This Months Article

Starting: Sun October 1, 2000
Ending: Tue October 31, 2000

Messages: 112

• Declaration Arouses Disquiet in India
• The Tablet
>>> Jesuit Islamic scholar Fr Saby Vempeny SJ fears that Indians would see the recent Vatican declaration "Dominus Iesus" as proof that Christianity was fundamentalist; the declaration on the relationship of Christianity to the other world religions has met with considerable criticism in India. ......
 
• Muslim Women's Petition
• The Milli Gazette, October 1-15, 2000
>>> New Delhi: In a petition to President KR Narayanan, the Muslim Women's Forum has pleaded that their miseries be addressed urgently.  `We are a group of concerned Muslim Women who have felt over the years that our voices have not been heard in the matters intimately concerned with our lives and destinies and these matters have been decided without our participation,' says the petition. ......
 
• Left Turns Right
• The Milli Gazette, October 1-15, 2000
>>> Patna: About a dozen lives were lost at Narkopi village of Ranchi district of south Bihar in a class war having communal overtones.  The activists of the outlawed Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) attacked the village market on 13 September and killed seven Muslims.  According to reports the attackers indulged in selective killing only after identifying them.  It is reported that they came in search of the leader and activists of Ali Sena, the peasant organization formed to combat the MCC. ......
 
• U.N. Faithful Eye Global Religion
• James Harder, Insight Magazine, October 2, 2000
>>> In the name of world peace, the United Nations appears to have embraced a sort of religious universalism that views all religions as equals and is seeking to ban proselytizing. ......
 
• Nasty Reality
• Tavleen Singh, India Today, October 2, 2000
>>> India is a third world country. We know this but between the prime minister and Bill Gates we were reminded last week just how humiliatingly Third World we are. The prime minister did this through his tedious, humourless, badly delivered speech to the American Congress and the Indian media did it through Gates by giving him more publicity than the Indian prime minister got in Washington or New York. ......
 
• Now for the Home Front
• Swapan Dasgupta, India Today, October 2, 2000
>>> The victory of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the NDA in 1998 and 1999 didn't merely reflect the Indian electorate's yearning for stability, it also epitomised a desire for change. As he concluded his [JS visit with the announcement that India was now on course with history, Vajpayee signalled the fruition of a major foreign policy shift that began with the nuclear tests of May 1998. ......
 
• Campus in crisis
• Ninad D. Sheth, India Today, October 2, 2000
>>> The Chinese have an ancient curse: "May you live in interesting times." Students and staff members of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) have been discovering the power of the curse.  Paranoia, anger and unrest have swept AMU following the arrest of a suspected terrorist, Mubeen Ahmed, from the campus on September 3.  Matters were made worse when Amar Ujala, a Hindi newspaper, printed front-page allegations that ISI and Hizbul Mujahideen camps were being run on the campus. ......
 
• Pak army fomenting religious extremism: MQM
• Rediff on Net, October 3, 2000
>>> Smarting under its "failure" to check the growth of the Muttahida Quami Movement and other regional forces, Pakistan's state apparatus and the military are now using religious extremists to counter their influence, MQM leaders charged Tuesday. ......
 
• LeT has sent 2 times more Mujahideen
• The Daily Excelsior, October 3, 2000
>>> Pakistan-based guerilla group Lashkar-e-Toiba today had doubled the number of fighters battling Indian force in Kashmir this year. ......
 
• Fiza: a cop-out
• Varsha Bhosle, Rediff on Net, October 3, 2000
>>> Funny thing...  last week, without having any such intention, I managed to watch three movies with the same basic theme: Good guy is pushed by the system into becoming a violent law-breaker.  In Fiza, he becomes an Islamic terrorist; in Shool, he cold-bloodedly kills an MLA in the Vidhan Sabha; in Vaastav, he becomes a gang- land don.  Funnier thing: I thoroughly enjoyed all three films.  Funniest thing: In very varying degrees, I could justify their heroes' crimes. ......
 
• Politics of sightseeing
• Vivek Deshpande, The Indian Express, October 3, 2000
>>> In these troubled times, when the word temple has become synonymous with bad blood, it would seem grossly inappropriate to talk of another temple and its revival.  But fortunately, the issue here is not of physical or religious revival of the structure.  It is firmly there, standing in its truncated yet hypnotizing splendour.  The question is of its revival in our collective cultural conscience. ......
 
• Separatist group bans Hindu festivities
• BBC News, October 3, 2000
>>> The leading separatist group in the north-east Indian state of Tripura has ordered indigenous tribespeople to stay away from celebrations of the Hindu festival Durga Puja. ......
 
• Horseplay In Harappa - The Indus Valley Decipherment Hoax
• Michael Witzel, Steve Farmer, Frontline, October 13, 2000
>>> Last summer the Indian press carried sensational stories announcing the final decipherment of the Harappan or Indus Valley script.  A United News of India dispatch on July 11, 1999, picked up throughout South Asia, reported on new research by "noted histo rian, N.S.  Rajaram, who along with palaeographist Dr.  Natwar Jha, has read and deciphered the messages on more than 2,000 Harappan seals." ......
 
• Hindutva and history - Why do Hindutva ideologues keep flogging a dead horse?
• Romila Thapar, Frontline, October 13, 2000
>>> "The Aryans" became a historical category in the late nineteenth century.  There was much confusion between "Aryan" as race and as language, a confusion that has not entirely cleared in popular perception.  In its application to Indian history, it was argu ed that the aryas referred to in the Rigveda were the Aryans who had invaded and conquered northern India, founded Indian civilisation, and spread their Indo-Aryan language.  The theory had an immediate impact, particularly on those with a politica l agenda and on historians. ......
 
• A year after Pakistan coup, optimism fading - Few Achievements For Gen.  Musharraf
• Pamela Constable, Mercury News, October 1, 2000
>>> When Gen.  Pervez Musharraf seized power from an elected government in October, Pakistanis welcomed  the coup, and Western governments tolerated it.  A series of civilian leaders had proven inept or corrupt while the nuclear-armed country of 135 million had become increasingly mired in debt and poverty. ......
 
• The Tenuous Link
• Vinod Kumar Shukla, The Observer of Business and Politics, October 2, 2000
>>> It is beyond the scope of history to deal with the doctrine, principle and practice which distinguishes Buddhism as a religion and a philosophy.  It may, however, be generally noted that Buddhism is very largely the outcome of the preexisting Bramhnical thought. ......
 
• Awesome Power of Vaishno Devi
• R. L. Pathak, The Observer of Business and Politics, October 2, 2000
>>> Come navratras and worshipping commences in honour of the nine faceted all-benevolent mother Durga. ......
 
• Ex-SPOs behind J-K camp attack
• Arun Sharma, The Indian Express, October 2, 2000
>>> Two former Special Police Officials (SPOs) were reportedly behind the Fidayeen attack on the Army camp at Beerwah last month.  Senior defence sources identified the two, believed to be ISI moles, as Mushtaq Ahmed Sheikh and his sister Shafiqa.  They had reportedly acted as guides to the militants who attacked the Army camp, the officials added. ......
 
• The cult of imported violence
• Arvind J Bosmia, The Pioneer, October 5, 2000
>>> With the serial bomb blasts in the churches in Goa, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, the Sangh Parivar was hard put to offer a convincing defence that its stormy petrels VHP and Bajrang Dal did not carry out the heinous acts. ......
 
• Undeterred by flak, BJP goes ahead to woo Muslim
• The Observer of Business and Politics, October 5, 2000
>>> The central leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is undeterred by the opposition from within to its policy of reaching out to Muslims and other minorities. ......
 
• Education: The missing link
• Surendra S Yadav,  The Observer of Business and Politics, October 5, 2000
>>> It is said, and rightly so, that an individual, society or the humanity at large can not prosper or progress without education.  But what is education or a complete education? This question is not as simple as it appears.  Is it simply acquiring of degrees or diplomas? Or, is it synonymous with acquiring skills in a highly-specialised domain? The answer to these questions is clearly no. ......
 
• Return of Feudalism
• N K Singh,  The Observer of Business and Politics, October 5, 2000
>>> The recent oil price tornado has hit the country and the government wants to raise twelve thousand crores by increasing the prices while paying lip sympathy to austerity, tightening the belt and such other trite expressions without down-sizing of its infructous expenditure.  At the same time, pomp and show of unproductive rituals seem to be on the increase with political and powerful barons indulging in extravaganza in metropolitan and rural sectors. ......
 
• Divorced from Reality - Amending the Triple Talaq Law
• Sakina Yusuf Khan, The Times of India, October 5, 2000
>>> Ameena, a young telephone operator in Delhi, came home one evening to find her husband in a clinch with another woman.  Even before she could collect her wits, he turned on her and pronounced talaq thrice.  Ameena's marriage of six years was over.  Worse, he refused to pay her maintenance beyond the iddat period (three menstrual cycles).  Today, two years later, thanks to the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act of 1986, Ameena still awaits her due from her husband. ......
 
• Pakistan's Feudo-democracy
• The Times of India, October 5, 2000
>>> ``Partition was the biggest mistake in the history of mankind'' suddenly declared Altaf Hussain, exiled chief of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), Pakistan's third largest political party, in London last month.  Even as Pakistan-watchers tried to digest the import of his statement and the Pakistani media lambasted Hussain for his ``ultimate betrayal'', the first-ever MQM delegation arrived in New Delhi. ......
 
• The changing winds
• Saeed Naqvi, The Indian Express, October 6, 2000
>>> Once the dust settles on the Putin visit, North and South Blocks will have to put their heads together on the implications of London's Acton Town Hall meeting held on September 17.  For the first time, leaders of the Mojahirs, Sindhis, Baluchis and Pakhtoons came together on the same platform to declare the death of the Two-nation theory. ......
 
• The silence of the lambs
• Varsha Bhosle, Rediff on Net, October 9, 2000
>>> On October 29, 1997, in Michigan, Ronnie Greene Jr was shot dead by Nathaniel Abraham.  The murderer was arrested two days later and sent to a correction facility to await his trial on January 13, 2000.  Against the strong protest of the prosecution, the murderer will be released in 2005 at the age of 21.  For Nathaniel was just 13 years old when he took a life and was America's youngest murder defendant. ......
 
• RSS chief's statement violation of rights: Cong
• The Observer of Business and Politics, October 10, 2000
>>> The Congress on Monday said the recent Nagpur address of the RSS chief, K S Sudarshan, was a clear and blatant infringement of the constitutional guarantee to every citizen of the country to practice and preach the religion of his choice in the manner and mode in which the citizen choses.  The CWC member and chairman of the party minority department, Arjun Singh, said ,here that the suggestion of the RSS chief was "misconceived." ......
 
• A sinking Pakistan poses major challenge for India
• Brahma Chellaney, Rediff on Net, October 2000
>>> Pakistan has reversed neither its slide toward anarchy nor its international isolation a year after the world's first ever military coup in a nuclear state.  Rather, military rule has scared away foreign investors and has served as one more negative label for a country that conjures up images of fanaticism, terrorism and gun-toting mullahs. ......
 
• Twelve months with General Musharraf at the helm: Where does Pakistan stand?
• Haris Dervesh, Rediff on Net, October 2000
>>> As Pakistan's military government completes its first year in office, one issue looms large -- international isolation in the realm of politics and diplomacy regarding the attitude of the United States and multilateral donor agencies. ......
 
• Muzzling the free press
• Zamir Niazi, Dawn, October 1, 2000
>>> Yesterday, I read the disturbing item regarding the raid on Dawn's offices, and certain instances immediately came to mind. ......
 
• Whither are we?
• Asma Jahangir, Dawn, October 4, 2000
>>> The General, Chief Executive of Pakistan, arrived like an empty vessel at the United Nations Millennium Summit in New York.  His noise made little sense to the international community, who yawned at his offer for peace and a no-war pact to India. ......
 
• The Season of Using Force in the Mideast Has Arrived
• Daniel Pipes, The Los Angeles Times, October 6, 2000
>>> In all likelihood, the violence that began in Jerusalem on Sept.  28 marks a major turning point in the Arab-Israeli conflict.  And how Israelis respond has direct implications for Americans. ......
 
• Ganga, Yamuna Need Massive Clean-Up Before Kumbh Mela
• The Indian Express, October 9, 2000
>>> Taking a holy dip at the ''Triveni Sangam'', the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati, may not be a good idea from the hygienic point of view. ......
 
• Temple construction date to be set in Goa
• The Hindustan Times, October 10, 2000
>>> At A crucial two-day meet of Hindu religious leaders in Goa later this month, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) is expected to fix a tentative date for starting the construction of Ram Janmbhoomi temple at the disputed site at Ayodhya. ......
 
• 'Pakistan Supports the Kashmir Struggle Diplomatically, Politically, Morally'
• Maseeh Rahman, Time Magazine, October 10, 2000
>>> Ashraf Jehangir Qazi has been Pakistan's High Commissioner in New Delhi for more than three years.  Relations between both countries during that time have been shaky, to say the least.  Qazi spoke to TIME contributor Maseeh Rahman in New Delhi recently. ......
 
• Ex-minister accused of sodomising boys in jail
• Navin Upadhyay, The Pioneer, October 11, 2000
>>> Patna's high security Beur jail has always been in the news for reasons other than the fact that it houses a growing number of politicians.  Incidents of firing, stabbing, clashes between inmates and jail authorities, recovery of condoms, contraband drugs, arms and ammunition, TV sets and mobile telephones have always kept the prison in the limelight. ......
 
• Osama no terrorist, Kashmir not integral part of India: SIMI
• Rediff on Net, October 11, 2000
>>> The Students Islamic Movement of India does not consider Osama bin Laden a 'terrorist' nor Kashmir an 'integral part of India'. ......
 
• Gajipur Puja Premises Desecrated, Destroyed - Wounded 10 People
• Bengali Weekly Parichoy, October 11, 2000
>>> People from Gajipur Jama Masjid last Friday, after the Juma namaz (prayer), attacked Hindu Kali Temple's main yearly Puja premises.  Attackers destroyed the Puja pandal gate, loud speaker, ornaments and idols.  They also desecrated the clothes and puja prasad (offerings).  The attackers came armed with axes, knives, swords and sticks.  They also looted nearby shops owned by local Hindus. ......
 
• Kerala university accused of ignoring Muslim history
• The Indian Express, October 12, 2000
>>> The new syllabus recommended for the MA History course at Kerala University is embroiled in a controversy with the Democratic Government College Teachers' Association here demanding that it should be with drawn. They say the new syllabus skips the 1,200 years during which various Muslim dynasties were in power. ......
 
• A Kerala that's crude and sexist? Ask a sexual assault victim
• Siddharth Siddiq, The Indian Express, October 12, 2000
>>> P.E. Usha does not go to office any longer. Her colleagues at Calicut University, where she works as an assistant, and the state have ensured that. Her husband has abandoned her. She has been forced to move with her 10-year-old daughter to faraway Thiruvananthapuram. ......
 
• Mutual respect and esteem
• T.V.R. Shenoy, The Indian Express, October 12, 2000
>>> On the fifth of September, the Vatican published a 36-page document called `Dominus Jesus'.  Bearing the signatures of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, it was approved by the Pope himself.  We, in India, celebrate the day on which this text was released as `Teachers' Day', but I am not sure that we would wish to learn the lessons of `Dominus Jesus'. ......
 
• SIMI sees J&K as an international problem
• Sharat Pradhan, Rediff on Net, October 12, 2000
>>> The Students Islamic Movement of India, which has of late been in the spotlight for its alleged involvement in a series of bombs blasts in Uttar Pradesh, is opposed to democracy "in its existing Western-oriented form." ......
 
• Illegal migrants - a security threat
• The Tribune India, October 13, 2000
>>> Massive influx of Bangladeshi nationals into the eastern frontier areas of Bihar and their illegal occupation of government and private lands has disturbed the social peace.  The communal politics in this part and the use of these illegal migrants as the 'agents' of the ISI have affected the strategic interests of India. ......
 
• On the turning away
• Pradeep Dutta, The Indian Express, October 13, 2000
>>> Villagers in parts of Jammu and Kashmir are gradually losing faith in militants and reporting their activities to security forces.  And they're paying the price, reports PRADEEP DUTTAOn September 19, 31 militants belonging to Jehad-e-Turq, a newly floated militant outfit hops across the border. ......
 
• Natives Of "New World" Protest At Vatican
• Catholic World News, October 13, 2000
>>> A group of Hawaiians and natives of Caribbean islands held an orderly demonstration in St.  Peter's Square on Thursday, asking Pope John Paul II to repudiate a 500-year-old papal bull that encouraged Christian nations to enter the New World to convert pagans. ......
 
• VHP lodges protest with Pak envoy
• The Tribune India, October 15, 2000
>>> The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has demanded restoration of temple and houses destroyed by a mob in an attack in the Dalbandhin area, 340 km from Quetta, on Wednesday. ......
 
• Run if you want, but don't hide
• Maleeha Lodhi, Outlook, October 16, 2000
>>> The Vajpayee government seems to have persuaded itself that the present is an opportune moment to isolate Pakistan internationally.  During Vajpayee's US visit, the Indian rhetoric against Pakistan reached new heights.  But Delhi is overplaying its hand, led astray by its own rhetoric. ......
 
• May his knees become stronger
• Arvind Lavakare, Rediff on Net, October 10, 2000
>>> It is now confirmed.  Despite his poetic muse, coy smile and dreamy eyes, bachelor boy Atal Bihari Vajpayee is hardly a hit with women.  Mamata Banerjee's latest spat with him puts the issue beyond doubt, coming as it does after the last two years witnessed Jayalalitha, Sonia Gandhi, and Mayawati stabbing his high status up front. ......
 
• Fifty British synagogues are attacked
• Ruth Gledhill, The Times, October 14, 2000
>>> Security at synagogues and Jewish schools throughout Britain has been raised to its highest level since the Gulf War after the Middle East crisis prompted anti- Semitic threats and violent incidents. ......
 
• The House of Straw
• Varsha Bhosle, Rediff on Net, October 16, 2000
>>> We called it the Hindu disease.  In 2000, the threat from the Left is as much a cultural one, and manifests itself in the tyranny of political correctness and the assault on Hindu culture and history.  We should call it the anti-Hindu disease. ......
 
• In defence of 2-nation theory
• Kamal Azfar, Dawn, October 16, 2000
>>> A resounding silence of political analysts lies in the wake of persistent attacks on the two-nation theory which is the foundation stone of Pakistan.  A quarter century after the birth of Pakistan we lost East Pakistan.  Half a century after the birth of the state the same cries and whispers are being heard among intellectuals. ......
 
• The New Gospel of Academia
• Teresa Watanabe, The Los Angeles Times, October 18, 2000
>>> In Pennsylvania, researchers are documenting how religion keeps young people from drugs and delinquency.  In Cambridge, professors are pondering how faith propels environmentalism and inner-city economic development. ......
 
• 'None can dare' close Pak madrasas
• UNI, October 18, 2000
>>> Pakistan's military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf has ruled out the possibility of the nuclear weapons falling into the hands of religious fanatics and said he would not like to use these weapons unless his country's security was jeopardised. ......
 
• Dalit Christian body backs `swadeshi church' concept
• The Indian Express, October 19, 2000
>>> The RSS, which has come under fire from several quarters for suggesting the formation of a `swadeshi church', received a shot in the arm today when an organisation representing Dalit Christians said the idea should be debated within the community and not rejected "outright". ......
 
• CPM goes `swadeshi', dumps Comrade Stalin
• The Indian Express, October 19, 2000
>>> For the first time the CPM seems to have given Comrade Stalin the short shrift.  At least that is what the banners, cutouts and graffiti in connection with the ensuing Special Party Conference in various parts of the city suggest. ......
 
• Battle of the Billions
• ASIAWEEK, October 20, 2000
>>> They make up half of humanity: 1.27 billion Chinese, a billion Indians and over 1 billion Christians.  For 2,000 years the three populations have shared Eurasia, peacefully for the most part, even with the half-millennium of major intrusions into Asia by Europeans seeking converts, commerce and colonies. ......
 
• Majority of American Muslims likely to vote for Bush
• Islamic Views, October 20, 2000
>>> American Muslim voters are likely to vote for George W.  Bush in the polls next month, according to survey released this week by the Council on American Islamic Relations. ......
 
• The Manifest Destiny of American Muslims
• Muqtedar Khan, Islamic Views, October 20, 2000
>>> In the last three decades, the American Muslim community has developed at an astonishing pace.  Through conversions and migration it has grown in numbers and is now estimated to be over 8 million, making it the second largest religious community in the US.  It has also grown in diversity. ......
 
• Senior Hindu priest murdered
• Harish Purohit, BBC, October 21, 2000
>>> A murder inquiry has been launched after one of the UK's most senior Hindu figures was killed in a "vicious" knife attack. ......
 
• Britons trained for jihad
• The Guardian, October 22, 2000
>>> 'Young British Muslims are being trained to make bombs and use Kalashnikov rifles to fight in a jihad - holy war - in Israel.  The first 'Mujahideen' fighters, trained in military-style camps around Britain, flew out this month for Lebanon and Jordan. ......
 
• Pak Mullahs say they will attack Americans if Laden is hit
• The Deccan Chronicle, October 22, 2000
>>> Pakistani mullahs have warned the west that ''reprisals'' will be taken against foreigners in Pakistan if US mounts a strike against Saudi terrorist Osama Bin Laden's bases in Afghanistan, media reports said on Sunday. ......
 
• The dharma of dams
• C.V.J. Varma, The Indian Express, October 23, 2000
>>> It is gratifying to read the Supreme Court's verdict permitting further construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam project.  It is a landmark judgement for India's water resource development because it recognises some cardinal truths.  To quote from the judgement: ``....construction of big dams cannot be equated with setting up of polluting industries as far as their effect on the environment is concerned. ......
 
• It was all in our stars
• Francois Gautier, The Indian Express, October 23, 2000
>>> Today, because of the vulgarisation of astrology, people tend to think that it Ls not a science and that the planets are so far away that they cannot have a definite influence on human life.  But it is not so, contends Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the founder of the Bangalore-based Art of Living, an International Foundation which cuts across all barriers of nationality and religion and brings enlightenment to millions of people all over the world. ......
 
• American Muslim PAC Endorses Bush for President
• American Muslim PAC, October 23, 2000
>>> The American Muslim Political Coordinating Council Political Action Committee (AMPCC-PAC) today announced its endorsement of George W. Bush for president, citing his outreach to the Muslim community and his stand on the issue of secret evidence. ......
 
• The Sipah-e-Sahaba factor
• Varsha Bhosle, Rediff on Net, October 23, 2000
>>> Here's a bit from The News of October 19 that should warm the heart of every Atal Bihari Hajpayee devotee: "While addressing the Jehad Conference at Eid Gah Cantt, Maulana Masood Azhar asserted that affairs in occupied Kashmir had reached the point of no return and freedom fighters could not afford to drop their guns by way of a compromise. ......
 
• A Swadeshi church is a Christian idea
• The Indian Express, October 24, 2000
>>> All hell broke loose over RSS Chief K.S.  Sudarshan's statement that members of the Christian establishment should become independent of foreign control.  He had merely suggested the formation of a Swadeshi or a national church, and all he had intended was a debate. ......
 
• And now, pseudo-communalism
• Sandhya Jain, The Pioneer, October 24, 2000
>>> Unlike most analysts, I do not believe that RSS chief K.S.  Sudarshan's contentious recipe for inculcating patriotism among the minorities is at all aimed at the Muslims or Christians.  Like other controversies in India, this one too is essentially an intra-Hindu affair, with the minorities being used as a smokescreen. .....
 
• RSS quit India call
• A.R. Kanangi, Afternoon Despatch & Courier, October 21, 2000
>>> They were all in high spirits. They were all full-bodied, muscular men with a red complexion. There was a boisterous atmosphere in the hall. Wine - red and of many other hues - was flowing freely. They were Spanish monks - on a mission to India. ......
 
• Islamic group fomenting separatism in Russia: FSB
• The Navhind Times, October 21, 2000
>>> Russia's 'intelligence service has warned that the International Islamic Brotherhood, an extremist organisation working in tandem with fugitive militant Osama bin Laden, is strengthening its presence in Russia to spread its separatist ideology among the Muslim masses. ......
 
• Arundhati Roy predicts 'war' with govt. over dam
• The Navhind Times, October 21, 2000
>>> Celebrity author, Arundhati Roy, on Thursday has predicted 'war' with authorities over the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river in Gujarat, saying the anti-dam movement would be stepped up after the Supreme Court verdict permitting work on the controversial project to resume. ......
 
• Footsoldier fetish
• Rajesh Joshi, Outlook, October 23, 2000
>>> It was meant to be a camp commemorating 75 years of the RSS and focusing on national security concerns. But at the end of the day, the rashtra raksha mahashivir held at Agra last week turned out to be a show of strength. Alarmed over the sagging morale of its cadres, the RSS top brass tried to galvanise the 75,000-strong swayamsevaks in uniform who had come from 16 districts of the Brij prant (region) of western UP. ......
 
• School for caesars
• Payal Kapadia, Outlook, October 23, 2000
>>> Fifteen acres of lush land, just north of Mumbai at Utan, is now the site for the country's first training school for politicians. This BJP initiative is unique since no other political party has ever attempted anything like this. Simply put, what this means is that BJP politicians will be encouraged to go back to school. ......
 
• RSS body `lauds' missionaries
• The Hindustan Times, October 24, 2000
>>> Vidya Bharati, one of the important organisations of the RSS, has finally recognised the "zeal of the Christian missionaries to devote their selfless services in an unfriendly atmosphere". ......
 
• Namboodiris give up religious monopoly in Kerala
• George Iype, Rediff on Net, October 24, 2000
>>> The apex authority of the Namboodiris (the most orthodox Malayalee Brahmins) was forced into the move due  to depleting strength  of the community and an acute shortage of priests in temples across Kerala. ......
 
• The new UP CM is a first divisioner, a tough administrator
• UNI, October 24, 2000
>>> Newly-nominated Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Mr.  Rajnath Singh has been a first divisioner all through and has also left his mark as a good administrator during his stint as the Education Minister. ......
 
• A Republican presidency offers alarming possibilities for Britain
• Hugo Young, The Guardian, October 24, 2000
>>> Tony Blair has never met George W Bush.  The newest episode in the Anglo-American relationship, which may begin in a fortnight's time, will get off to a jarring start.  Governor Bush was due to tour Europe and Asia last spring, to make himself known to foreign leaders and enrich his image back home. ......
 
• And now, pseudo-communalism
• Sandhya Jain, The Pioneer, October 24, 2000
>>> Unlike most analysts, I do not believe that RSS chief K.S.  Sudarshan's contentious recipe for inculcating patriotism among the minorities is at all aimed at the Muslims or Christians.  Like other controversies in India, this one too is essentially an intra-Hindu affair, with the minorities being used as a smokescreen. ......
 
• Diwali 2000
• The White House, October 25, 2000
>>> Warm greetings to Indian Americans across our country as you observe the festival of Diwali. ......
 
• Will Hinduism survive the present Christian offensive?
• Francois Gautier, Rediff on Net, October 25, 2000
>>> When Prime Minister Vajpayee was in the US in September, the National Association of Asian Christians in the US (whom nobody had heard about before), paid $ 50,000 to the New York Times to publish 'an Open Letter to the Hon'ble Atal Bihari Vajpayee, prime minister of India.' ......
 
• Of God and Holy Water
• Rajeev Srinivasan, Rediff on Net, October 25, 2000
>>> A lot of noise has been made recently about an incident at the Guruvayur temple in Kerala.  A Congress politician, Vayalar Ravi, had the humiliating experience of the temple authorities doing a punyaham (ritual cleansing of the premises with holy water) after the wedding of his son Unny there.  I certainly sympathise with the man: this is highly insulting, being 'unclean' and 'impure'. ......
 
• White House tapes show Nixon's bias against India
• Mark Wilkinson, Rediff on Net, October 27, 2000
>>> White House tape recordings released on Thursday show former US president Richard Nixon had little sympathy for India while trying to mediate peace between it and Pakistan in 1971. ......
 
• Fear rises in Afghanistan and Pakistan that US attack may be imminent
• Aamir Shah, United Press International, October 27, 2000
>>> Fear of an imminent U.S.  missile attack on Islamist bases in Afghanistan rose there and in Pakistan Friday following an appeal by the Taliban regime to Pakistan and Iran not to allow Washington to fire missiles over their territories. ......
 
• Two Suspects Charged With 329 Murders in 1985 Air India Bombing
• Tom Cohen, The Associated Press, October 27, 2000
>>> Two men of Sikh origin were arrested and charged Friday with murdering 329 people in the 1985 bombing of an Air India jumbo jet near Ireland.  The Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced the charges - the most murder counts ever filed in Canada - resulting from a 15- year investigation that was one of the largest in Canadian history and cost millions of dollars. ......
 
• Jamaat to discuss challenges to Islam
• The Pioneer, October 28, 2000
>>> A three-day congregation of the right-wing Jamaat-i-Islami began here on Friday some 30 km west of Islamabad with an estimated participation of half a million people from across the country. ......
 
• ISI aiding madrassas in the NE
• Nitin Gogoi, Rediff on Net, October 28, 2000
>>> A number of madrassas (Muslim religious schools) in Assam are suspected to be receiving assistance, financial or otherwise, from the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and the security forces are maintaining a close watch over their activities, a top army official in Assam has said. ......
 
• Rebels kill 10 near temple in Assam
• Rediff on Net, October 28, 2000
>>> Separatist militants went on a rampage Friday, killing at least 10 Hindus in front of a temple in Assam, a police spokesman said. ......
 
• Nixon, Bush felt "sanctimonious India" was aggressor in '71 war
• Chidanand Rajghatta, The Indian Expresss, October 28, 2000
>>> Former American Presidents Richard Nixon and George Bush both felt sanctimonious India was the aggressor in the 1971 Indo-Pak war, according to tapes released on Thursday by the US National Archives. ......
 
• MQM leader to be charged with high treason
• Kamal Siddiqi, The Indian Expresss, October 28, 2000
>>> The Pakistan government is finalising plans to charge the leader of the Karachi-based Muttahida Qaumi Mahaaz (MQM) party, Altaf Hussain, and his party leaders with high treason for speaking out against the two nation theory and the creation of Pakistan. ......
 
• National church makes sense more here than in Christiandom
• S Gurumurthy, The New Indian Express, October 28, 2000
>>> Mother Teresa's successor, Sister Nirmala is a Christian evangelist. Sukumar Azhikode is an intellectual in Kerala. From Calcutta, Sister Nirmala says, 'Religion cannot be nationalised.' A week later, from  Thrissur  in Kerala, Sukumar Azhikode seems to more than agree with her. He says, 'The concept, of national religion is utter nonsense', asserting all religions are universal without any geographic boundaries.' ......
 
• Muslim women thwart standardisation of 'nikahnama'
• Fakir Chand, Rediff on Net, October 30, 2000
>>> The All-India Muslim Personal Law Board Sunday deferred standardisation of the nikahnama, following protests from several women delegates over provisions of Islamic shariat laws and serious differences over recommendations of the male-dominated committee on empowering Muslim wives. ......
 
• '84 riot victim accuses Jagdish Tytler of instigating violence
• Rediff on Net, October 30, 2000
>>> A victim of the anti-Sikh riots on Monday submitted before the Nanawati Commission, probing the violence after Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984, that former Union minister Jagdish Tytler had instigated a mob in a west Delhi locality that killed his son, nephew and brother-in-law. ......
 
• Naxalites gun down BJP politician in southern Orissa
• M I Khan, Rediff on Net, October 30, 2000
>>> Armed men, suspected to belong to the People's War group of the Communist Party of India, Marxist-Leninist, gunned down a Bharatiya Janata Party politician in Rayagada district of southern Orissa, bordering Andhra Pradesh, on Sunday. ......
 
• Deendar plots serial blasts in S India: BJP
• The Deccan, October 30, 2000
>>> The State BJP on Monday charged that Deendar Anjuman was planning to plant bombs at places of worship in South India and North-East region on the eve of Christmas to create communal tension and asked the government to immediately impose a ban on the organisation. ......
 
• Hindus, Sikhs get place at cenotaph service
• The Tribune India, October 30, 2000
>>> For the first time in its 81-year history, the remembrance service at the cenotaph, a tomb-like monument dedicated to all war dead of the commonwealth, is to include Hindu, Sikh, Muslim and Buddhist representatives. ......
 
• Rangers asked to thwart fencing plan
• M.L. Kak, The Tribune India, October 30, 2000
>>> Pakistani troops have begun preparations for thwarting India's plan to raise a barbed wire fence on the 187-km-long international border, (IB) from Akhnoor to Kathua in the Jammu sector. ......
 
• Jamaat offers new recruits to terrorist training camps in PoK
• B L Kak, The Daily Excelsior, October 30, 2000
>>> Pakistan's Jamaat-e-Islami has reaffirmed its resolve to provide "all possible help" for the continuance of training camps for Kashmir-bound "Islamic fighters" in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), particularly those located near Muzaffarabad and Kotli. ......
 
• The blasted Bombay blasts
• Varsha Bhosle, Rediff on Net, October 30, 2000
>>> On October 9, The Times of India reported that "Trial in 1993 serial blast case concludes," seven years after 257 people were killed, 713 were maimed, and public property worth Rs 27 crores was damaged by Pakistan-guided Islamic terrorists on March 12, 1993, in Bombay. ......
 
• India can make N-bomb of up to 200 kt: Chidambaram
• Rediff on Net, October 30, 2000
>>> India now has the capability to design and fabricate nuclear weapons of yields ranging from 'low' to around 200 kilo tons, Atomic Energy Commission chairman Dr Rajgopal Chidambaram said in Bombay on Monday. ......
 
• The Need for an Indian Church
• Ashok Chowgule, The Navhind Times, October 30, 2000
>>> The recent call by the Sarsanghachalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Mananiya Shri K S Sudarshan, for the Christian churches to be indigenised has predictably provoked angry reactions from those who call themselves as secular.  What is missed is that this call is not something new, and has been the position of the RSS for more than forty years. ......
 
• China claims Marx as prophet of globalisation
• Oliver August, The Times, October 31, 2000
>>> Diehard Chinese Communists have decided that globalisation, the new buzz word of the modern economy, is old hat.  Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, they say, invented the concept more than 150 years ago. ......
 
• The humble patriot
• Rajkumari Tankha, The Hindustan Times, October 31, 2000
>>> With the death of Manmathnath Gupt, the nation has perhaps lost the last living link between pre-Independence and modern India.  Surely we have lost the last survivor of the Kakori dacoity case which had shaken the roots of the British rulers. ......
 
• Bid to reform Muslim Personal Law fails
• K S Dakshina Murthy, The Hindustan Times, October 31, 2000
>>> Attempts to streamline the Muslim Personal Law relating to divorce and other issues have fallen through in the absence of a consensus among members of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board. ......
 
• Rebel outfit bans Hindi in Manipur
• Nitin Gogoi, Rediff on Net, October 31, 2000
>>> A proscribed outfit in Manipur has banned the use of Hindi throughout the Imphal Valley and also asked cable operators and cinema hall owners to stop screening "Indian" channels and movies. ......
 
• NSCN ultras negotiate arms deal in China
• Deepak Sharma, The Daily Pioneer, October 31, 2000
>>> It's not only the Pakistan connection.  The involvement of a Chinese agency in supplying machine guns and AK 47 rifles to top militant groups in the North East is more startling and shocking for New Delhi. ......
 
• Gajipur (Joydebpur) Hindu Puja Premises Desecrated and Destroyed: 10 Hindus Wounded
• Bengali Weekly Parichoy, October 11, 2000
>>> Dhaka, Bangladesh: People from Gajipur Jama Masjid last Friday, after the Juma namaz (prayer), attacked Hindu Kali Temple's main yearly Puja premises.  Attackers destroyed the Puja pandal gate, loud speaker, ornaments and idols. ......
 
• Nehru Demythified - A Legacy of Needless Secrecy
• K Subrahmanyam, The Times of India, October 13, 2000
>>> The Nehru Centre, Mumbai, proposes to initiate a series of lectures on Jawaharlal Nehru to examine his relevance to the present and future India.  It is felt that Nehru has not been analysed and discussed in as great detail as Mahatma Gandhi has been. ......
 
• Tension prevails following demolition of temple
• Press Trust of India, The Indian Express, October 13, 2000
>>> Tension prevailed in Chettiapatti village near Chinnaalapatti in Tamil Nadu's Dindigul District after forest department officials demolished a fifty-year-old place of worship constructed in the forest limits. ......
 
• "Mahashibirateel Rashtra Jagar" (Translated from Marathi)
• Shreeram Joshi, Mumbai Tarun Bharat, October 22, 2000
>>> As the three-day Rashtra Raksha Mahashibir organised by the RSS concluded, the topic of discussion among the journalists within the country and from abroad gathered at Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Patrakar Nagar was: What was the outcome of the Mahashibir? What was its message? ......
 
• A cause for conflict
• M.V.  Kamath, The Free Press Journal, October 26, 2000
>>> At some point in time the Christian Church - especially the Roman Catholic Church - must ask itself whether it is doing any good to itself- let alone India - by putting on airs of superiority that demean other religions and become sources of irritation and needless conflict. ......
 
• Communism had rare chance to displace communal group in 1996, says Basu
• P K Surendran, The Times of India, October 26, 2000
>>> At 86, Jyoti Basu, who missed prime ministership due to his party's recalcitrant attitude, is still mentally sharp.  The CPM is one party which insists that the cause is important and not the individual.  But in Basu's case, it has been different. ......
 
• Secularists find great pleasure to indulge in RSS
• M.V. Kamath, The Free Press Journal, October 27, 2000
>>> Nothing gives our secularists in the English media greater pleasure than to indulge in RSS bashing on any conceivable occasion. ......
 
• Indian Muslim play 'talaq' under fire in Singapore
• Gomantak Times, October 28, 2000
>>> A play depicting martial violence within Indian Muslim society is to be staged privately in Singapore after authorities refused a public performance license for the work. ......

Last Article date: Tue October 31, 2000
Archived on:  Tue October 31, 2000