Fwd: Hinduism_environment [StephenKnappNewsList] Reflections on the Survival of Hindu culture in India

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" P. Subramani " <subramani6912

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:40:54 +0530

Hinduism_environment [stephenKnappNewsList] Reflections on the Survival

of Hindu culture in India

 

Namaste,

Here is an open letter to the President of India from Dr. Prakasha Rao on the

means of protecting the Hindu temples in India, and why there has been

so much biased treatment toward the Hindus and their temples compared to the

freedom offered to the minorities of India. Why should there be this sort

of uncompromising treatment of the majority Hindus in their own country? That is

the question. And this is the reason why I will be writing my next book,

to deal with some of this topic.

Hari Om and Hari bol,

Stephen Knapp

Reflections on the Survival of Hindu culture in India â? " How do we protect our

Temples?

 

President Dr. Abdul Kalam said:

 

" In 3000 years of our history, people from all over the world have come and

invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds. From Alexander onwards,

The Greeks, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came

and looted us, took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any

other nation. We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land,

their culture, their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them.

Why? Because we respect the freedom of others. "

 

Dear Friends:

 

Namaste.

 

No where in the free, democratic world the religious institutions are managed,

maligned and controlled by the government denying the religious

freedom of the people of the country. But it is happening to Hindus in India. A

number of State governments have passed Endowment Acts and / or Specific

Shrine Acts usurping the rights of Hindus from managing their Hindu Temples.

Government officials took control of Hindu Temples because they smell money

in the Hindu Temples, they recognize the indifference of Hindus, they are aware

of the unlimited patience and tolerance of Hindus, they also know that

it is not in the blood of Hindus to go to the streets to demonstrate, destroy

property, threaten, loot, harm and kill. We do not vote as a block in

the elections like the Christians and Moslems. The government has usurped the

freedom of Hindus to manage their Temples, denied their human rights and

engaged in continued discrimination of Hindus.

 

Some of the State governments in India are selling thousands and thousands of

acres of Temple lands, taking over the Temples lands for a fraction

of the market value, diverting Temple funds to Christians and Moslems, misusing

the Temple funds

 

(example, sponsoring hockey tournament using Balaji Temple money), demolishing

or blowing up the Hindu Temples, allowing encroachment of the Temple lands,

imposing 50 percent surcharge on Hindus to go to pilgrimage centers, denying

adequate salaries for the priests, and allowing thousands of Temples to be

dilapidated. At the same time, Andhra Pradesh government passed Christian

Properties Protection Bill guaranteeing the protection of the properties of

Christian

missionaries, churches and other educational institutions. What hypocrisy?

 

The same state governments allow Churches and Mosques total, unconditional

freedom to run their institutions without any government control.

In fact the governments support them financially â? " allotting crores of rupees

for the renovation of churches and mosques, construction of churches and

mosques, and salaries for the Imams.

 

In fact Government of India spends 500-600 crores of rupees each year for

Moslems to go to Mecca, and constructed Special Hajj centers in a

number of cities. Please remember that none of the 57 Islamic countries give

subsidy to their Moslem citizens to go to Mecca. In February 2008, Andhra

Pradesh Government even proposed a huge budget for Christians to go to

Jerusalem. You may be thinking as to why the same pilgrimage privileges were not

given to Hindus to go to Tirupathi, Varanasi, Rameswaram, Ayodhya, Dwaraka,

Badarinath etc? It is very SIMPLE, Hindu brothers and sisters are in deep

slumber.

We are in denial. We are disunited. We are pacifists.

 

Times have changed. Threat to the survival of Hindu civilization is real.

Billions of dollars are pouring into India every year to convert illegally

the gullible illiterate. We the Hindus are sitting and watching the demise of

our culture. We, Hindus, should not sit quiet. We have to be active. We have

to support activities to free the Temples. We should contribute generously to

promote our culture. We have to exercise our right to fight for our freedom.

We have to express our views loud and clear. It is time for us to wake up and

see what is happening to our Hindu culture. The government, communists, media,

atheists and other religions are determined to destroy our culture. Government

would not allow our children to learn about the atrocities committed by

Christians and Moslems. No text book would have any information about Goa

Inquisition, and nearly 1000 years of Moslem rule. Many historians have

documented

these atrocities, many Encyclopedias have narrated them, and most of the

Universities in North America and Europe teach them. Why the Indian government

would not allow this kind of information to be included in the textbooks? It is

simply vote bank politics and minority pacification. How did the secular

Indian government pacify the minorities? In 1982, the (NCERT) National Council

of Educational Research and Training issued a directive for the rewriting

of school texts. It stipulated that the " characterization of the medieval period

as a time of conflict between Hindus and Moslems is forbidden. " Minority

quotas in the fields of education and employment are effectively used to woo the

Muslims. Thus denial of history, or negationism, has become India's official

educational' policy.

 

Many of us have not even heard of the history of Hindu Kush Mountains - the

mountains where Hindu were taken and were hacked, mutilated, and

killed around 1300 AD because they refuse to be converted to Islam. The Hindu

blood flowed from the top of the mountain down on to the streets. Hindus

have to be equipped with the history of the last 1000 years to know what

happened to Hindus. We have to learn our past. We have to teach our children of

Hindu genocide. Jewish people have several museums across the globe about the

persecution of Jews by Germans during Second World War. They make every effort

to remember their history and pass it on to their children. If we do not know

the history of our past, we are likely to repeat the same mistakes and we

are likely to face the fate of our ancestors. Let us not repeat our past

mistakes. George Santayana, a Spanish-born American author of the late

nineteenth

and early twentieth centuries, said that " Those who forget the past are

condemned to repeat it. " Studying history is necessary to avoid repeating past

mistakes. Hence, every Hindu has an obligation to read and learn the history of

our forefathers who were subjected to violence, cruelty, atrocities and

carnage.

 

It is necessary for all the Hindus across the globe to participate in the

revival of Hindu heritage, in freeing the Temples from government

control; in bringing unity among different sects, sampradayas, and varnas; in

preserving and protecting the rights of Hindus in different countries;

in restoring our prestige, honor and essence of our Hindu heritage. Out motto

should be " Let us protect and preserve our Hindu culture. " If Hindus do

not preserve their culture, who will preserve it? If Hindus do not protect their

culture, who will do it? If Hindus do not promote their culture, who

will do it? If Hindus not practice their culture, who will do it? If Hindus do

not defend their culture who will do it? Let us all join our hands and

pray that we all will serve as guardians and champions of our heritage, so that

we will not be condemned again. We should not be railroaded again.

 

(NOTE: I will send the progress report of our activities regarding the Pada

Yatra and Hindu Temples in India in a couple of days.)

 

Dhanyavad

 

V. V. Prakasa Rao, PhD

 

Global Hindu Heritage Foundation

 

601-856-4783

 

601-918-7111