cowardice.Our ancestros were magnanimous but not cowards.Even krishna tolerated sisubala only till the maximum limit.
secularism,tolerence and freedom of speech have been the virtues of hinduism.Those values still keep our dharma alive.After 1000 years of enslavement no country retained its culture.Ours did.Now we have the side effects of such slavery.Slowly we will progress.Already US economy is cooling off and only India and china are looked with awe by the rest of the world.Japan already is ruling the west.Glorious days for asia are returning.
If we know where magnanimity ends and cowardice begins everything will be alright.Let us be magnanimous but not cowards.Let us be valiant but not be bullies.
The basic problem is people are not proud of our land and language because of lack of awareness. I guess, we start making that happen we can take a very good turn towards success.
Good to learn, there is atleast a thought that Ponniyinselvan is to be made a film. I hope the same will follow will all the other novels. And hence public, watching 'Alexander the Great', will also know, that there were kings in the land where they were born and live, who were much more valiant and good.
What about getting the management and technical stuffs in tamil? We can get those things in tamil and make ourselves much more organized. The examples for those are abundant in our land itself rather than anyother part of the world.
wow! Thats great to know that we all think on the same lines. SPS, you are right in saying that we are a very decent group and interact like close friends. Lets our binding grow over years and lets achive whatever we dream of. While writing the first mail, I was sure that Priya will reply to this chain...welcome back Priya.
Coming to the point regarding Hindus are not attending brahmotsavam or other festivals. I feel, thats the greatness of Hinduism. We are free to choose where to go, whom to worship etc. But other religions dont have a choice. Moreover If I am given subsidy for my pilgirmage by the government, like the Haj subsidy, I too will surely go to all the pilgrim centers.Why, I think all Hindus will go? But unfortunately, our secular governments give subsidy only for Haj yatra and not for amarnath yatra. Our tax money, our hard earned offerings to various temples, can be spend for such subsidies,but we cannot get any such thing for us. With such a social situation how can we ask all to attend such festivals.
I think, it was Raja Ram Mohan Roy, who popularised Vinayaka chaturthi in Bombay in the 19th century. He thought people need to meet in large number which can be used to inspire patriotism and fight for freedom. In this aspect, what SPS says is correct. We should have some meeting point to show our strength. But given a chance will we do that? We dont have security like others. If a Hindu talks about Hinduism in Public he will be harrased by the Police becuse he is spreading communal fire. At the same time, if Hinn comes to Blore for preching and converting, he is given police security. I think coming 30th there is a manadu convened in chennai by Hindu Munnani to show the unity of Hindus. How many of us will be there on that day? If I go, the very evening Police will come to my house and book me in some case or the other(actually this is happening in Kanchi at present ) after all we are socialist, secular , democratic country.
Good, given all these what can be done is a big question? Why such a partiality in our country. Are teh politicians bothered about the religion? No they are bothered about only money. and to earn money they should be in power and for that they need vote. Even though Christians and muslims account for only nearly 17% of the entire population, that 17% vote is a sure shot where as out of the 83% vote only 25% is confirmed and that too out that 25% it will be scattered to different parties based on castes. So who decides the winner? The imam of the mosque and the father of the churches. Whomever they say, the entire community votes for them. I really appreciate christians and muslims for their unity which Hindus lack. We should learn from them. The result is, the politicians get what they want from the minorities, but again they are also cheated. They too wont get anything from the government. All the people suffer without basic amenities. If Hindus can create a vote bank and stand united, we can solve half the problem. Can this be done? Think for yourself.
I feel even the minority community should feel that, they are safe in India, and Hindus are their friends and neighbours. They are misled by fake leaders and they should realise this. If people start realising i think all the community can live in peace. They also should understand that we are magnanimous and not cowards. 'sadhu mirandal kadum kollathu'. Hope such situation never happens in our dear land.
Starting the History and cultural institue can be a first step we can do to impart the knowledge of our glory to the new generation. Only if we know our past, we can shape our future, and I am happy that our group is on the right track. Lets hope for the better.
HI Priya, Great thinking and a great opening to ur new innings !!! Hope ur exams are all over and u are ready set go for a new series of interesting discussion.
Inspired by your views on Frederick Foresyth, I bought his novel, "The day of the Jackal". I was so astonished that, how could such a slow moving dull novel could generate praise from you.
My Exams and vacations are over.Back to school after a trip in midwest.Anyway I am sorry if Mr.shankaran did not like the day of the jackal.But its a classic and masterpeice.Is it slow moving? Initially it is a bit slow but the moment jackal steps inside france it goes at jet speed.That novel is famous only for the plot,a man who cannot be assasinated versus a man who dares to do it.Forsyth isnt popular like archer, but to know the difference between forsyth and archer we have to read 'fist of god' by forsyth and 'honor among thieves' by archer.
Both novels have the same location Iraq, but after reading forsyth if you read honor among theieves you will be disappointed.Archer writes like a hollywood movie fast and action like but forsyth likes to set up the plot beautifully and then the action begins.He likes to reasearch thoroughly and writes very few novels a year but once you read them you wont like any other novels.
I love his 'deceiver','fist of god'.But 'icon' was more of archer type novel.Negotiator and double deal were boring to be honest.But i cherished every moment of day of jackal.And please dont buy them because I say they are good.Somehow I end up reading books which will not be liked by the rest.But I love those books madly.
To digress,satish had a torrential downpour of his feelings.When people are as unsatisfied with the society it leads to revolution.As somebody pointed out in a previous mail, Jews can be a very good example.They are just 6% in number in USA but they rule USA.They control media and dominate hollywood.They sit in important ministries in USA and decide the foreign policy of the american government.Their influence is so much that when pakistan came up with a movie called 'Jinnah' which they thought was retaliation to Richard attenburrough's 'Gandhi'-jews prevented it from being screened anywhere in USA.
All leading magazines in USA like forbes,time,fortune are controlled by jews.80% of the worlds diamond trade is under control of jews.I have many jewsih freinds here and I have noted that they are fiercely religious.They love hebrew like anything.There are very few jews who convert, which is suprising since in USA if you study in a college if you dont date you are considered as uncompetetive.And many jewsish men and women date christians and when it comes to marriage its the christians who convert to jews.
One friend of mine married a christian girl and made her get get rinsed in river to be converted into a jew.It was freezing when she did that and the river water was at 50 degrees farenheat.But the moment she did that she qualified to become an immigrant to israel.
Even the relationship with christians and jews is funny here.Technically they have to be the worst of enemies,and they are.But they are united only by their hatred towards palestenians .Christians want jews to rule jerusalem and jews want to build their third temple in jerusalem.That temple was demolished in second century by romans and kalpih umar built a mosque there in 7th century.Jews want that land back.
Anyway I believe I am digressing.The point I wanted to make was this.Jews are assertive.They are very few in numbers,but they rule USA and hence the world.The entire middle east is hostile towards the jews but can do nothing.France,Germany and europe are anti- semitic but they cant do anything against the Jews.Its only since jews are stronger by virtue of their knowledge,faith and business prowess.
Dont we have a lesson to learn from them?If we teach our children our language and religion and make them fierecely loyal to our culture and tell them "If our country want to progress you have to progress.Only if you sit at the head of a big business empire our country will develop"--we can rule the world.
For that to happen we need as many indians as possible to come to USA and abroad.we need people in power in big influential companies.we need to earn a lot and sit in influential posts both in India and in west.We need to dominate every ministry, every company and every influential media.Then nobody can ignore us.
Priya You have left out 'Odessa File'. That's another mater piece of Forsyth. It was also a successful film with John Voight (Angelina Jolie's father) on the lead. Have you read 'No comebacks', collection of short stories by Forsyth? that's also a good one.