Hindu Mathematics – How Original Was It?

Re: # 226
Here's what Brookings Stephen Cohen recently said about India's identity crisis and its ambivalence toward Pakistan:

"In their quest for an identity, some Indians tried to replicate Pakistan’s failure by manufacturing a “Hindu� Indian identity—the so-called Hindutva movement. But there is no all-Indian Hindu identity—India is riven by caste and linguistic differences, and Aishwarya Rai and Sachin Tendulkar are more relevant rallying points for more Indians than any Hindu caste or sect, let alone the Sanskritized Hindi that is officially promulgated."

"India is groping now for a national identity that would allow it to approach Pakistan with confidence, but there is no consensus on how to mesh India’s identity with that of Pakistan’s. Indians do not know whether they want to play cricket and trade with Pakistan, or whether they want to destroy it. There is still no consensus on talking with Pakistan: sometimes the government and its spokesman claim that they do not want to deal with the generals, but when the generals are out of the limelight, they complain that the civilians are too weak to conclude a deal. The default option seems to be that Pakistan is now someone else’s problem--in this case the United States’. Not a few Indian generals and strategists have told me that if only America would strip Pakistan of its nuclear weapons then the Indian army could destroy the Pakistan army and the whole thing would be over. This of course is both silly and dangerous—and could lead to a catastrophic misjudgment when the fifth India-Pakistan crisis does come. We were close to one last year, I have no doubt that the people who tried to trigger a new India-Pakistan war will try again."
Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide

Dost-Mittar:227
Jann-nay Vaalay Jaan-tay haiN"

ulloo ko raat kaa shahbaaz kehna koi aap sey seekhhay. Subhaan-Allah.

Anti-minority riots in India have been a regular feature and claimed hundreds of thousands of lives since 1947. More recently, the rise of Hindutva groups and their state backing in various parts of India have resulted in tens of thousands killed and hundreds of thousands dislocated and made homeless.

https://akalidalamritsar.sslpowered.com/akalidalamritsar.net/Historic%20Docu ments/Riots%20History%20Of%20India.pdf

More than the numbers, these incidents have had a chilling effect on the hopes and ambitions of entire minority groups to join the mainstream society and share in the fruits of India's growth. Muslims, in particular, have been strongly discouraged from participation because of systematic discrimination as documented by Sachar, Yoginder Sikand, Pankaj Mishra, Asra Nomani and others.
Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide

Riaz:

"were these temple destructions organized by the leaders of the biggest opposition parties? Were these destruction pre-planned/announced by major religious groups or political parties? Did the police and security forces stand by and allow mobs to go on a rampage? Were these temple destructions followed by nationwide anti-Hindu riots?"

Sometimes, you ask good questions! [except the last one; afaik, the riots were mostly in Bombay and started by Muslim mobs angry over the destruction of the Babri masjid. But they were followed by much more organized anti-muslim riots by shiv sena helped by the police].

Re: # 214
So you are confirming for me that hiring and promotion decisions in India are made based on the name (and religion) on the resume. If the name sounds Muslim (like Musharraf or Riaz), don't hire at all, but if you have to, offer a chaprasi or havaldar position at best. Nothing more for Muslims in India.
Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide

Re: # 226
What a lame and shameful attempt to demonize me after losing an argument.

Talking about textbooks, I have reported here in my interacts how the Hindutva whitewashed history and culture is being taught via Indian textbooks. I have also reported the failed attempts by Hindutva lobby to distort California text books a couple of years ago.

You are shameless bigot, and this latest personal attack on me just confirms it.
Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide

tahmed32#225:

"even dost mittar (criticized by fellow indians as being too easy on us evil pakis), was shocked into writing an article on how little obama knows about pakistan's evil deeds."

The main theme of that article was: India's refusal to play ball with Obama's strategy for the region and its consequences. Since I do not doubt your comprehension skills, it must be my poor communication skills that you interpreted it the way you did. I can only be grateful that no one else interpreted it in the way you did.

The reason why Pakistan produces so many Riaz Haqs.

Conjuring Pakistan: History as Official Imagining
Ayesha Jalal

(International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 27, No. 1. (Feb., 1995), pp. 73-89).

Although consistent in presenting a generally jaundiced and jumbled view of the past, officially approved textbooks display an exasperating degree of confusion
as to when and where to begin cataloging Pakistani history.

Evidence culled from the official textbooks on Pakistani history is a testimony to the imperative of differentiating between the creative bigotry of power and the critical
power that vests in creative imaginings.

Pakistan, with its artificially demarcated frontiers and desperate quest for an officially sanctioned Islamic identity, lends itself remarkably well to an examination
of the nexus between power and bigotry in creative imaginings of national identity.

Representations of ``us`` and ``them`` in Pakistani official discourse are instructive not in what they seek to falsify or authenticate but in the sheer blatancy of narrative styles employed to privilege or discredit particular interpretations of history.

Recent historical research has underlined the extent to which the All-India Muslim League`s demand for a Pakistan was unable to square the circle of the contradictory
interests of Muslims in the Indian subcontinentt. The demand was raised on behalf of all Indian Muslims, who were deemed to be a nation.

One writer traces the ideological inspirations of Pakistan to an imaginatively reclaimed pre-Islamic Muslim world: ``............and the people of Bani Israel were all Muslim.``

An Introduction to Pakistan Studies.......the establishment of Pakistan based on a concept of Islamic sovereignty. Allah alone is sovereign and the ``ruler of the Islamic
State does not possess any authority of his own.`` The coming of Islam to the Indian subcontinent was a ``blessing`` because Hinduism was based on an ``unethical
caste system.``

(As if there are no castes in Islamic Pakistan! - my comment)

Islam was the ``crowning factor`` in the establishment of Pakistan, which is ``not a geographical entity but an ideology which reflects a unique civilization and culture.`` It was a ``revolt`` against insidious efforts to impose ``Hindu nationalism . . . on the Muslims and their culture.`` All this leads to the conclusion-by now self-evident-that Pakistan has to move toward becoming an Islamic state because that was the ``sole purpose of demanding
a separate homeland for the mu slim.

M. D. Zafar`s A Text Book of Pakistan Studies is one of the more entertaining examples.

For Zafar, Pakistan ``came to be established for the first time when the Arabs under Mohammad bin Qasim occupied Sind and Multan``; by the 13th century ``Pakistan had spread to include the whole of Northern India and Bengal`` and then under the Khiljis ``Pakistan moved further southward to include a greater part of Central India and the Deccan.`` Pakistan`s habit of showing up after every second or third
sentence makes this a truly remarkable publication. So for instance, after mentioning

Akbar`s Din-i-Ilahi and Sirhandi`s resistance to it Zafar notes that ``the spirit of Pakistan asserted itself.`` Under Aurangzeb the ``Pakistan spirit gathered in strength``;
his death ``weakened the Pakistan spirit.

The underplaying of Pakistan`s more obvious Indo-Muslim heritage was based on a ``sentiment of hatred for India and things Indian.

(Some other book says) The Muslim League`s Lahore resolution of 23 March 1940 was orchestrated so that Muslims could lead their ``lives in accordance with the dictates of the
Holy Quran and Sunnah.


Wali Khan -``they do not report history, they manufacture it.``

Regards #217 I dont like or dislike anyone on chowk. For all I know Masadi may be going out and feeding the homeless pigeons after he is done with his chowk duties.

My point was very simple and nothing to do with Masadi or Riaz - it was about your saying that "indian religions" call for respect for all faiths. which begged the questions that i then posed for you (i.e. whether laddu and other burnt pakoras from india were in violation of hinduism, and if not if hinduism was then not an "indian religion").

The only response to these questions i have seen (dude40000 e.g.) are claims that laddu is indeed a very learned laddu and is simply stating a fact when he demonizes islam). Such a response may impress fellow indians - but it impresses no one other than indians. while of course our lowly paki opinions dont matter to indians - but it is this stupid mindset that caused so much grief and shock to indians listening to obama's speech. even dost mittar (criticized by fellow indians as being too easy on us evil pakis), was shocked into writing an article on how little obama knows about pakistan's evil deeds.

"By an ingenious computation of a circle’s circumference by polygonization, Madhava was able to arrive at a numerical value of pi correct to the 11th decimal place".

The idea of approximating the value of pi by using the circumferences of inscribing and cirsumscribing polygons to a circle was already introduced by archimedes almost 1700 years before the kerala school.

indeed, using his method, archimedes was able to prove that
the value of pi is greater than 223/71, and less than 22/7.
still finer approximations were possible simply by extending the method of archimedes.

of course, with the later advances in trignometry made by the kerala school (particularly the series expansions for trignometric functions) much more accurate approximate values could be computed far more easily than with the geometric-arithmetic argument of archimedes.

Re: # 220

major...so now you wish to right the wrong by killing a greater number of people? I will give you that I was/am totally against the brutal excesses committed in Bangladesh by both sides...the Paks as well as the Indian supported muktibahini...what is your take on the brutal thuggery of your army in Kashmir now? As they say two wrongs don't make a right...as for the Pak army ops in Northwest...well I'm from the same region and we all (IDPs included) totally support the army in cleansing the region of a bunch of criminals...in fact armed posses have also joined in the cleansing op.

I mean- what's the number of the IDPs from swat?... Million and counting?... And where are the IDPs and refugees from kashmir - after all we are foing extermination for a long time there....

laddu,

You poisoned pakora of hate...I haven't read a single of your interacts...but I know already that whatever you said therein are nothing but a bunch of lies, as usual!

Re: # 218 GF

What's your number on muslims killed in Kashmir - 70K?... fine with me... still comes way short of muslims pakis killed... besides, as you pakis yourselves have noticed recently - our "systematic extermination" in kashmir does not hold a candle to what you pakis are doing right now in swat and elsewhere in the tribal areas... Running gunships on civilians? tsk tsk...

Like I said - this is a no contest... you can twist and turn all you want - but you pakis are the worst of the worst in terms of ethnic and community relations...

Re: # 194

CoolAL,

as WH Auden said:

"“What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.�

Its quite sad that you had to endure all of that in your learning stages!

Re: # 209

major...as I suspected...out you come with skewed, blinkered numbers...particularly on Kashmir where your army is involved in systematic extermination of civilians for a long time now.