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Re: SRH ARTICLE : The Re-Organisation Mess
In article <4sn4e7$j1u@nyx10.cs.du.edu>, Shrisha Rao <shrao@nyx.net> wrote:
>2> One cannot know if all the people one is asking mean the same thing
>when they agree -- how does one account for differing understandings
>of the same word? If, to take an extreme example, there is a
>Vaishnava who thinks that `Hindu' means "an ambidextrous person," and
>he happens to be one, then he might say he's a Hindu, although he
>means something altogether different than what someone else who gives
>the same answer does. Thus, in the absence of a common notion back of
>the questions and answers, one cannot claim agreement even if there is
>unanimity.
Well, it seems that being a Hindu (well, in the article I'm about to
provide, it's spelled Hindoo) is actually promoted as a _racial_ and
_cultural_ (but not a religious) characteristic by the BJP. Of course,
I expect that some people would find this objectionable, but this
article appeared on soc.religion.hindu recently, and I haven't seen
anyone denounce it on the basis that its definition is somehow
racist. I'm including it at the end of this note since it wasn't seen
in the other newsgroups.
Oh, yes, and before anyone accuses me of BJP-bashing, please note the
next-to-last line of the article:
|> Published by Bansilal Sonee for Bharatiya Janata Party
What's really interesting is the following: if this definition if
Hindus is used on the newsgroup as the acceptable one, and we take the
moderator's statement on face value that any articles about human
rights violations against Hindus are acceptable on SRH, then we have
an interesting situation:
every article about human rights violations in India is on-topic for
soc.religion.hindu
-Vivek
In article <4qvba3$pck@babbage.ece.uc.edu>,
ashok <ashokvc@giasbm01.vsnl.net.in> wrote:
|>
|> Title : "All Indians are Hindoos"
|> Author : Maxwell Pereira
|> Publication : Hindustan Times
|> Date : June 3, 1996
|>
|> It was Grandpa Joseph who first told me I was a Handy.
|> May sound incongruous, but then one would need to know
|> more about gran'pa to appreciate his reasoning. As
|> grandfathers go, mine fitted into the typical mould-a
|> simple man with lean but towering personality, wearing a
|> `dhoti' and a buttoned up coat, not much educated, but
|> highly respected in society. His face weather beaten, and
|> remnants of a muscular body on a hardy frame betraying
|> signs of the vigour and strength of by-gone days. He
|> preferred the circular velvet encased flat `topi' to the
|> turban, both of which went well with the then
|> Mangalorean elite attire that added dignity to one's
|> bearing and personality. And he wore his large round
|> watch at the end of a silver chain that emerged from a
|> buttonhole, to be ensconced in a smaller pocket-like
|> special pouch on one side of his coat. I missedin him
|> though, the burly untrimmed moustache that other
|> grandfathers of the time sported, including the
|> occasional cigar between the lips and the walking stick-
|> used more for style than support-all of which, my gran'pa
|> just shunned.
|>
|> A godfather to everyone in the neighborhood, he was the
|> one to be consulted by all and sundry for guidance and
|> advice on matters varying from how best to take the
|> maximum yield from one's land to matrimonial alliances
|> or family disputes. And he was the one always chosen to
|> say a few words of comfort at a bereavement. But most of
|> all, gran'pa was that kind and lovable soul, most
|> endearing to his grand children, always entertaining us
|> with jokes, his toothy smile and his witty anecdotes.
|> Lack of formal education was never an impediment and one
|> often wondered where and how he acquired all his fund of
|> knowledge--be it on history or any subject under the
|> sun.
|>
|> So it was that gran'pa educated me much before my
|> schooling days on the advent of the Saraswats and of the
|> Aryans coming into Indian around two thousand years
|> before the recorded birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Of
|> their establishing a culture and crystallising a religion
|> of their own on the fertile plains of the land of the
|> five rivers. Of the Indus and the Ganges and their
|> tributaries, on the banks of which flourished the
|> civilisation of this handsome race. From granpa's stories
|> I learnt that Saraswats hailed from the banks of the now
|> extinct river Saraswati which along with river
|> Drishadvati were the two tributaries of the river Hakra
|> that then ran parallel to the Indus.
|>
|> Joseph quoted to me from the Book of Esther the mention
|> of Indian in the Bible. when King Assuerus the Great had
|> reigned over a hundred and twenty seven provinces-from
|> India to Ethiopia. That the word Hindoo in those Biblical
|> times and thereafter, was only a corrupted form of the
|> word Sindhu, which was the correct name for the river
|> Indus. That Hindoo stood for one who hailed from the land
|> of the Sindhu. And the land of Sindhu as was recorded at
|> that point of time in history in most ancient books of
|> the Hindus, was known as Sapta-Sindhu, referring to all
|>
|> the seven rivers together-the tributaries of the Indus
|> and the Hakra. On the banks of these seven rivers, the
|> original Aryan tribes of the `Puru's and the `Kuru's, the
|> 'Bharata's and many others, had established their
|> kingdoms.
|>
|> Gran'pa Joseph Kamath himself believed that he was a
|> Hindoo first, as was believed in the times of yore, of
|> everyone that lived within the Indian sub-continent.
|> According to him, there were Hindoos who followed the
|> Hindoo religion, Hindoos who followed the Muslim
|> religion, and Hindoos who followed the Christian
|> religion.
|>
|> But all were Hindoos first-as aptly put by poet lqbal in
|> `Hindi hain hum, votan hai Hindustan hamara'. And the
|> people of foreign nations and foreign tongues do well to
|> refer to all Indians as Hindoo-even as Haj pilgrims from
|> India are called `Hindoos' by the Arabs. And it hadn't
|> surprised me when on my visit to Japan, I noted the
|> Japanese with their own intonation had called me an
|> `Indo' while indeed referring to me as a Hindoo.
|>
|> (Courtesy: The Hindustan Times, 3.6.96)
|>
|> Published by Bansilal Sonee for Bharatiya Janata Party
|> and Processed & Printed by EXCELPRINT, Delhi-6.
