TIA,

Looking through your website I have noticed some postings on Hinduism and Orissa. ... I have been following such events for sometime and have been able to accumulate information on this topic.

Here is my output on this subject.

     R.S., India



The Truth about Hinduism

When the Aryan conquerors appeared in India around 1500 BC, with them appeared religious writings called the Vedas and a Four-Caste social system. This was the earliest form of Hinduism. Present day Hindu fundamentalists deny that Hinduism is an imported religion, for that would allow for the fact that the Aryans forcibly converted the conquered people and threw them into the lowest caste structure - that of the Sudra or laborer.

The only "forced-conversion" ever undertaken in India, according to this "Saffron Brigade," is the imagined one supposedly being perpetrated today by India's miniscule Christian community on the Hindu majority. However, for some reason, no one seeking entry to Europe or America fears forcible conversion in those lands, judging from the never-ending queues of visa seekers outside foreign embassies and consulates in India.

The four caste system - imported to India and adapted to Hinduism

It will be of interest to note that the Turkic-Iranian people, the Khazars, also came to India in the 5th and 6th centuries AD. Much of central and northern India's people are of this stock. They too adopted Hinduism and over the centuries have become its most intransigent adherents, other than in areas where militant Muslim rule obliged them to forsake it.

Today's Hinduism is a mish-mash of popular beliefs and rituals based on religious treatises of comparatively recent origin, called the Puranas. At the same time the Four-Caste system has split into thousands of branches and sub-castes. Ironically, it was the British colonial administration that tried to bring some order out of this chaos by simplifying religious classification into categories based on the mainstream religions only. However, until quite recently, people would still identify themselves according to their caste.

Lies and myths of Hindu fundamentalists

The Hindu fundamentalists of today are trying to superficially blur caste distinctions and present Hinduism as a united and monolithic religion. This is a mere ploy to retain the domination of the social order by the so-called upper castes. In today's rapidly changing world economic - rather than religious - forces help cause change in the social sphere, and the upper castes fear the complete emancipation of the lower ones. This is the major reason why they get furious when Christian run educational and social service institutions that reach out to the lower and so-called backward castes of India. But history shows that the lower castes have always been manipulated and hoodwinked over the centuries. So the question to be asked is: Will history repeat itself even in our time?

Although the Hindu fundamentalists operate under many names they are inter-linked. They continue to infiltrate into each and every walk of life, distorting history, promoting their fantasies and spreading false doctrines and hatred.

Some of the ridiculous stories put out by them is that the famous Taj Mahal in Agra, India is in fact not a Muslim but a Hindu monument, that Vasco da Gama copied the sea-routes of a Hindu seafarer, and, among myriad other fables, that Jesus was a mere member of the Essenes sect and not the Son of God. On a baser level, rumors are spread , for instance, that second-hand clothing available in the bazaars of India are in fact those obtained from overseas as charity by "Catholic priests" and then sold for personal gain!.

The West helps Hindu fanatics

With huge pools of Hindu populations in different countries in the West, the Hindu fundamentalists have an active presence there. The West is ideal for fund-raising as the high value currencies of this region obtain a lot of rupees in exchange back home. These funds keep the Saffron Brigade well oiled. While extremely fearful of the tiny Christian population at home - which has to be kept in check (chastised) on a regular basis, there are no such fears about migrating to the West and mingling with the Christians there, and even tolerating the loathsome beef-eating habits of the inhabitants there.

Steines and his two sons were burned to death in his family bus, above.

In the West too, a system of infiltration by Hindu fundamentalists into various fields of social activity is undertaken - especially in the English speaking world - in the fields of education, the media and the NGOs [Non-Governmental Agencies]. A grave danger now faces a complainant or informant because the Hindu operative in the media or NGO can reveal his/her identity to Hindu fundamentalist groups.

In the English language media of the West, it has now become impossible to publish or air anything negative about India. When, a few years ago, the Australian-born Christian aid worker in Orissa, Graham Staines, was burned alive along with his two young sons, minimal coverage of this barbarous incident was given in the West.

A television station even published the comment of an Indian expatriate worker in Sweden, that "the other side of the (Staines murder) story be heard" (!). Such nonsense could only see the light of day because there was Hindu 'interference' in that "world respected" TV channel.

Fundamentalist leader Advani receives good publicity from the West

Hinduism is also boosted abroad by its adherents there who are now nominating and gang-voting for Hindus for the various literary and personality awards that are periodically given out in the West. Indira Gandhi was voted as "Woman of the Millennium" and Mahatma Gandhi as "Man of the Millennium" for one such media conducted set of awards. "Chicken Tikka" was voted in as the National Dish of Britain.

Nearly two decades ago, the Hindu fundamentalist leader LK Advani was voted "Man of the Year" by a listeners' poll conducted by a radio station in London, England! (This very man, the present leading light of the fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a potential future Prime Minister, has virtually not uttered a single word concerning the savagery meted out to the Christians in various parts of India.) Such examples are endless!

Furthermore, there are protests if Hindus are perceived to be victims in any situation. There was a flood of expatriate Hindu protests when a Hindu participant was supposedly abused by another contestant on a British TV Reality Show. From then on, it was no longer a Reality Show, but a Politically Correct one. Apologies and honors were showered on the aggrieved person, to say nothing of the winning prize!

The Catholic solution has been rejected

Our Lord Jesus Christ had the solution to this mess. He sent two of His Apostles, Saints Thomas and Bartholomew, to India to get the Hindus there to accept His Gospel, which was His Good News, but this was not to be. A huge chunk of India's population sympathize with the general aims of the fundamentalists and have made the Hindu fundamentalist party [the BJP] a force to be reckoned with on the Indian political scene. The international community, ever alert for signs of fascism elsewhere in the world, is surprisingly tolerant of the Indian variety. Remember what happened to Austria just a few years ago!

In the global push to curtail terrorism, in which India's loud - but hypocritical - voice is often heard, the world must ensure that India practices what it preaches and crushes the Hindu terrorist outfits operating within its borders. It must also ensure that the overseas branches of these same outfits are brought under rigorous scrutiny and control, if not banned altogether.

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