Wednesday, May 5, 2010

India to shed colonial brogues

  • India to shed colonial brogues

    tags: no_tag

    • Maneka Gandhi, an estranged member of India's Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and a member of parliament, has asked national education boards to instruct schools to kick out the flat-heeled brogues in favour of canvas shoes. Ms Gandhi, daughter-in-law of slain Indian premier Indira Gandhi and a former environment minister, described the shoes as a 'legacy of the British' which ruled India as one of its colonies until 1947.

      'Leather shoes are really bad for our children as they are destroying their feet,' she told AFP on Wednesday, adding that the brogue, originally from Ireland and Scotland, was only suitable for cold climates.

      'India is a hot country and is the only country in Asia where brogues are used by children,' insisted Ms Gandhi, who is also a fiery wildlife campaigner. According to Ms Gandhi, 2.5 million cows, which are considered sacred by devout Hindus, are slaughtered every year in India to manufacture footwear for school children.

      'I have written (to national boards) but it still has to happen,' she said, adding that 28 schools in the southern Indian city of Chennai have discarded regulation leather shoes for canvas-made footwear since she started the campaign. Some other schools in northern Chandigarh city too have swapped footwear of their young students, she said.

      National education policy-makers were not immediately available for comments but the Indian Express daily on Wednesday said the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination board has given its nod to her campaign. -- AFP


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Now they work together, eat together

  • Now they work together, eat together

    tags: no_tag

    • Justice V R Krishna Iyer
    • Marad, like any other hideous spots in India and Kerala was indigent with communal tension and red with seminal blood. Why should the religions be angry when their spiritual essence is identical?
    • Why should Pakistan claim J and K. Marad was where last year a dozen fisher folk (Hindu) were relaxing in the afternoon breeze and dozed off and when these innocent souls were asleep some from a nearby mosque at prayer time suddenly sprang and knifed the necks of those lying! How dastardly dreadful and terrorist! This is anti-Islam, a religion which upheld human rights whatever be his religion! Bitterness and blood were flowing and yet they preached ‘love thy neighbour’ and hate your brother of another faith. This perversity spread by Moulavis, bishops and acharyas makes Marad the symbol of despair, extremism and the unity and fraternity of India. Did not Bush say that when he prayed God told him to wipe out Afghans? I wish I were wrong. O! God, you are the most misrepresented through murder by your children. Marad- How it breeds terror and horror, hatred and satanic bleeding. There is a case for anti- Godism. Buddha did not believe in God but in the good Man.

       

      A dynamic Collector Dr. P.B. Salim knew that the real problem in Marad was communalism, superstition and a kind of obdurate obscurantism centered round women who are the cornerstone of orthodoxy, unemployment and vicious of husband’s authoritarianism.

       

      So Dr. Salim thought that the best strategy was to bring Hindu and Muslim women together. Hindu fisherwoman and Muslims of same trade can work together as sisters and establish a new occupational solidarity not merely in fishing but in other employment as well. They could sit together, weave together, tailor together etc.

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A Different Pilgrimage to be screened at Cannes- Hindustan Times

Phalak
    • S. Krishnaswamy, who first shot to incredible fame with his Indus Valley to Indira Gandhi in 1976, a four-hour riveting work distributed by Warner Brothers, has now made a feature length documentary, A Different Pilgrimage. Produced by his wife, Mohana Krishnaswamy, the film explores a virtually virgin subject: ancient India’s cultural and religious impact on South-east Asia. Having studied a history that was visualised and written by the white colonial masters, Indians have hardly known about the unique ties that once bonded them with south-east Asians. A Different Pilgrimage – well researched and marvellously photographed by celebrated cinematographer Madhu Ambat – fills this lacuna. The camera meanders along tens of locations in Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam trying to show us the phenomenally strong links that these nations shared with India, its heritage and culture -- links that went far beyond Buddhism. “We exported much more than Buddhism to these places”, Krishnaswamy avers.
    • A Different Pilgrimage, just out of the post-production lab, will be screened at the Cannes Film Festival Market. The Festival runs from May 12 to 23. At 109 minutes long, the documentary brings alive Borabudur and Prambanan in Java, Angkor Wat and Bayon in Cambodia, Phimai and Pnom Rung in Thailand, Wat Phu Champasak in Laos, Mi Son and Po Nagar in Vietnam and Baisaki in Bali, where centuries-old temples and monuments keep alive Indian tradition till this day. Daily worship has gone on there without a break. And here are a couple of fascinating facets: the Rajaguru to the Thai King traces his ancestry to India and the temple town of Chidambaram and recites Tamil Bhakti hymns, while the Rajaguru of the Cambodian monarch performs Hindu rituals in the royal court.
    • Recipient of Padmashri and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the US International Film and Video Festival, Los Angeles, among other honours, Krishnaswamy, assisted by Mohana, took four years to complete this documentary. His earlier India 5555 was screened at the White House for President Bill Clinton as part of his familiarisation-of-India-process before his visit. And, I am sure A Different Pilgrimage will help us traverse on an exciting path of discovery.

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Where's the beef? Indians don't want to know

  • Bellingham, Whatcom County Life, Travel, Books | Bellingham Herald

    tags: no_tag

    • By MARK MAGNIER - Los Angeles Times
    • MURSHIDABAD, India

    • Estimates suggest 1.5 million cows, valued at up to $500 million, are smuggled annually, providing more than half the beef consumed in Bangladesh.

      The cows come from as far as Rajasthan, about 1,000 miles away. Many trade hands several times en route.

      At the Panso market in Jharkhand state, an interim stop about 300 miles from the border, the 15,000 or so cows passing through each week fetch about $100 apiece, local vendors say.

      Animals that arrive exhausted are injected with Diclofenac sodium, a banned anti-inflammatory drug, to energize them. Most of the traders are Muslims. Many of the drivers and handlers are Hindus. At the border, crossings are usually done at night.

      Most cows pass through West Bengal state, which shares a 1,300-mile border with Bangladesh. The state's communist government maintains a neutral line on religion, allowing cows to be openly slaughtered and traded.

    • "My grandmother's house is in Bangladesh, and her field is in India," he said. "There are 21 rivers along a border that's (2,700 miles) long. It's just not possible to stop."
    • (Anshul Rana of the Los Angeles Times' New Delhi Bureau and special correspondent Baldeo Sharma in Jharkhand contributed to this report.)

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Lalu, you’re a traitor: BJP

  • Lalu, you’re a traitor: BJP

    tags: no_tag

    • In a heated exchange of words in Parliament over Bangladeshi infiltration, BJP leader Ananth Kumar attacked RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav.

       

       

      Questioning his nationalist loyalties, Ananth Kumar said, “Lalu, you are a traitor.”

       

       

      Kumar drew the attention of the House to the alleged activities of Bangladeshi refugees and the attempt by illegal migrants to register themselves as Indian citizens.

      He asked whether members of the House are with pro-Nationals or with anti nationals, and alleged that the Bangladeshi effort was not happening without the support of some politicians.

      "Are you with India or with Pakistan and Bangladesh," Kumar asked Prasad

      Earlier, Lalu Yadav accused BJP of pursuing RSS agenda.


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Sikh separatism: Still alive and festering in Canada - thestar.com

Uday Singh, in his Caledon home where the living room doubles as his office, continues to advocate for an independen Sikh homeland.
    • Uday Singh, in his Caledon home where the living room doubles as his office, continues to advocate for an independen Sikh homeland.

    • This all comes mere weeks before the 25th anniversary of the June 23, 1985, Air India bombing — Canada's worst mass murder — and on the heels of meetings between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Singh has expressed concern about growing support by Canadian Sikhs for militants in India.

      Most Sikhs worldwide long ago abandoned the notion of Khalistan, a separate Sikh state. But community leaders here acknowledge evidence that separatism is festering in Canada, believed to have the largest Sikh diaspora in the world. Some fear that extremist views offering a distorted view of what happened in Punjab years ago are influencing second-generation Sikh immigrants.

    • Yudhvir Jaswal, host of the Mississauga radio show South Asian Pulse and editor of Mid-Week News Weekly, said impressionable youth are being led astray. “The movement is dead ... long dead in India,” said Jaswal, who left India nine years ago. “But some people, a very tiny minority, have kept it alive here and divided the community.”

      Others defend the diaspora's right to peacefully campaign for a separate homeland.

    • Between the late '70s and early '90s, thousands of Sikhs, many involved in the push for a homeland, immigrated to the U.S., England and Canada.

      In India, the movement for a separate state largely evaporated in the early 1990s after it lost support of a majority of Sikhs, who were tired of the senseless violence.

    • “They are misleading youngsters and giving them wrong information. It scares me — what they teach at these places,” said Mann. Giving wall space to photos of alleged martyrs and celebrating their birthdays also creates fissures in the community, he added. “These are divisive activities.”

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Embracing Islam just for marriage is against religion: Deoband

  • Embracing Islam just for marriage is against religion: Deoband

    tags: no_tag

    • Islamic seminary Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband has said conversion to Islam just for the sake of marriage is against religion.

      Its comments came after a Hindu man in Garhi Pukhta village said he wanted to convert to Islam to marry his domestic help, who is a Muslim.

      Last month, 82-year-old Om Prakash, also a freedom fighter, and Gasia Begum (50) had applied at the marriage registrar office. Following stiff opposition to the relationship by his two sons, Prakash said he would convert to Islam if he was not allowed to marry Gasia.

      Their decision attracted the attention of the Islamic seminary, which termed any such move against the 'Shariat'.

      Deputy In-charge of the fatwa department of Deoband, Mufti Ahsan Kasmi, said conversion of person to Islam for the purpose of getting married is "against the Shariat.”

    • Muzaffarnagar (UP)

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पाक सेना में हिंदुओं की भर्ती! - Pakistan army recruiting Hindu youths - www.bhaskar.com

पाक सेना में हिंदुओं की भर्ती! - Pakistan army recruiting Hindu youths - www.bhaskar.com

  • जोधपुर
  • पाकिस्तान की सेना में इन दिनों हिंदू युवकों की भर्ती ने भारतीय ख्रुफिया एजेंसियों को चौकन्ना कर दिया है। उनका मानना है कि इसका मकसद राजस्थान व पंजाब में हिंदू युवकों के माध्यम से जासूसी का बड़ा नेटवर्क कायम करना है। पाकिस्तानी सेना में पहले हिंदू युवकों को स्थान नहीं दिया जाता था लेकिन गत दिनों इस पॉलिसी में बदलाव हुआ है। पिछले दिनों सिंध के 60 हिन्दू युवकों को सेना मंे भर्ती किया गया जिनमें कैप्टन सहित विभिन्न पदों पर 24 अधिकारी,6 डॉक्टर और 30 सैनिक शामिल हैं। पाकिस्तानी में धर्मिक कट्टरवाद और प्रताड़ना के चलते हिंदू परिवारों का पलायन कर भारत आने का सिलसिला जारी है। पिछले तीन साल के दौरान लगभग तीस ऐसे परिवार जोधपुर में बस चुके है। ऐसे हालात में हिंदुओं को सेना में शामिल करना मिल्रिटी इन्टेलीजेंस सहित तमाम खुफिया एजेसियों को शंका में डाल रहा है। उनका मानना है कि हिंदुओं को सेना में शामिल करने के पीछे पाकिस्तान का इरादा भारत मंे बसे उनके रिश्तेदारों के माध्यम से जासूसी का नेटवर्क कायम करने का है। पाक सेना की फील्ड इंटेलीजेंस विंग इससे पूर्व भी आईएसआई एजेंटों के माध्यम से भारतीय सेना के ठिकानों की जासूसी करवाती रही है।

BBC Hindi - अंतरराष्ट्रीय ख़बरें - मॉरिशस में आज आम चुनाव

BBC Hindi - अंतरराष्ट्रीय ख़बरें - मॉरिशस में आज आम चुनाव

  • मॉरिशस में आज संसदीय चुनाव के लिए मत डाले जा रहे हैं. इन चुनावों में मौजूदा प्रधानमंत्री नवीन रामगुलाम और पांच साल पहले उनसे हारने वाले पॉल बेरेंगर के बीच सीधी टक्कर है. हाल के दिनों में मॉरिशस के बहुसंख्यक हिंदु समुदाय और अन्य समुदायों के बीच खटास बढ़ी है. भारतीय महासागर स्थित इस देश में हिंदुओं के अलावा ईसाई, मुसलमान, क्रोएल्स और यूरोप से आए फ़्रांसीसी मूल के लोग रहते हैं.
  • चुनावों में मॉरिशस के प्रधानमंत्री नवीन रामगुलाम की सीधी टक्कर पॉल बेरेंगर से है

कुतुब मिनार परिसर से मिले, हिन्दू -जैन- इस्लाम धर्म के प्रतीक - LiveHindustan.com

- Desh Localnews - Desh - LiveHindustan.com

सरकार ने बुधवार को बताया कि कुतुब मिनार परिसर में विकास कार्यों के दौरान हिन्दू, जैन और इस्लाम धर्म के कई प्रतीक एवं मूर्तियां मिली हैं। लोकसभा में विलास मुत्तेमवार के प्रश्न के लिखित उत्तर में योजना एवं संसदीय मामलों के राज्यमंत्री वी नारायण सामी ने कहा कि विकास कार्यों के दौरान कुतुब परिसर से प्राप्त किए गए इन प्रतीकों एवं मूर्तियों में कुछ बिना टूटी कलाकतियों को राष्ट्रीय संग्रहालय में रखा गया है जबकि शेष को कुतुब परिसर में सुरक्षित रखा गया है। उन्होंने कहा कि इनका पुरातात्विक अध्ययन किया जायेगा।

People behind scene tried to delay trial: Nikam: Rediff.com India News

  • People behind scene tried to delay trial: Nikam: Rediff.com India News

    tags: no_tag

    • "There were people who were working behind the scene to delay the trial," Nikam says.

      According to Nikam, Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested in the attacks, changed and retraced his statements in the court not on his own, but according to instructions from elsewhere.

      "Don't force me to spell out who prompted Kasab to retract his statement," he adds.

      When pressed for details, he says, "We know the reason behind it. We also know who is behind the curtain (in prompting Kasab to withdraw his confessional statement)."

      Immediately, tightening up, he adds, "Why should I reveal? I won't share. It's a part of the investigation."

    • When rediff.com asked if Kasab's instructors were from Pakistan, Nikam responds, "Pakistan is far away. Those who were interested in dragging the trial and wanted to delay the case against Kasab were behind it. You may search yourself."
    • "When asked if his views on Kasab had changed after his daily meetings with the accused in the courtroom, Nikam responds, "He is a very well-trained commando. He has been trained how to behave and how to talk if he was captured. He is behaving as per his training. He has a cunning mind."

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