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peonycats · 7 months

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(might become a block of text as i write sorry) do you have any thoughts on how bengal's personification(s)...work ? i am bengali but it's always confused me how to go about it. was there only one bengal before the partition ? would west bengal and bangladesh have a personification only after it ? i feel weird making bengal (if there was one before what we have currently, which... there's gotta be right ??) "into" west bengal or bangladesh cuz then i feel as though there's a very weird and at least somewhat offensive connotation on which one's "more/truly bengali" to put it lightly, ya know ?? but i can't see either of them really being born in the contemporary era cuz bengal's history is so ancient and vast ?? it confuses me sm i know i should probably just ask other bengalis but the ones ik irl don't really have strong views on this and i don't know any bangladeshis i can realistically ask this to 😭😭😭 im sorry if this has become an incoherent block of text

HEAVY DISCLAIMER THAT I AM NOT BENGALI OR SOUTH ASIAN!!

Tbh, don't worry about sending in a big block of text, I think this is an scenario/question worth considering. Basically, there are a number of ways you can go about personifying Bengal/Bengali nations, and each of them have their own issue, each of which have their own pros and cons, if my understanding is correct-

There was one original Bengal personification that was Hindu, but around the time that Islam reached Bengal and Bengalis began to convert, another Bengal personification arose to specifically represent Muslim Bengalis.

There was one original Bengal personification that began as Hindu and eventually converted to Islam, going on to become the personification of Bangladesh. No other separate personification arose to represent West Bengal/Bengali Hindus because this original personification still represents them.

There was one original Bengal personification that began as Hindu and eventually converted to Islam, going on to become the personification of Bangladesh. Meanwhile, another Bengal personification later arose to represent West Bengal/Bengali Hindus around the time of British imperialism and/or the Partition.

APPROACH 1

Pros + Reflects the current cultural division between Indian Bengalis and Bangladeshis

Cons - Lowkey justifies the Partition of the subcontinent by implying there were already personifications split on religious lines predating British colonialism

APPROACH 2

Pros + Reaffirms the artificiality of the Partition by there only being one Bengal personification representing all Bengalis regardless of religion

Cons - Does not accurately reflect the irl cultural divide between Indian Bengalis and Bangladeshis and the difference in how they view themselves

APPROACH 3

Pros + Reaffirms the artificiality of the Partition by there only being one original Bengal personification representing all Bengalis regardless of religion

Cons - By making the personification of West Bengal so comparatively young, this both inaccurately reflects the age of the Hindu Bengali community vs the Muslim Bengali community, as well as have subtle implications about which community is more "authentic and legitimate" based on this difference in age

Now, choosing one of these approaches will definitely depend a lot on what exactly you're personifying and the historical-geopolitical context at hand, as well as what messages you're not afraid to convey. For example, I personify Afghanistan as representing both Pashtuns in Afghanistan and Pakistan from talking to actual Pashtuns and how they view the border between them, as well as communicating the artificiality of the border. I think it's useful to recognize that the entire process of personifying a nation is basically mapping things like, a nation's ethnogenesis, rise to power, golden age, and eventual decline and destruction to human life events, is always imperfect and sometimes, the allegory falls apart; the Partition is probably one of the best examples of this.

As for how I would go about personifying Bengal? I would probably for a variation of Approach 1, where instead of there being multiple Bengali personifications split on the basis of religion, there would be multiple Bengali personifications split on the basis of regional and cultural differences. (Correct me if I'm wrong, as I am an outsider to this, but there are sub-groups and regional differences in language and culture even within Bengal, right?) Because of there being multiple Bengali personifications, some of them would be Muslim, some of them would be Hindu, and by the time of Partition, the personifications representing the lands of modern day Bangladesh and/or Muslim Bengali communities would move to join/represent the nation of Bangladesh while those representing Hindu Bengali communities would join India. This approach still has its issues, and may still validate/justify the Partition in the eyes of some people, but I go for it because it fulfill my most important conditions-

Doesn't make any of the Bengal personifications outrageously young

The Bengal personifications are personified based on regional and cultural divides that predate colonialism and imperialism

Them having to consciously choose sides post-independence and having to separate from one another accurately reflects the artificiality of the Partition and how it split up communities.

That's just my take, ofc, as a non Bengali and as someone who hasn't done as much research into the region as I'd like to, feel free to disagree and choose whatever approach feels most accurate according to you and your research!!

#ask #// long post #hws bangladesh

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buzz-london · 1 year

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Anti-India bias of the BBC

BBC's recent 2 part documentary, India, the Modi question, on PM Modi is very divisive and has a strong anti-India, anti-Hindu bias. (January 2023)

Instead of focusing on the life or achievements of the Prime Minister of the largest democracy in the world, BBC focused on the controversial riots that happened at the beginning of his career as the Chief Minister (CM) of Gujarat state in India.

On the morning of 27th February 2002, a mob of muslim rioters from Godhra, Gujarat, burned a train, killing 59 Hindu pilgrims (9 men, 25 women and 25 children). A state wide strike on the 28th Feb sparked riots across Gujarat. Army was called in and arrived on the 1st of March. Despite that, violence lasted for weeks, resulting in the death of over 2000 people, of which, 75% are presumed to be muslim.

The main claim of people accusing PM Modi of post-Godhra riots is that he waited 3 days before calling in the army, allowing rioters to kill muslims with impunity.

Sloppy journalists assumed 28th till 1st March was a delay of 3 days. Intelligent ones knew that Feb 2002 had 28 days! So the 1st was the very next day of the month and there was no delay of 3 days! Indian army was there the very next day of the riots, not 3 days late! I wish the BBC had checked facts rather than rely on hear-say before making grave allegations of genocide on the PM Modi!

BBC's prog on India's PM Modi shows its obvious bias and absolute colonial arrogance! It assumes it knows more than the police, investigating agencies and the High Court (HC) of India! Every court in India, from its HC in the state of Gujarat to the Supreme Court (SC) in the centre, investigated Mr Modi for over a decade. They went through a mountain of data, investigating every claim made by every NGO and journalist to try and see if Mr Modi was complicit in the Gujarat riots of 2002. This is when the Congress party was in power and being opposed to CM Modi's BJP party, they used every lever of gov to try and nail Mr Modi. Yet at every turn, evidence showed that Mr Modi did his best to quell the riots, including calling in the army on the very day the riots started and they arrived the very next day!

No less than the SC of India exonerated Mr Modi on all counts of all charges levelled at him. Yet, 20 years after the event, BBC continues to rack up old, unfounded allegations and continues to malign the PM of India.

BBC has strongly insinuated in the documentary that CM Modi was voted as the PM Modi because of his anti-Muslim views. It totally ignored the fact that the nation voted him in for his 'development' model, which was explicitly agnostic of voters' religious affiliations. His party's slogan is 'Sab ka saath, sab ka vikas', ie With everyone and progress for everyone’. People across India voted him to be their Prime Ministership because of the progress and development they saw in Gujarat during his 12 year tenure as its chief minister. BBC also ignores that PM Modi has been voted back to power for a 2nd term because of the positive growth people have seen progress seen across India in his 1st term.

Last week, BBC spent the best part of the hour exploring what Mr Modi did or did not do after the riot. But, crucially, it spent no time exploring the cause of the riots - the cold blooded murder of 59 Hindu pilgrims by a muslim mob who burned them alive! Why were the lives of Hindus victims so easily disregarded by the BBC? BBC spent a lot of time talking to the muslim victims of the riots. Why did the BBC not speak to the family of the Hindu victims? Why did it not speak to the muslim extremists who murdered Hindu pilgrims? Why did it not spend any time examining the 31 people found guilty by the court system of the heinous murder of Hindu pilgrims, and instead waste time examining the 1 person exonerated of any guilt!

BBC's series on PM Modi will do nothing to rehabilitate its image as a racist, left-wing organisation that produces biased programmes that are not fair or balanced in their content or views.

#bbc #pm modi

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maxeiil · 3 months

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If there's one thing I hate about the world, it's the division between the people in it; In this case I'm talking about religious and other belief barriers.

Why must a Muslim hate a Christian because they love Jesus? Why must a Christian hate a homosexual just because they like someone of the same sex? Why must an atheist hate a Christian and a Muslim for how religious they are? Its all wrong.

I think about the tension between Abrahamic religions the most. Muslims and Jews frown upon Christians for believing in Jesus, Christians frown upon Muslims for *not* believing in Him and the argument over which belief is right just goes on and on for infinity and beyond.

But why? If you love God, then you know the one thing He wants us to do---LOVE. 1 Peter 4:8, "Above all, have fervent and unfailing love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins." Now this piece of text from the Bible might mean nothing if you believe in God but are not Christian, but it's the truth.

Riddle me this, when has God ever told us to hate each other? When has He told us to slander and persecute one another? Do you really think God wants bad blood between His people? By the Heavens, no!

It really is sad to see, and I've experienced persecution from someone of another Abrahamic religion. My best friend's family is Muslim. Once upon a time before I was as religious as I am now, him and I had exchanged tons of inappropriate (NOT sexual) things over text. His mom went through his phone and saw everything. His parents were obviously furious with him for saying such things, and I can only assume they asked him about who I was. When I asked about the situation like a month ago, he told me his parents didn't like me for a lot of reasons; because I was "a bad influence", because I'm a girl, and even because I'm Black (they are Indo-Guyanese). But he told me they disliked me the most because I'm Christian.

That hurt. A lot. Their son is my best friend and I love him to the moon, the stars, and the sun and back, and I've been the bestest friend I can to him. Us being of different faiths have never stopped us from being as close as we are now. But its a shame it is the reason his parents hold a grudge against me.

A quote I will always hold close to my heart is " One God, one love." He loves generously and freely, so why can't we? Jesus says, "Be holy because I am holy", so why can't we do that, with love?

I pray for the people of Earth everh day. I pray there will be no more arguments, and slandering, and hating. I pray we can all be brought together by the peace and glory of God. That a Christian can kiss a Muslim. That a Hindu can be best friends with an atheist. That a Jew can walk hand in hand with a Buddhist.

Love conquers all.

God bless,

-Maya

#christianity #faith in jesus #islam #judaism #religion #peace on earth

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indiejones · 1 year

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'INDIA'S CENTURY-OLD RESERVATION & CASTE-DISCRIMINATION SCAM'-

Indian caste politics, began somewhere in early 1900s, ie ~100 yrs old.

(The most detailed statistical analysis from 1820's, documented in Prof Dharampal's legendary book 'The Beautiful Tree', based on British surveyor Adam's painstakingly researched Reports, shows how all states in India, except for female education (which btw has taken off everywhere in the world, not just in India, only in last 100 yrs) had a thriving schooling system with ~1/4th school-going kids of Bharat, & 1/3rd kids incl the vast sums receiving education at homes, being well schooled in all the important areas of learning of then. Further, a school generally present per 500 male students, with Brahmin kids accounting for on avg only 15%-20%, rest vast %s of school-going kids belonging to Shudra, Vaishya, Kshatriya, & Muslim communities!.. And twas only 1860's on, when Indian education came directly in hands of British, that they removed the rent-free nature of indigenous school, thus effectively killing basic free education in India, made all more advanced subjects a matter only for 'higher' (read monetarily expensive) education, & when asked what of the other lesser well off students, were told "such communities don't need such education", thus birthing the huge education caste divide, first in idea, & then in policy (by forcibly writing people's castes based on occupation in their surveys of early 1900's, & denying higher edu based on it), a policy that's carried on in India since then!

👇

https://archive.org/details/TheBeautifulTree-Dharampal/mode/2up?view=theater )

Now this caste-based politics birthed from the British's education caste divide, & nurtured in Independent India thereafter, is a direct lift from USA's 250 yr old 'Critical Race Theory' ie the TACTIC of reinforcing division in people based on LOWER & HIGHER BLOOD, as opposed to what it actually is-

A difference in ECONOMIC POSITION in society.

Most people who've seen India at reasonably close quarters, know how people from different so-called castes in Hindus, within the same area of upbringing, don't look diff or better enmasse,or don't talk diff or better enmasse,..but yes, they may wear & eat & live different enmasse.

What does this observation,which can be repeated as many times as wish,at different places,& over diff sample sizes, provided under the same criteria of selection, & give same results, tell you?

That CASTE IS FUNDAMENTALLY A SUBCONSCIOUS ECONOMIC CONSTRUCT.

And till Indian people, as society decide to not treat it as such, will keep getting played by politicians, who're always looking for 'easy block votes' anywhere in the world.

They will keep calling u 'shoshit vanchit samaj', knowing full well that they themselves are doing ur shoshan,by purposely not addressing the root cause for ur being 'vanchit', namely your opportunities for livelihood or occupation.

Do u know that this whole 'reservation' hoopla, accounts for only 8% of the total occupations opportunities in India?

Do you know that 80% occupation in India, is carried on in the primary sector, ie agriculture, manual construction, & animal husbandry, requiring no formal education as such!

Yet we've kept hearing about this ''shoshit vanchit samaj' before every election for past 75 yrs, from mouths of politicians, who know the facts I just mentioned before you & I did!

Do u know?

Korea before division into North & South, & China before Communist revolution, also had the very same varna-differentiation , based on their occupation- scholar,defender,farmer/trader,& laborer.

Yet both managed to not deviate it to, blood/capacity division Ie To people assumed to thence born only with a mind, or a hand, or a leg!

& Look where S.Korea, following the same unadulterated fundamentals, is, in just 75 yrs, the most prosperous nation on earth, while we, the originators & creators of these fundamentals, languish towards the bottom!

'CASTE-DISCRIMINATION' IN INDIA, IS 40% 'AN ECONOMIC CONSTRUCT', & 60% ITS BIGGEST ABETTOR, 'NOT POLITICAL CONSTRUCT BUT A POLITICIAN-CREATED CONSTRUCT'.

& EVERY POLITICAL PARTY IS IN ON IT!

COZ GIVES THEM EASY EMOTIONAL TRIGGERS TO CREATE MORE & MORE DEPENDENCY BLOCKS, & LESSER FOCUS ON KEY ECONOMIC INDICES OF PROGRESS.

& TILL POLITICAL PARTIES OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCE, TO ABANDON ALL CASTE & 'SHOCHIT' TALK,& ONLY FOCUS ON 'VANCHIT'..WILL CONTINUE TO BE OUR,YOUR & EVERYONE'S BIGGEST 'SHOSHAK'.

& WE THE PEOPLE, WILL KEEP STAYING 'RESERVED..FOR A ROYAL SCREW OVER'.

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writingwithcolor · 3 years

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Jewish author writing about antisemitism; should I include racism too?

anonymous asked:

Hi! I'm a white Jewish person who's writing a story set in a fantasy world with a Jewish-coded culture. It's important to me to explore antisemitism in this distanced setting, and explore what the Jewish diaspora means to me. I have a lot of people of color in my story as well. I don't know whether I, as a white person, should include racism in a story if it isn't necessary, but I also don't want to erase the aspects of many mildly/moderately assimilated cultures that are affected by racism, and I also don't want to imply somehow that antisemitism is a more serious issue than racism, which is obviously not the case. I was thinking that bigotry might be more culture-based rather than ethnically or racially based, but again, I'm not sure how or whether to write about bigotry against cultures + groups based on cultures + groups that I'm not a part of, and people of color in the story would obviously have their own cultural elements. Is acknowledging bigotry necessary?

It's okay to focus on antisemitism

Other mods have important advice on what exactly might be helpful or applicable to include in your story and how. I want to take a moment with the anxiety you express that focusing on antisemitism and not talking about other types of xenophobia will imply to your readers that you think antisemitism is ��more serious” than other forms of bigotry. I hear and honor that anxiety, especially since “Jews only care about Jews” is a stereotype that never seems to go away, so I’m going to say something revolutionary:

It’s okay to center Jews in a story about antisemitism.

There, I said it. But I’m not making the case that you shouldn’t include references to or depictions of other types of bigotry in your story. There are a lot of great reasons why you should, because of what it can do for the complexity of your characters, the depth of your worldbuilding, or the strength of your message about the nature of xenophobia, diaspora, etc.

- How your non-Jewish-coded characters react to the things they experience can affect whether they sympathize over or contribute to the antisemitism at the heart of your story.

- How other types of xenophobia do and don’t manifest in your world can help explain why your world has antisemitism in the first place, and what antisemitism consists of in a world that also contains other minorities outside of the fantasy mainstream culture.

- Including other real-world xenophobia can help you set your antisemitism in context and contrast to help explain what you want to say about it.

Both your story and your message might be strengthened by adding these details. But if you feel the structure of your story doesn’t have room for you to show other characters’ experiences and you’re only considering doing it because you’re afraid you’ll be upholding a negative stereotype of yourself if you don’t, then it might help to realize that if someone is already thinking that, nothing you do is going to change their mind. You can explore antisemitism in your story, but you don’t have the power to solve it, and since you don’t have that power you also don’t have that responsibility. I think adding more facets to your story has the potential to make it great, but leaving it out doesn’t make you evil.

- Meir

Portraying xenophobia

As someone living in Korea and therefore usually on the outside looking in, I feel that a lot of people in Western countries tend to conflate racism and xenophobia. Which does make sense since bigots tend to not exactly care about differences between the two but simply act prejudiced against the “other”. Sci also makes a point below about racialized xenophobia. I feel these are factors contributing to your confusion regarding issues of bigotry in your story.

Xenophobia, as defined by Dictionary.com, is “an aversion or hostility to, disdain for, or fear of foreigners, people from different cultures, or strangers”. You mention “thinking that bigotry might be more culture-based”, and this description fits xenophobia better than most other forms of bigotry. Xenophobia can be seen as an umbrella term including antisemitism, so you are technically including one form of xenophobia through your exploration of antisemitism.

I understand your wariness of writing racism when it doesn’t add to the plot, especially as a white writer. Your concerns that you might “erase the aspects of many mildly/moderately assimilated cultures that are affected by racism” is valid and in fact accurate, since exclusion of racism will of course lead to lack of portrayals of the intersections between racism and xenophobia. I want to reassure you that this is not a bad thing, just a choice you can make. No one story (or at least, no story that can fit into one book) can include all the different forms of oppression in the world. Focusing on one particular form of oppression, particularly one you have personal experience with, is a valid and important form of representation.

You also comment that you “don't want to imply somehow that antisemitism is a more serious issue than racism”, but I honestly feel that doesn’t need too much concern. Much like how queerness and disability are two separate issues with intersections, racism and xenophobia form a Venn diagram, with large intersections but neither completely including the other. A story focusing on autistic characters that doesn’t also have queer rep doesn’t imply queer issues are less serious. Likewise, a story focusing on antisemitism doesn’t imply racism is less serious.

I am slightly more concerned that there might be an accidental implication of antisemitism being a more serious issue compared to other forms of xenophobia. Of course, exploring antisemitism alone is completely valid representation, and there’s no need to go out of your way to try and portray other forms of xenophobia. A microaggression or two, or maybe a mutual bitch out session with a gentile but marginalized friend should be enough to show that antisemitism isn’t more (or less) serious compared to other forms of xenophobia.

-Rune

Avoiding racialized xenophobia

I think one thing you have to be careful with here is racialized xenophobia. Are your characters of color getting disproportionately more xenophobia than your white characters? You might be falling into the trap of racialized xenophobia, which falls under racism, which you want to avoid. An example would be “all Chinese scientists are untrustworthy, but not you, you’re one of the ‘good ones.’” Although this is technically xenophobia, it is also racism.

--Mod Sci

In the case you choose to include even small snippets of other forms of xenophobia in your story, attempting to portray xenophobia without the complications of racism can be a difficult process when they often go hand in hand (especially to a Western audience). So here are a couple of suggestions I have of portraying xenophobia without racism.

First and the simplest method is portraying xenophobia between people of the same race. For example, there is definitely xenophobia against Chinese and Japanese people in Korea, but it would be difficult to claim there is a racial component when all of us are East Asian. (Something you might want to be aware of here is intersections with colorism, where even within the same race, lighter skin and other more westernized features are considered more desirable. I suggest looking through our colorism tag for more details)

Another idea is to include microaggressions for specific cultures rather than something more broad. For example, calling Korean food stinky because kimchi has a strong scent is specifically xenophobic against Koreans, while commenting on small eyes can be directed against Asians in general.

Finally, while antisemitism is a form of ethnicity-based xenophobia, it is also a form of religion-based xenophobia. Muslims and Buddhists and Hindus can absolutely be xenophobic against each other with no racism involved. Should you choose this method, particularly if religious xenophobia is only shown in a shorter scene, I suggest you try and avoid portraying any of the above religions as the Bad or Oppressive ones. As a Christian I will unironically tell you that Christianity is a safe choice for a religiously xenophobic character, as we’re far less likely to face backlash compared to any other religion, and inspiration should unfortunately be overflowing in real life.

-Rune

Other forms of ethno-religious oppression

Here is my TCK perspective as someone brought up in diverse environments where there are often other axes of oppression including religion, ethnicity and class:

Racism and xenophobia can definitely be apples to oranges, so creating a universe where racism no longer exists or has never existed seems doable to me. Perhaps in your fantasy world, structures that buttress racism, such as colonization, slavery and imperialism, are not issues. That still won’t stop people from creating “Us versus Them” divisions, and you can certainly make anti-semitism one of the many forms of xenophobia that exists in this your story. Meir has hinted that your reluctance to declaratively show the harm of anti-semitism indicates a level of anxiety around the topic, and, as someone non-Jewish but also not Christian or Muslim, my perspective is as follows: I’ve always viewed anti-semitism as a particularly virulent form of ethno-religious xenophobia, and while it is a unique experience, it is not the only unique experience when it comes to ethno-religious xenophobia. I think because the 3-way interaction between the Abrahamic religions dominates much of Western geopolitics, that can be how it looks, but the world is a big place (See Rune’s comments for specific examples).

To that effect, I recommend prioritizing anti-semitism alongside other non-racialized forms of xenophobia along ideological, cultural and class-based lines for both POC and non-POC characters. Show how these differences can drive those in power to treat other groups poorly. I conclude by encouraging you to slowly trace your logic when depicting xenophobia towards POC characters in particular. Emphasize bigotry along axes of class and ideology, rather than traits linked to assumed biologically intrinsic features. Ultimately, I think recognizing commonalities between forms of ethno-religious oppression as a whole will help make you more comfortable in depicting anti-semitism with the seriousness it deserves without feeling as though you are trivializing the experiences of other groups.

- Marika

Worldbuilding ethnically and racially diverse cultures

As has been mentioned by other mods, I think it’s completely fine to focus your story on antisemitism and not portray other forms of bigotry if that’s the focus and scope of the story you want to tell. My fellow mods have also offered several valuable suggestions for writing about “culture-based bigotry” in general if that’s what you want to do, while making sure it’s not coming off as racially based. One element I can add is that from a worldbuilding standpoint, it will also help to have your fantasy cultural groups be ethnically and racially diverse. After all, this was common historically in several parts of the world, and depending on which cultures you’re basing your coding on, you could absolutely have fantasy cultures in your world that include characters we would read (according to our modern-day standards) as white, and others that we would read as people of color, within the same fantasy culture. All these characters would face the same culture-based bigotry (such as xenophobia or religious oppression), even though they are read by a modern audience as different races.

As a note, the reason I say “read as” and “according to our modern-day standards” is that the entire concept of whiteness as we know it is very specific to our current cultural context. Who is and isn’t considered white has changed quite a lot over time, and is still the subject of debate today in some cases. Your work will be read by a modern audience, so of course, you need to take into account our current understanding of race and the dynamics surrounding it. However, it’s also helpful to remember that our modern racial categories are fairly new in the context of the many millennia of history of humankind, and that they are certainly not inevitable. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking a fantasy culture has to align itself entirely with modern-day racial categories.

- Niki

#Asks #fantasy #worldbuilding #anti semitism #xenophobia #racism #Judaism #Jewish

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simply-buddhism · 3 years

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"There is the problem of violence, not only the student revolt in Paris, Rome, London and Columbia, here and in the rest of the world, but this spreading of hatred and violence, black against white, Hindu against Muslim. There is the incredible brutality and extraordinary violence that human hearts carry - though outwardly educated, conditioned, to repeat prayers of peace. Human beings are extraordinarily violent. This violence is the result of political and racial divisions and of religious distinctions. This violence that is so embedded in each human being, can one actually transform it, change it completely, so that one lives at peace? This violence man has obviously inherited from the animal and from the society in which he lives. Man is committed to war, man accepts war as the way of life; there may be a few pacifists here and there, carrying anti-war slogans, but there are those who love war and have favourite wars! There are those who may not approve of the Vietnamese War but they will fight for something else, they will have another kind of war. Man has actually accepted war, that is, conflict, not only within himself but outwardly, as a way of life. as well as at the deeper levels of his consciousness, produces a society with a corresponding structure - which is obvious. And one asks again: Is it at all possible for man, having accustomed himself through education, through acceptance of the social norm and culture, to bring about a psychological revolution within himself? - not a mere outward revolution. Is it at all possible to bring about a psychological revolution immediately? - not in time, not gradually, because there is no time when the house is burning; you do not talk about gradually putting out the fire; you have no time, time is a delusion. So what will make man change? What will make either you or me as a human being, change? Motive, either of reward or punishment? That has been tried. Psychological rewards, the promise of heaven, the punishment of hell, we have had in abundance and apparently man has not changed, he is still envious, greedy, violent, superstitious, fearful and so on. Mere motive, whether it is given outwardly or inwardly, does not bring about a radical change. Finding, through analysis, the cause why man is so violent, so full of fear, so greatly acquisitive, competitive, so violently ambitious - which is fairly easy - will that bring about a change? Obviously not, neither that nor the uncovering of the motive. Then what will? What will bring about, not gradually, but immediately, the psychological revolution? That, it seems to me, is the only issue." You are the World

JIDDU KHRISNAMURTI

#Buddha dharma #dharma #Buddhist quotes #ZEN QUOTES #buddhist #buddhism #buddha

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valasaraei · 2 years

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In the name of Freedom of Religion

Freedom of religion mentioned in Article 18 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is one of the most fundamental cornerstones of modern human civilization, which Western civilizations, through a transition from a sinister and dark history, have finally reached and are working to consolidate. Verse 256 of Surat Al-Baqarah is the most important verse that Muslims cite to prove their support for freedom of religion:

“Lā ’ikrāha fi al-dīn”: “There shall be no compulsion in the religion”

For a person who is not very familiar with the whole book of the Qur'an and the religious structure of Islam, the appearance of this verse is very deceptive; Especially for someone who is not familiar with Arabic grammar; A Play with words that is manipulatively done by modern Islamic commentators to cover up the anti-human nature of the Qur'an.

In this context, several points should be considered:

A) The first point is the function of “al-” in al-dīn. “al-”, is the definite article in the Arabic language; A particle whose function is to render the noun on which it is prefixed definite. For example, the word kitāb (book) can be made definite by prefixing it with al-, resulting in al-kitāb (the book). Consequently, al- is typically translated as "the" in English. This shows that when this verse speaks of religion, it does not mean religion in the general sense, but refers to a specific religion. Now the next question is which is this particular religion or al-dīn?

Surat Ali ‘Imran, Verse 19: “Indeed, the religion in the sight of Allah is Islām”. This verse clearly shows that “al-dīn” is Islam. There are many religions, but “the religion” is Islam and just Islam. So the real meaning of first verse is: “There shall be no compulsion in Islam (= the religion).”

B) The second important point is to use the word “in” (fi). Understanding this is very important to know that this verse is addressed to Muslims, not all human beings. In this verse, it is said that there is no compulsion “in Islam”. That is, when you enter the religion (Islam), there is no compulsion for you within the realm of this religion. More precisely, this noncompulsion is intra-Islamic, not extra-Islamic; when you enter Islam, there is no compulsion for you from then on.

C) This perception is very important, because the Qur'an elsewhere clarifies the duty of Islam and Muslims to the followers of other religions, with a dual division into infidels with books and infidels without books. Surat At-Tawbah, Verse 29:

“Kill those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth (Islām). From those who were given the Books, until they give the jizyah (Islamic Tax) willingly while they are humbled.

Based on the verse, if we are talking about the infidels of the Book (Jews, Christians and perhaps Zoroastrians), they face the three possibilities of death, converting to Islam, and paying Jizyah. Paying Jizyah means that the rank of infidels becomes the people of Dhimma. Dhimmis are infidels who won’t be killed if they pay their Jizyah (Islamic Tax). But if we are talking about the infidels who are not the People of the Book (for example the Hindus, the Buddhists, the Sikhists, the agnostics and the atheists), they will lose one of those three choices, and that is to pay Jizyah. This means that these people must either accept Islam or die.

The important outcome of this analysis is that in Qur'anic Islam, there is no possibility of reconciliation and acceptance between Muslims and non-Muslims, and in the event of tension, the modern Muslim is at a crossroads between accepting modern Tolerance and fidelity to the Qur'anic essence of Islam.

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karamindia · 3 years

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Unity In Diversity In India

Presentation

As we as a whole realize India is a nation of solidarity in variety. The mountain ranges, waterway flooded regions, waterways, and streams, woods, and desert all have embellished India with their extraordinary variety among individuals different races, ranks, ideologies, religions, and dialects each state and area has its uniqueness Worldwide neighborhood explorers or guests love this assortment tones, culture, and the environment, and so on Dance and music, bright celebrations and wonderfully crafted works a spell on the guests both Public and global. Seashores of Goa, backwaters of Kerala, and snow-clad heaps of Himachal, and sands, and pools of Rajasthan, world culture sights of Delhi, and so on are the image of the variety of our country. This vivid assortment of a nation makes our country a significant fascination of travelers that is advantageous for the Economy and thriving of the country.

Notwithstanding, large numbers of the distinctions in religions, customs, dialects, and societies have become so exceptional that they have expected hazardous extents for Public Solidarity and security. We do not just need to give the best offices and wellbeing to unfamiliar travelers yet additionally to keep up with tranquil and neighborly coextensive individuals having a place with various identities and societies. Without harmony, our variety is of no utilization. It is not an unexpected obligation of the public authority and individuals of India to keep the delightful variety of our country got in the card of solidarity unblemished.

Which means of solidarity in a variety

The term solidarity in variety identifies with the condition of fellowship or uprightness regardless of the presence of endless variety. Solidarity in variety depends on the idea where the individual has varieties in actual characteristics, skin tone, ranks, statement of faith, social and strict practices, and so on are not seen as a debate. Maybe, these distinctions are seen upon as assortments that work on the general public and the country overall.

In India, the public associations just can be the foundation of a solid, bound together, and prosperous Indian, typically in times of radicalism and illegal intimidation. Mahatma Gandhi forfeited his life for shared solidarity. However, there are various networks like Bengalis, Gujaratis, Punjabis, Maharashtrians, Tamilians, and so on the realities stay that regardless of divisions and contrasts, rank or statement of faith, we have lived respectively for millennia. However, there are contrasts between the Hindu and the Muslim people group concerning their societies, philosophy, and customs. They live respectively and have a profound regard for one another. The Hindus send good tidings to their Muslim companions at the hour of their Muslim celebrations like Eid, Muharram, and so on moreover, the Muslims likewise send wishes or good tidings to their Hindu companions at the hour of Hindu celebrations, for example, Diwali, Durga puja, and so on this portrays most of the solidarity among the Hindus and the Muslims in India.

On numerous subjects, they impact each other and are spurred by the goals of oriental human progress. India is a huge country. Various areas notice changes in the environment. The communication in the language of one state is very not quite the same as in different states. They wear various kinds of garments, they celebrate various celebrations and play different strict customs. Individuals having a place with various societies have a place with various strict convictions.

Beginning of solidarity in a variety

The term solidarity of variety means the solidarity between individuals with various social, strict beliefs, economic wellbeing, and other segment varieties. This articulation has its associations, since antiquated occasions, it is utilized by different political and social gatherings to show solidarity among the people or social orders. This is an antiquated articulation that was before utilized by certain social orders in North America and China, around 500 BC. Solidarity in India is the best model of solidarity in variety since individuals living with different religions and societies keep similar laws as set somewhere near the Constitution of India.

Significance of solidarity in a variety

Solidarity in variety is particularly significant for a nation for:

Public Combination

Solidarity in variety is exceptionally fundamental for a country since it is an extremely basic undertaking to partition individuals with various perspectives and thoughts. In case there is a solidarity between individuals in spite of their varieties and it is undeniably challenging to crumble the country. The solidarity among the residents of the nation assumes an extraordinary part in keeping up with harmony and thriving in the country.

Improvement and development

Solidarity in variety assumes a fundamental part in the development of the country on the grounds that the assembled nation will consistently continue on the way to improvement. It will confront some inward issues than a country that is socially feeble and conveyed on various terms.

Worldwide acknowledgment

A country that is various, yet at the same time it is joined together, joins worth to the country as well as appreciated on worldwide stages. It sets a model for all countries by featuring the qualities and ethics of residents who regard and support each other notwithstanding their various foundations and societies.

Tranquil concurrence

Variety can likewise be the justification behind the beginning of inner questions however solidarity in variety assumes a major part in keeping up with serene conjunction with individuals with various societies and foundations.

The contrast between solidarity and variety

There is a feeling of fellowship and a mix of solidarity. Its soul holds individuals together and the bond that directs the way of uprightness.

Solidarity addresses the connection between the different gatherings that tie them all together. It can even be contended that the absence of qualification between individuals of various races is upheld by strict, semantic, or racial angles.

Conversely, variety alludes to something else. It is characterized on the grounds that the aggregate contrasts of different gatherings upheld religion, race or language and so forth It's a variety of classes and gatherings living in a few districts, with various societies, customs, and foundations.

Variety can be something that achieves alternate points of view, encounters, and acknowledgments among individuals. Solidarity can be a reality while variety can be a condition of division or variety. A family might have individuals with various perspectives, interests, or thoughts who express their disparities in many regards, however, as a family, they show the best approach to solidarity among themselves.

Benefits and bad marks of solidarity in a variety

Benefits

Solidarity in variety expands the resolve of people inside the work environment, association, and local area.

It assists with extending coordinated effort, connections, cooperations between individuals, along these lines further developing execution, nature of work, efficiency, and way of life.

This empowers correspondence to flourish much under the most difficult conditions.

Keep individuals eliminated from social ills and it assists with overseeing clashes all the more without any problem.

It advances solid human connections and secures the equivalent privileges, everything being equal.

Solidarity in variety gives a wellspring of the travel industry to India. Individuals from varying backgrounds, societies, religions, and attire are drawn to numerous guests and sightseers from everywhere in the world.

This, however particularly not the same as each other, brings about the act of public solidarity among the people groups of the world.

It reinforces and upgrades the rich legacy of the nation and besides as a social legacy of India.

It assists with filling the rural area with biodiversity just as monetary assumptions.

A wellspring of gifted and creating experts in different pieces of the country.

Bad marks

This can lead to numerous social strains among different states and individuals of etymological beginning.

It produces defilement and ignorance in numerous locales of the country.

Because of the lacking establishment, power insufficiency, streets, and so forth it very well may be the beginning of the helpless way of life in different peaceful regions.

Solidarity in variety in old India

Old Indian history is energizing on the grounds that many races and clans blended in early India. The pre-Aryans, the Indo-Aryans, the Greeks, the Scythians, the Hunas, the Turks, and numerous others made their homes in India. Each ethnic gathering gave its vermin to the advancement of the Indian social framework, workmanship, and engineering, language, and educated. This load of people groups and their social provisions mixed so indivisibly that they can be perceived in their unique structure.

An inconceivable element of old Indian culture has been the joining of social parts from the north to south, and the east to west. The Aryan components are evened out with the Vedic and Puranic culture of the north and pre-Aryan with the Dravidian and Tamil culture of the south.'

They represent thoughts, associations, merchandise, and settlements associated with peninsular and non-Vedic India. Moreover, numerous Pali and Sanskrit terms, inferring thoughts and associations, framed in the Gangetic fields, show up in the most punctual Tamil texts called the Sangam writing which is severely utilized for the period 300 BC-Promotion 600. The eastern region involved by the pre-Aryan clans made its commitment.

Individuals of these districts talked the Munda or Kolarian language. Various terms that infer that use of cotton, route, burrowing stick, and so forth, in the Indo-Aryan language have been followed to the Munda dialects by researchers. Despite the fact that there are numerous Munda hollows in Chhota Nagpur level, the remaining parts of Munda culture in the Indo-Aryan culture are genuinely impressive. Numerous Dravidian expressions are additionally to be situated in the Indo-Aryan dialects. It was held that adjustments of the phonetics and glossary of the Vedic dialects can be depicted as much dependent on the Dravidian significance as that of the Munda.

India on antiquated occasions has been a place where there are a few religions. Antiquated Indians saw the introduction of Brahmanism or Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism, yet this load of societies and religions mingled. Thusly, Indians communicate in different dialects, practice a few religions, and see different social traditions, they follow a few normal style

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meetdheeraj · 3 years

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It was Rohith Vemula's death and protests that were the beginning of other protests in campuses across India. Campus by campus students and universities were called anti-national by ruling party, government and its supporters. JNU, DU, Aligarh University, Varanasi, Pune, Mumbai and multiple campuses in South were raising glorious slogans against the politics of right. In middle of this Zee News and godi media outlets broadcasted a video where protesters were shown sloganeering anti-India chants - the videos are now proven to be doctored by these channels. Kanhaiya Kumar and others were arrested on the basis of these doctored videos. Even today, hyena packs of shakha robots refer to protesters as 'tukde tukde gang' referring to the doctored videos. Naturally, if truth mattered to any of these hyenas they would have duly apologised and course corrected but no, truth is a convenient casualty in their fight to sink the secular republic so a new robo-republic of the right can take shape on the corpses of dalits, Muslims and others who do not believe in the ideology of division and Brahminical order.

It is this divisive politics and bigoted project you have to speak and act against. We have to dismantle the caste structure, its figures and everything that represents and prospers the idea of caste. In this regard, that statue of Manu in Rajasthan High Court must be brought down, all copies of Manu Smriti must be burnt just as Ambedkar burnt them, beef eating must go mainstream, beef festivals must get organised on public spaces for it was the beef that sent Dalits to the borders of villages sowing seeds of caste system. Beef eating is mentioned even in the starting texts of Hinduism - in Rigveda, a revered saint says he likes his beef tender, that of a calf. Brahmins were called killers of cow essentially because a cattle was slaughtered to feed them when they visited a house. Hinduism, that of Vedas and Ramayana isn't of vegetarianism. Original Ramayana of Valmiki has mention of so many meat dishes but later texts purged them for reasons known best to them. It was during later Shaivite tradition with Shankaracharya that campaign for vegetarianism in Brahmins and upper caste took shape and this campaign wasn't driven by ideas rooted in morality but to stop the spread of Buddhism and Jainism which propagated principles of non-violence. Even Buddhists weren't originally vegetarians, they campaigned against sacrificial slaughtering of animals which was rampant in Hinduism then and is even widespread today. Real vegetarians were Jains. As people started flocking in large numbers to these religions from Hinduism, feared Brahmins, to maintain their hegemony, started propagating vegetarianism. And so Dalits were pushed to boundaries of their villages, and thus superiority of nonsense started taking shape. Beef eating is as Hindu as Vedas are. Those who say beef eating isn't Hindu way of life are saying Vedas are anti-Hindu texts. Know this. Campaign against beef is extension of old system to create the other - dalits then and Muslims now - it is through this nonsense that they derive their strength and legitimacy from. Let them do their nonsense but let them not claim they are Hindus because eating beef is part of Hinduism as long as Vedas are termed Hindu texts, campaigning against beef eating is Brahminism, a narrow minded set of ideas whose purpose is to divide the society to maintain oppressive order. Beef is Hindu way of eating mentioned in Vedas and practised by early Hindus.

So have your beef, talk about it, hell, celebrate beef eating and while you're at it, also burn those copies of Manusmriti and take down that statue of Manu who said men are to be oppressed because they were born in different houses and women are to serve men because they are born differently or they are impure because they bleed. Take down that statue. Read Babasaheb Ambedkar. Educate, Agitate, Organize!

Jai Bhim!!

#Rohith Vemula #hyderabad #university #JNU #Delhi #narendra modi #bjp #right wing #politics #murder

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wisdomrays · 3 years

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TAFAKKUR: Part 241

MUSLIM CONTRIBUTIONS TO MATHEMATICS: Part 1

When we talk about Muslim contributions to mathematics we are usually referring to the years between 622 and 1600 ce. This was the golden era of Islam when it was influential both as a culture and religion, and was widespread from Anatolia to North Africa, from Spain to India.

Mathematics, or "the queen of the sciences" as Carl Friedrich Gauss called it, plays an important role in our lives. A world without mathematics is unimaginable. Throughout history, many scholars have made important contributions to this science, among them a great number of Muslims. It is beyond the scope of a short article like this one to mention all the contributions of Muslim scholars to mathematics; therefore, I will concentrate on only four aspects: translations of earlier works, and contributions to algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. In order to understand fully how great were the works of scholars in the past, one needs to look at them with the eye of a person of the same era, since things that are well-known facts today might not have been known at all in the past.

There has never been a conflict between science and Islam. Muslims understand everything in the universe as a letter from God Almighty inviting us to study it to have knowledge of Him. In fact, the first verse of the Qur'an to be revealed was:

Read! In the Name of your Lord, Who created… (Alaq 96:1).

Besides commanding us to read the Qur'an, by mentioning the creation the verse also draws our attention to the universe. There are many verses which ask Muslims to think, to know, to learn and so on. Moreover, there are various sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, encouraging Muslims to seek knowledge. One hadith says, "A believer never stops seeking knowledge until they enter Paradise" (al-Tirmidhi).

In another hadith, the Prophet said, "Seeking knowledge is a duty on every Muslim" (Bukhari). Hence it is no surprise to see early Muslim scholars who were dealing with different sciences.

TRANSLATIONS

Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) said, “Knowledge is the lost property of a Muslim; whoever finds it must take it” ; hence Muslims started seeking knowledge. One way they did this was to start translating all kinds of knowledge that they thought to be useful. There were two main sources from which Muslim scholars made translations in order to develop the field of science, the Hindus and the Greeks. The Abbasid caliph al-Mamun (804–832) had a university built and ordered its scholars to translate into Arabic many works of Greek scholarship. Between 771 and 773 CE the Hindu numerals were introduced into the Muslim world as a result of the translation of Sithanta from Sanskrit into Arabic by Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibrahim al-Fazari. Another great mathematician, Thabit ibn Qurra, not only translated works written by Euclid, Archimedes, Apollonius, Ptolemy and Eutocius, but he also founded a school of translation and supervised many other translations of books from Greek into Arabic. While Hajjaj bin Yusuf translated Euclid’s Elements into Arabic, al-Jayyani wrote an important commentary on it which appears in the Fihrist (Index), a work compiled by the bookseller Ibn an-Nadim in 988. A simplified version of Ptolemy’s Almagest appears in Abul-Wafa’s book of Tahir al-Majisty and Kitab al-Kamil. Abu’l Wafa Al-Buzjani commented on and simplified the works of Euclid, Ptolemy and Diophantus. The sons of Musa bin Shakir also organized translations of Greek works.

These translations played an important role in the development of mathematics in the Muslim world. Moreover, the ancient Greek texts have survived thanks to these translations.

ALGEBRA AND GEOMETRY

The word "algebra" comes from "Al-Jabr", which is taken from the title of the book Hisab Al-Jabr wal Muqabala by Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (780–850). Al-Khwarizmi, after whom the "algorithm" is named, was one of the great mathematicians of all times. Europe was first introduced to algebra as a result of the translation of Khwarizmi's book into Latin by Robert Chester in 1143. The book has three parts. The first part deals with six different types of equations:

(ax2 = bx) ; (ax2 = b) ; (ax = b) ; (ax2 + bx = c) ; (ax2 + c = bx) ; (bx + c = ax2)

Khwarizmi gives both arithmetic and geometric methods to solve these six types of problems. He also introduces algebraic multiplication and division. The second part of Hisab Al-Jabr deals with mensuration. Here he describes the rules of computing areas and volumes. Since Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said, “Learn the laws of inheritance and teach them to people, for that is half of knowledge," the last and the largest part of this section concerns legacies, which requires a good understanding of the Islamic laws of inheritance. Khwarizmi develops Hindu numerals and introduces the concept of zero, or “sifr” in Arabic, to Europe. The word “zero” actually comes from Latin “zephirum,” which is derived from the Arabic word “sifr.”

The three sons of Musa bin Shakir (about 800–860) were perhaps the first Muslim mathematicians to study Greek works. They wrote a great book on geometry, Kitab Marifat Masakhat Al-Ashkal (The Book of the Measurement of Plane and Spherical Figures), which was later translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona. In the book, although they used similar methods to those of Archimedes, they move a step further than the Greeks to consider volumes and areas as numbers, and hence they developed a new approach to mathematics. For example, they described the constant number pi as “the magnitude which, when multiplied by the diameter of a circle, yields the circumference.”

A well-known poet, philosopher and astronomer Omar Khayyam (1048–1122) was at the same time a great mathematician. His most famous book on algebra is Treatise on the Demonstration of Problems of Algebra. In his book besides giving both arithmetic and geometric solutions to second degree equations he also describes geometric solutions to third degree equations by the method of intersecting conic sections. He also discovered binomial expansion [26]. His work later helped develop both algebra and geometry.

Thabit bin Qurra (836–901) was an important mathematician who made many discoveries in his time. As mentioned in the Dictionary of Scientific Biography he “played an important role in preparing the way for such important mathematical discoveries as the extension of the concept of number to (positive) real numbers, integral calculus, theorems in spherical trigonometry, analytic geometry, and non-Euclidean geometry. In astronomy Thabit was one of the first reformers of the Ptolemaic system, and in mechanics he was a founder of statics.”

To give an idea of his importance, we will just give here, without details, one of his theorems on amicable numbers. Two natural numbers m and n are called “amicable” if each is equal to the sum of the proper divisors of the other:

for n > 1, let pn=3.22n–1 and qn=9.22n–1–1. If pn–1 , pn and qn are prime numbers, then a=2n pn–1 pn and b=2nqn are amicable.

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kalyan-gullapalli · 4 years

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Post # 122

Three passengers on a Kabir train

Passenger # 1 : Prahalad Singh Tipanya

In 1978, a 24-year young Dalit government school teacher in a village called Luniyakhedi in Ujjain district of Madhya Pradesh, heard the Tanpura (or Tambura) for the first time in his life and was so captivated by it that he started off on the journey of his life. His name was Prahlad Tipaniya.

Through the Tambura, Prahlad Tipaniya entered the world of Kabir. The words of this fifteenth-century saint-poet are sung in village after village by hundreds of bhajan mandalis, whose have kept alive the oral tradition of singing Kabir’s poetry for the past 600 years. Prahladji entered this world of all-night bhajan sessions as a learner. Over four decades later, he is a household name.

Prahaladji sings in a powerful Malwi style, yielding the Tanpura and the Kartal himself. His troupe consists of accompanying singers and instrumentalists playing manjira, dholak, harmonium, timki and violin. His music is not just entertaining, he connects with his audience at a spiritual level, with dialogues and simple explanations. It spreads Kabir's message - to rise above petty divisiveness, empty ritualism, and the need to adopt love as the ultimate religion.

He is a Malwa Ratna, a Sangeet Natak Academy awardee and a Padma Shree.

In 1997, Prahladji set up the Kabir Smarak Seva Shodh Sansthan (Kabir Memorial Service and Research Institute), on a plot of land granted to him by the state government adjoining his home in Lunyakhedi village. He calls this land Kabir Nagar and organizes an annual event, where thousands congregate to listen to Kabir’s words through bhajans and discourses by gathered singers and spiritual leaders.

In 2010, he started the annual Malwa Kabir Yatra, a 5-day event, which carries musicians, listeners, travelers, seekers, nomads, old, young, rich and poor together, at the same time, on the same path, making Kabir a religion of the people.

That was Passenger # 1 - Prahalad Singh Tipanya.

Passenger # 2 : Shabnam Virmani

Shabnam Virmani began her career in journalism in The Times of India, Jaipur in 1987. Just a few months later, she made history when she wrote about the infamous Roop Kanwar’s Sati, in Deorala, Rajasthan. Her article became one of the triggers for a vibrant women’s movement that led to the ban on Sati. However, she decided to quit journalism. Later, she won a scholarship to do a Masters degree in Development Communication at the Cornell University and became a film-maker. Her impactful documentaries like When Women Unite, about the successful anti-liquor movement of rural women in Andhra Pradesh and Tu Zinda Hai, which was about successful women activists of Madhya Pradesh, have won many hearts as well as prestigious awards and honors. Drishti Media, Arts, and Human Rights was co-founded by Shabnam, in 1993, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

In 2002, she was living in Ahmedabad, when Godhra happened. Hindus and Muslims clashed. She was dabbling with Kabir at that time. And Kabir seemed to say to her - Sadho, dekho jag bauraya- O seekers! see the world’s gone mad. And she set out on a series of journeys, camera in hand, venturing into diverse socio-cultural, religious and musical landscapes, meeting with people who sing, love, quote, revere and make meaning of Kabir. One such person, who became her guru was a Malwi musician from Madhya Pradesh - Prahalad Tipanya.

So, as though nudged by Kabir himself, she made four documentary films.

Had-Anhad: Journeys with Ram and Kabir probes the divides created by religion and nationalism.

Koi Sunta Hai: Journeys with Kumar and Kabir probes the boundaries we create in the realms of knowledge, art and music, in forms of Gharanas, and how some people like Kumar Gandharva and Kabir, challenged them and crossed-over.

Chalo Hamara Des: Journeys with Kabir and Friends shows a friendship between a rural Dalit folk singer, Prahlad Tipanya and an American scholar, Linda Hess.

Kabira Khada Bazaar Mein: Journeys with Sacred and Secular Kabir probes the ironies, compulsions and contradictions that unfold in Kabir Panthis (ones who walk the talk of Kabir).

One of her most touching endeavors is the Kabir Project. The Kabir Project is a series of journeys in quest of Kabir and other Bhakti, Sufi and Baul poets. These journeys inquire into mystic poetry of these saints through songs, images and conversations, curated through documentary films, music CDs, books, urban festivals, rural yatras, workshops and courses and a web archive called Ajab Shahar.

That was Passenger # 2 - Shabnam Virmani.

Passenger # 3 : Linda Hess

Dr. Linda Hess was, for 21 years, till she retired in 2017, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies, Stanford University. And she is a scholar, writer, devotee and lover of Kabir.

She was born and raised in a Jewish family. When she was 21, she "got the call" and moved to India. She says she fell in love with Kabir immediately. "He was sharp, funny, vivid and astonishing. What you didn’t want to hear, he would say—over and over, in your face. But you liked it because, really, you did want to hear it.”

She says she started reading other Bhakti poets of North India - Mirabai and Tulsi Das - but couldn't connect with their Saguni mode of Bhakti. Kabir and his Nirguni nuggets of wisdom appealed to her a lot more. She listened to the two most popular forms of Kabir poetry - Dohas and Bhajans.

The two people who touched her the most were - the same old Malwi folk singer, Prahalad Tipanya, and Kumar Gandharva. Unfortunately, she couldn't meet Kumar Gandharva in person, but after he died, she visited his family and they graciously welcomed her and gave her access to rare work of Kumar Gandharva on Kabir.

Linda Hess is best known for her book - The Bijak of Kabir - widely accepted as the best translation of Kabir poetry in English, and a couple of other books.

From 2002, Linda started to focus on oral traditions rather than printed texts, spending extended periods of time in India with singers. Hence began her association with Shabnam Virmani. Linda joined the Kabir project bandwagon as a consultant and has been a co-passenger ever since.

That was Passenger # 3 - Linda Hess.

These three passengers boarded the Kabir Express at different times in their lives, took some time to settle down on their berths and get to know each other. But once they did, they created some magic!

Listen to some pure, 24-carat-gold music! Have fun trying to spot Linda in the video. Of course, this video is Shabnam's Ajab Shahar production.

youtube

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desbianherstory · 5 years

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In a coffee shop in Mumbai I waited nervously to meet 'the community'. I had just moved back to the city after years abroad and begun the search for other lesbians. Already I had been warned by Sakshi, who had come to make contact with me and make sure that I was not a reporter, that levels of trust were low. This was not only because of the need for confidentiality but also because women from The Outside, she told me tactfully, tended to take up so much space; tended 'to assume that their priorities are ours'. We were sitting by the cash register. When the phone rang and the server asked for Sakshi, I was close enough to hear the voice on the other end, demanding: 'Well? Shall I come to meet her? Is she Us?'

When I first started working as a reporter at the Times of India, the breaches of trust I engaged in while trying to promote lesbian visibility were multiple and unthinking, unprepared as I was for the difficulties of being both Us and Not-Us. When the group in Mumbai began working towards the first nationwide retreat for 'women who love women' I helped organize it, participated in it and then wrote about it. It was a conflict on many levels: between organizing collectively and yet representing 'Us' as an individual; between what I knew readers needed to hear and what I didn't know that lesbians were unwilling to share.

I also had to think about Us and Not-Us on many levels when I began the work of compiling Facing the Mirror, a collection of writings by lesbians in India. As soon as word of the project spread, I started receiving letters from men, offering to write about lesbian fantasies, about threesomes, about wishing to be lesbians for a day, about their lesbian wives. I had never expected this.

Some Indian lesbians themselves objected to the Facing the Mirror project on political grounds. One told me that there was no purpose to putting the existence of Indian lesbians into words, since it would just cement and make public the divisions between lesbians and women at large - divisions which we should be working to erase.

'Militant lesbians aren't aware of the existing spaces,' she said. 'Think about the ladies' compartment of the trains, you see women together there all the time. They hold hands, and from their faces you know that it is bliss.'

I tried to persuade her to change her mind - after all, that very week there had been an article in a women's magazine talking about the scourge of lesbians in train compartments. Such single-sex spaces of safety were increasingly rare, increasingly threatened. But she merely shook her head, told me that both the verbalizing of same-sex desire and the violent reactions against that desire were marginal to the vast reality of an Indian tolerance.

'All this - it has nothing to do with India,' she said.

Us and Not-Us. these words took on a new valence for me after Deepa Mehta's film Fire came out in India, at the end of 1998, and was immediately attacked by the Hindu right for its depiction of lesbianism. Fire, a tale of two women married to two brothers, developing a relationship with each other in the congested streets of middle-class New Delhi, was not a film made for Indian audiences. The symbolism was pureed like baby food, the metaphors of fire (Sita's trial by fire from the Ramayana. the evil custom of bride-burning. home-fires and hearth-fires.) so deliberately labelled 'For Export Only'. The film had even less to offer Indian lesbians. In its portrayal of two married women falling painlessly in love, there was, as the lesbian writer VS pointed out, no attempt to take on the 'anarchic and threatening emotions that accompany sexual practices generally considered perverted, criminal and taboo'.

Nevertheless, lesbians watched with alarm as the attacks on the film gathered intensity. Even though the Censor Board had, to everyone's surprise, cleared the film without cuts, right-wing groups like the Shiv Sena and Rashtriya Seva Sangh were in no mood to accept that verdict. On 1 December, Pramod Navalkar, Minister of Culture for the state of Maharashtra and no stranger to controversy - he would often claim that he enjoyed driving around Mumbai wearing a long blonde wig 'just to see what kinds of men will try to chase a white woman' - told newspapers that lesbianism was 'a pseudo-feminist trend from the West and no part of Indian womanhood'. The next day movie theatres in Mumbai that were screening Fire were attacked by mobs of men and women from the Shiv Sena. Ticket windows were smashed, hoardings were torn down, and audiences beaten up. The day after that theatres in Delhi were targeted.

In the ensuing debate in the upper house of Parliament only detractors of the film could actually bring themselves to say the word 'lesbian'. 'Do we have lesbian culture in our families?' one Member of Parliament demanded, defending the attacks. 'The Mahabharat and the Ramayana don't contain any lesbianism,' agreed another. On the other hand, the MPs insisting that Fire should not have been attacked would do so only in the most general terms: it was as though lesbians were purely symbolic, unnamable markers of the director's right to creative freedom, of the audience's democratic rights to watch what it chose, or of the Shiv Sena mob's fascist intolerance.

So some lesbians in Delhi gathered on a tidal wave of despair, unable to believe that years of discreet organizing had culminated in such intense and unwelcome visibility. It was almost incredible that we should have come together at all for we were a dispersed, fragmented lot, rent by dissension over who 'we' were - a national lesbian conference had recently disintegrated over the issue of whether white women were welcome in a space designated Indian. Even more disturbingly, over the span of a very few years the community had divided itself neatly into lesbian archives, sexuality help-lines, education and outreach groups. The informal networks we had fostered in our homes splintered gradually by ideology, particularly disagreement over funding.

Some of us believed that funding would only help us, giving us the resources to reach beyond our largely middle-class, English-speaking circles. Others of us were apt to quote the staunch activist who maintained that a foreign donor supporting any radical effort was about as plausible as Oxfam nurturing the Quit India movement 50-odd years ago.

But, in spite of our histories of disagreement, lesbians in Delhi joined forces in the wake of the attacks on Fire. We worked with desperate energy to plan a protest rally, scheduled to take place within 48 hours of the Shiv Sena's violence, and reached out to all our old allies from secular groups and from the women's movement. To our dismay we encountered that same unwillingness to name the issue a lesbian one - again, it seemed, our concerns were to be subsumed in favour of the 'bigger picture'. The word 'lesbian' was not to be used in the press release, one women's group insisted. Instead, we needed to highlight our support for the film's theme of 'the hypocrisy and tyranny of the patriarchal family'. After all, we could not possibly expect groups at large to champion a 'narrow' concern like lesbianism.

We gave in and the protest went ahead. Hundreds of people showed up outside Regal Cinema - the theatre that had been ransacked by the mobs - holding candles, chanting, raising placards. But for the first time ever in India, lesbians were visible among the other groups marking the specific nature of their anger. In the sea of placards about human rights, secularism, women's autonomy, freedom of speech, was a sign painted in the colours of the national flag: 'Indian and Lesbian'. Who would have thought that staking that saucy claim to our share of national pride would result in such a furore? You are not Us, we were reminded at once, by a chorus of voices. The deputy editor of the national weekly magazine India Today expressed particular dismay that 'the militant gay movement, which has hitherto operated as website extensions of a disagreeable trend in the West, could now come out into the open and flaunt banners in Delhi suggesting that "lesbianism is part of our heritage".' He went on to announce: 'Thievery, deceit, murder and other... [criminal] offences have a long history. That doesn't elevate them to the level of heritage.'

But that same searing moment of visibility and defiance threw together a small group of activists - a varied lot, from trade unionists to professional blood donors, men and women, heterosexual, homosexual and other. What we had in common was a sense that we should take the energy of the protest forward in the form of a campaign for lesbian rights. Why the emphasis on lesbian rights? 'To articulate the troubled connections of lesbians in and with the women's movement,' we declared in our mandate. 'To talk about the social suppression of women's sexuality in general, and to address the aspects of lesbians' lives that make this struggle distinct from the gay men's movement.'

The Campaign for Lesbian Rights was a revelation for me. For the first time, lesbian issues were occupying public space - we met in the Indian Coffee House in the centre of Delhi, a hotbed of anti-establishment politics with a permanent Home Ministry spy, and we sipped six-rupee coffee and strategized aloud. We handed out thousands of leaflets on 'Myths and Realities about Lesbianism' in parts of Delhi that were commonly considered hostile to activists - industrial areas housing hundreds of factories, a Muslim university, outside the headquarters of Delhi Police. We attended public meetings organized by women's groups, human-rights groups, student groups. We wrote a street play, the familiar rhythms and gestures of that form inscribing the experiences of grassroots activists among us who had listened to women in villages all over rural North India talking about saheli-rishte - intimate bonds between women.

I relearned the lesson that a movement is accountable only to the people, and, to that end, that rejection is only the beginning of dialogue rather than the end. We fielded questions like 'What have lesbians done for society that we should support you?' and stood our ground and continued the conversation, our commitment spurred by the knowledge that, as a group opposed to external funding, our work depended on our ability to persuade fellow activists, fellow citizens, that they should contribute a rupee or two to our cause.

Progressive groups, who addressed all kinds of dispossession and oppression through the lens of human rights, would tell us that lesbian rights was no fit realm for them to enter because sexuality was about 'personal choice'. And so we walked a curious double line, saying: 'All choices involving consenting adults deserve respect, and in the face of compulsory heterosexuality, human rights means making that choice real', and 'Lesbianism is not necessarily a choice'. It's hard to describe what it meant to us, then, to receive a letter from the Human Rights Trust acknowledging our work as 'part and parcel of the broader human-rights movement'. It was the recognition that lesbians were part of a larger group of people, attacked and discriminated against in a panoply of ways, but with this in common - that we could give a name to the violations and to the rights we were seeking.

Most importantly, though, the Campaign reshaped what I thought of when I said 'we'. I have in front of me a citizens' report on the suicides of a lesbian couple in an Orissa village, brought out by aids Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan, one of the Campaign's constituent groups. Written by two heterosexual men, the report is titled, touchingly, For People Like Us.

—Ashwini Sukthankar is a Mumbai-based writer and activist. Her book Facing the Mirror: Lesbian writing from India was published in 1999 by Penguin India.

#Ashwini Sukthankar #fire #indian lesbians #history #writing #caleri

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beingtitan · 4 years

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Corona, Blogging Corona

It is a nightmare isn’t it? Staying home all day, wondering how someone thousands of miles away eating a pangolin can screw up your foreseeable future? Or jeopardise the lives of your family, or the world as you know it?

I have met several men and women who have cheered for acts of wars far away from home. Well this is how wars are, this is what curfews are like. This is the uncertainty each soldier feels with their lives on the line. One slip, and you are dead. And dead are the men in your command. This, is lesson number one. A knee-jerk reaction to self-isolation, because we have grown up in world where we never had the time to understand and accept the most important person: us. For all those who hate their own company: I have been there, I know what it’s like.

It slowly dawned to me how human centric the world still is: even after the tech revolution, virtual venting of emotions and lives far away from home, people still matter. You still feel safer around known faces, your cell phones have failed you haven’t they? I see this is as an expression of a basic instinct coded in our DNA: roots. No matter how far you drift, no matter how easily the external world might seduce you, the cure to your anxieties and identity crisis is home.

Lesson three is a silly one but I will tell you anyway. Hollywood lies. Gulp it down with some warm water (it’s Flu season). You grew up masturbating to sci-fi which portrayed apocalypse as alien invasions, or as giant rocks from faraway corners of the solar system hitting the earth, or the resurgence of giant reptiles chewing away anything in sight. And here you’re, losing your erections over a flu virus you can’t even see. APOCALYPSE IS BORING. Trump won’t start a World War, and we will have to see the world end with Pakistan as an independent sovereign nation (yepp, hurts me too). Maybe.

The next lesson is but a verification of a very commonly known quote: common sense is not very common. You don’t have to be Tony Stark, or you don’t have to be Uri’s Vicky Kaushal, or some Allah sent fanatic to save the world. Staying at home, not touching your face and staying away from sick people will make you a hero anyway. But as you read this, you are shitting all over this aren’t you? There, proved my point.

The one plus side to all this, for me, has been self-connect. I used to read as a kid, maybe too much. I later on started writing too. I had a rich connect with music, and I used to think out loud with people worth floating those ideas. How much of this have I done lately? Nothing. The last good jam session was at a bar, few drinks down. Yes, the Indian Air Force posters on my bedroom wall also show me the depressing side of self-connect. But some goals are so worthy that it is glorious even to fail (as long as you don’t remember it later). I connected with my childhood, and maybe the next few months will help me re-dig the hero (Ending passand nai aayi? Badal dete hain.).

This is also a chance to repent. Not as individuals but as a species. We have done what all children have been known to do: promise our mothers a better life and then drifting away from her in search of our versions of ‘better’. And as a species, our version of better is a shithole. A bachelor apartment of a home (pardon me my bachelor friends, I know its hard to hide alcohol if the rooms are clean). If udta teer gaand me lena was a person, it would be us. Choking on the air we ourselves breathe, poisoning the waters we ourselves drink and killing species we evolved from. I am also pretty sure things will be business as usual once things return to sanity (is it the right word to use?). But I wish if we take away positives from this pandemic, we might as well reset how we live our everyday lives and how we treat life around us.

As we will see more and more of this disease unravel around us, we will see a divide, a natural one. Not Hindu-Muslim, not capitalist-communist or vegetarian-non-vegetarian ones. A more subtle division – of character. As the crisis grows and our systems will break and fall apart, people will start going back to the basics. Some of them, mentally weak and passive, will kill, loot, hoard and make everyday life one big riot. The other half (are there enough to be anywhere close to half?) will get out on the streets and fight this disease, looking out for those who can’t look out for themselves. People will forget their identities and new songs on unity will emerge as long as there is a strong common enemy (yeah I have been living on this planet long enough to see a pattern). And of course there will be chuts claiming Allah has given them natural immunity, or singing Go karuna karuna go will lead to the destruction of corona rakshash or that Jesus will take all our infection on him and save us. And I am sure if God exists, he would not even accommodate them in hell.

The last lesson is real power. It’s the power of ripples, nudges and small efforts if done together and done in the right direction. The faster we comply to these lockdowns, these safety measures the faster we might return to normalcy. It’s very easy laid out like this, but not easy doing it. The power of belief when a billion people (minus the street festival chuts) stood in solidarity with the country’s emergency services was a trailer of what a collective of democratic resolve can achieve. I wish we all can extend the same belief and efforts towards tackling poverty, hunger and climate change whose effects are not very drastic as say terrorism (effects are short term but drastic – so more funding to buy weapons).

It would be unfair to end this post without talking about solutions. We as engineers, entrepreneurs, doctors and other pillars of the society love to see and provide solutions. And I am not going to talk about quantum entanglement or how a neutron star can collapse under its own gravity to form a black hole. The most effective solutions are simple. Social distancing, planting more trees, buying only as much as you need. Staying hygienic. Staying in sync with nature. Managing stress. Kindness, empathy. Want to live up to the tag of ‘most intelligent species’? We might as well focus on simple acts we can do every day. Discover the hero/shero inside of us. One day at a time, in the isolated corners of your rooms, you might feed that hero and come out brighter and with better perspective.

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alexsmitposts · 5 years

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Post-Trump, Macron is Enlightened and Sochi is the New Washington Now that it’s all over but the shouting, a few people need to be thinking about the future, as Trump’s long-delayed impeachment gets underway. In the US, this will be a difficult exercise, due to the riveting, minute by minute coverage of a process that will continue for months, leading into the 2020 presidential election. However, on a positive note, America’s soap opera is forcing Europeans to begin a process that that has been delayed since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Decades after these earth-shattering events, Europe is weakened by the triple difficulties of immigration, right-wing populism and continued obedience to Washington. As French President Emanuel Macron takes over from Angela Merkel’s decades-long leadership, Europe is no longer a model for social-democracy, but a cacophony. Although France is ‘the US’s closest ally after Great Britain’, only the website of a Russian-American known as The Saker publicized Macron’s recent, stunning acknowledgement that the world is fundamentally changing. In a yearly speech to France’s Foreign Ambassadors that reflects an education system based upon the rigorous analysis of complex ideas, (incarnated in the ‘dissertation’ that even science majors must master) forty-one year-old Macron announced that the international order is being shaken to its roots “by the great upheaval taking place for the first time in history.” “We are witnessing a geopolitical and strategic transformation, the end of Western hegemony over the world. Since the 18th century, the international order rested on that hegemony, mostly French in the 18th century, driven by the Enlightenment; then mostly British in the 19th century, thanks to the Industrial Revolution and, finally, mostly American in the 20th century thanks to two great conflicts and US economic and political domination.” Macron attributes this foundational change to “mistakes by the West in dealing with certain crises”, especially American choices over several years. They did not start with this administration, but they do force us to revisit certain implications of the conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to rethink our deep diplomatic and military strategy, as well as notions of solidarity that we thought were eternal.… For the first time, a Western leader acknowledged “the emergence of new powers whose impact we long under-estimated. In the forefront is China, but clearly Russia’s has more successfully pursued its strategy in recent years. …India and other new economies are also becoming not only economic but political powers, considering themselves as true ‘civilizational states’, that revolutionize the economic and political order with more dynamism and inspiration than we have. India, Russia and China think about our planet logically, philosophically, with an imagination that we’ve partly lost.” Better than any statistics, Macron’s words sum up the fact that Europe’s domination, which lasted from the age of conquest until the end of World War II, is over. Its desperate efforts to limit Muslim immigration are almost laughable given that Muslims sit alongside the Hindus, the Confucians and the Patriarchs. Where Europe goes from here will depend on its ability to heed Macron’s analysis. This will not be easy, if only because seventy-five years of indoctrination that began with the introduction of coca-cola and jazz, culminating in alarming rates of violence against women in the ‘me-too’ era, do not point toward healthier families and a sharing of international responsibilities. Americans are reminded several times a day that the Russian President cannot be trusted, that, as a former KGB officer he is the incarnation of evil (never mind that the KGB is the Russian equivalent of our FBI and CIA). Hidden from them are the events that Vladimir Putin organizes several times a year, bringing together diplomats and business people from across the world in multi-day informal settings. Recently, and exceptionally, a relaxed Vladimir Putin was shown on television joking about so-called Russian interference in the 2016 American election, but the venue at which an international public laughed and applauded was not named. Ever since World War II, world leaders have gone to Washington to sort things out with the president of the most powerful country. And although the White House still dangles the honor of a White House visit when making demands of a foreign nation, especially a relatively weak one, increasingly, a self-initiated parade of heads of state takes place in Sochi, Vladimir Putin’s getaway on the Black Sea. (Sochi is less than 500 miles from Yalta, on the Crimean peninsula, where the division of Europe was sealed by President Roosevelt, Russia’s Joseph Stalin and Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1945, creating the conditions for the Cold War.) Recently, the Russian President has met there in turn with Turkish President Erdogan, who Donald Trump allowed to take a swathe of Syrian territory that had long been part of the Kurds’ fractured homeland, as well as with Kurdish leaders, whom the US abandoned after they fought ISIS for years. As for President, Bashar al-Assad, he speaks regularly to the Russian president, who, since 2011, has effectively prevented the US from taking over his country. At 5’7” Vladimir Putin wears his power modestly, greeting interlocutors with a shy smile rather than the macho American hand-pump. (There is an amusing expression about people whose bluster is not born out by actions, originating in Texas: “All hat and no cattle”.) The Russian president likes to drive his own car, and never forgets to offer a bouquet to the wife of a peer (behavior that, if unavoidably appearing on US television, is never pointed out). Some Americans probably think Putin’s demeanor is a ‘gimmick’, a way of presenting himself that will lower his interlocutor’s defenses. In reality, it aligns perfectly with Putin’s preference for diplomacy over war, his low-key approach to mediation contrasting with Yankee edicts. It is embodied in the multi-polar world flagship entity, the BRICS, as well as the previously mentioned talk shops that he and Chinese President Xi hold regularly around the world, unbeknownst to the American public, whose attention is lashed to the web of accusations and investigations as old as three years. (One of the standard justifications journalists use to justify their questions to lawmakers is the more often ignored ‘people’s right to know’… Russian voters may not be ‘entitled’ to know every twist and turn of their country’s policies, however President Putin’s high approval ratings suggest that he has their confidence. Nor does he have to dangle invitations to Sochi to secure the cooperation of foreign leaders: Unlike Washington’s method of reward or punishment, they are eager to confide in him, knowing that he will do his best to bring opposing sides together, as he just demonstrated in the latest episode of Syria’s struggle to defend its sovereignty from Turkish and American intervention. As Americans wonder what America’s two hundred year old democracy will look like after an increasingly complicated impeachment process, the French President, viewed as a younger, more dynamic De Gaulle, acknowledges those the old general looked down his patrician nose at, as the world’s new leaders.

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indiejones · 1 year

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TALK AROUND BOLLYWOOD FILM ‘THE KERALA STORY’ , & CONNECTED DISCUSSION ON #LOVEJIHAD - A TERM THAT ORIGINATED FROM THE CORE OF THE FILM’S SUBJECT.

#THEKERALASTORY! IN CINEMA HALLS NOW! & In my capacity & reputation as critic, that can clearly declare to be THE BEST BOLLYWOOD TRAILER TO HAVE EMERGED OUTTA TINSELTOWN FOR A VERY VERY LONG TIME ! (And produced by Vipul Shah, so no surprises there!) TOPICAL, UNIVERSALLY & LOCALLY RELEVANT, & BRINGING BRILLIANT FILM STANDARDS INTO PLAY! THESE are the films that DESERVE to become BLOCKBUSTERS ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Jk3vquJDGs #TheKeralaStory Msm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRLPLug2T-Q #TheKeralaStory 's No. 1 Promoter ! From PM's Official Page! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-yeJyAlsvQ

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

#LOVEJIHAD DISCUSSION:

Many (especially liberals) may look at content & religious background of the film, & think it to be divisive & political.

But this channel has, for past 7 yrs, posted tweets against forced or sly conversions, & forever demanded Govt to ban conversions totally!

( Going by the accepted universal understanding of looking at SECULARISM as the focus on, the LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR of all religions under their purview, NOT on their HIGHEST COMMON FACTOR. Ie. Secularism as the focus on, multiplying all the various ethos uncommon to each to arrive at a final spirit ethos...thus fulfilling the essence of any religion (the anchor for human hope & positivity), namely TO UNIFY SPIRIT. Not the focus on, the highest common emotion, giving rise to each of these religions, thus destroying the very purpose of religion, namely TO RAISE & NOT SUBSIDE the human SPIRIT (spirit = prana shakti in Yogic terms).)

Many journos like Swati Sharma etc, have posted literally 1000s of stories-vids of girls forced to convert to Islam by cruel force of different type or by marriage in guise of love, also under hidden id, but later asked to convert or else..

This film is a extreme but true eg. also highlighted by journos.

Do You Know-

The term #LoveJihad was given not by Hindus, but by Christian clergy in Kerala, seeing slew of cases coming to light in Kerala, in 2010, where Christian & Hindu girls were so picked up in love, & then taken to live in ISIS states.

(Watch 1:36-2:36) https://youtube.com/watch?v=GbHgEpQNZ0s

Not just Hindu, but Christian, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain, & Adivasi groups have protested against #LoveJihad-

1. https://youtube.com/watch?v=GbHgEpQNZ0s 2. https://youtube.com/watch?v=aEZZJa9N_4c 3. https://youtube.com/watch?v=eiG3NQ88Inc 4. https://youtube.com/watch?v=MS9fj43U0cQ 5. https://youtube.com/watch?v=_bsDOrRQNwg 6. https://youtube.com/watch?v=8K8jnB4tIR4 7. https://youtube.com/watch?v=BizhkIR2OoQ

Classic #LoveJihad pattern, observed by journo Swati Sharma, who's spent her entire career on it-

1.Muslim guy estg contact with Hindu girl u/false Hindu name. 2.When girl deep in love,reveals true id,& if protests,says: "Would you've gone ahead, if knew real id?" 3.Girl is thus ego-emo-plus-morally blackmailed, & marriage organized (ofcourse via Muslim custom),incl name & religion change in 5 mins, following which the Hindu girl is month by month, subtly yet surely made to abandon Hindu religious spirit.

& This she says is seen in 8/10 cases.

Watch from 20'-25'> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbHgEpQNZ0s

Journo Swati Shama says how herself alone receives atleast 5 cases daily, of #LoveJihad, which include cases of kidnapping, or murder, or cheating accusation made by the converted & spiritually harassed Hindu (now Muslim) wives.

Do you Know-

This larger term #LoveJihad that hung on many yrs,was defined as 'FALSE LOVE TRAP' by Allahabad High Court,in one of its orders,one of several such cases where it & many other courts have given orders punishing this tendency of marrying under false name/religious id.

Did You Know-

Records of few big 'Daava' ('Invitation to Islam') organizations, per journo Swati Sharma, nabbed by ATS few yrs back, show half 'convertees' in their books, were girls converted via marriage.

Giving rise to a perception of this as a 'modus operandi' in society.

(6:36-7:51)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=p0lEInEkh-k

Journo Swati Sharma further states, how outta the below cases of girls converted via marriage, in 'Daava' books, A LARGE % conversion cases ultimately involved the crimes of murder, being cut to pieces, & being burnt alive.

(Watch 13:45-16:45)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=p0lEInEkh-k

AND THE BEST & INFACT ONLY SOLUTION, TO C-U-R-B THIS DISTURBING & CORROSIVE TREND, IS FOR GOVT TO B-A-N C-O-N-V-E-R-S-I-O-N-S TOTALLY !

You don't need to formally enshrine yourself in a particular religion, to follow it's best practices IN ETHOS & SPIRIT. WHICH IS KEY.

BUT YOU MUST NEED TO FORMALLY ACCLIMATIZE YOURSELF IN THE TRUE ADDITIVE & NOT SUBTRACTIVE SPIRIT PRACTICES OF YOUR & ALL SURROUNDING RELIGIONS, TO PROGRESS WELL ALONG THE SPIRITUAL PATH.

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