I suggest we leave Amrita TV alone. Haindava Keralam is a Sangha inspired site. Let us seek to improve ourselves instead of wasting our energy elsewhere. Having a channel like Amrita TV where we can have darshan of Amma regularly is in itself a major blessing. Let us not try to teach Amma how to run things. Let us have faith in her that she knows best and in the meantime seek to strengthen Sangha in every which way.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Thursday, March 01, 2007
The genesis of riots in India
It is tragic that you lost your mother in the Godhra riots. You are a Hindu, going by your name, and this is proof that the riots were not one sided, as the Muslims and ‘secularists’ are trying to make it out. Whoever dies, it is a human being that dies. The humanity in us would make us all weep.
Even if no one can guarantee there won’t be riots again in the future, let us at least try to understand the root cause of riots in India.
The Hindu culture of acceptance of various ways of living sustained harmony amongst the various communities in India over the millenniums and even at its darkest periods, no Hindu community was sought to be annihilated - at worst there was only isolation of certain communities. This is the most important thing to note of Hindu history. What caused incalculable rapture to this harmony was the advent and spread of Islam, with its “My way the only true way” aggression. Godhra was only the latest of the innumerable displays of intolerance, which began with the Islamic destruction of temples and forced conversions in the 11th century and reached its climax in the partition of India. With determination to identify with a foreign ruler Baber, a bogey full of innocent pilgrims were burnt alive. Hindus took to violence spontaneously, as a reflex action, due to the burning of pilgrims. In some cases of riots, it is difficult to pinpoint what caused the riots, but in the case of Godhra, it is absolutely clear that it was caused by the burning of the bogey. Even if there is a difference of opinion as to who burnt the bogey (which would end once the Commission’s report is released), there is no doubt that it was then widely perceived, reported and accepted that the Muslims burnt the bogey. All the victims of the riots were due to spontaneous violence that took place. Violence is always ugly, whoever indulges in it. When passions calmed down, no one hounded anyone out of Gujarat. Compare this with what happened and continues to happen in Kashmir against Hindus there. Not spontaneous acts of violence but predetermined acts of ethnic cleansing, planned by Pakistani leaders for the Muslim cause.
If we are ever to say goodbye to religious violence, we must expose the doctrine of “my way the only true way”.
Even if no one can guarantee there won’t be riots again in the future, let us at least try to understand the root cause of riots in India.
The Hindu culture of acceptance of various ways of living sustained harmony amongst the various communities in India over the millenniums and even at its darkest periods, no Hindu community was sought to be annihilated - at worst there was only isolation of certain communities. This is the most important thing to note of Hindu history. What caused incalculable rapture to this harmony was the advent and spread of Islam, with its “My way the only true way” aggression. Godhra was only the latest of the innumerable displays of intolerance, which began with the Islamic destruction of temples and forced conversions in the 11th century and reached its climax in the partition of India. With determination to identify with a foreign ruler Baber, a bogey full of innocent pilgrims were burnt alive. Hindus took to violence spontaneously, as a reflex action, due to the burning of pilgrims. In some cases of riots, it is difficult to pinpoint what caused the riots, but in the case of Godhra, it is absolutely clear that it was caused by the burning of the bogey. Even if there is a difference of opinion as to who burnt the bogey (which would end once the Commission’s report is released), there is no doubt that it was then widely perceived, reported and accepted that the Muslims burnt the bogey. All the victims of the riots were due to spontaneous violence that took place. Violence is always ugly, whoever indulges in it. When passions calmed down, no one hounded anyone out of Gujarat. Compare this with what happened and continues to happen in Kashmir against Hindus there. Not spontaneous acts of violence but predetermined acts of ethnic cleansing, planned by Pakistani leaders for the Muslim cause.
If we are ever to say goodbye to religious violence, we must expose the doctrine of “my way the only true way”.
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