Tattva

The Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh Speaker On Campus (SOC) series is steadily becoming a well-recognized event on college and university campuses across the United States of America. The Speaker On Campus series is a unique project which exposes the university students and faculty to different aspects of Hinduism through acclaimed experts on the subjects. While the universities in the United States provide the encouraging environment for awareness and practice of various cultures and traditions, rarely do we see events held specifically about Hindu Culture on the campuses. Speaker On Campus series is one step taken in this direction. The SOC 2007 covered more than 30 university campuses in 15 states with the help of 6 speakers.
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Most of us must have heard about the government of India’s statement on September 12, 2007, to the Supreme Court, claiming that there was no historical evidence to establish the existence of Lord Rama or the other characters in Ramayana. The affidavit was filed before the court by the Archaeological Survey of India, an Indian government agency. The affidavit declared that there is no “historical record” to prove the existence of the characters or the occurrences of the events depicted in the Ramayana. Read the rest of this entry »

History, ecology are at stake

From The Pioneer Edit Desk on June 12th

When the Taliban destroyed the Bamiyan statues, the world reacted with shocked horror at this act of barbarism. What the UPA Government in India proposes to do to Ram Setu, also known as Adam’s Bridge, is no less horrifying. As may be recalled, the Setusamudram Ship Channel Project aims to create a navigable sea route, between the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay, by slicing the Ram Setu in order to reduce the sailing distance between India’s coasts. Read the rest of this entry »

New Delhi, June 21 (IANS):

The ancient Indian manuscripts including the Rig Veda – have now been selected for inscription in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register, 2007. While the Rig Veda has been selected from Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune, other Indian nominations include the IAS Tamil Medic Manuscript Collection (1997), Archives of the Dutch East India Company (2003), a Dutch nomination, and the Saiva Manuscripts in Pondicherry (2005).

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Bangladesh, officially the People’s Republic of Bangladesh was formed in 1971, under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman after the bloody Bangladesh Liberation War, in which it was supported by India.¹ But, today Bangladesh had become home for Islamic terrorist outfits like Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami (HuJI), Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB), Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Purba Bangla Communist Party (PBCP).² North-East India’s separatist outfits like ULFA [Assam], ANVC[Meghalaya], NLFT[Tripura], NSCN[Nagaland], PLA[Manipur] have there camps in Bangladesh. These organizations are involved not only in creating chaos in India but also ethnic cleansing of minorities in Bangladesh. The Hindu population of Bangladesh then East Pakistan] in 1947 was 29.17%, but it decreased to 2.5% in 2001.⁴ Read the rest of this entry »

In April each year, thousands of Hindus flock to the cave temple of Hinglaj Mata, situated in a remote, desolate and hilly area of Pakistan’s Balochistan province, 250km (155 miles) north-west of Karachi. The high point of the four-day pilgrimage comes on the third day when high priests chant mantras, inviting gods to accept the offerings of the devotees and bring them peace and plenty. Before the partition of India in 1947, more than 20% of the population of today’s Pakistan was Hindu. Today, there are roughly three million Hindus in Pakistan, or about 1.6% of the total population. Many Hindus say they are still discriminated against or forced to convert to other religions. Read the rest of this entry »

We are very pleased to inform you that the 1^st New Zealand Hindu Conference, a historic event for the Hindu community in New Zealand, will be held at the Hindu Heritage Centre, Mangere East, Auckland on 12 and 13 May 2007. The preparations are going well.

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30 States, 106 places, 4364 participants & 477,169 Surya Namaskars.

The Yagna: From 13th to 28th January 2007, throughout the country from the San Francisco Bay area to Boston to Houston, Americans both Hindu and non-Hindu congregated to learn about and performing the yoga postures of “Surya Namaskar”, or “Sun Salutations”. The physical, mental and spiritual heath benefits of doing the Surya Namaskar were directly experienced by individuals from four to 70 years old at more than 100 centers throughout the United States. Local print media and local affiliates of ABC and NBC covered this innovative national project.

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Kumbh Mela witnesses the largest gathering of humanity on the planet, as the eternal Hindu faith shines as a jewel in the crown. The full moon (Paush Purnima) on 3 January 2007 heralded the start of the six-week festival of the sacred urn, Ardha Kumbh Mela. The festival marks the halfway point between the twelve-yearly Maha Kumbh Mela and is in progress in the Northern Indian city of Allahabad. The Mughal Emperor Akbar gave the name to the city in 1583. The “Allah” in the name does not come from Allah as God’s name in Islam but from the Din-Ilahi, which was the religion founded by Akbar. In Indian alphabets it is spelt “Ilāhābād”: “ilāh” is Arabic for “a God” (but in this context from Din-Ilahi), and “-ābād” is Persian for “place of”.

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Arun Lakshman reporting from the state of Kerala in India for ‘The Pioneer’:

The recent cache of 87 guns from a container in Kochi port and the subsequent arrest of one R.O.Koya as the major conduit in this deal has created ripples across the state. Kerala which has the dubious distinction of turning fast into next Kashmir is in the tip of a volcano and anything can happen any time. Kerala had witnessed bombs blowing off in train, seizure of abandoned pipe bombs which are deadly in the alleys and ghettos of Malappuram, the Muslim majority district of Kerala ,and the recent explosion caused by a bomb in Kozhikode.

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