RMF Summary: Week of October 24 - 30, 2011

Toward the end of this post is a riveting discussion on "free enterprise". There is a Dharmic approach to this enterprise that is original to India, appears to be organic in the way it came up, is pro-environment, and provides a viable (almost surely better) alternative to the "right wing or left-wing" economic models employed in the west.

 
October 24

{Breaking India} Vishal Mangalwadi: India’s Pat Robertson Excerpted with permission from Malhotra, Rajiv and Aravindan Neelakandan, "Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines," Amaryllis...

October 25

Inculturation - Christuva Brahmana Seva Samithy http://thammayya.wordpress.com/2009/08/11/christuva-brahmana-seva-samithy/ Recently read this blog.Another example of Inculturation as explained in "Breaking...

October 25

Similar books or those against which BEING DIFFERENT argues Similar books or those against which BEING DIFFERENT argues Below is a list of comparable titles in this area, of varying degrees of relevance and value. With...

October 26

Prof. Al Collins review of BEING DIFFERENT Reviewer: Al Collins, Ph.D., former core faculty, California Institute of Integral Studies. In 1957, Mircea Elaide wrote that "Western culture will be in...

October 26

Dr. Shrinivas Tilak's review of BEING DIFFERENT Reviewer: Shrinivas Tilak, PhD, historyof religions, an independent researcher based in Montreal In Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western...

October 26

My Q&A with an American journalist on BEING DIFFERENT Foll. are the responses sent to a written set of questions from someone in American media. We shall wait to see what finally appears, but I felt that this Q&A...

October 27

My response to Steve Farmer w.r.t. Angana Chatterjee Dear Steve Farmer, you have made a false allegation below that I offered 100K to CIIS to get rid of Angana C or anyone else from her job. The CIIS president...

October 27

Dr. Satya Narayan Das' review of BEING DIFFERENT Reviewer: Dr. Satya Narayan Das, Founder of Jiva Institute of Vedic Studies, Vrindavan Many Indian spiritual leaders, lacking a profound knowledge of their own...

October 29

Bhakti Vikas Swami (ISKCON): review of BEING DIFFERENT Reviewer: Bhakti Vikas Swami, Vaishnav scholar and ISKCON sannyasi, author of twelve books All Things Must Pass -- so sung George Harrison on a megahit album..

October 29

Jati economics and free enterprise Rajiv Malhotra: Those who have read the works of Prof. Vaidyanathan (IIM-B) will appreciate that free market was not the invention of the west. It was european colonialism that closed what had previously been free trade and free markets. They did this to control markets and come pout on top. Jatis functioned without state controls, and were free to negotiate with each other according to norms mutually agreed upon. Many of them still do so today and are thriving as a result. Chinese are making the claim that free enterprise is consistent with Confucian thought. Why are Indians scared of free market as some "American" thing? One day these folks might think of yoga as an imported american thing!!! Of course, there are many kinds of free markets - those that plunder the ecosystem are not dharma compliant, for instance. But I do not subscribe to the view that a dharmic renaissance would be one that cannot take advantage of modern science, technology, free markets and so forth. Its an alternative approach to globalization, not an ideology of. Pooja responds: "" a dharmic renaissance would be one that cannot take advantage of modern science, technology, free markets and so forth" Isn't this more along the lines of christian teachings ? I have not seen it in any of the major Hindu "scriptures" as a part of Hindu/Sanatan Dharm. This is not what the Vedas say, neither does Bhagwatgita say thay anywhere, that I have read it. All of them have encouraged the use of science & technology for prosperity, but have also listed the downside of over-dependence on them to the point of denying the importance of life. Over mining, over consumption, etc. have been pointed out & the consequences too have been pointed out." Rajiv's response:  I disagree that Vedas are counter to science. In fact, in my new book there is a lot written on why science and dharma never went to war against each other and why Christianity has had (and still has) war with science. The Biblical metaphysics (called Hebraic) has never been fully reconciled with Hellenism (based on reason). But dharma has not rejected reason or science. After all, Indians have a great history of scientific achievements since ancient times - volumes have been written on this including Infinity Foundation's own 20-vol series of which 8 are available now). If you quoted me more than just the sentence above, I DO say that damaging the environment is against dharma. But your statement that somehow we must see modern science and Vedic civilization as opposites is not true."  Rakesh adds: "I believe, with the discovery of new world ( the real promised land ), the Scarcity driven Abrahamic top down control civilization has met a new geographical context that has led to an irreconciliable tension- between the economic reality of openness to immigration to improve capital productivity in a resource rich United States and the compulsion to minimize difference anxiety by converting all of them to Christianity ... With a Hindu ethos, the need for a single ideology would be much lower and a multi party system would have resulted in the USA. Abrahamic religious ethos, is behind the stalemate today, where each party is the GOD and the other the Devil ? I also believe war torn, land deprived Abrahamic ethos, extracted more out of resources, higher productivity- so my view is not one-sided But the tensions between Helenic democracy and Judeo Christian top down centralization characterizes American foriegn policy- even if Helenistic at home, judeo christian in its preference for top down totalitarian regimes such as China compared to chaotic India ..." Rajiv's comment: I am glad Rakesh has been reading BEING DIFFERENT as he noted earlier, and making these points on difference. Indeed, BD gives the differences in dharmic approaches and these could be extrapolated further to develop a dharmic free market world - quite different than western capitalism. Please note that enterprise in dharma is not "bonded" or "controlled", but free."  Venkat responds: "I am familiar with Prof. Vaidyanathan's immensely valuable work. But the traditional Indian system was not Free Market. I use the term Free Market in the same sense as its  proponents use: a system of commerce without state intervention and a system that is only constrained by the agreement between the transacting parties. In a Free Market system anyone is free to start any business anywhere provided the consumers of the services they offer exist. JÄti institutions transacting business was by no means Free Market since jÄtis were often debarred from competing with other jÄtis especially when such competition jeopardized livelihoods. If members of a certain jÄti or varána violated this norm and took up professions that were considered the preserve of another jÄti or varána then those individuals were excommunicated." Rajiv response: Your description of jatis is right. But non-competes were by mutual consent, not imposed from above. I spent time living with fishermen jatis in Nagapatinam district after the tsunami where we sponsored building a strategic youth hostel (by AIM For Seva) for victims' kids - in the shadow of the famous massive cathedral. I studied their fishing non-compete practices. Each jati specializes in some kind of fish and hence a certain kind of boat and net, and hence where they go to sea varies. They dont interfere with the fishing variety of the other jati. This is not counter to free market. Call it cartel-like arrangement, perhaps. Or just a mutual agreement of non interference in order to specialize and maximize the total benefit rather than cutting each other. Ditto for marketing the fish. Men went to catch the fish while women were the marketers. They too had their territories and practices neatly divided. I dont use free market in the limited western sense. To me the contrast is with top-down central authoritarian rule. it starts with roman imperialism combined with Christian Church being the top boss and controlling everything. In medeival times the Knights Templar became one of the first multinational corps (though mostly in europe) controlling manufacturing and trade. This later served as a model for the British East India company, which CLOSED THE PRE-EXISTING FREE MARKET OCEAN TRADE. Thus the modern MNC was born. I dont like the idea that free marketing be gifted as a western invention. i dont like people being told that its an either/or choice between dharma and modernity/science/free-market/prosperity.  The reason smritis are rewritten and kept separate from shruti (whereas in the abrahamic religions they got collapsed into one book) is precisely to allow dharma to evolve. So just as the chinese claim Confucian Modernity, I am working on ideas of Dharmic Modernity - not a contradictory term."  George adds: "... in the Anglo-Saxon model practiced by the USA and its European cronies, it is applicable only to people and places approved by them, and goods and services from other places deemed unfavorable to them are restricted on various pretexts like "child labor", "bad quality", "unauthorized nuclear research", whatever. The farming subsidy is also part of this restrictive trade practice. So, actually, the "free trade" mooted by the West is a despicable practice that should be rejected by dharmic people. Innovate, not imitate! In India, I know for sure that the fishermen of the sea could fish only in the sea and the fishermen of the backwaters/rivers could fish only in their own territory. They don't even inter-marry. Though these inter-jati conventions were not written down, they were inviolable laws at a time. And in case of inter-jati disputes, the Raja was the mediating authority. However the Raja had no right in intra-jati disputes."   Carpentier adds: "The Varnasrama code of trade and economic activity had its western medieval equivalents in the system of guilds, corporations and sodalities which were analogous to jatis and were linked by pacts of complementariness, solidarity and interdependence which protected them against State encroachment. One of the first acts of the "Liberal" , banker-driven French revolution was to ban all those guilds and decide that every individual was solely submitted to the government and had not other means of association for self-protection. That was the origin of the modern capitalist or socialist state." Rajiv response:  "I agree with this assessment. The top-down events in Europe that "every individual was solely submitted to the government and had not other means of association for self-protection" is where dharma traditions have a chance to make a difference in the type of free market that emerges. According to Vaidyanathan's statistics, well over 90% of India's work force are self-employed, making it the largest number of individual entrepreneurs in the world. This is a very different type of free market than one with large scale corporate entities under heavy government regulations. I am opposed to corruption, but I differentiate that from many aspects of the black economy where people simply dont want to fall under the gov't controlled economy - thats a free market indian style that has not yet succumbed to western style controls."  Senthil provides a wonderful perspective: "The context in which the term "Free" is interpreted is different w.r.t to western and indian (dharmic) scenario. In west, the free market is the one where any one is free to enter and corner any amount of market share. The best performing entity (company) becomes the winner, and it doesnt matter, how many lost their business, or how many even lost their life. In Indic Scenario, Free market is the one, where the constituents of the market are free to trade, without interference from external forces (economic & physical). Its NOT free for all. In part, i agree with KV, that there is no free market in india. Let us look at the name of different Vyshya community, and the region they came from. In Tamilnadu, the Choliya Chetty, Kongu Chetty, Pandya Chetty are indications, that they are the vyshyas for their respective dhesam. Within each dhesam, there are vyshyas for different products. For eg, among kongu chetty, there are Ennai Chettiyar (For trading Oil), Uppiliya Chettiyar (for trading Salt) are still existing. Same with Devanga Chetty, Gomathi Chetty etc. I dont know much about North Indian Vyshyas. But my point, is that Many Vyshya communities are associated with one of the ancient 56 Dhesams, as we see from the examples i gave above.  (And this is the unexplored secret of Indian jathis) So a king protects the vyshyas of his dhesam, from alien economic invasion. NOT just vyshyas, but protects every other jaathi in doing their profession without any interference or invasion from others. We need to see Indian Dharmic Free Market as localised, ethical Trading. In one perspective, the term market in indic sense refers to a specific place where different products ( or particular product) are traded. We call it as "Sandhai" in tamil. However, from the western perspective, a market is defined based on selling potential. ie, they see entire India as a market. ( Please correct me if i am wrong) Next, the use of Gold as currency is another factor in the existence of Dharmic Free Market. No one can manipulate Gold, and its value is universal across the world. The British East India Company, tried to persuade Shivaji to accept their currency, but Shivaji refused, and demanded they trade in gold. The fallacy of Western Freemarket can be understood, if we study the way in  which British East India Company, monopolised different trade in India. For example, salt was produced in Gujarat and traded to Bengal. To control this, the Company erected a 4000 KM long Live Fence, from orissa to Kashmir, which is called Great Hedge of India. This is still largely unknown among indian historians and intellectuals, and recently Rox Maxhom, from University of London Library, rediscovered about this and published a book in 2001. For more details, pls refer the wikipedia article.  "

October 29

BEING DIFFERENT - Prof. V.V. Raman's review This review is pending publication in print journals, and meanwhile Prof. Raman will be posting it online at various sites.

RMF Summary: Week of October 3 - 9, 2011

October 4

BEING DIFFERENT: First public talk at California conference a succes Within a week we hope to upload the video from my talk at the conference last weekend, where I was keynote speaker and gave an overview of the new book, BEING...

October 4

Christians launch political party in Tamilnadu (March 22, 2011) Christians in Tamil Nadu have launched a political party in the southern Indian state, where a legislative assembly poll is scheduled for...  October 4 Indian clergymen whistleblowers Prahalad: A couple of years ago, Sister Jesmi, a nun who retired as professor in a women’s college in... October 4 Ethanographic Intelligence - A possible tool for more divide & conve This link shows how Ethnographic intelligence, currently used as a counter terrorism mechanism can actually be used as an effective "divide and rule" strategy.... October 4 (This post received a lot of responses, involving a long discussion. We will try to summarize this in a separate post). Response to Indian dancer upset at my critique of Christian Bharatnatyam After the recent highly successful book event in Houston, the organizers received an email from a dancer in Houston about an upcoming performance by Leela...  followup thread Re: Response to Indian dancer upset at my critique of Christian Bhar [In response to Mukund Apte]: Let us not oversimplify, please. I don't know about Islam but prayers are chanted in Judaism, apart from other music...     October 4 Houston Seminar on Breaking India: September 11, 2011 - Audience Q & Sanjay: I am looking for a source for the quote from Narayana Murthy that Rajiv-ji mentions in the video. Ref. <quote> According to Narayana Murthy, when he was asked why Indians were so good in IT,rather than explain that we have a whole learning tradition, he said"Thanks for the British for teaching us Maths and Science." Rajiv responds: "I heard this in his talk in 2003 at the Bangalore conference organized jointly organized by Templeton and Infinity Foundation. I felt he was impressing the western guests. The "scientific debt to colonialism" is a common theme amongst many leftists. Gyan Prakash of Princeton has written a book on Indian science during the British period in which the direction of influence is onw-way from Europe to India as if the europeans learned nothing scientific from Indians. (Mr. Murthy has said that he was rooted as a leftist in his younger days but that he later turned into a capitalist. That kind of rejection of the left is for its economic model only, but it does not automatically involve embracing the dharma paradigm.) The key issue is: where lies the root of Indians' competence in science? The west claims to have invented the scientific method - a claim many Indians accept. Thats why I started the very ambitious project of doing 20 volumes on the History of Indian Science and Technology, of which 8 are published already. What is more troubling than a random remark is that Mr. Murthy's foundation has given a multi million dollar grant to bring out English translations of Indian classical works, and the editor in control is Sheldon Pollock. A brilliant Sanskritist no doubt, Pollock's interpretations have tilted towards things like: Aryan invasion theory, dalits being oppressed by sanskrit under brahmin control, etc. In some of the volumes of Indian classics which he did under a different series, such ideologies came through in various ways direct and indirect. For the same amount of money, Mr. Murthy could have re-ignited a whole India based Sanskrit scholarship and translation under the guidance of pandits. Of course, its his hard earned money and we respect his right to spend it howsoever he chooses. I am merely expressing my personal opinion on how I wish our tycoons would back their own civilization in the same manner as American tycoons helped build their civilizational foundations. The Rockefeller, Ford, Carnegie philanthropy did not go to foreign scholars to write American history. " October 5 Ref: FHRS Digest No.2305 - Rajiv Malhotra's Breaking India - posted Ref: FHRS Digest No.2305 Rajiv Malhotra's Breaking India - posted by Achintya Nath Sexena Oct,2. With reference to the remarks of Mr.Achintya Nath Saxena that Dalit and Dravidian movements are home grown, I can only say that the author is simply under informed about the genesis of separatist trends.   It seems Mr.Sexena has   turned a blind eye to the historical facts relating to the colossal role played by the imperial Govt. in creating a wedge and fanning hatred amongst the people of India.  Further, Mr.Sexena remarks regarding Smritis and oppression of lower castes by upper castes for centuries are nothing short of monomania.  For people of any evolved civilization/progressive nation, inheriting such a precious patrimony i.e., the  Vedic texts including original Manusmriti(without interpolations) would have been a matter of great pride.    However, it is quite astonishing to note that  certain sections of our own countrymen,  instead of digging the gems of Vedic truths in their original form by purging the extraneous matter, simply engage themselves in negating and condemning them without going into their depth..." October 5 Critique and salient points of Breaking India - Blog Venkat posts: Here is an worwhile blog which well summarizes breaking india. It is worth reading thru it. ... October 5 Explaining purva paksha to Hindu activists Rajiv Malhotra posts: "One or two Hindu activists in India who have no clue what this book is about have expressed concern simply on the basis that it has been endorsed by a variety of persons who are non-hindu, including christians, scientists who are atheists, etc. Such a statement comes from a closed mind which parrots simplistic statements that are already well known, and hence speaks to those already on their wavelength. They need to understand the traditional method of purva paksha debate with opponents. BEING DIFFERENT opens a new type of interfaith engagement than has existed today. It seek to (a) clarify dharma for those inside dharma, (b) invite open introspection from those who are in the undecided/confused middle, and (c) challenge those with certain metaphysical beliefs opposed to dharma. To achieve this goal, it defines dharma categories in clear, strong terms (i.e. categories that comprise whats "different and distinct" about dharma) and invites debate on our terms. It reverses the gaze upon the west using the dharmic lens, making us the observer of the other. Till now the terms on which debates took place were set by western metaphysical assumptions. Therefore, my project is to hold a series of debates, some live and some online as webinars, with various thinkers from diverse traditions. I already have serious interest from Hindu groups, some Christian theological centers, Buddhists, those in the scientific approach of religion without espousing any faith, etc. I want to expand this set of debates. The email from the critic who has not even seen the book says: "Why has the author sought and received endorsment from the evangelist Francis Clooney who is acitve in TN? Considering the previous book is about the church's agenda to break india I am surprised that Malhotra has sought Clooney's endorsement who has authored comparative religion books on mary worship and devi worship besides insidiously penetrating srivaishnava mathams seeking to be educated on srivaishnava philosophy. If the author wants endoirsements from evangelists then he diesnt need Hindus to read his book." I preciously started an online debate with Clooney challenging his view that Mary and devi worship can be interchanged. It did not go far because of his unavailability. With this book, I want and hope Clooney will organize a public event at Harvard (or somewhere) where my positions on how dharma DIFFERS from western religions can get a fair hearing. Therefore, his endorsement is a good sign and I appreciate his willingness to have such a conversations. Once a door is opened, one may have serious engagements in a tone of mutual respect and fairness. Of course, those Hindus who are insecure will not do this because they simply cannot do it. They have not done enough study and churning internally for a sufficient number of years, have not engaged in hundreds of serious intellectual encounters with opponents to be able to develop solid positions that they could confidently bring to the intellectual forums. They are secure only inside their small and relatively isolated cocoons and are afraid to speak in an open forum as equals. It is easier for them to shout than reason but this has only turned off many of our own youth and pushed them away. I am wanting to stick my neck out and face the "other" in the same spirit as our purva paksha tradition. Purva paksha REQUIRES the active participation of the opponent; otherwise it is a monologue and not a purva paksha. In the same fashion, if a Muslim scholar wants to debate me I am interested. All I ask for as a precondition is a fair forum and moderator. I intend to bring my own video camera to record so that nobody can edit a one-sided outcome. Most interfaith events I have seen have a pathetic Hindu presence. BEING DIFFERENT wants to shift the game by this very approach. It shocks and bothers many Hindus who get a drubbing in metaphysical debates, because their knowledge is limited go Hinduism only with a superficial knowledge of western religions and philosophies. BEING DIFFERENT gives extensive Hindu views on metaphysical issues concerning: Aristotle, Hegel, Christian ideas of original sin, redemption, salvation, Judaism's exclusiveness, misappropriations of Hindu dance/yoga and even Vedanta, the Hebraic/Hellenistic split, the science/religion split in the west, among several others. It is a delight to interact in the spirit of purva paksha on such matters with those in other faiths. I hope to educate more Hindus on how to do this without fear of getting a thrashing. The west has systematically studied Indian civilization for centuries (incl. debating hindu scholars) and have built armies of scholars who can debate any issue from their point of view. It is time we level the playing field by encouraging our folks to reverse the gaze - which is what BEING DIFFERENT does." October 6 Nick Sutton - oxford center for Hindu studies Please view the link below for a perfect example of a eurocentric academic who is holding forth on Hindus. He plays the game of giving all negative information... October 6 Ayudha Puja & Vidyarambham Inculturation Hindu or Christian, for Kerala Kids It's Vidyarambham http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=118169 Kasargod: Ayudha Puja Held at Our Lady of... October 6 Punjab overwhelmed by Christian missionaries - Jesus as Satguru, Chu ** I wonder what explanation the weak Hndus who glorify Christian yoga, bharatnatyam, karnatik music et al will now use for Christian satsang and Jesus as... October 7 A Shankaracharya on Islam Dear All,  Please see this video as an example of all that Malhotraji has been warning about October 8 Response to Vishal Mangalwadi's attack on "Breaking India" its princ Rajiv Malhotra [and Aravindan Neelakandan] share: In his review of the book `Breaking India', [see 1] Vishal Mangalwadi makes numerous attacks on book and on my personally. Being a prominent world class jet set evangelist serving the foreign nexuses, he gets extensive coverage in the book and it is not surprising that he would hit back through such a rant. My co-author and I are issuing the following rejoinder to Mangalwadi's review: Response to Vishal Mangalwadi's attack on 'Breaking India' and its principle author Mangalwadi eulogizes `Mosaic Ethnology' thus: "Mosaic Ethnology) assumes that our human race originated from one pair of parents. Initially everyone spoke the same language. Linguistic and racial divisions arose after Noah. The authors are right in saying that from the 17th to the early 20th century it was not secular rationalism but the Bible that inspired and directed Europe's intellectual vitality, including Indological studies. Hinduism and Islam had been in India for centuries but neither of those faiths stimulated their followers to study India, its languages, history, people, or natural resources as the Bible inspired Europeans." Mangalwadi perhaps did not read the book properly for he misses the point entirely. From the 17th to 20th century it was not the Biblical view alone that shaped European mindset but also colonial expansion, renaissance driven enlightenment which actually has its roots in the rediscovery of the pre-Christian pagan philosophical and scientific legacy and identity crisis driven by all these factors – which was forging the European worldview. What Mangalwadi boasts as `Europe's intellectual vitality' was actually responsible for the justification of the most cruel and most commercialized slavery establishment in the history of humanity namely trans-Atlantic slave trade.  It was the Hamitic Myth of the Bible that justified slave trade and all its cruelty. For example the nineteenth century American best seller `Slavery as its Relates to the Negro or the African Race' (1843)  elaborated on the Biblical scene of Noah cursing Ham's progeny into slavery and cursed the Blacks should remain as `both in times of peace and war a despised, degraded and oppressed race.'  As late as 1895 Biblical mythology was trumped up in defense of slavery as in the writings of Troup Taylor, a devout Christian who in a very popular track explained that the entire `Negro' race `was adapted to a destiny suited only to an inferior race.' The countless evidences can be multiplied and one can read some of them in a very detailed manner in the book (for example pp. 40-41). Mangalwadi exhibits his arrogant ignorance when he states that Hinduism and Islam never stimulated their followers to study India, its languages, history, people, or natural resources as the Bible inspired Europeans. In reality it was the Hindu mathematics which was transmitted to Europe by Islamic scholars which started the very European renaissance. And modern linguistics including computational linguistics owes its origin and development to Panini and Kerala mathematicians as well as logicians. The only additional input that Europeans added was the racial categorization which visited upon humanity some of its worst scourges in history in the form of Nazi holocaust and Rwandan genocide. And this distinctly European contribution, which Mangalwadi claims as having Biblical roots, is neither scientific nor very flattering to Christianity as a religion. Again Mangalwadi errs when he states that it was Bible through European colonialism that made India a nation-state in the modern sense. In fact the idea of Indian nation state defies the European idea of nation-state which was based on rigid monocultural identity. As B.R.Ambedkar the chief architect of Indian constitution has pointed out in an elaborate discussion that the integrity of India is based more on its spiritual culture rather than the colonial infrastructural frameworks that the British created for their own interest. From the beginning Indian unity has been based on its respect and acceptance of pluralism – something that the modern West including US is trying hard to come to terms with and which is resisted by fundamentalists like Pat Robertson and his ideological clone Mangalwadi. Mangalwadi claims that the "missionaries embraced, loved, and served the racially different "lower" castes and Dravidians." But documented evidence suggests that missionaries only saw the impoverished social conditions of the `lower' castes and the fabricated Dravidian race identity as opportunities for conversion rather than showing on them genuine love and respect for their culture. For example the book documents how Caldwell considered Dravidians as inherently endowed with `the density of their ignorance' which he laments is the `chief obstacle to their evangelization'. So much for love and respect that missionaries have for the fellow human being! He states that "The oppressed do hate their oppressors, but that privilege is not available to Christians..." How does he explain the centuries of Christian oppression - from the times of Roman imperialism, to the genocides of Native Americans, the slavery of Africans, and colonization of Asians? Even today, American civic society is highly divided along race lines. The churches are almost entirely segregated - Blacks, Hispanics, Koreans, Indians and Whites each have own separate churches. Before wagging the finger at others and exporting "solutions", US based evangelists like Mangalwadi should work on solving Christianity's internal problems at home..." Rajiv follows up: "Mangalwadi champions the missionaries are helping the labor class in India. Below is a counter example of the devastation they cause, this example sent to me by someone named Bharat Nair. It shows their role in plagiarizing India's manufacturing advantages in order to help the industrial revolution in Europe: For example, see Cotton: The Biography of a Revolutionary Fiber By Stephen Yafa p.30)  "As for the Indian methods of  "animalizing" cotton [i.e. giving cotton the texture similar to animal skins], they remained mysterious to most European printers until much later than might be expected - for seventy years after the arrival of chintz. Ironically, it was a man of the cloth, Jesuit Father Coeurdoux, who betrayed these fiercely guarded secrets. In 1742 the French cleric took advantage of his missionary posting on the Coromandel coast to gain the trust of Indian master dyers whom he had converted to Catholicism. They confided their secret pricess to him with an understanding that he would never reveal it. Coeurdoux immediately gave a detailed description in a step-by-step letter published in France. In a blink, three thousand years of clandestine artisan practice became public knowledge."     This is the same priest described in Ananda Ranga Pillai's description of the destruction of Vedapuri Iswaran temple in Pondicherry" October 8 "Ecstasy, possession, and spiritual realization: Yoga of Dance" Udaya shares: "....Christ repackaged for Hindus? Christ who is at heart only a Hindu? Hindu Christ for the whole world? Since its inception in 1988, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company has worked throughout the United Kingdom and internationally, producing and touring dance works by its artistic director and choreographer, Shobana Jeyasingh. Each year, the company engages with up to 30,000 people through performances and a range of education projects. Shobana Jeyasingh is acclaimed for her pioneering work in choreography. She deploys her South Asian roots to create work that is uniquely British. The dance itself is ground-breaking and contemporary in style but draws on many traditional forms and influences such as Ballet or Bharata Natyam, a centuries-old Asian classical dance form. This produces a language of movement with which people from all cultures can identify..." October 9 'BORNEO TRIBE PRACTICES ITS OWN KIND OF HINDUISM' - NYT Subject: "BORNEO TRIBE PRACTICES ITS OWN KIND OF HINDUISM" - NYT Date: Monday, September 26, 2011, 7:37 AM ...