Hindu Press International

Source: http://www.ddinews.gov.in/Current+Affairs/fghf.htm

NEW DELHI, INDIA, May 30, 2008: Indians have turned out to be the largest group of immigrants, who have been granted British citizenship during 2007, according to the official figures released this week.

Last year, a record numbers of foreign-born residents to the UK (164,635 people) were granted citizenship, a seven percent rise in 12 months. The biggest group was from India, who made up nine percent of the total with 14,490. Filipinos constituted seven percent with 10,840, Afghans six percent with 10,555 and South Africans five percent with 8,150. A quarter of citizenships, about 41,000 were given to children, while about 29,000 became British nationals through marriage.

Last year, 160,980 people applied for citizenship while 14,725 applications were rejected. Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans made up 80 percent of net migrants, with London being their most common destination, where they intended to stay.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/fashion/01stone.html?_r=1&ref=fashion&oref=slogin

NEW YORK, USA, May 30, 2008: Sharon Stone admitted that her comments suggesting that karmic retribution may have caused the devastating earthquakes in China were blithering. “Clearly, I sound like an idiot,” said Ms. Stone on Thursday evening from her home in Los Angeles, after she had watched a widely viewed Internet video of her remarks from Cannes. In the red-carpet interview on May 22, Ms. Stone told a journalist: “I’m not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don’t think anyone should be unkind to anyone else. And the earthquake and all this stuff happened, and then I thought, is that karma? When you’re not nice that bad things happen to you?”

The comments created a stir in the Chinese news media and on blogs, and Dior, which has a modeling contract with Ms. Stone for a face cream, removed her from advertising in China, fearing a backlash. Dior’s Shanghai office issued a statement in which Ms. Stone was quoted apologizing: “I am deeply sorry and sad about hurting Chinese people.”

[HPI note: We suggest also reading this brief transcript of a short talk given by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami on group karma here]

Source: ttp://sundayposts.blogspot.com/2008/01/lord-macaulays-quote-on-india.html

KAUAI, HAWAII, May 30, 2008: The May 27, 2008 email from HPI carried a quote from Baron Macaulay, Member of Governor-General’s Council in India during the British rule. The passage is often quoted and deserves a closer look from HPI, as a reader kindly pointed out.

We could not find a source for this, raising doubts about its accuracy: “Our English schools are flourishing wonderfully. The effect of this education on the Hindus is prodigious. No Hindu who has received an English education ever remains sincerely attached to his religion.”

It is informative to know that reliable sources show a more nuanced approach from the British Baron. He advocated the supremacy of European culture, but thought teaching it would eventually create a group of Indians who thought like Englishmen with legitimate claims to holding political offices, an idea he supports.

Baron Macaulay’s influence was so decisive that this “colonized mindset” is today known as Macaulayism. His “Minute on Indian Education,” delivered in 1835, reads “It is impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the people. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and color, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect.”

Some quotes from his other speeches elaborate on that. “A single shelf of good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia.” “Are we to keep the people of India ignorant in order that we may keep them submissive? Or do we think that we can give them knowledge without awakening ambition? Or do we mean to awaken ambition and to provide it with no legitimate vent? Who will answer any of these questions in the affirmative? Yet one of them must be answered in the affirmative, by every person who maintains that we ought permanently to exclude the natives from high office. I have no fears. The path of duty is plain before us: and it is also the path of wisdom, of national prosperity, of national honor.”

You can read more about it by clicking on the link above and looking at the Wikipedia article here.

http://www.hinduismtoday.com/hpi/2008/5/30.shtml

There is enough in this world for everyone’s need, but there is not enough in this world for everyone’s greed.
   Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)