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ASSEMBLY POLL '98
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'It's easy for those sitting in some goddam city in US or Europe to point out what's right and wrong'
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 22:29:13 PST A brilliant article...heartfelt! The events happening around us in the recent past have been disappointing... in fact disgusting! What you wrote was something shared by a lot of people. People like you and me who share such views ... who cannot see India going in the hands of these fundamentalists, should come out in the open. People who can think... and think reasonably, logically should be vocal about what they think is right. However, I am definitely positive. I don't see the need to run away from the land which has given us so much. It's like when you fight, you have arguments but do we leave our family for such reasons, nope! Mumbai was burning between '92 and '93, people thought it was the death of the city -- but six years later it is back to what it is known for -- life and spirit. Nobody seems to discuss the riots, the hatred which was widespread at that time is not omnipresent anymore! It's this spirit -- to live even in the greatest of adversity that's been the basis of Indian survival for years. It's not that we haven't seen such fanaticism earlier, but we have come out of it. We have survived and sprung back to put the country on a progressive path. So why can't we do it now! It's easy for those sitting in some goddam city in US or Europe to point out what's right and wrong. To those I would like to say if you love your country, your religion, then live in your own land and face it. Try living it and help it blossom. Only then do they have the right to comment! Keep it up. We need to make them realise they can't use Hinduism and India to promote their own cause! Rupali Nimkar
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 18:05:29 PST 1. Your personal life is not at all relevant for a national discussion. You really stretched from your marriage to a Protestant Tamilian, to the resignation of Vajpayee! Wow!! Only travel writers can travel so fast! I also feel your personal life is irrelevant as my personal life is. I am also a Brahmin/Non-Brahmin, Tamil, have studied abroad, had relationships with Christians, and spent roughly half of my life between India and the Western countries. So get over it. Not everybody is scared and self flagellating. (BTW, who said Tamilians cannot pronounce 'h?') 2. You say, "Every day I anxiously scan the newspapers. Another church is attacked…" So Vaihayasi tell me, how come you never wrote an article when you read newspaper stories when thousands of Hindus were killed in Punjab, and Kashmir. How come you never cried when hundreds of temples were maliciously destroyed or vandalised across India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and even in England? So it's just a selfish motive? I am really ashamed of you. 3. I will condemn and get outraged as much as you if atrocities are committed against anybody, especially minorities. But you seem to jump on the bandwagon and accuse, judge, and convict a section of people without any evidence. I am completely disgusted and outraged at the Orissa tragedy. I say all who are responsible for this, should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of law. If you have any evidence that rightwing Hindus are involved in the tragedy, you should immediately contact the law enforcement agency and hand it to them. You should also publish the evidence for people to see. How can you publicly accuse anyone without having any evidence from any quarters? If it's proven in the future that rightwing Hindus were not involved in the tragedy, how can you fix the damage you have done? 4. You say you returned to India, because in India anybody has "the right not to be discriminated against." I could not agree with you more. Based on my travels, I can say that non-Hindus have more right in India than anywhere else, and Hindus have fewer rights in India than Western countries. You can ask Daniel about it. In TN, a Christian can start a college and manage it according to his/her wishes. The institution will be protected completely from government interference. The same right is not extended to a Hindu. A private Hindu college can be nationalised, or taken over in a minute by a pseudo-secular government. Now tell me: don't you want Hindus also not to be discriminated? If yes, how many articles have you written to express your opinion? 5. I believe in civil rights as much as anyone else. I want India to be secular and don't want the government to meddle in religious affairs. In TN, most Hindu temples are run by a government which does not even believe in God. Have you ever seen this scenario anywhere in the world? This applies only to Hindu temples. They won't touch a church or mosque. Christians and Muslims are allowed to manage their own places of worship. And correctly so. Why is not the this basic civil right extended to Hindus? Did you get upset over this? Did you get worried and outraged after the Shah Bano case. I am not even sure if you know what the Shah Bano case is about. 6. Are you trying to blame parental objection to your marriage on the VHP? You should get upset with them, not with Vajpayee. 7. No one I know in England will say about his/her daughter - "England would not make her feel awkward if she turned out to be non-vegetarian." Why do you feel insecure with your native culture? 8. You can check with Daniel about this: In Tuticorin, TN, I have heard many churches openly broadcasting venom over loudspeakers. They openly proclaim that India has gained political independence but not spiritual independence. According to them, India will gain spiritual independence only when everyone is converted to Christianity. Now, when aggressive conversion using foreign money is let loose on an ancient religion, what's wrong with waving flags to proclaim one's faith? 9. Hindus have been slaves for the past 1,000 years. Some invaders have violently ruled India for the past 1,000 years. When Hindus start actively questioning injustice, people like you become insecure. It's very easy when you disagree with someone to start calling him/her a Nazi. That's what you have done. Shame on you. I can also call you names. But I won't. I am a good Hindu. If you are really ashamed, nobody can prevent you from embracing another faith. I know you are not doing that, because you cannot find a more perfect way of life. If you want this way of life to be protected, you should extend the same civil rights to Hindus as you would to Non-Hindus. India can be secular only as long as Hindus are in majority.
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 14:55:09 -0500 Vaihayasi Pande Daniel should consider converting. No need to carry that shame around. Sonia has a job waiting for her. All things are possible in Hindustan -- just depends on and what you are. Amen.
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 12:06:40 EST Right on! Even though I do not agree that Vajpayee should resign, I think Daniel is absolutely correct about who is a Hindu -- we have never had a zealous, tyrannical, wear-it-on-our-sleeves culture and it is indeed shameful that the thugs in our society get to call the shots. The ugly underbelly gets to dictate and project our image. We as Hindus should be proud of our heritage of secularism -- get these inhuman idiots who are going around killing our countrymen and countrywomen and hang them! Haven't we learned a darn thing from Partition, can't we EVER listen to our conscience and perhaps help propel our India out of the clutches of goondas and villains.
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 12:06:09 EST Vaihayasi would like us to believe she is a Hindu. In that case she should at least try to hide the 'Daniel' part. Oh by the way, Bertrand Russell, some one far more eminent than a Vaihayasi, wrote Why I am not a Christian. Please read that before advising others. Band hai mutthi to laakh ki, khul gai to phir khaak ki.
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 10:07:44 -0600 Any country with so many castes/races, and with a population of nearly a billion is expected to have some problems. We should resolve them internally with a mature outlook, and the article " I am ashamed of being a Hindu" shows the immaturity of the author. Frankly, I am disappointed with Rediff for publishing such an article. No religion preaches violence but can the author say that all Christians are nonviolent and all Hindus are violent ? I don't think so. So let us not take religion and be ashamed or proud of it, but enjoy life that God has given us so that we can live in harmony and peace.
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 01:57:07 PST I don’t know who are you exactly. I just got some of your background by reading your article in Rediff. But my guess is that though you are from a vigorously patriotic, vegetarian Madhya Pradesh Brahmin family, you do not know much about Hinduism and/or much about Indian politics. The reason probably, you grew up Indian, but you did not grow up in India. Do you really read newspapers daily? Do you know what's actually going on very well? May or may not be. But I saw without any reason you were trying to put the blame on our prime minister. For your kind information, so far he has been the best foreign minister of India, and one of the best politicians of the world. He is unlucky, I think, in that way, he is from India, not from a first world country. Not only is he a wise and respected gentleman and a humble politician, he is a good orator and a good poet too. What do you think -- that he is giving orders to kill people who are not so- called Hindus? What do you think -- he is playing the game behind the net? Or do you think he is supporting all these killings? I don’t know why you are thinking so. You are a rare exception who wants Vajpayee's resignation. Even leaders from the Opposition do not want so. They know he is the only schoice with a clean image. Yes, Vaihayasi Pande Daniel, we proud Indians do not want Vajpayee’s resignation. Yes, Vaihayasi Pande Daniel, you can go back to the USA again. I almost feel that perhaps you came from USA with some wonderful master game plan and your job is almost done and now you again want to go back to the USA. Anyway that's a good idea! I am not asking why did you come and why are you going back again. I am just putting these words back. I am not being vindictive. Try to write something which will not mislead us. You say Hinduism is a tolerant, nonviolent religion. First all, Hinduism, as per my belief, is not at all a so-called religion. It is a concept or it is a culture or it is a platform where people from anywhere can stand on. India is just the base of it. So people who live in India by default are Hindu. By religion, he may be Muslim, my be Christian or may be your so-called Hindu. Do you know that India, in her glorious history never attacked any country but has been attacked by several countries for several times? But you may believe or not this tolerance and non violence are now really some non-positive points -- these are threatening its own existence. Say, for example, you are very tolerant and nonviolent. And you are being attacked continuously. Can you tell me how long you can resist? Some time you should give up. Isn't it? That's the thing happening now. Hinduism is breaking down slowly and very slowly. It is being threatened by its own attributes. Let us try to find out some solution. My dear lady, this is not because of the BJP or VHP or Bajrang Dal or ... These are not the issues. They are not the reasons behind this disintegration. Even I am saying conversion is not the issue. It is a method of how history builds its own way. I am again saying -- if you are living in India, or staying tuned with Indian culture, specially when you are not physically present in India, you can still be a Hindu. Look at the Indonesian culture - by religion most of the people of Indonesia are Muslims but their culture is influenced by the concept of Hinduism. They still even play epics like Ramayana or Mahabharata. So conversion is not a point of concern at least to me. People like Dara Singh are not supposed to be responsible for protecting Hinduism. They are nothing but criminals with some vested interests. You know pretty much about the Manoharpur, Orissa case. Could you please tell me who is that guy? Dara Singh? Is he a BJP leader? Is he a VHP leader? Is he a Bajrang Dal leader? I am not from Orissa -- and so, I cannot say exactly who is that guy and what is his background. I got it from the Internet and from other sources that he has been associated with the Congress party for the last 10 years. But some say he is a Bajrang Dal leader. Frankly speaking, I don’t know exactly. Even in the Jhabua nuns rape case, we later found that people associated with this crime are Christians and somehow related to the Congress party. Anyway, please, do not assume that I am a BJP leader or a BJP supporter or pro-BJP minded. But at least I know, I cannot blame someone whose activity is not lawfully or even potentially proved. That is one of the ways you can culturally learn or teach Hinduism. Please, don't make such comments which do not have any base itself. Rather write some good articles on Hinduism, its ways and its culture which will not mislead the people anymore. Jasendu Chakraborty
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 19:14:37 +1100 'Its a matter of shame for the Hindus that you were born in that community.' The Hindu community and India in general can do well without your services. Please go back to the place you came from and preach equality of religion, race there. A proud Hindu
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 00:19:02 -0700 I am bewildered by articles of the kind written by Vaihayasi Pande Daniel, "Why I am ashamed of being a Hindu." Did Christians all of the world write about why they were ashamed to be Christians because of what Hitler did to six million Jews? Or even because of what the Ku Klux Klan and other racist groups did to non-whites in the name of Christianity? Was Christianity -- as a religion -- ever blamed for what individual Christians did? Or even for what the Roman Catholic Church finally admitted, some months ago to doing during the Nazi era -- not doing enough to prevent the deportation and murder of Italian Jews from Italy. Let us not blame Hinduism for what some Hindus do. Nor Islam for what some Muslims do. Nor Christianity for what some Christians do. And so on. Indeed, such articles tend to be written by literate, articulate persons. The average man in the street hates no religion. He or she is much too engrossed in eking out a living. Murli
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 12:48:04 +0530 As I gazed through the article by Vaihayasi Pande Daniel, I could not resist agreeing with the fact that many inhuman deeds have been committed against the Christians in the past two years. I do abide by the fact that these sort of barbarous killings, rapes and molestation are no answer to the forced conversions which I believe have been in place for quite some time.While the article has correctly pointed out these bloodthirsty incidents, it has turned a blind eye to these conversions which have angered many Hindus in general. One question I want to ask these so-called secularists and politicians who want to make political mileage of these incidents, is "What do you mean by secularism? I don't know what it means to you (I also think that it means nothing to you), but to me it means people of all religions living in peace and solidarity. If that is going to be penetrated by Christian missionaries in the name of conversions, one should understand the sentiments of the Hindus. And finally I want to say one thing to Mrs Daniel. Nowhere in the world have so many religions been in existence so peacefully. You cannot dare think of starting a Hindu mission in Germany or Netherlands and start converting Christians to Hindus. You will invariably be made to run for your life. And one more thing -- please don't ask for Vajpayee's resignation because these attacks on Christians started a long time before he came to power. People living in glass houses should never even think of throwing stones, leave alone throwing them. Dhivakaran M S
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 16:05:42 +0900 I wonder why Rediff publishes political campaigns. Now this Ms Vaihayasi has tried to suggest that if Mr Vajpayee resigns, it will be good for Hinduism.
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 23:01:19 -0500 I do not think these barbaric events have anything to do with a religion, or that these problems can be solved if the prime minister resigns. It is only a small percentage of people among us who haven't learned any thing at all these thousands of years. No religion will support such events. GVK
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 19:41:26 -0800 I congratulate you on your feature. Could not agree more. I hang my head in shame as a Hindu because of these dreadful happenings. I am sure there are sane people in India -- why do they not speak up louder? Why do Bombayites tolerate Bal Thackeray and his gang of thugs?
Jaideep Mukerji
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 18:28:41 -0800 She is bothered about the Rath Yatra. She is bothered about Ganapati, Durga puja celebration and so on! If she is individualistic like most of the folks of her type, then so be it. Don't waste important space on Rediff. Please do not think you are doing something great by staying in India. Please do leave. India would be a much better place without people like you!
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 18:28:25 -0800 Much of the rhetoric in the article is understandable. But what is not understandable is the call for the resignation of Vajpayee. As if Vajpayee sanctioned the killing of Stains. Is it true that violence against missionaries begun after the BJP came to power at the Centre? NO!! The writer needs to realise that sporadic violence against missionaries has been going on long before the BJP was even a prominent national-level party. Even recently in Bihar (in 1997), a Christian priest was stripped and paraded naked in public. Bihar, ruled by that self-proclaimed pillar of secularism, Laloo Yadav. Some years earlier, in 1994, two priests were hacked to death. Again in Bihar. Again ruled by Laloo Yadav. Nuns were raped in Madhya Pradesh which was ruled by a Congress government. Many of the accused turned out to be Christians, and allegedly enjoyed the support of a local Congress politician. There was violence in Gujarat. There were these loud cries against the BJP. Did anybody stop to bother about the role of missionaries and Christians? Did anybody bother to listen to what the eminent Gandhian (Gandhian from the Gandhi era, not the types of Sonia Gandhi or Sharad Pawar) had to say about the missionary activities in Dangs, their modus operandi etc? If she thinks nothing of putting the prime minister, no less, in the dock for each isolated case of violence against religious minorities, let her answer this simple question -- How many new prime ministers does she think will India need each day? For almost each day several Hindus (a minority in the Kashmir valley) are almost predictably killed. BK
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 21:24:33 -0500 I personally am ashamed that the writer is a Hindu. Or perhaps she is not and the whole thing is just a charade that makes for maudlin writing. Frankly, I don't care. If all it took were a single racial slur on an Indian, a single racial killing of an Indian, to tar all Christian whites in America, perhaps then I too could mope, like Ms Daniel, that I was ashamed to be American. Silly woman, take your writing elsewhere. Vasu
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 18:30:35 PST I have a suggestion for you, why don’t you along with your much more Indian husband move to a place where you are not ashamed? What is wrong if some people want justice after 1,000 years of atrocity in their own land? Why don’t people like you look at things from the other angle? Only in India the majority is the victim of the minority. You should feel lucky that articles like this have no retroaction, instead are appreciated. If you had written against Islam then the whole Muslim world would issue fatwas against you. Why people like you only portray bad images and propagate false propaganda? Every human being tries to defend and promote his religion in the world, but when Hindus talk about their religion in their own land they become religious Nazis. What has the BJP or Sangh Parivar done to deserve this hatred? Why this scorn and vilification against the BJP or the Sangh Parivar? Only in few cases Hindu groups have instigated problems, instead they are made scapegoats every time they respond. For your information there are always at least two to a conflict, but why are the Hindus singled out as the bad ones all the time?
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 18:42:08 -0600 (CST) I have been and still remain a proud Hindu. I'm not religious and do not pray with anything approaching regularity. But I am a Hindu. No other religion lets you say the above two, apparently contradictory, things. A huge tolerance is the hallmark of Hinduism, as I know it. We are all one, says Hindu philosophy. The differences that exist between you and me, physically, mentally and spiritually are all an illusion, or maya. And when you hurt me then as sure as night follows day, you hurt yourself. Compassion is the only tenet of this, perhaps once great, religion. Why do the (mis-named) defenders of the faith, care about who's converting whom to what? Is our faith to be measured by the number of followers it has? If we, as Hindus, cannot look in our hearts and find love, tolerance, respect there, then I fear for the future of the country. The borders of the country will last, but the spirit will vanish. And that would be the greatest tragedy. Girish Maiya
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