Kerala police on Sunday arrested a 65-year-old priest, ‘Father’ Basil Kruiakose serving as principal of King David International School, on charges of sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy student in the dormitory of the residential schoool.
“Fr Basil Kuriakose abused the boy in the dormitory of the school’s hostel when the other students had gone home to spend Christmas holidays. He committed the crime while sleeping with the boy on December 21 night.
The school is run by a charitable trust, and is not linked to any religious organisation. The accused had joined the residential school as principal after retiring from an aided school. His wife is a retired professor, and the couple has a son settled in Australia. “Denying the charges, Fr Basil in his statement said though he had shared the room with the boy on the day, he did not abuse him,” said police officials.
“The incident came to light after the boy revealed the matter to his elder brother, when he visited his home at Kottayam on December 23. On being informed by the victim’s brother, their mother who along with her husband is working in Haryana, came to Kerala and filed a complaint at the Kunnathunadu police station,” they added. A case was been registered against Fr Basil under Section-377 of the IPC, and various Sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual offences Act (POCSO Act).”
Another report informs us that the parents are a Malayali couple settled in Haryana who admitted their son in the boarding school near Moovattupuzha to get him acquainted with the culture of Kerala. “The accused stripped the boy before molesting him. He also tried to sodomise him,” police said.
What Media Hides
The mainstream English media has notreported the name of the school and has also claimed that the school is run by a charitable trust, and is not linked to any religious organisation. But such subterfuge and spin often gets called out on social media, which explains why the establishment is so upset with ‘online trolls’.
One report tells us that Basil Kuriyakose is Principal of Kings David International School. And @by2kaafi reveals the nature of the charitable trust behind this school –
So the school is run by St. Thomas Mission Charitable Society, Dallas, Texas and the trust on its own website says that the school is running ‘under the patronage of the Jacobite Syrian Church’ – if this does not show a religious link, then what does? Can we imagine the outrage if a school linked to a Hindu religious math or even to RSS had witnessed such a sickening crime?
But such double standards and reticence in MSM when reporting crimes by members of the Christian Church or Islamic organizations is par for the course. For too long, sexual abuse, cheating, financial corruption and anti-national activism by the secular establishment has been swept under the carpet by a pliant media, as their sole agenda is demonization of Hindutva and Hindu organizations.
Another example of this servile attitude, which extends to politics, police and judiciary, is the case of CSI (Church of South India – a powerful body representing various Protestant Christian denominations) priest Jacob Livingston, who was involved in a drunk driving case where he hit & run a 50 year old lady who later passed away due to her injuries – but police filed the case as an ‘accident’.
+Bhavani, TN. Cops file case as accident and not caused by drunk driving by CSI Priest Livingston. People protest.https://t.co/BaeX2nCfnI
Incidents of sexual abuse by Christian priests at missionary educational institutions or children shelters/orphanages in Bharat is a regular occurrence. Some cases which HinduPost has tracked in recent years (the below is by no means an exhaustive list of all such cases) –
November 2016: Two Christian women teachers Nutan Joseph and Indu, of the ‘reputed’ St. Xavier’s missionary school in Patna were arrested for allegedly having sex with a five-year-old girl student. School Principal, ‘Father’ Jacob, is also under suspicion and his role is being investigated by police.
Aug 2016: Lancy Lobo, the vice-principal of St. Fidelis College in Lucknow UP, was arrested on charges of harassing a class VIII girl student of his school. Last month, Lobo was released on bail as State counsel submitted that the government had no objection. (we thank @Counter_Part_X for sharing this news)
April, 2016: Vatican directed the South India Catholic Church to reinstate an Indian Catholic priest, Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, who was convicted of sexually assaulting minor girls in USA
Dec 2015: Forcibly converted to Christianity, hung by the wrists from a ceiling fan, starved for days, force fed beef and beaten mercilessly for failing to recite Bible passages—this is what a nine-year-old boy had to endure at an illegal Christian shelter run by the Emmanuel Seva Group in Greater Noida and Meerut.
Mar 2013: Grace Home, run by Pastor Jacob John, was raided in March 2013 and 53 children from North Eastern states like Manipur and Nagaland rescued. 4 children died due to their ordeal, a number of minor girls were sexually exploited, one got pregnant, and many suffered from severe physical deformities and mental retardation.
Jan 2013: Father Egidius Francis Falcao, vice-principal of the National Institute of Open Schooling study centre at Don Bosco high school, Pune was arrested for allegedly molesting and attempting to rape a 14-year-old girl student. Police investigations revealed that Father Falcao was involved in similar incidents in previous schools in Mumbai and had been asked to resign from there – yet, he got bail in a few weeks.
Often, these offending priests get away citing persecution – Christian bodies start a whisper campaign to explain the charges as ‘dirty politics’ insinuating the shady hand of ‘fascist Hindutva organizations’. Police and administration too fall weak in front of the combined might of the secular establishment.
How much longer will be let our children suffer at the altar of secularism and political correctness?
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Procession for Ayya Vaikundar, regarded as avatar of Bhagwan Vishnu; Image Source: http://alchetron.com/Ayya-Vaikundar-1133302-W
After the last article about how the story of Nangeli was most probably a concocted lie, many liberals abused us for supposedly giving a clean chit to caste Hindus (which we obviously did not do!!! – difference between atrocity literature and truth seems to have gone over their heads) and started claiming the Channar revolt as historical evidence for the story of Nangeli and breast tax. As we notice that many people are getting confused about the motive of this Channar revolt, we have decided to expose another agenda used by the missionaries and liberals against the Hindus – claiming the intervention of British as the reason for social reform movement in the Hindu society of that region.
Channar or Shanar is a community found in the Tamil society. The Kanyakumari region, where the Channars revolted acted as a buffer state between the Pandyas and Cheras as it continuously kept changing in the administrative region of these two kingdoms till the end of Pandyas and Cheras, after which the region stayed in the administration of Venad Kings who were later known as the Mahraja of Travancore. As it is stated in the previous article, Nangeli lived at Cherthala and belonged to the Ezhava community of Kerala society. So how is it that the death of an Ezhava woman in Cherthala, far away from Kanyakumari, was ignored by the Kerala society but taken up as a cause by the Tamils who revolted against the administration? Let us have a detailed analysis of this issue.
Liberals speaking about the Channar revolt surprisingly always leave out the leader of this revolt, Ayya Vaikundar, who even today is worshipped as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu by the Channars. What actually resulted in this riot is revealed in the study named “Thol Seelai Kalagam” (Shoulder Cloth Riots: Known Falsehoods and Unknown Truths) by Sri. A.Ganesan and Sri. S Ramachandran published in 2010 (http://www.sishri.org/reviewanprint.html). The major reason for this revolt was the cunning activities of supplying upper garments to the converted people by the missionaries. What was till then a luxury was projected as a symbol of status by the British administration giving rise to the feeling of suppression among poor Hindus making them vulnerable to the act of conversion by the missionaries.
Procession for Ayya Vaikundar, regarded as incarnation of Bhagwan Vishnu; Image Source: http://alchetron.com/Ayya-Vaikundar-1133302-W
This uneasiness spreading among the society was further worsened when the British administration compelled the Maharaja of Travancore to pay 8 lakh rupees as protectorate. This made the Maharaja to levy new taxes on his subjects. One of those was the poll tax which the Channars had to pay for individuals between 16 to 60 years. The tension caused by this further increased when the British regent of Travancore Col. Munro made an announcement that people converted to Christianity will be exempted from this tax. This gave rise to anti-missionary sentiments ultimately leading to the Channar revolt.
Ayya Vaikundar, a social reformer, led this Channar revolt against the British colonial state ofTravancore. He gathered people from 18 different communities from Barbers to Madhva Brahmins who suffered from this conversion activities by the British government (the names of all these communities are specified in his works) and started the Channar revolt during which he called the British as “White demons” who created discriminations in the society and extorted money from public in the form of taxes. He was hence arrested by the Travancore government. But as the revolt gained momentum, he was later released and all the taxes were abolished by government.
It is interesting to note that the missionaries in Kanyakumari district (the area where Ayya Vaikundar is still remembered and worshipped) which is currently in Tamil Nadu after the reorganization of states, preach that majority of Ayya’s revolt was against the Brahmins. The missionaries in Kerala have given birth to a new story of Nangeli and related it to Channar revolt completely ignoring this great social reformer. Thus, we get to know that Channar revolt was one of the first movement which happened as a result of the missionary activities promoted by the British government – which is now being used by the missionaries for their benefit, and liberals are abusing us for bringing out the truth as they are taken in by the anti-Hindu propaganda.
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Love Jihad is an activity under which young Muslim boys and men reportedly target young girls belonging to non-Muslim communities (mainly Hindus as they are easily vulnerable) for conversion to Islam by feigning love. This issue has garnered national attention in 2009 when large number of conversions were found as a result of Love Jihad in Kerala and areas surrounding it.
This issue though continuously projected as a threat by the leaders of Hindu society, has been denied as a matter of controversy by the secular media and liberal intellectuals citing the personal choice of choosing life partner as the reason for such conversions, despite of all the rapes and murders it has caused and the suffering of many Hindu girls who are exploited and abused after marriage under sharia law. But on the other hand, even former communist CPMand Congresschief ministers of Kerala had acknowledged the rapid conversions, especially of women into islam over the years.
But will personal choice of choosing life partners make our young girls choose such cruel men, giving rise to increase in crime against women and forcible conversions? Let us have a detailed analysis over this issue.
Recently, a 16 year old girl named Amrita’s body was found lying at the railway track near the Mukkali station in Kerala. Though it was projected as suicide by the secular media, subsequent events have made the police take custody of three young muslim men. It was later revealed by the police that the girl was spotted together with one of the guys named Muhammad Irshad a while before her she was found dead as per an eye witness. Some reports say she committed suicide, but the photographs of her dead body say otherwise. Will a girl coincidentally have chosen such a cruel man as her partner without any acting or efforts taken by him? (Reference: http://vatakara.truevisionnews.com/news/social-media-post-about-amritha-suicide/)
Let us see some other cases where the girls ended up with similar fate. In May 2015, 23 year old Anuja was found hanging with her head tonsured and hair strewn on the ground. Later it was revealed that the girl was in a live in relationship with a man named Khaleem who was the chief accused in the murder of BJP leader Manikandan (murder of BJP and RSS leaders are very common in Kerala, another thing which is continuously ignored by media and central government), which made police take custody of Khaleem and find out his history. Khaleem, a married man with three children, had wooed Anuja through facebook and professed love, following which the couple decided to marry making Anuja end up with this fate.
Few months ago, days before the state elections of Kerala in 2016, a rape case stunned the nation. A 29 year old law student named Jisha was found dead in her home at Perumbavoor. She was living with her mother who worked as a labourer. Police found her body in a mutilated condition. After weeks of probe, police finally arrested the culprit, Ameer-Ul-Islam from Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu. Further enquiries of the accused, revealed that Jisha had resisted sexual advances from him earlier on the day she died, which led to her cruel rape and murder by the culprit, making us suspicious about whether Amrita too had the similar fate in the hands of Muhammad Irshad and his friends.
These incidents show that our young innocent girls like Anuja, Jisha and Amrita are in grave danger by these jihadists who lure Hindu women to marry them for a life of exploitation and abuse, and do not hesitate to rape and kill them if they resist.
In July 2016, it was reported that the girl named Nimisha who converted into islam and left to join ISIS with her jihadi partner had won prizes in Gita chanting when she was at school. So this means that just the basic education of Dharmic tradition from childhood is not enough, we must also teach our kids to abhor all sort of jihadist elements much like how muslims teach their children to detest polytheism and idolatry by showing examples from their scriptures and deeds of their prophet. It is now one of the duties of elders in Hindu families to educate their girls from childhood about the harm people like Muhammad Irshad can cause to them, preventing them from undergoing any such sufferings.
These three tweets by True Indology, a twitter account that you must follow if you’re on twitter, got me thinking about how far we have come since our ancestors put up a heroic resistance against barbarians:
These passages from reputed historian, Jadunath Sarkar’s ‘Fall of Mughal Empire’ (Ch.3), were a revelation for me. While Mathura is my ancestral land, my pitrabhoomi, I had very little clue of its bloody history. I had heard such instances in generics but never in such gruesome detail. Perhaps, it was for a reason. What we know is that my ancestors likely put up with a lot of violence, a lot of persecution, just to conserve their Hindu identity, their faith, their multi-millennial traditions. All of which are endangered today.
It got me thinking how ashamed our ancestors, who put up a heroic resistance against barbarians, would be of us today. Consider this: a community of priestly Hindus has been residing on a ‘Teela’ (hill) in Mathura, UP for centuries. The Teela on one one side has had a historically densely populated ‘minority’ community. This community at the foot of the Teela hasn’t been “aggressive” due to united Hindu polarization siding with Congress or Jan Sangh in the past. The Bahubalis belonging to these parties maintained social fabric of the area around the Teela. However, recently this polarization broke with the entry of Mayawati and Mandal politics. This phenomenon really had its roots in VP Singh’s affirmative action in late 80s.
Youth of this Hindu community began moving to cities in early 90s seeking private sector jobs, due to being crowded out in public sector by affirmative action and overall lack of development due to govt’s policies. Slowly, the Teela lost its youth to cities. Ones who remained did so largely due to their own lack of talent and/or resources. As a result, many became lethargic due to general joblessness, spiraling into vices that further ruined their job prospects i.e., gambling, bhaang, alcoholism, etc.
The population of the teela is largely old people with a few poor families and their children
Overhead electric wires are major fire hazard, the alley ways are too narrow for fire safety trucks and equipment to arrive in case of any eventuality.
Street going down to the foot of the Teela. All populated by older people in their last leg of life.
The foot of the Teela; the houses after the car belonged to the Hindu community, but were bought off by the minority community with the encroachment increased slowly.
The Teela, once home to the priestly class of Mathura now a ruin, with decrepit buildings, inconsistent electricity, and largely poor people with limited resources at hand. An open invitation to be “demographically overrun” by another younger, denser community supported by the State’s minority appeasement policies and funds coming in from the Kingdom of the Saud. Could we have saw this coming? After all, Western Uttar Pradesh (where Mathura is located) has seen this story played before (see Kairana, Muzaffarnagar): shift in rural, semi-urban population in heavily dense districts.
With youth in cities showing no interest in returning or conserving their ancestral lands, what happens after the older generation bids their goodbyes from this neighborhood? Is a demographic takeover by the minority community at the foot of the Teela a foregone conclusion? Forgetting how our ancestors from this ancient citadel had once fought barbarians from overrunning their punyabhoomi? Or should there be a sangathan that takes over the official restoration and maintenance of these houses, use them to relocate persecuted Hindus from other parts of BharatVarsha? At the least, should Hindus perform their own census and see if Hindus from other parts of Western Uttar Pradesh need relocation assistance?
What Abdali and other barbarians couldn’t do with their swords over centuries, the Bharatiya State might achieve with secular “laws” within a few decades.
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There are a lot of smug South and West Bharatiyas on the internet who think that helping out our poor states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan etc is wasteful expenditure and are asking why comparatively rich states of the union like Tamil Nadu, Maharastra, Karnataka etc should support the poorer states. What is worse is the fact that most of these arguments are coming from the self claimed nationalists and Hindutvawadis of the internet.
It is a disgrace to the actual Nationalists of Bharat that such questions from the supposedly nationalistic right wingers of Bharat need to be addressed. The arguments of these supposedly “RW/Nationalists” range from a very malignant like question of allowing Bihari/UP migrants into their respective states for work to a much less malignant question of transfer of tax money (i.e. fiscal transfer from GoI). The onus of correcting the narrative is thus on the well informed and well read people who put their national identity over state identities so as to debunk these cancerous ideas before they take hold any further.
Questioning the right of Bihari laborers to work outside Bihar is a malignant idea
This is a very malignant idea to begin with, even though it might look to many half informed people as being a very legitimate point, specially to those who take their economic policies and ideas from the far right websites like Brietbart. Bharat is a nation state and single unified country, a fact which many of these supposed nationalists seem to forget when questioning the right of anyone to migrate and work within Bharat. Every Bharatiya has the right to move, work and settle in any place he wants. Bharat is the homeland and motherland of every Bharatiya born here and hence the very basis of this question of allowing people of different states to migrate to other states to take up jobs reeks of anti-nationalism. This is the reason why article 370 of the constitution, which protects Jammu and Kashmir from the free movement and settlement of rest of Bharatiyas, is a very malicious and divisive one since it prevents the Jammu and Kashmir from becoming a full core territory of Bharat like rest of the states. Making these kinds of questions and their logical implication will lead to creation of article 370 like situation in every state in Bharat, leading to every state becoming a non core territory of Bharat just like J&K.
Strangely enough, these same nationalists, who oppose article 370 (and rightfully so) because they see how article 370 prevents full integration of J&K into the union, don’t feel ashamed when questioning the movement of Bihari labour to other more fortunate parts of Bharat. The nationalists should know better rather than to question the right of any Indian to migrate, work and live anywhere in Bharat as per his will.
Debunking the myth that Bihari Migrants are a strain on the local economy
The next popular myth is that immigration is bad for the local economy of the immigrants. This of course has been debunked by every single economics paper and study on the entire planet. All cases of immigration, specially the ones where the immigrants are working for their livelihood is good for the economy as a whole. This is of course very logical- each immigrant adds a pair of working hands to the local economy and the society he migrates to. The greatest resource of any country is the Human resource and hence immigrants add the biggest resource i.e. the Human resource to the local economy.
In fact, logically speaking, immigrants are a better human resource than the local population. Why? In economics and population studies, there is a concept of dependency ratios and demographic dividend. Humans who are too young (0-15 years) or too old (60+ years) need to be supported by the working age population (15-59 years). The ratio of working population to the dependence population is called dependency ratio and Bharat right now has favourable dependency ratio i.e. more working than dependent people. This is something many Bharatiyas half-interested in economics are familiar with since this is something frequently used in debates and news on how Bharat has a great potential because of “young” population which gives it a demographic dividend.
How is this relevant to the question here? It is relevant because the immigrants add a net positive to the dependency ratio. Unlike the local population, which had to be supported in their young age from 0-15 years by the local population, the immigrants from Bihar will not have to be fed or raised or supported to the age of 0-15 because they are already grown up and are in working age. Therefore, the immigrants add to the economy and working population from day one without being dependent on the local economy. Thus, immigrants are much better human resource to the local population than local population per se from an economic perspective.
Ironically, many of the people who sprout hatred against immigration from Bihar were also against emigration to Saudi Arabia, UAE or USA. Their concerns about Bharat losing talent and human resource to the foreign countries is quite valid. But for some reason, they don’t seem to apply the same logic in this case that the migration to their home states from less fortunate states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh is good as it brings human resource from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Of course, this is not to say that immigration is bad for Bihar or Uttar Pradesh either. The immigrants are not irrational to leave their homes to work in the States they migrate to, to live under often subhuman living conditions, for nothing, specially for the thankless people who think their work towards their host states are unwelcome. Biharis endure such hardships because the situation back home for them is even worse. They would rather save some money by working in richer states and send it back home for their poor kids, to send them to school and run their families.
Immigrant repatriations help to ease up the wealth inequalities among states to a large extent. And of course, by working in other states, they gain valuable experience in the fields they work in and can in near future, when the poorer states pick up growth and development, can establish new shops, restaurants, businesses to create jobs back home. This is a win-win situation for everybody. Of course, wages will drop in short run in host states but the lower wages are also responsible for lower overall costs for the consumers in the local economy as a whole. So banning immigration to keep wages high is as brilliant as banning power-looms to keep the wages from hand looms high.
The net effect of such Trump-esque/Brietbart type policies will be net drain for the economy. If anything, Bihar having lower economic opportunities is the reason why states like TN and Maharashtra continue to gain more investment even though the rising costs of labour in these states should in theory keep investments out of these states. Thanks to the possibility of immigration, the economic engines of these rich states continue to run. But sadly, the immigrants who help in this miracle only get contempt from their supposedly nationalistic Bharatiyas.
This is only the economic story. Social problems can arise out of immigrants if they don’t assimilate and engage in crime. But most of the Hindu immigrants, whom these supposed nationalists are attacking assimilate very quickly due to similar culture and religion and hardly engage in crime. Most of the second generation immigrants become as Marathi or Tamilians as the native Marathi or Tamilians in most cases. Yet, these people have a problem with the immigration from Bihar and UP. Worse yet, many of them go as Hindu nationalists as well, showing their actual concerns for their fellow Bihari and UP Hindu brethren. One can understand the opposition for Muslim immigration from Muslim ghettos around Bharat (Bangladesh, Burma) and the truck load of problems such migrants bring, but why are these Hindu nationalists opposing migration from Hindu Bihar and Uttar Pradesh?
Why transfer of tax and wealth from rich states to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh is justified
There are many people from richer states of the Union, who take issue with transfer of taxes from their states to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. One has to wonder what kind of Hindutva or nationalism they follow when they have problem with transfer of wealth from one Hindu to another Hindu or one Bharatiya to another Bharatiya. Is the transfer of taxes from rich states to poorer states any different from taxing rich people to pay for the poor people, which is how any government anywhere in the world operates?
What would one think of a guy who thinks that government should tax rich people and spend that tax on the same rich people? So one would think they would be having no problem with transfer of taxes from richer Bharatiyas to poor Bharatiyas, if they are nationalists who care about nationalism and hence fellow Bharatiyas or they would be cool with transfer of wealth from rich Hindus to poor Hindus when they define themselves as Hindutvawadis, since they supposedly care about well being of fellow Hindus. But no, these are the people who claim to be Nationalists and Hindutvawadis but are unhappy with transfer of wealth within the same nation and among Hindus.
Even worse is the fact that these people whine about wealth transfer although it is not even that significant. There is barely 20% per capita transfer difference between rich states like Maharashtra and poor states Bihar and Uttar Pradesh (see the last table). Also, the same people malign poor development record of Bihar but as can be seen from graph below, per capita development expenditure of Bihar is less than 50% of Bharat. Do we really expect our poor brothers from Bihar to catch up quickly when they get half the development assistance as compared to average Bharat?
Per capita development expenditure is much lower in Bihar
Historical step-motherly treatment of Bihar
Of course, many of the tax redistribution whiners don’t know or sometimes don’t even care to know that Bihar deserves far more wealth redistribution and compensation if we are fair and neutral. Bihar was impoverished by systemic discrimination by the central government since independence. The planned transfers to Bihar in every 5-year plan has always been much lower than the average. The below table is compiled on actual plan allocation to Bihar in each of the 5-year plans till 2007. As can be seen in the last column, Bihar got much lower than projected expenditure in the plan which is based on population of the state. This unequal distribution of resources against one state can hardly be justified for such a long duration. If anything the current excess fiscal transfers to Bihar would only correct the historical maltreatment of Bihar.
Plan Allocation to Punjab and Bihar since independence
Also, one cannot forget about the freight equalization policy, which killed the competitiveness of any industry in Bihar till 1991. Under this policy, basic raw material like steel and coal, abundantly available in Bihar were made available at a constant price across the entire country to encourage development country-wide. But what it essentially did was blunt competitiveness of Bihar while allowing the coastal states to prosper at the expense of Bihar and other mineral rich states. Having a coastline already improves competitiveness due to easy access to world economy and freight equalization ensured that Bihar lost the only source of competitiveness it had till 1991. So when the reforms in 1991 happened, the other coastal states which were already well placed with decent industrialization base leap-frogged in development while Bihar-UP stay stuck in a vicious cycle of crime and under-development.
It should be emphasized that, when RW whines about being robbed to pay for Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, they follow the exact same propaganda as Maoists use in Bihar and Chattisgarh. Maoists point to central government mining their states to pay for the development of rest of Bharat as a propaganda tool. These people too are now repeating the same argument of how their tax money is being used to fund and fix Bihar’s problems. How nationalistic are these people that their line of reasoning resembles eerily similar to that of the Maoists and terrorists on the very same issue. Should Bihar and Chattisgarh now take over their mines and ban the use of vast natural resources from being used elsewhere in the Union using the same logic these people seem to use- why redistribute Bihari mineral wealth for helping rest of Bharat? Isn’t this line of thinking as dangerous as the Chrislamists/Maoist version of political discourse?
We will give you another example of hypocrisy while discussing this issue. Some South Bharatiyas salivate at the prospect of river water linking project of Ganga with Cauvery. Do they have any locus standi when they want to share water from the same UP, Bihar belt but not their money? Is this their sense of nationalism? Somehow for these people, wanting to take water from Ganges river during deficits in Cauvery river is justified because of “nationalism”, where sharing of national resources like water is justified, but they themselves won’t share their economic opportunities and resources for our Bihari brothers.
Additionally, some people in the social media think that Bihar and Uttar Pradesh will be always backward. But this is inherently misguided as this goes against the civilization history of Bharatvarsha. Historically Gangetic plains have always been very rich and seat of important power and nurtured our civilization. So it is ill-informed opinion to assume that Bihar and UP cannot rise up and have something inherently wrong with them. It is probably bad karma of us Indians as a whole that today, our civilizational brothers in our civilization’s heart have to endure such contempt from the westernized Right Wingers masquerading as nationalists.
If given enough time, our Bihari and UP brothers will catch up with the rest of Bharat, specially with proper investments and better governance. Till then, it is our duty as fellow citizens of Bharat to help our brethren from Bihar and UP with all the help they need. Why else do we have the union of Bharat if not to help each other in our times of weakness. There is no point in preserving the union, if we don’t stick by our brethren in Bihar and UP in their times of need. Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh with few years of good governance have already broken out of BIMARU state tag, so there is no reason to think that UP and Bihar cannot.
Lastly, a strong Bihar and UP are good for Bharat’s economy as a whole. Small wealth transfer today will quickly help these states grow and rest of the states will gain tomorrow when these states are rich. Higher economic activity within the country will help every state just as it helps all countries in the world, if world economy is doing better. So, in terms of transfers Bihar and UP will pay back more than what GoI spends on them today.
Thus, those who stand against this temporary help to our fellow Hindus are completely misinformed and doing a great disservice to this nation.
(The article was first published here. You can follow @yugaparivartan on twitter.)
Disclaimer: This article represents the opinions of the Author, and the Author is responsible for ensuring the factual veracity of the content. HinduPost will not be responsible for the accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity of any information, contained herein.
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A woman who says she was kidnapped and abused as a sex slave for 13 years by a British Pakistani taxi driver in the Midlands (a region of UK), who also pimped her out and ‘sold’ her four children, has spoken out for the first time.
Anna Ruston, who changed her name after the ordeal, says she was a vulnerable 15-year-old in 1987 when a taxi driver called Malik took an interest in her and invited her to his home to meet his mother, brothers, and their wives.
Writing in her new book ‘Secret Slave’ Ruston said Malik called her a “white s**t” and raped her, before locking her in a bedroom and relentlessly beating her for 13 years.
She says she was prostituted to other men and her captor “sold” the four children she bore to him in captivity. She says Malik would stop beating her during pregnancy, but gave away her children to other couples for money.
The smell of garlic still brings back horrific memories as her captor used to reek of it when he abused her, Ruston told the Daily Mirror.
“I can still see that bedroom, the corner where I would rock in pain. Although after a while I stopped feeling pain, I think my body shut down.
“And I can smell it – the can I used as a toilet, the garlic he reeked of. I got to the point where I didn’t know what life was.”
Ruston says she tried to kill herself with painkillers, by throwing herself down the stairs, or trying to strangle herself with a scarf. She says she was taken to the hospital with injuries on a number of occasions, but was never left alone with doctors or nurses
Ruston told BBC Radio 4’s Today program: “There were always three or four people with me, so I couldn’t see an escape. I never answered the doctors I just nodded or shook my head.”
She said she believes people were afraid to help her for fear of being accused of discrimination.
“Malik dressed me in his culture’s clothes, dyed my hair black, made me wear a scarf and keep my head down. When he spoke for me they thought it was a cultural thing. And I think people are scared to be accused of discrimination.”
She says she eventually escaped with the help of a health visitor after Malik told her she would be taken to Pakistan where she feared she would be “stoned to death or sold.”
She wrote a note begging for help on a piece of paper along with a time she knew Malik and his family would be distracted for prayers for the Muslim festival of Eid. The health visitor handed back a note saying she would ring the house phone three times when she was outside, allowing Ruston to run for help through the front door where a key had been left.
Ruston, who is now 44, has been free for 16 years. She says she is too scared to give evidence to police but was encouraged to write about her experiences as part of her therapy.
She claims her ordeal could happen on “any street in the UK.” Ruston had originally lived with her great grandmother, but after the elderly woman died, she moved in with her abusive step father, from whose care she was later removed.
Her fractured relationship with her own family meant she was not reported missing, she says.
Status of Kafir Women in Muslim Societies
The above report appeared on RT.com. In 2014, an independent report estimated that 1,400 children had been sexually abused in the town of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England between 1997 and 2013, predominantly by gangs of British-Pakistani men. Authorities in Rotherham failed to act effectively against the abuse or even, in some cases, to acknowledge that it was taking place for fear of “giving oxygen” to racism.
From sexual grooming of young Christian, Sikh and Hindu girls in UK, to Love Jihad in Bharat – the pattern is the same. Kafir (non-Muslim) females are considered fair game and easy meat for exploitation by Muslim fanatics. And the response of civil society & elites to this insidious crime is startlingly similar in societies as far apart as UK and Bharat – a complete denial of the systematic assault due to political correctness (also called secularism in Bharat). Those who raise the issue are maligned as bigots – racists in UK and communal in Bharat.
This poster reflects the mindset toward ‘uncovered’ women, even in Muslims who have migrated to Western democracies –
This is what their scripture tells Muslims –
Quran (33:59) – “Tell thy wives and thy daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks close round them…”
Is it any surprise that many Muslims regard non-Muslim women dressed in any dress other than Muslim dress like hijab or burqa as ‘provocative’ and women who are morally lax? In fact, the very word kafir represents a morally lax person as its usage in Bollywood songs shows.
The seizure of kafir girls and their use as sex slaves is also sanctioned in the Quran. According to Islamic law, Muslim men can take “captives of the right hand” (Quran 4:3, 4:24, 33:50). The Quran says: “O Prophet! Lo! We have made lawful unto thee thy wives unto whom thou hast paid their dowries, and those whom thy right hand possesseth of those whom Allah hath given thee as spoils of war” (33:50). 4:3 and 4:24 extend this privilege to Muslim men in general.
Aslate Dr. K.S. Lal, one of the few historians who has written about the atrocities committed by Muslim rulers on the Hindu population, writes –
“The three waves of invasions under Muhammad bin Qasim, Mahmud of Ghazni and Muhammad of Ghaur, took about five hundred years to establish Muslim rule in Bharat. For another five hundred years, sultans and emperors ruled over the country….these invaders left almost a permanent lagacy of political and social turmoil in Bharat because their aims and methods were continued by Muslims even after they had become rulers.
When Muhmmad bin Qasim invaded Sind, he took captives wherever he went and sent many prisoners especially women prisoners to his homeland. Parimal Devi, and Suraj Devi the two daughters of Raja Dahir who were sent to Hajjaj to adorn the harem of the Caliph were part of a large bunch of maidens remitted as one-fifth share of the state (Khums) from the booty of war (Ghanaim).
From the days of Muhammad bin Qasim in the eighth century to those of Ahmad Shah Abdali in the eighteenth, enslavement, distribution and sale of captives was systematically practised by Muslim invaders.
One recognised way of escape from sex exploitation in the medieval period was Jauhar or group-self-immolation. Jauhar also was naturally resorted to because the motives and actions of the victors were never in doubt…the repeated Jauhars at one place, Chittor, during the attacks of Alauddin Khalji, Bahadur Shah of Gujrat and Emperor Akbar have become memorable for the spirit shown by the Rajputnis. Captured and erslaved women often had to lead a life of misery and dishonour as happened with Deval Devi, daughter of Raja Karan Baghela of Gujarat”
Enslavement of Hindu women and men is the one constant in the long list of invaders and Muslim rulers of Bharat – Mahmud Ghaznavi, Muhammad Ghauri, Qutabuddin Aibak, Sultan Iltutmish, the Khaljis and the Tughlaqs (1290-1414 C.E.) like Alauddin Khalji and Muhammad bin Tughlaq, Taimur the Lame, the Mughals, Nadir Shah etc.
The sex slave trade of captured girls from Eastern Europe, Balkans, and Asia Minor/Byzantium by Turkish Muslim invaders, mirrors the Hindu experience around the same time –
“Inspecting New Arrivals” by Givlio Rosati (1858 – 1917) Source: www.orientalist-art.org.uk/rosati.jpgThe Slave Market By Jean-Lean Gerome (1824-1904) Source: www.orientalist-art.org.uk/ger13.jpg
And it is not just the scripture or historical examples that justify sex slaves – even present day authority figures have justified sex slavery of kafir women. Shockingly, the defenders of this barbaric practise include Muslim women like Kuwaiti politician, Salwa al-Mutairi and Suad Saleh, a lady professor from the renowned Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt.
There are signs that UK is waking up to the problem it faces due to the insular, regressive and supremacist elements in its Muslim population – but left-liberal elites in Bharat and our political class are still wide asleep on this issue, just as they are on the jihadi threat to West Bengal.
Several months ago, BBC had published an article based on a pseudo-historical legend. The article states Avarna (low caste women) from Kerala were not allowed to wear upper garments and used to pay ‘breast tax’ to cover their breasts. The article also states that, to protest this, a low caste Avarna woman named Nangeli from Ezhava caste chopped off her breasts and presented it to the tax officials. It was later published in ‘The News Minute’ as well by Supriya Unni Nair, when CBSE removed this section from its social science textbook.
The main person who made this myth popular is an ‘artist’ named T Murali (calls himself as Chithrakaran). He claims that he found this story while going through a local magazine written by a person from Cherthala. However, some searching on the web will show us that this person runs a blog full of crass anti-Hindu propaganda and paintings and full of sexist remarks which ironically many ‘progressive’ anti-Hindu liberals and feminists claim to be the way of upper caste Hindus who suppressed others. For example, he insulted Sarasvati Devi in the most disgusting manner in one of his blogs in Malayalam.
“Since devotion to Gods (bhakti) is becoming popular (he calls it as ‘madness’) in the society, thought that it is relevant to think about the breast size of Sarasvati, the brand name of bra and panties which she uses etc”
Another statement from the blog by the ‘artist’ T Murali (Chithrakaran) :
“Let me also reveal that Chitrakaran (addressing himself) has been thinking about how many penises and vaginas the gay God Vishnu of Brahmins has.”
Blogger Profile of T Murali (alias Chithrakaran), an Adarsh Liberal who spends his free time thinking about breast size and bra/panty brand of Sarasvati Devi, and penises and vaginas of ‘Gay’ Bhagwan Vishnu
His venomous anti-Hindu hate and perverted mind is visible from the statements from his blog. Does this show that the ultra-liberal social activists accusing Hindu society of oppressing people with sexist remarks are actually projecting their own sick minds on others – “If we wallow in the gutter, so must the world!”
If this pervert had written in a similar vein about the icons of the Abrahamic faiths – Islam and Christianity, he would have been dead or in hiding by now. Still, liberals claim that it is the Hindus who are intolerant!
Anyway, we shall now refute his claim of Nangeli chopping off her breasts. First of all, how could a woman endure the pain after cutting off her breasts and then go and present her breasts to the tax inspector? If at all we consider her to be a brave woman like many other women this country has produced, there are also zero historical documents supporting this myth, apart from local fable. But as seen earlier in our article about Cheraman Perumal, local fables without any facts or documents for support cannot be accepted as historical evidence as it takes only a small amount of time for what is just a story to become a historical fact.
Another fact is that in reality all women of Kerala never really covered their breasts until early 20th century (except for few royals and other aristocrats who had access to luxurious dress)
Dutch representative William Van Nieuhoff in 17th century writes about the attire of Ashwathi Thirunal Umayamma Rani, then queen of Travancore:
“… I was introduced into her majesty’s presence. She had a guard of above 700 Nair soldiers about her, all clad after the Malabar fashion; the Queens attire being no more than a piece of callicoe wrapt around her middle, the upper part of her body appearing for the most part naked, with a piece of callicoe hanging carelessly round her shoulders.”
Dutchman William Van Nieuhoff meeting queen of Travancore in 17th century; Image Source
The above image is the 17th century painting of Nieuhoff introducing himself in front of Umayamma Rani. We can see her being topless along with her topless women attendants. Even the men of Kerala never wore any upper garment just like the soldiers of the queen seen in the image.
Kerala had a good tropical climate, and there was no need of covering oneself with so many garments. Traditional attire of old Kerala men were mundu or lungi alone, without any shirts. Similar case existed in other regions like Bali and Sri Lanka which had similar climate and people had less clothings including women. Balinese women went topless until few decades ago. It was only after the Islamic invasions and introduction of Victorian morals (morals of the west) that “covering the body more” argument came into being.
The article published in The Newsminute also says, “In 1813, the Travancore court Dewan Colonel John Munro threw them a carrot and issued an order saying Nadar women who converted to Christianity could cover their chests with an “upper cloth”. The royal court opposed this and the women were only allowed to wear a long blouse that the Muslims and Syrian Christians of the time wore.” But in reality, the church with the British support had all the authority of opposing the orders of the Travancore Raja as seen from the documents of Swathi Thirunal’s period, which also claims that the early demise of Swathi Thirunal was because of the pressure he had to face for which one of the reasons was the intervention of the British in his administration and cultural issues. So this shows that the western judges had passed a judgment according to their morals which was opposed by the administration of Travancore as it was not their tradition and not a caste issue as stated by these liberals.
Even after reading all this, if anyone wants to argue that upper caste Hindus forbade lower caste women from wearing upper garments then here are few images of topless upper caste Nambuthiri Brahmin and Nair women.
Topless Nambuthiri Brahmin lady from a Malayalam book by Kanippayyur Shankaran Namboodiripad
A Nair woman from Malabar (Kerala) by Klein & Pearl Studio, Madras, early 20th century.Painting ‘Malabar Beauty’ by Raja Ravi Varma (she wears no upper garment, but covering with a cloth just as model) dated to 19th century.Painting of the 19th century Junior Queen of Travancore Bharani Thirunal Rani Parvathi Bayi by Raja Ravi Varma, she’s again covering her breasts with a mere cloth without any garments
Nair girls in a temple procession, from the book ‘The Cochin Tribes and Castes’ by L. K. Anantha Krishna Iyer
On the other hand there were many rich Avarnas who had access to upper garments, contradicting the claim of these liberal activists. This can be seen in the images given below:
Ezhava family from an early 20th century book titled ‘Glimpses of Travancore’ by N. K. VenkateswaranEzhava girls, from the book by L. K. Anantha Krishna Iyer
So the divide was between rich and poor and not between upper castes and lower castes like the anti-Hindu brigade claims. Even after covering bosoms became popular, it was only worn by certain rich people who had access to all the luxury, regardless of caste, and those who preferred it.
Thus this shows that liberals with perverted mind like T Murali who are nothing but rabid Hinduphobes and sepoys have been creating stories of their own in the past few decades, and are also obtaining help from Western international media like BBC who support their stories without proper research, in order to demonize Hindus and continue the colonial tradition of ‘atrocity literature’ to shame the Hindus.
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In a shockingly embarrassing move, Punjab head of Aam Aadmi Party inducted Bant Singh and two of his assaulters at the same time in the party. Bant Singh later objected by expressing shock at the happening, and AAP leaders conveyed that they didn’t know the background of Navdeep Singh (alias Appi) and Harvinder Singh (alias Honey). Arvind Kejriwal seems to have apologized to Bant Singh personally since Bant is a popular Dalit icon in Punjab. AAP has been wooing the Dalit activist for sometime now. In April, the party wanted to honor him on the 125th birth anniversary of BR Ambedkar. Bant had declined to accept money / award from any political party.
AAP seems to have expelled both the convicts later but it is shocking to know that the party does inducting programs in such an arbitrary manner, without doing any background checks on people who they call on stage.
Bant Singh’s minor daughter, Baljit Kaur was gang raped in 2000. Bant Singh, could file an FIR only after a month despite pressure and various enticements from the village Panchayat which led to convictions of the assaulters Mandhir Singh, Dr. Tarsem and Gurmail Kaur. All the three were sentenced to life imprisonment. Bant Singh was brutally assaulted in 2006 by people related to the convicted, because of which both his forearms and one leg had to be amputated. His heart rendering story can be read here in detail, the story is more or less same through various sources. Bant was earlier associated with CPI (ML) but it seems that he was not provided any financial help by the then government.
Assaulters of Bant Singh have been out on bail since 2010. Two of these assaulters were called on stage for induction in AAP Punjab as mentioned above. There are various aspects of the case. While the mainstream media has constantly called this an upper caste atrocity over a Dalit worker, going by the testimony / write-up of Baljit Kaur in a local Punjabi portal clearly calls out that the assaulters belonged to the Congress party. Quoting a part of her statement written in 2007 :
‘Since my father had gone against the wishes of the Panchayat in getting justice, therefore the Sarpanch Jaswant Singh and his elder brother, who is an ex-sarpanch, and both of whom are local leaders of the Congress party. became sworn enemies of my father and started threatening him regularly.
My father was first attacked in August 2005 and the attackers were charged under Sec. 23-24 of the Indian Penal Code. He was attacked a second time in December 2005 and this time the guilty were booked under Sec.107 and 151. In both these cases the Sarpanch Jaswant got the bail for all the attackers and openly stated at the Joga police station itself that “even if you had injured him more seriously, I would still get you out on bail”. These same attackers dealt a deadly attack on my father on 5 January 2006 and the attack was conspired by the present and ex-Sarpanch and officials of the Joga police station. Two sons each of Jaswant Singh and Amrik Singh, Vicky and Babli, Appi and Sandeep respectively (who are also relatives of the rapist Mandhir), Honey, S/o Inderjit Singh, and Gurditta and Didar were the main attackers.
I demand that both the Sarpanch belonging to the Congress party be booked under Sec.120B and immediately arrested, the SHO of the Joga police station be suspended immediately and case filed against him for hobnobbing with the criminals, a life-long attendant be provided to my father along with a compensation of Rupees Ten lakhs provision be made for looking after my brothers and sisters and one of us be given a permanent job. The District Commissioner of Mansa has attempted to do away with the issues involved by getting himself photographed by the press while giving a cheque of just Rs. One lakh and some rations to my family. Is this sufficient for treatment of my father and to raise my siblings? The Amarinder Government in Punjab as well as the Administration is shielding the criminals. But my people, my Party and I will continue the struggle until my father and I get justice.
My father is currently admitted at PGI, Chandigarh, where the doctors are trying to save his other badly injured leg. If our demands are not fulfilled then I will be rather compelled to return this cheque of Rs.One lakh.’
Suprisingly, no mainstream media report had mentioned the proximity of assaulters / convicts with Indian National Congress. For example, this elaborate report by The Hindu on this news long back, does not mention even once that convicts were related to Congress. Ironically, a leftist Dalit activist who invoked Bhagat Singh in every second video was victimized by the people who were made powerful by the so called leftist party! Indeed, the voice of a simple man and his daughter from a tiny remote village in Punjab reached the English narrative half-baked.
Currently, Bant Singh is very useful for AAP and they will keep him happy until the state elections are over.
(Featured Image Credit : Amar Ujala)
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Jallikattu also known as Eruthazhuvuthal is a sporting event held mainly in the villages of Tamil Nadu as a part of Pongal (Sankranthi) celebrations. It involves a group of people who try to tame a number of bulls which are made to run for about 15 m usually one by one. This practice is known to be in existence even during the Sangam period, thus making it at least about 2000 years old.
Recently, Jallikattu came under a cloud of controversies as many western organizations like PETA and liberal intellectuals called it as an act of cruelty on animals and as a result it was banned by the Supreme Court on 7 May 2014. Thereafter many attempts have been made by the government of Tamil Nadu and the Government of Bharat to support the farmers in their plea to revoke the ban. Let us have a detailed analysis over this issue.
The bulls used for Jallikattu are mainly the native breeds which are on the brink of destruction. These bulls are grown only for the purpose of Jallikattu. The calves which are to be used for jallikattu are fed a nutritious diet so that they develop into strong and sturdy animals. The calves, once they reach adolescence are taken to small events to familiarize them with the atmosphere and specific training is given based on the variant of the event it is meant for. In general, bulls are trained to not allow strangers to come near them. For the people who raise these bulls, the animals are said to be sacred to them. These bulls are worshipped every day and are buried with honor like any other family member.
Jallikattu is held throughout the Pongal festival but mainly on the Maatu Pongal day. Pongal is a harvest festival where people celebrate different factors required for agriculture. On the Maatu Pongal day, the cattle which is an important part of agriculture is celebrated and people celebrate it with Jallikattu after worshipping the cows. Jallikattu is conducted mostly in temples (is this one of the reasons why it is targeted by left-liberals?).
During the event, prizes are announced to encourage the youth to participate. After the event, tamed weak bulls are used for domestic activities and agriculture, meanwhile the untamable strong bulls are used for breeding the cows. Thus wild nature of the bulls are inherited to its next generation, even though these country bulls are domesticated a very long time ago. Jallikattu is said to be ingenious where both sport with adrenaline rush for youth and preservation of Ecosystem by preserving country bulls works well together. The rules of Jallikattu are as follows:
The bull will start running from the Gopura vaasal (entrance of the temple) also called as Vaadivaasal
The contestants should try to tame the bull by holding only its hump one by one. Grabbing any other parts of the body like ears, horns, tail etc., will lead to disqualification. If more than one contestant grabs the hump then no one will be declared as winner.
The contestant who holds the hump of the bull till it reaches the finish line will be declared as winner. If no one is holding its hump when it reaches the finishing line, then the bull will be the winner.
If the harming of participating bull is found, then whoever is responsible for it will be disqualified
Thus, these rules show that Jallikattu is a sporting event which gives utmost respect to the animals. But contrary to these rules, the western NGOs began preaching about the abstract cruelty on bulls leading to outrage on this festival from different parts of the country. The NGOs claimed that the bulls are given alcohol to make them run madly during the event contradicting the well-known fact given by the farmers that consumption of alcohol even in very small amounts will cause the bull to sleep for long hours unlike the claims of these activists. The farmers also claimed that banning Jallikattu will lead to the destruction of the native breeds of cattle as poor farmers will never raise bulls in their household if they can’t meet with its expenses which are obtained from Jallikattu as prize money which will make breeding of cattle difficult, making native farmers opt for artificial insemination, the patents of which are mostly present with foreign industries.
Many personalities like Amy Jackson, Virat Kohli, Vidya Balan etc., showed their support on the ban of Jallikattu as they involve cruelty to bulls. But they don’t seem to acknowledge the fact that unlike the sporting events involving bulls in other countries, Jallikattu is the only sport where the bull is not killed after the event – instead they are used for breeding purposes and are made to participate in the event till they are defeated in the sport after which they are used for agricultural purpose.
When the Supreme Court rejected to reconsider its ban in November 2016, many intellectual personalities like Ms. Radha Rajan expressed their happiness and said that Jallikattu can never be held until the Prevention of Cruelty on Animals Act is in existence. But the act involves only the procedure of harming animals like wounding, causing it pain, abandoning it during sickness, inhumane killing etc. Jallikattu involves none of these, and the act itself has a regulation which says it is not applicable in case of farming, making Jallikattu free of this act. And if halal, which is a form of inhumane killing, can’t be banned under this act then should we really consider this sort of cultural attack happening on Hindus through this act? Thus, this shows that foreigners who are driven by greed and other motives are promoting the NGOs and others to spread lies about this ancient practice, in order to destroy the native bulls used for reproduction destroying not only our healthy bulls but also our cultural values.
Editor’s Note: Jallikattu is an integral part of Tamil culture which is being senselessly destroyed by various vested interests (NGO-missionary-Western Universalist lobby), while real animal cruelty involved in the meat business is ignored. Those interested in understanding more about this issue would do well to follow this twitter handle @sUrasaMhAran. There is also a protest in support of Jallikattu being organized at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi from 2 – 8 Jan that you can attend –
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Out of the blue, an acquaintance suddenly asked, “Tell me, is there a heaven and hell?”
Taken aback, I counter-questioned, “Do you mean, are they real places, like Delhi or Bengaluru?”
“Yes, absolutely,” my friend responded, “Don’t you want to go to heaven? I have good news: believe in the one God and your place in heaven is secure.”
Born again
“What about those who can’t?”
She replied, in all seriousness, “No one can help them; they will burn in hell for eternity.”
I realised, not without a twinge of sadness, that my friend had been “born again.” She was great just the way she was earlier but obviously she didn’t think so. The conversation may as well have ended there. Any reasonable argument would now fall on deaf ears.
“Tell me, though,” I persisted, “How do you know this?”
“It’s all there in the holy book.”
“Do you believe that the earth is round and that it revolves around the sun? That there are many other stars, galaxies and planetary systems? And the speed of light is about 3,00,000 km per second?”
“Why are you telling me this? I was a science student!”
“Because it’s not in your book. Similarly, there’s no ‘scientific’ evidence of hell or heaven.”
“But science can’t know everything.”
“Yet you rely on it when you board a jet plane, expect it to take off, travel faster than sound, then land safely, none of which is in your holy book.”
“Yes, but that has nothing to do with heaven and hell. They exist not as the things we touch and see in our world.”
“Precisely… They must belong to some other plane of existence — mental, psychological, spiritual, poetic, artistic, moral, and so on.”
“You’re not taking this seriously. I too used to worship devils and evil spirits as you do. You must stop and accept the one true God as your saviour.”
“But no two scriptures, even in your own religion, agree. Insisting that yours is right and all the rest are wrong is to violate the human rights of others.”
“What do you mean?”
“By tying to impose your beliefs, by calling people unbelievers, telling them they will go to hell, are you not violating their human rights? Shouldn’t all people be treated with dignity and respect regardless of their religion, ethnicity, race, nationality, or sexual orientation?”
“If you don’t believe in God, his only begotten Son, and the Day of Judgment, you are going to hell, I’m warning you…”
“Your ‘good news’ sounds like really bad news… But now that you’ve brought in a Son, obviously your one God is already two; if one can become two or three, there’s hope also for the many….”
At which point she cut the call.
Just then an irreverent thought crossed my mind: didn’t her God somewhat resemble the President-elect of the United States — sexist, racist, and bigoted? Of course, I didn’t tell her; I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.
Conversion
From my student days, however, such preaching and proselytising have repeatedly hurt my feelings. Invariably and irritatingly, Hindus and followers of non-Abrahamic faiths are subjected to a range of abuse from subtle disapproval, open contempt, to outright condemnation.
The argument is that the Indian Constitution guarantees believers the practice of their religion, which includes the right to convert others. But what about the right of people not to be preached to and not to be converted?
Shouldn’t we have a legal version of the mobile DND option? Such “Do Not Disturb” injunctions against theological spam would also be welcome.
This would be in keeping with the Confucian version of the Golden Rule: do not do unto others what you would not want them to do unto you. If you don’t want to be preached to or convert, why try to do that to others?
Many Islamic countries, for instance, ban not just conversion out of Islam, but the preaching and public practice of other religions also. Even Singapore has laws against proselytisation. In contrast, a visiting Pope declared that India was ready to reap a great harvest of faith.
No wonder, hundreds of organisations spend billions of dollars not only to spread their religious ideologies but also to vilify, malign, and demonise other faiths.
Intolerance
The equality of religions, it would appear, is a doctrine that only Hindus and some non-Abrahamic people accept.
Judaism believes that theirs is the only true God and that Jews are His chosen people; but Jews do not convert others. Christianity and Islam, it is well-established, have a blood-soaked record of religious imperialism, aggressive proselytising, and iconoclastic violence against non-believers.
Shouldn’t there be a UN resolution against organisations and ideologies which continue to spread intolerance, intimidating non-believers with threats of eternal damnation, and bribing them with salvation if they convert?
To shift the idiom from the secular to the religious, if the idea of jealous, intolerant, insecure, and unforgiving God is so counter-intuitive, shouldn’t we question whom such believers really worship and serve? Or, being non-Abrahamic, non-dualist ourselves, shouldn’t we respectfully point out, following the Bhagavad Gita, that for all sincere acts of worship or sacrifice, there is One Recipient and Lord?
Those who create a false opposition between the Supreme and His constituent divinities are themselves ignorant. Their reward, both in this world and the next, is therefore likely to be small.
Unfortunately, this will not convince them as effectively as legislation or curtailing funding will.
