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Re: There is a need to be careful here Re: Religious unity
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To: soc-religion-hindu@uunet.uu.net
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Subject: Re: There is a need to be careful here Re: Religious unity
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From: shrao@nyx10.cs.du.edu (Shrisha Rao)
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Date: 17 Jan 1996 07:48:36 -0700
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Newsgroups: soc.religion.hindu
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Organization: Sri Krishna Gururaja Seva Samiti
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References: <4csg4p$j8j@babbage.ece.uc.edu> <4d29qh$6ml@babbage.ece.uc.edu> <4d734s$8es@babbage.ece.uc.edu>
In article <4d734s$8es@babbage.ece.uc.edu>,
C. Kambhampati <shskambh@reading.ac.uk> wrote:
>I have been a bystander - sort of lurking in the darks - and have been
>follwoing this discussion on SRH re-org for sometime. But the follwoing
>from an otherwise sober Sundaresan caught my eye - the line of argument
>that is -
>
>Vidyasankar Sundaresan (vidya@cco.caltech.edu) wrote:
>: Your statement shows that there is strong connection between the land of
>: Hindustan and those who consider themselves Hindus. What about those who
>: have no real connection to the land of Hindustan, but follow the teachings
>: of a religious leader from Hindustan? Are they also Hindus? Do we have the
>: right to force them to call themselves Hindus also? These questions have
>: particular relevance in the light of SRV, discussed below.
>
>It is this argument which is used by the BJPites in calling all from
>Hindustan Hindus - which many from India oppose - since we rightly or
>wrongly consider the word 'hindu' to have religious connotations. It is
>a trap which people better watch out for.
If you have any cogent arguments to make against the BJP notion of
Hindu, please do make them. Merely rejecting something as the BJP
notion does not constitute a refutation of any worth.
>: Kumarajiva and Santirakshita must call themselves Hindu also. After all, these
>: teachers were also from the land of Hindustan. That would make a majority of
>: Sri Lankans, Thais, Vietnamese, Koreans, Chinese and Japanese into Hindus.
>
>It is precisely this argument which is used by the BJPites. They use the
>term/word hindu to denote all those who are from Hindustan(India) -
>whihc is bitterly opposed by many.
>
>But then as they say wonders would never cease - I never thought I would
>be seeing the day when the ideas and thought sof the BJP and its
>affiliates are echoed by people one would consider to be fairly liberal!
The biggest "wonder" is that you have not made any kind of analysis to
refute the BJP notion. Need I remind you that the Supreme Court
recently described "Hindutva" to mean "Indian-ness"? Or shall we take
it that the Hon'ble Justices of the nation's highest Court are in fact
stooges of the BJP?
Regards,
Shrisha Rao
>-Chandrasekhar
