WASHINGTON, D.C., USA, October 8, 2008: Suhag Shukla, Esq., managing director of the Hindu American Foundation, condemned the recent inter-religious riots in India, saying, “Religious violence is contrary to the India’s long history of pluralism and co-existence that threatens the fabric of the country. We unequivocally condemn the violence and demand justice for the aggrieved as we mourn for all of the innocent victims.” The Foundation’s hope is that a balanced dialog and investigation into the root causes of the conflict will promote interfaith understanding and tolerance.

The riots began after a Hindu monk was killed in the eastern Indian state of Orissa and a pamphlet blaspheming Hindu beliefs was distributed by an evangelical group in Mangalore. Nearly two dozen people have lost their lives; and many more remain displaced and homeless.

Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati, a Hindu monk who worked for the upliftment of isolated tribal populations in Orissa, was assassinated August 24 after receiving several death threats. He had been severely injured in an attack by a Christian mob of the Pana tribe on Christmas Eve, 2007, having incurred the ire of several US-funded evangelical Christian groups which, while providing services, aggressively seek converts. Maoist terrorist groups allegedly took responsibility for the assassination, but the killers have not been apprehended. The Pana tribe of Orissa state, some of whom belong to these Maoist groups, has been clashing with the mostly Hindu Kandha tribe over access to affirmative action type benefits to which only certain tribes are entitled.

The Mangalore disturbances apparently began when the New Life Fellowship Trust, a pentecostal group allegedly supported by U.S. based churches, distributed anti-Hindu leaflets blaspheming Hindu Deities and scripture. Mangalore-area prayer halls thought to be used to convert Hindus away from their faith were attacked in response. A copy of the leaflet, received at the HAF office in Washington, was condemned by the local rector of the Catholic Church. The HAF report “Hyperlink to Hinduphobia,” released last year, documents the hate speech that many evangelical groups use in condemning Hindu beliefs.

“Christianity has a long, peaceful history in India which we celebrate as a part of the pluralistic ethos of India,” said Sheetal Shah, HAF”s Director of Development. “But when proselytizing outfits resort to hate speech, they share responsibility for provoking the highly condemnable events that followed. Communal harmony can truly be fostered only in an environment where practitioners of all religions respect other faiths as equally valid pathways to the Divine.”

Both Shukla and Shah expressed concern that the mushrooming of evangelical groups funded by U.S. based churches, many of whom have the sole purpose of proselytizing and “harvesting” converts–often through hate speech, is endangering peaceful, religious coexistence in India. Pluralism cannot be sustained in the face of unrestrained and aggressive proselytization and coerced or fraudulent conversions, they argued. Hate speech is also a form of violence, they said.

The Foundation supports the initiatives of pluralistic Christian and Hindu groups in India and around the world for an ethical code of conversion, which the Foundation believes can prevent inter-religious strife between proselytizing and non-proselytizing faiths, Shukla added.

KATHMANDU, NEPAL, October 8, 2008: Mahanavami, the ninth day of Dashain, is being celebrated by followers of Hinduism around the globe. Devotees throng the temples of Durga on this day which marks the last day of Navaratri festival that started with Ghatasthapana.

Thousands of people have queued up to worship the Goddess Taleju at the historic temple of Taleju located at Hanumandhoka from early this morning. The temple is opened for the devotees only on this day in Dashain every year.

The last day of Dashain, Dashami, is marked in Nepal by people receiving blessings in form of tika and jamara from their elders. Traditionally, many would receive it from the King itself, but this custom is now part of the past. People visit their relatives and celebrate on this day.

RANCHI, JHARKHAND, INDIA, October 6, 2008: An elephant attacked houses of people allegedly involved in damaging a temple of Lord Ganesha in Jharkhand and ensured their arrest. According to media reports on Saturday, a wild elephant attacked houses of around 10 people who on August 16 had damaged the temple situated in Mahudi hills of Hazaribagh district, around 120 km from here.

Later the police arrested those allegedly involved in the incident. The villagers point that the elephant did not hurt anyone else. Reports suggest that the angry elephant appeared near the temple on August 17 and did not allow any devotee to enter. Later the elephant attacked houses of those involved in the damage.

“The elephant was staying around the temple. We succeeded in pacifying it, to install another statue of Ganesha,” said Awadh Kishore Yadav, a villager.

Prayer is not asking, it is yearning of the soul for communion with God.
   Swami Sivananda (1887-1963)

MADURAI, INDIA, October 5, 2008: A seventh-century sculpture of Lord Bhairava, 125 cm tall and 52 cm broad, has been unearthed from the Pachaiyaru river bed at Azhagapuri near Palani in the district, officials said.

Narayanamurthy, the archaeological expert who unearthed the granite stone sculpture of the Lord, said that a Shiva temple once stood where the river now runs, but it has been either washed away or partly submerged by floods and sand over the years. An elephant chain has also been recovered from the spot, he said.

NEW DELHI, INDIA, October 4, 2008: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is lending $150 million to India to help revitalize the khadi industry, which has suffered from poor production and marketing techniques. A $2 million grant will also be provided by the Japan Special Fund to support the implementation and monitor the progress of the loan-funded reform package.

Increased production of the widely-revered handspun and handwoven cloth is expected to bolster employment opportunities in India, particularly in the rural areas which account for 73 per cent of the country’s poor. The 11th Plan document has laid great stress on khadi production, mainly due to its employment prospects for women and minorities.

NEW YORK, USA, October 4, 2008: A decision of parents to cremate their deceased son has sparked religious turmoil.

Shafayet Reja, the son of a a Muslim father and a mother who was raised Hindu, died September 10 in a car accident; and his parents decided to follow the Hindu tradition of cremation rather than burying the body in a shroud as Islam prescribes.

The couple, Mina and Farhad Reja, say that some Muslims are now trying to intimidate them because of their choice–that they were accosted at their son’s funeral and have received threats to boycott their business.

At this supremely dangerous moment in human history, the only way of salvation is the ancient Hindu way. Here we have the attitude and spirit that can make it possible for the human race to grow together into a single family.
   British historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee (1889-1975)

TAMIL NADU, INDIA, October 6, 2008: An excerpt from this editorial piece by journalist Francois Gautier:

“I am also aghast at the one-sided coverage by the Indian media of the Christian- Hindu problem: blasts after blasts have killed hundreds of innocent Hindus in Varanasi, Delhi, Mumbai train blasts, Jaipur, etc. Yet, neither Manmohan Singh nor Sonia Gandhi have pronounced once the word “terrorism.” But when furious Hindus, tired of being made fun of, of witnessing their brothers and sisters converted by financials traps, of seeing a 84-year-old swami and his Mataji brutally murdered, of reading blasphemy about their Gods, vent their anger against churches, many of them makeshifts, the Indian government goes after the soft target which the Hindus are.

When dollars are used to buy new converts and it angers the majority community of India, Washington has the arrogance to issue a warning, and Manmohan Singh does not have the pride to tell the US to mind its own business. Neither the Indian press nor the western correspondents bothered to write about what made Hindus angry in Karnataka: Newlife, one important western-funded missionary centre (http://www.newlifevoice.org), began making conversions in and around Mangalore by accosting poor people in market areas, or in bus stands, befriending them and then taking them to churches to introduce them to the fathe. Upon introduction they were paid US$60 per person and then taken to the Velankanni shrine, in Tamil Nadu, where they would get another US$70. When they finally converted to Christianity by changing the name, they got an incentive of US$ 250 onwards. Newlife would then give them instructions to abandon wearing tilak on forehead, not to visit and offer prayers at the Hindu temples, replacing the photos and idols of Hindu gods and goddesses with a Cross, etc.But what really angered local Hindus was when Newlife went one step further and published a book in Kannada — Satya Darshini — which was widely distributed by its missionaries. Here below is the translation of some of the most abusive passages: “Urvashi — the daughter of Lord Vishnu — is a prostitute.”

For the entire article, click URL above.

LUCKNOW, INDIA, October 1, 2008: In a gesture of communal amity, Muslims visited a Hanuman temple Monday evening to participate in an Iftar party thrown by their Hindu friends, who seated them and served delicacies such as dates and deep-fried kachauries.

Some 150 members from both communities participated in the event, which aimed to bridge the rift between the two communities in the backdrop of terror activities taking place in various parts of the country. The sharing of thoughts and ideas can help bridge inter-community relations.

MASSENA, NEW YORK, October 2, 2008: A group of parents and religious leaders in upstate New York want yoga classes out of public schools, saying the instruction violates boundaries between church and state. Two high school teachers began using yoga last year to help students relieve stress before exams. Special education teacher Martha Duchscherer and Spanish teacher Kerry Perretta also were developing a districtwide program. But those plans were halted after parents and others in the community complained students were being indoctrinated in Hindu rites. “We are not opposed to the benefits. We can understand the benefits. We are opposed to the philosophy behind it and that has its ties in Hinduism and the way they were presenting it,” said the Rev. Colin Lucid of Calvary Baptist Church in Massena.

The program does not have ulterior motives, Julie Reagan, Massena Board of Education president, said Thursday. “If the school board felt there was any hidden religious activity behind the motives of our two instructors, we certainly wouldn’t allow that,” she said. “There is absolutely none of that. The teachers are well intended and trying to offer an aspect of fitness in the classroom that relaxes and readies the children for better learning.”

“It’s been a little discouraging that this program has taken on a negative tone,” said Duchscherer, who has taught in the Massena district for 11 years. “The intention was never to teach religion. … It was to introduce relaxation techniques.” But Lucid believes the voluntary program causes stress and should be offered as an after-school activity. “People have made it a religious war, and it’s not a religious war. We are basically concerned parents, saying we don’t want our children participating in something that could cause them more stress and confusion,” Lucid said.

Parents in Aspen, Colo., were successful in demanding the removal of yoga in the local curriculum in 2002. In Alabama, religious leaders pushed for a 1993 law prohibiting the teaching of yoga in schools, citing connections between yoga and Hindu religious training.

In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life–it will be the solace of my death. Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), German philosopher and writer and first Western philosopher to have access to translations of philosophical material from India.

LUCKNOW, INDIA, October 2, 2008: This Durga Puja, people of Lucknow will get a chance to visit the famous Meenakshi temple of Madurai, Tamil Nadu, in the state capital itself.

Large numbers of artisans and laborers, hired by a Durga Puja committee to erect a wooden replica of the enormous temple, are working around the clock in order to complete it by October 5, in time for the three days of Durga Puja celebrations. The replica will be nearly 70 feet high, 90 feet long and 80 feet wide.

The Madurai temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva, also known as Sundareshvara, and his consort Parvati or Meenakshi.

THRISSUR, INDIA, September 29, 2008: The fifteenth all-India Sanskrit conference will begin here on October 10.

Over 300 Sanskrit scholars from different parts of the country will be attending the three-day conference, which will include seminars, scientific heritage exhibition and essay competitions.