Ponniyin: You are right as she is saying it pretty explicitly that women ‘must not enter the mosque’. I cant imagine its a North-South thing. Maybe its a women allowed into small mosques and not high profile mosques thing. Who knows, though its pretty clear that at least in that particular mosque, women are not welcome.

Sania’s apology

“While I am fully aware that a woman must not enter the sanctity of the mosque, I was unaware that even entering the outside gates of a mosque was seriously objectionable, specially without permission, which I was assured by the agency they possessed.”

We have people complaining about the denial of Dalits’ entry into Hindu temples. Do you folks think this issue falls in the same bucket?.

I have been informed that a discussion on the Indian constitution is underway here. I hope some of you with a few spare moments would be willing to review chapter 4 of my book which deals with the Indian constitution (the complete draft is available on the internet – link below) and provide a critical summary of that chapter for this website. It is a very short chapter.

Could I also suggest that you consider sending a link to my book to all your young friends and relatives in India (preferably in the 16-25 age group) – for their comments to be sent to me directly at sabhlok AT yahoo DOT com.

Link: http://www.sanjeev.sabhlokcity.com/breakingfree.html

Much appreciated.

Regards Sanjeev Sabhlok Melbourne

On the other hand, I’ve never heard of Hindus helping out others in this manner. Which explains why it was so easy for many, many invaders, with just small bands of men, to conquer and rule India for so many centuries. From ~1200 AD to 1947, an indigenous Indian never ruled Delhi?

True, but implicit in your statement is the assumption of a continuous linear ascendancy of a culture/religion/civilization going from strength to strength, instead of a cyclic nature of birth-death-regeneration, or the ups and downs of a sine curve – everything changes. If you want to look at it through the lens of yin-yang philosophy, then the rise-and-fall doesn’t come as a surprise. It could be seen as the resilience and flexibility of a culture/religion that it is still here in spite of all the invasions, and has adapted itself. I mean there must’ve been something good happening in India of those times (wealth /prosperity /knowledge /foo) that attracted those invaders in the first place, right?

Vijay Prashad is a lal salaam comrade based out of LA. Anything Hindu, and he’ll be there, talking of the ….

Akash, thanks for the info. Good to know.

Doing garba and raas during Navaratri is religious. Something non-Hindus don’t understand is that dancing and singing is part of Hinduism – it would irreligious to not dance during Navaratri.

And of course young people go to Navaratri partly to meet the opposite sex, thats one of the reasons why I go too:P. Whats wrong with that? Hinduism is more about practice than belief.

Mahesh – find some Guju friends and start going to Garbas!

If Muslims are brutally slaughtered in communal riots, it’s justifiable because of what happened at Vijayanagar 800 years ago.

Amardeep, you will be interested in this article in american scholar – Apologies All Around, Today’s tendency to make amends for the crimes of history raises the question: where do we stop?

Boston Mahesh, religions evolve. At least Hinduism does. Meat eating was quite common in ancient Hinduism but the increasing impact of Buddhism and the dharma aspects of not harming any living life both played a substantial role in making meat eating a no-no amongst the Brahmin community which then internalized this practise over millenia. Note, that Kshatriyas and other varnas did not adopt this practise and were not forced into it either. The cow in particular got reverence on account of its importance in the rural agricultural lifestyle and it being the animal equivalent to a kalpa vriksh. Todays Hindus are not particulary religious, and meat eating is on a rise (has to do with lifestyle choices and economics as well). Hinduism a century from now, might not be anywhere near todays Hinduism as far as meat eating goes- who knows!

As a jungli, as an Adibasi, I am not expected to understand the legal intricacies of the Resolution. But my common sense tells me that every one of us should march in that road to freedom and fight together. Sir, if there is any group of Indian people that has been shabbily treated it is my people. They have been disgracefully treated, neglected for the last 6000 years. The history of the Indus Velley civilization, a child of which I am, shows quite clearly that it is the newcomers—most of you here are intruders as far as I am concerned—it is the newcomers who have driven away my people from the Indus Valley to the jungle fastness… . The whole history of my people is one of continuous exploitation and dispossession by the non-aboriginals of India punctuated by rebellions and disorder, and yet I take Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru at his word. I take you all at your word that now we are going to start a new chapter, a new chapter in of independent India where there is equality of opportunity, where no one would be neglected.

Good job Missionaries!!

So here we have the famous Aryan Invasion Theory as propogated by Mueller again, in full bloom told to a tribal so that he quivers with outrage at the raw deal given to his people by the dastardly Aryans.

Good gravy, now genetics has disproven this trash, and the adherents – the Thapars, the Witzels will gradually be consigned to the detritus of history.

FYI, having spent quite a bit of time amongst tribals, its rather obvious to me that there are remarkable similarities with mainstream Hinduism. War, economic issues- mostly the former forced a lot of tribes into the interior for survivals sake.

And the noble Missionaries promptly dubbed them animists, lost souls for the saving and began their noble work– the consequences of which can be seen even today.

Well that was a rhetorical question, the beauty of Hinduism is there is not set of universal laws that all Hindus have to follow. Unlike what the Sangh parivar would have every one believe. Its always dangerous making blanket statements about Hindus in particular or Indians in general, there is a great diversity in how Hinduism is practiced all over India, depending on your family and region among other things. Though it is true that most Hindus don’t eat beef, some Hindu communities in southern India have been traditionally eating beef. As far as I know there is no injunction against wearing leather either, I have seen many devout Hindus, from many parts of India who do wear leather. Not wearing leather is a Jain tradition not a Hindu one.

What crowd you hang out with? My experience in Queens and Long Island, New York is very different. Most Hindus only hang out with other Hindus. 6 of my cousins are married or engaged to other Hindus and me and the rest of my cousins only date Hindus. During Navaratri, there were plenty of places that held garba and raas every night for 9 days. There are also clubbing events for Diwali!

I’ve checked into motels and been invited by the Indian owners to come over their houses (usually behind the receptionist desk)in the morning for chai, puri, gathas, etc.”

Going for garba and raas doesn’t necessarily make you religious.. they’re more aspects of Guju culture than Hindu necessarily, as I know tons of guju muslims who do garba too, and some sikhs too…

most of the youngsters I know who do garba do so to meet members of the opposite sex than from any sense of devoutness ..

I’m sure if tamils had something fun like that for navarathri Boston Mahesh would see other south indians engaged in it, but not necessarily devout, just as many people who do not view themselves as very Christian have christmas trees and exchange presents.

but generally, south indians (well, tamils) in the US, have cultural traditions that are quite dour and ‘highbrow” so it’s not surprising that many in the south indian diaspora reject much of them quite vehemently, as Mahesh finds..