RMF Summary: Week of March 5 - 11, 2013

March 7
Jesus Yoga - the website
Ravi shares a link.

March 7
My new blog - THE HIJACKING OF WHARTON
I just tweeted this new blog. (Given the controversial nature of my blog, it took them 2 days to finally accept it completely unchanged.) ..

Karthik comments:
"... In a Daily Pennsylvanian report, Toorjo Ghose, one of the U Penn humanities sepoys who led the campaign to disinvite Modi, has sought to justify his position as not being contrary to free expression:

"Ghose said he did not believe it was a free speech issue because Modi had been invited as an honored, plenary speaker and this position was tantamount to the conference endorsing his development ideas.We are under no obligation as an institution to endorse his brand of politics and that's exactly what we would have done had the invitation gone through, Ghose said."

In fact, Ghose is lying, and U Penn had every obligation to let the Wharton students' invitation stand. By inviting Modi to speak at their conference, the student organizers of the Wharton India Economic Forum had expressed their intention to do exactly this: facilitate a distinguished guest who represents certain ideas of development and a certain brand of politics. The WIEF conference is organized by students of the Wharton School, and should they choose to endorse certain ideas of development by association with the guests they invite, it is entirely within their rights of open expression, guaranteed by the University of Pennsylvania itself, to do so.

See the Provosts' Guidelines for Open Expression, as listed on the U Penn website:

Of particular relevance here is:

"D. In case of conflict between the principles of the Guidelines on Open Expression and other University policies, the principles of the Guidelines shall take precedence."

...

The rank hypocrisy of Ghose, who himself availed of constitutional free speech guarantees by participating in the Occupy Philadelphia movement, stands vivdly illuminated. Apparently, open expression is fine as long as it happens to serve his own political proclivities.  Political positions in opposition to his own are to be silenced by any means necessary; blackmail, activism and thought policing are perfectly acceptable when it comes to obviating the WIEF student organizers' right to open expression. "

Rajiv's response: "This is why I am glad to see that Kartik and many others have posted their comments on Huffpost. This is how ideas spread, not through private whispering. Thanks to Kartik and others..."

Karthik further adds:

"It's an astonishing volte-face. The shrill Sepoys who relentlessly castigate Modi on allegations of human rights abuse, invariably respond with deafening silence to the Pakistani genocide in Bangladesh. In fact, some of them actually transform into David Duke-calibre Holocaust Deniers on that subject. One particularly nasty specimen is Sarmila Bose, who has crafted an entire "scholarly" career out of systematically minimizing the scale of Pakistan's atrocities. In a curious inversion of the usual Sepoy propensity to cite overblown atrocity-lit, Bose has actually deflated the well documented figures of three million murders and ten million displaced by the Pakistani army, to arrive at merely "thousands" of victims. 

... In Bose's case, the Hidden White Hand accidentally showed itself by clicking "Reply All" on a certain e-mail chain. The encouraging words of the Woodrow Wilson Institute's William B Milam, urging Bose to simply ignore those who questioned her credibility, were inadvertently sent to everyone who had been included on that chain... including her questioners! ..... 

Here is an article by Naheem Mohaiemen, a Bangladesh history scholar, which lays out a devastating critique of Bose's thesis. The debate continues, with Bose's response answered by a crippling rejoinder from Mohaiemen:

Hope the above references are useful."

March 9

An encounter with Jehovah's Witnesses
I just wanted to post a note about about my recent encounter with Jehovah's Witnesses. It was Saturday and while I had better things to do I started on fixing ...
...They started on the idea of "being saved". I asked, "saved from what"?
"Oh, don't you know, we are all born sinners", said the JW. I then asked why I was a sinner and the reply was exactly along the lines Rajiv Ji talks about - Adam/Eve and Original Sin, Virgin Birth blah blah blah. And therefore, he concluded that we must accept Jesus as our savior. I
gave him a small talk about my birth being divine and God being within myself and the notion of God realization etc. Then I asked him if he (the JW) would pay for my sin. He said No, but that Jesus would. I pointed out the fact that either he unwilling to do what JC would do and
therefore somewhat hypocritical, or expected another person to pay for his faults including any sin he commits. A blank stare ensued and by now they were a tad uncomfortable. Seeing his weakness I had to nuke now, so
I asked rather innocently "Does Jesus believe in the Original Sin"? He frantically searched his copy of the Bible and merely muttered, Umm, Jesus believed in the Old Testament ... and so must be... Was time for them to leave. [But I myself do not know if JC himself
believed in the original sin]...."

March 9
Universities in US & China are getting lessons on human values from
Universities in US & China are getting lessons on human values from the great epic - Ramayana ...

AHMEDABAD: Students at universities in China are getting lessons on human values from the great Hindu epic - Ramayana.

Wise sayings from Valmiki's text are being adapted by the universities teaching Hindi in China and are being made relevant to the current world situations. At least six leading universities in China including the prestigious Peking University, the Beijing Foreign Studies University as well as colleges in different parts of China are teaching Hindi, which has become a popular foreign language in China.

"We are taught verses from Ramayana as part of literature classes at the university," said Eric Huidram, a student-turned Chinese translator and interpreter from Manipur.

Several universities in the US have included reading the Ramayana as part of comparative humanities and literature sessions on Asia.

It was through the efforts of Chinese indologist Ji Xianlin that many Chinese learnt the language of Sanskrit and the epic Ramayana. Ji, who founded the Department of Eastern Languages at Peking University, translated Ramayana from the original Sanskrit to Chinese in poetry form. Ji's translated work of Ramayana and Mahabharata will be displayed at the culture park being planned at Kailash Mansarovar by India China Economic and Cultural Council (ICEC)..."



[Sandeep's 'Rediscovery of India' is among the very best, if not the best blog whose content if filled with original Indian thought]
March 9
Fwd: [TheBecoming] Fwd: How Wharton Scored a Huge Self-Goal by dis-i
JP shares: How Wharton Scored a Huge Self-Goal March 5, 2013 By  Sandeep Balakrishna

[We will create a separate webpage for the collection of Rajiv's links below and display it on the right of the blog]
March 11
My Wikipedia entry is obsolete, misleading

".... fix the Wikipedia entry on me.

• It gives too much importance to wendy doniger as though i have nothing useful or original of my own to say, and i am some sort of heckler bothering her.
• even in the context of doniger it does not lead the reader to my extensive articles at Sulekha (at least half a dozen large ones) on the whole freudian psychoanalysis issue.
• there is no mention of BI or BD- each even deserves its own page. There is abundant material available on these books at their respective web sites, and other places like the hitchhiker's guide.
• no mention of my YouTubes
• No mention of my writings on Huffington Post, FirstPost, Niti Central, Patheos, Beliefnet and lots of other places.

With all due respects may I point out that our folks often tend to suffer from:

• Paralysis by analysis: this means going on and on with planning, analyzing some very large scale project that becomes too unwieldy to ever happen, rather than DOING something manageable quickly which can be extended later.....

....specific examples of changes to my Wiki entry that I feel would be fair. Here are some that come shouting out:

• Most references given are NOT my work but the works of opponents being promoted, or completely irrelevant items. So delete references to Kurien, Campbell, Prothero, Wilberg, Hinnells, Block. Frankly I had no idea of such things until I saw Wiki. What a bunch of rubbish to define me in those terms.
• The Youtube seems to have been just added. But the direct Youtube site gives scattered and unorganized videos, often part 1 and part 2 of same item show up unrelated. Better is to have "Videos - Being Different" and "Videos - Breaking India"
• Beliefnet, Firstpost, Sulekha home pages for me should get added.
• http://beingdifferentbook.com/blogs/ also has many of my blogs
• http://beingdifferentbook.com/articles/ contains some excellent works by third parties on my ideas
• http://beingdifferentbook.com/downloads/ has several pdfs that give useful summaries, such as the first one in 8 pages
• http://beingdifferentbook.com/faqs/ has useful FAQs
• The hot link to my book Breaking India should be given: http://www.breakingindia.com/
• http://invadingthesacred.com/ is the link to a site on Invading the Sacred maintained by Ravi and friend
• Why only one sulekha article listed with hot link? There are a few dozen that should be individually listed. See them at:
• Speakingtree - http://www.speakingtree.in/rajivmalhotra/profile
• Each individual item in Sulekha one has to click and see if its my blog and if so, add it. (The have revised their presentation so many times and messed up so bad that I stopped writing there. But old writings are precious and must get salvaged.) Go to the list of many, many pages at: http://rivr.sulekha.com/rajiv-malhotra_225884
• Rediff has a home page with old articles I did many of which say things that were ahead of their time: http://www.rediff.com/news/malhotra.htm
• A precious old debate I had online with Vijay Prashad, head sepoy of FOIL. See home page: http://www.outlookindia.com/taghome3.aspx?tag=102635
• More debate: http://creative.sulekha.com/follow-up-on-manusmriti-to-my-article-in-outlook-india_135208_blog
• UChicago magazine (home of Doniger and Nussbaum) does a balanced interview with me: http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0412/features/index.shtml
• Even the links to Infinity Foundation's projects go to the wrong places. For instance, a project at Columbia has a link to Columbia's general home page which has nothing to do with us. it should go to the specific page at Infinityfoundation.com dealing with that project - see:
• http://www.infinityfoundation.com/col.htm
• http://www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/i_pr/i_pr_columbia_frameset.htm
• The Mandala site stopped being updated but was the single most popular source of research works on these subjects for a decade. it deserves a listing: http://www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/indic_mandala_frameset.htm
• The Global Renaissance Conference was the first large scale conf of 4 days done by us. The papers are available online and (still) in the process of being edited by volunteers for publication. The entire conference site is at: http://www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/s_pr/s_pr_GRC_frameset.htm
• Our HIST project (History of Indian Science and technology) has produced 8 pioneering volumes and is the ONLY such project on India. Has continued for 12 years. Why no mention of it. Pls include: http://www.indianscience.org/index.html

RMF Summary: Week of August 22 - 28, 2011

August 22

Senate Bill 1245 On July 29, 2011, the US House passed HR440 with overwhelming bi-partisan support. The bill calls for the appointment of a Special Envoy to Promote Religious Freedom of Religious Minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia. The Special Envoy would carry the rank of Ambassador. This is an important position through which the United States can regain world leadership in fighting these human rights abuses. The bill was sent to the Senate as S1245, and it now rests with the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. You can read the text of the bill by clicking here... Rajiv Malhotra responds: "... I prefer a one-time committee to probe Bangladeshi Hindus' plight rather than a permanent institution that is a specialized version of USCIRF"  August 23  Article by Koenard Elst on hindu activism outside sangh parivar Ramakumaran posts: A brief study by Shri. Koenard Elst ji on hindu activism outside sangh Rajiv Malhotra responds: "....In the 1990s, I coined the term and championed the notion of being "a Non-Hindutva Hindu". It drew a lot of flak from the Hindutva folks who claimed exclusivity of representing all Hindus. (The term "hindutva" means Hindu-ness so it does imply the posture of all Hindus, but "Hindutva" with a capital H is a proper noun for a specific political movement that is synonymous with RSS.) So my term merely suggests a Hindu who is not part of the Sangh's institutional movement. I see no contradiction here. I was equally attacked by anti-Hindus who claimed that I was avoiding the branding effect of the RSS by adopting an independent approach. My approach forced them to address my issues and not dismiss me by using guilt-by-association. I have and will continue to pursue my independent thinking which means it will sometimes agree and sometimes disagree with any given institution. .. ... In some ways, dharma has encouraged such individualism. Recently, the leaders of such organized movements have not only accepted the reality of the independent public intellectual, but they appreciate why it must exist, and the purpose it serves in the long run by providing fresh ideas that large groups cannot produce. This is like any large technology company realizing that small start ups are necessary vehicles for creativity which large organizations cannot do internally due to internal politics, bureaucracy, mediocrity, dead wood, etc. - all problems that plague the RSS parivar..."  Karigar notes: "...Koenraad Elst's survey also helps those of us who don't have much of an understanding of the Parivar, to get a fairly neutral background briefing."   Vijaya Rajiva responds: "...Sangh Parivar tend to be self effacing and do not advertise their good works.I did my own personal research after reading the negative account of them in Ram Guha's book India After Gandhi.... For example, the recent book by Dr. Shrinivas Tilak 'Reawakening to a secular Hindu Nation' (2008) is an important contribution to Parivar theory. Likewise Dr. Kalyanraman's book Rashtram (May 2011) is also an important contribution... ...Apart from their sterling social and economic services to the country their tradition has been outstanding in the defence of the country since the time of its inception. ... Hence, it is important for us who do solid independent work as Hindus, to inform ourselves of their achievements, both in the theoretical sphere and as well as in the practical one. "   VS disagrees with Elst and Rajeev: "... I completely disagree with Rajiv and others on RSS in this thread. We have not done our home work right before making our statements. Sangh Parivar is very much active otherwise how Tribal belt is saved from missionary activities, how come North East is been tried to be brought closer to main stream, who is organizing India security meets, Mandala Kumbh , Voice against Kashmiri separatists, bringing Gujjars of Kashmir to voice against separatists, 1.6 Lacs SEWA efforts,Ekal Vidayala, VYAASA, initiative in Srilanka after internal war, meeting close to one crore people after PC stated term Hindu Terrorism, Dharma efforts in Caribbean, uniting Sadhu samaj, Sitting a Padmanabhaya temple against Govt take over...." Subramanian Swamy responds to Rajiv: "Let us create a critical mass /body of such persons." Vijaya Rajiva seconds Swamy's idea: "Excellent suggestion from Dr. Swamy. There is nothing preventing us Hindus from mobilisng and forming a critical mass. The Parivar surely is not standing in our way !" Rajiv Malhotra provides a detailed response that is worth reading in full on RMF. We excerpt it here: "The intention of the thread was not to open a critique of RSS or a defense of it. The intention was make a simple point: There is no single organization that can claim to own exclusivity over Hindu dharma representation. Hence, those who defend RSS and those who criticize it are both missing this point... ...In the early years their reaction was defensive, with claims that "we have all this under control", "we dont need your help", etc. As I persisted and educated them on problems they had never even heard of ... They became more humble about acknowledging their own limits. ...In fact, many of my ideas are now being appropriated and getting incorporated into their long term thinking. This means that those who work independently have made useful contributions which RSS could not. ...At my recent talks in Delhi on Breaking India, one of the most prominent intellectuals who was a top official in the BJP government came to me and said: "We simply do not have the capability to produce such works ourselves, not at this standard of rigor, thoroughness, quality..." I thanked him for his candidness. Another told me: "It will take at least a decade for us to build up such capability." These days, the top echelon of Sangh do appreciate independent public intellectuals. This over-zealous display of "loyalty" we saw on this thread comes from the low and middle tier ranks... Bandwagons attract mediocrity, ...  ... Those like ATT who were too slow to change fell by the wayside while others like IBM that kept churning their ranks to reinvent themselves thrived. Every large organization living off of old momentum needs a SWOT analysis to know how to reinvent themselves out of such inbred culture. Bottom line: I doubt the Sangh top tier want to alienate outside independent thinkers today. If anything they would love to co-opt them at senior levels. ... My views are not an attack against any specific large organization but merely explain the limitations of all large organizations once they get stodgy. ... Large institutions own infrastructure which the independent individual lacks, whereas the individual is more capable at creative output which gets stalled by the very nature of large group dynamics."  August 25  My discovery of Church Tactics Chitra posts: The act of searching often turns up something useful that one was not looking for. Last night I discovered that this applies to channel surfing as well. We've... ...The document in question is the DECREE AD GENTES issued by the Second Vatican Council  It lays out, in exquisite detail, the following: -- the divine mandate for missionary activity culminating in conversion -- the methods to be used by bishops, including (i)  in-depth study of Christian texts with the ability to answer all challenges (ii) knowledge of the culture targeted for infiltration and the need to project an appreciative demeanor in order to gain access (iii) the need for sharing of resources whether human or material between churches to maximize overall impact and penetration  --  the role of the laity in serving as extensions of the missionary agenda --  the role of educational institutions in furthering the missionary agenda by means of opening up a deeper understanding of the target culture so that it may be more efficiently and systematically destroyed..." August 25 Please watch 'Agora' and how Christianity destroyed classical Greek Last year I saw a feature film called 'Agora' more info on the feature film is available here  I would recommend that... August 25 Speaking of Cults... I wonder if people in India are aware of what certain Christian cults can get away with in the United States without fear of government interference. Actress Rose McGowan discusses her childhood in a Christian Cult –" I got out by the skin of my teeth" In the recent issue of People magazine, the outspoken actress went into detail about a real-life battle far scarier than any movie.McGowan, 38, spoke with People about how she spent her childhood in the Children of God cult. The sect is a "polygamous cult that blended free-love attitudes with Christian proselytizing." At age nine she escaped the cult with her father after he became fearful that Rose might be sexually abused..." August 25 Rs 40,000 crore foreign contribution to 77,000 NGOs in 4 yrs Can't but get away from the feeling of India being in deep muck. ... This thread below had a lot of comments, given the nature of the bill that was being passed and its scope for anti-Hindu mischief. August 25 Anti faith bill has been put in Assembly. Ban on Vedas, certain wors Can we get a word format of the attachment please. We need to spread the word out on this. Things are going real terrible in India for the country, with... [Bharat shared this] Please look into this and see if we can do something. http://www.scribd.com/doc/6493902/Anti-Faith-Bill-Draft http://www.hindujagruti.org/activities/campaigns/religious/anti-faith-bill/ The monsoon session of State Legislative Assembly has started from 25th July 2011. The Government has decided to pass the Anti-Superstitions Bill which is actually an attack on Hindu Dharma Rajiv Malhotra provided a detailed response. We carry excerpts here: "This is the culmination of many things which most of you did not take seriously when they could have been nipped in the bud. Examples: Over the past decade there have been major articles in National Geographic Magazine, academic conferences and sporadic media here and there, on what got characterized as "exotic" practices by Aghoras among others. In parallel there is a lot of scandal being promoted in the western press and scholarship about other "exotic" things - like rat temple somewhere, and weirdness in general. I used to write widely on such things to give a counter position and critique, but did not get enough genuine support, so I stopped wasting my time. The Hindu response was a mixture of: sameness so why bother; we are invincible; its not a problem because all this shows we are very important and interesting subject matter; etc.... ...An army of scholars, media persons, activists, and policymakers has been trained and orchestrated to prosecute Hinduism on many fronts. One of the fronts is now this law that will put non-practicing Hindus (many with Hindu names) in positions of authority to evaluate the "evil practices" of Hinduism. I have read tons of academic books on how exactly the same methods eliminated the pre-Christian faiths from the Americas and Africa. These systematic methods have become perfected and they are not a random scattering of "episodes" here and there. But our people avoid dealing with such things, preferring instead to immerse themselves with "good news" of how great everything is. I am much more popular in gatherings if go along with the India shining/Incredible narratives where everyone is dropping big names and bragging how important they have become." August 26 Important HuffPost blog on Indian corruption http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cleo-paskal/indian-corruption_b_931981.htm\ l [Rajiv's comment: This well written article exposes the links between political...

RMF Summary: Week of August 1 - 7, 2011

August 1

US Bill To Promote Freedom of Religious Minorities -- Tabled by Cong Sent: Monday, August 1, 2011 Subject: US Bill To Promote Freedom of Religious Minorities -- Tabled by Congressman Frank Wolf ... August 1 US Govt appoints Mitul Desai to liaise with Indian diaspora: Our opp Does anyone have the connections and initiative to approach this new appointee with a copy of BI and a request for an appointment to discuss its contents? .. August 1 Emergence of Hinduism from Christianity! (?) - Pls review and post i I was shocked to read this ebook on the net, With best wishes: Muraliekumar Coimbatore... August 1 Jayalalitha comes out strongly against Communal Violence Bill http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Throw-out-fascist-communal-violence-Bill-Jaya-to-non-Cong-CMs/articleshow/9444707.cmsThrow out 'fascist' communal.. August 2 A must watch video on missionary planning for India A must watch video on plans of church planting and missionary activity in India. Target seems to be 100 million christians in this generation. Interesting is... August 2 Questioning the Aryan Invasion Theory and Revising Indian History * <http://content.iskcon.org/icj/contributors.html#Klost>*Klaus* *Klostermaier on how Indian history was re-written in colonial period, and entirely built on... August 2 Fwd: [BEF] Civil liberties academic group supports Swamy Please see also the third report-- On Chidambaram's black money escapdes. The UPA is now in the hands of a Mafia. N.S. Rajaram Tuesday, August 2, 2011 In... August 5 Thoughts on giving book to Parliamentarians in other cultures [8 responses] Namaste I would like your thoughts on donating Breaking India to Parliamentarians (MP or other) in other cultures and countries WHO ARE familiar or have an... August 6 Acting on behalf of the Bangladeshi Hindus Thank you for your kind words. This has been a long struggle, and we’re still only at the beginning; but every one of us who is an American citizen will... Followup post Recognizing the Bangladeshi Hindus in the US Congress Last week in the midst of the US debt ceiling debate, a remarkable thing happened that garnered little noticed none by the major media, obsessed with the...