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E-mail from readers the world over
Date sent: Sun, 1 Nov 1998 02:52:43 EST Hindutva is the philosophy of the nation, including that of all citizens of other religions. Indonesia has 99 per cent Muslims, but the Ramayan is its national epic and Ram its national national hero. Similarly, Hindutva is the philosophy of all Bharatiyas. The British had designed the education system to make Indians hate their own culture and accept the European/British culture as their ruler's superior culture. Socialist Nehru and his Communist allies continued this. They continued the colonial education system, vilified the nation's culture and the nationalists who propagated it because they were afraid the natives will one day throw them out. The process has started. George Iype labours under the same ignorance and holds a similar jaundiced viewpoint. He would be surprised to know that one of the major public universities will shortly hold a conference on the "13 years Jesus spent in India."
Jaidev Rao, President
Date sent: Sat, 31 Oct 1998 19:04:33 -0500 Most Hindus are happy with the kind of curricula Rajasthan, Maharashtra and UP governments have prescribed. I think it is okay if the majority wants it. After all, the likes of George Iype and Syed Firdaus Ashraf have freedom to send their kids to convents and madarsas respectively, if they want to impart the "REAL(??)" education to them. Many of these minority schools get funding from government bodies. We all know what they teach and what kind of prayers even "non-believers" like Hindu kids have to say in those schools. So George why this whining?? Since when has this guy become an educationist? Things will go this way only if people like him will insult the majority by objecting to singing the Saraswati Vandana or Vande Mataram.
Mukund Kute
Date sent: Sat, 31 Oct 1998 17:03:23 -0600 To put it simply: It is impossible for such a culturally, linguistically and ethnically diverse country like India to exist as one entity with such a fascist agenda. Is there no one to rectify the rot that is setting into our political and social system? Rajesh
Date sent: Sat, 31 Oct 1998 21:17:19 EST When it comes to history, it can and should be distorted to serve our national interests. All that has been said does have a measure of truth in it. The first settlers in Iran were after all a branch of the Aryans from India. There is absolutely nothing wrong about making Sanskrit compulsory. Science however, should remain untouched by ideology. The pioneering contributions made by Europeans and Americans should be acknowledged.
Date sent: Sat, 31 Oct 1998 12:36:12 -0800 The reason for India's dismal performance on all fronts (since we were granted independence by the British) is that, instead of patriotic nationalists, the so-called 'secular intellectuals' have ruled the roost. By brainwashing India's children with false history written by the British, they have divided society and made Indians feel ashamed of its culture. All the proud countries in the world, including the greatest nation on the earth today, the USA, project a history in their school curricula which makes kids proud to be citizens of that country. Only a proud nation can achieve success in the world, and the Commies and Congressmen -- the so-called secularists have done everything possible to undermine Indians' confidence. What's wrong with Israel teaching the Old and New Testaments? What's wrong with the USA trumpeting its contribution to saving Jews from Hitler and its mute Catholic army? Similarly what's wrong with India teaching its kids about the profound knowledge of the Vedas? For the information of your writer George Iype, all over South India, the regional language history books refer to the Indian Ocean as Hindu Mahasagar. So it is not the invention of the BJP in 1997. Rewriting history books from the Indian perspective is the only way to make India a proud nation. Otherwise, India will remain the filthiest, poorest, most corrupt and a most self-hating nation on earth.
Jay Nitturkar
Date sent: Sat, 31 Oct 1998 20:29:45 EST It was heartening to learn that the governments of UP and Rajasthan were changing the education system and text books in the right direction. I remember reading about the Dalhousies, Clives, Babars and Akbars in the history books written by white Christians and their Indian pets. Not only did the text books not teach about our own heroes, they showed these people as if they were the saviours of the nation. It is about time the educational system instituted by the white Christians was replaced by a pure Hindu system. Everything good in Bharat has come from our great rishis and swamis. Children must learn the truth now, lest the country is permanently deformed into an English speaking servant nation, forever serving the white Christian masters. The nation saw these servants in action recently at the education ministers conference when they walked out during the Saraswati Vandana. Amulya Tyagi
Date sent: Sat, 31 Oct 1998 10:50:22 -0500 What can I do to stop this? Can I contribute money anywhere? Our country is going down the drain by people who have never stepped out of the country, have no world view, only have Hindu tunnel vision. What a far cry from the days of Radhakrishnan and his liberating and universalist themes of Hinduism and he was the President of India. I am a Hindu and want to be counted -- these people do not speak for me. Where are the checks and balances in our democratic system? Have we produced a nation of imbeciles who believe every good thought in the world has originated from India, or even more narrowly, Hindu India. These saffronists are a pathetic pitiable people, so bereft with real achievement, that they stoop to recover grandeur by inventing a glorious mythical past.
Date sent: Sat, 31 Oct 1998 11:50:31 PST George don't protest too much, you are on a sticky wicket. Accustomed as you were to Indian "His" story (His being His/Her Highness of the unGreat Britain), you cannot distinguish true history from the imposed one. I intend to explain why Rajasthan and UP have not gone far enough. George has given us a hint though, I urge Murli Manohar Joshi to remove all those in NCERT and put Indians in charge. Since Macaulay's days we have been used to the propagated "His" version of Indian history, which makes many think that actual history could not be true. (Goebells learnt this art from the British) Remember India was the "Jewel in the Crown". Jewel for what reason, it can't be the wealth, otherwise South Africa would have been the jewel. It was only because of Hinduism and its impact on the British. What they encountered for the first time was mind blowing and they were astounded by the concept of dharma and culture. They had never found this in any other conquered land, but they would allow its imperialistic Xianic ego to accept it. Indian "His"story was thus created.
It went thus:
The first was achieved by claiming that Hinduism was probably 2,500 to 3,000 years old. This way Buddhism could also be covered and could be made to appear about 2,100 to 2,200 years old. Then we had the spectre of Aryan invasion created (imagine the arboreal creatures after climbing down, straight headed to India, fought and suppressed a superior cultured people and imposed Vedas, Sanskrit, Upanishads on the unsuspecting Dravidians. Even lately they used the UNESCO to write a book History of Mankind edited by Leonard Woolley, in which he claims the Rig Veda destroyed the greatest culture in the world. What did the Congress/Janata Dal do? Will the BJP wake up and ask UNESCO to vacate India if this book is not withdrawn and fresh, true history written on how Christianity destroyed Mayan, Inca, Aztecs, Bush and Maori culture. This theory perfectly fitted point 2 and 3. To further separate the regions a cassocked chap assumed the name of Tholkappiyan and under the pretext of researching Tamil cut its link with Sanskrit by saying there were only two sounds for each consonant against four in Sanskrit. His Italian mind could not probably alter the language itself. Tamil was then given an age as old as Sanskrit itself to ensure that the locals lapped it up. Then he turned on to caste divisions, which were strictly labour divisions till they arrived. All the planned "His"story almost went down the drain, if India was to get Independence. Hence, Pakistan was created and Edwina was planted in the royal court. Aspirants to the throne were slowly allowed to be removed from the scene by the cultivated dynastical head whose mind was poisoned in the mother country by Laski's students. It was only Indian Marxists who were not considered enemies, because of their antipathy to Dharma/peace/tranquility and their constant need for turmoil/poverty to sustain themselves. Bureaucratic institutions were created like NCERT/ICHR/JNU etc to carefully continue the myth of Aryan/Dravidian idyllic Islamic rule etc. To make people forget the cruelty of Islamic hordes, less cruel kings (Akbar, though he killed as many Hindus as the others) were portrayed as benign monarchs. Truly now that India is independent for the first time after Sardar Patel's death and we try to bring sanity to history, the white ants are coming out in numbers to ensure that people do not get educated with true Indian hhistory. I could write an entire article about the deliberate misinterpretations that was resorted to thrust Aryan invasion, but I would reserve that for another day. Suffice it is to say that archeological studies have refuted the linguistic jugglery of the Aryan invasionist historians of the church. The white ants are protesting in numbers today -- first about Deepawali, now about Ravana. Tomorrow they will say Hiranyakasipu was the forefather of M Karunanidhi who will then say that Narayana is his enemy (with drum beating by Marxists like Sankariah, Ram etc). Krishnan
Date sent: Sat, 31 Oct 1998 08:56:27 PST The article about the UP and Rajasthan state government floating the so-called apex body (NCERT's) suggested text books, only highlights how in the last 50 years history has been distorted in the name of a balanced view. What other derogatory measure can have a devastating effect than changing history in the name of balanced view? History has to be taught as it happened, not according to the whims of leftist historians who have hidden agendas to propagate lies about Aurangzeb, equating him to a sheep and Babar to a goat. Even Babar and Aurangzeb might be turning in their graves with the humiliation being imparted on them by so-called historians through NCERT (sic!) It is truly amazing that I couldn't even know about Vasudev Balwant Phadke as the first revolutionary through my history text books. The fondest epithet given by these so-called intellectuals to Maharaja Shivaji is a mountain rat. No wonder an entire generation of Indians have no sense of pride, dignity, work ethics, and feel deprived of their heritage, because of this nonsensical education by NCERT. As Swami Vivekananda said after meeting Ramakrishna Paramahans that he made efforts to unlearn what ever he learned so far, so that he could start with a uncorrupted mind. It is high time I erase whatever I learned through NCERT books and start using my own mind. Srinivas Penumaka
Date sent: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 11:10:18 +0530 I do endorse the view that the ministers who walked out during the Sarswati Vandana programme, as well as those who arranged it in the first place had noble and great thoughts in their mind. Most other things in this passage are also acceptable. But a few of them are not. Like Latin, Sanskrit is defunct. Even in the plant kingdom, only that which adapts, blends, intermingles and evolves, survives. Why shouldn't natural selection be applicable to language, too? What's with this necrophiliac itch to raise the dead? Good to have your own thoughts about how many languages a child should learn and how many people are learning it worldwide. In Germany, all students above high school learn both French and English in addition to Deutsch. In fact, most of Europe learns at least three languages compulsorily. When one gets down to the job of writing articles with as wide a publicity as this one has, it is a good idea to do some fact-finding. Just relying on writing skills is a novel idea bordering on arrogance and it would be best if given up. Mahatma Gandhi, (I guess he deserves to be allowed to have his ideas as most of India in terms of freedom and the Constitution is his idea.) felt apart from the mother tongue, one had to be taught Hindustani (that's what he called Hindi in most written pieces) English, Urdu, Persian and Sanskrit. He laid extreme emphasis on Sanskrit and English and said three of the other four should be made compulsory. Well he had kids and believed he had more than just his own when it came to thought and action, and felt learning five languages was a good idea. (Something like having one medium of instruction and then getting the other languages in various lengths of the time-line from class I to X). So much for people who feel four is too many. Sanskrit is not defunct. Typically 50 to 80 percent of all Indian languages are Sanskrit, whether we accept it or not. The fact that most of us cannot speak any language other than English in all its purity is owed to the lack of primacy for Sanskrit. While I am not arguing that getting children to learn Sanskrit for three years will make them speak their languages without the aid of English, it at least helps those with linguistic leanings to veer towards more literary attainments in their local or national language. This growth of literary quality is impossible if Sanskrit is not a known avenue when one is young. Arguing that it is not going to be used by anybody and nobody is going to speak it is stupid. I have not conversed in History with anyone. I have used very little of it since class X. I still consider I did not waste my time knowing the date of the Second battle of Panipat. Neither do I consider that those who learnt it and don't know now are useless to the society. Many such things can be shown to be of no value, should one argue on Varsha's lines. Sometimes thinking is a good idea. Even for girls. About housekeeping only for girls. There is no doubt that even if it were thrown open for both sexes there would not be a lot of boys going in there. It's a frank motive. Traditionally, society has come to expect something from women in this country. There is nothing wrong with the education system trying to fulfill such expectations. Trying women's lib and calling the perpetrators of such ideas as "chauvinistic yobs" makes one look silly. It is a good idea for women to enhance feminity and give up competing with men. (As an aside, I can't figure out why there is only one chess player in the top 100 who is a woman and why among Nobel Laureates, men out-number women by a factor of 10. I also don't realise why a woman has not been president of USA or France yet. Women's inferiority to men is a global phenomenon. No point competing. It's a better idea to do what you are good at. In any case, if extra education is offered to a section of the class I thought they had reason to feel happy. It seems correct, like Saisuresh Sivaswamy has pointed out in his column that no matter how good the idea is, it looks contorted in the BJP's hands. These tasks should have been taken up by the Congress who could have done it without the bad name. Like Dilip D'Souza says there are more important things than a debate on what is discussed. Better get on with those first and look at the rest later. Phaneesh
Date sent: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 09:21:42 -0500 It is really a very good step to implement Hinduism in the education policy. I am really surprised by the opposition made by great political Hindu leaders. Are they are not bound to do something about their religion which ultimately will reflect in their national interest? What are the problems they see in implementing Hindu teachings in education? Do Hindu teachings teach something which will really be a threat to any religion for the coming generations? Look at our history, look at our religion and look at other religions which are growing by leaps and bounds, look at their teachings. Hinduism is losing ground in the world population. I am sorry to say this, but this is a fact. People who belong to the applied Hindu religion are proudly saying we are not Hindus. Take Jains, here is a good example, ask a hard-core Jain, he says "we are different, we are not Hindus." What explanation do you have for this one? Population wise, India is increasing, but then why are they afraid of teaching Hindu scripts and culture? It is the right of every child born in Hindustan to learn Hinduism. Otherwise in the event of time that child will be lost and will not know were he was born, and which religion he belongs to. I am not a popular columnist or something. But living abroad I feel there is a need for increasing awareness about Hindus and Hinduism. Why should we be afraid of teaching Hinduism in our own country? Then we have no right to blame people living abroad who are converting to other religions. Those political leaders will be held responsible in time to come, when people of Hindustan will not know who was Lord Krishna and what are his teachings. What is the Gita, and what it teaches us? Otherwise, the time is not far when India will be divided on the basis of religion. Finally, as Krishna has said par dharmo bhayavahaha. No nation can survive without a strong belief in their basic religion. Nitin How Readers responded to Vir Sanghvi's last column
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