India to shed colonial brogues

• India to shed colonial brogues

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  • 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

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  • 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

• A Different Pilgrimage to be screened at Cannes- Hindustan Times

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• • 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

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  • 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

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  • 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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