My Little Bit of Hindu

Pakistan was Not made in the Name of Islam.Infact most of the Ulemas and Muslim Clergy were against its creation.Pakistan was created to ameliorate the lot of Muslims living in a scular country. MA Jinnah many times denounced radicalism and he was always emphatic to say that Pakistan Will Not be a theoracritic country. Alas! Zia changed everything and Mullas were made powerful,though they never gained anything substantial in Elections.Think how we cn get Quid`s Pakistan Back,other ineveitable result will be what is obvious.We still have time.

THE question is term ``hindu`` itself. Far way back in the history of the subcontinent one of the famous names of the Rive Sindh was `Hind` and the locals living along the banks of the river were called ``Hindus``. when greek translated Hind river into Indus the people of subcontinent were called Hindus. This process also had names like Sindhu in it. So the history named the people living in this area as Hindus. It was never the name of a religion in the Greek times or afterwards. Perhaps it can help a bit with your confusion. Personally speaking being a Muslim has nothing to do with geographical identities. We know the Indus river for centuries now. Wonder what can be the next name of this river , and what can be the next name of us, living along the banks!!!!

Interesting thought from a Pakistani.

Europeans take pride in their non-chritian past, Egyptians take pride in non-Muslim past, why not the Pakistanis?

re:#240 by Romair
Romair, the chowk bluffmaster says the only thing standing between India and Pak from becoming friends is Kashmir. If that were true, why did i read an article the other day about Mushy boy trying to revive sikh militancy in Punjab (Indian)? As i have said before, Kashmir is only one of the several problems between the 2 countries. If Pak does not change its course, will meet the same fate as Yugoslavia.
Sridhar

Urstruly..how do you bring up a pic to show on your replies. Plz tell. I has some interesting pictures to show to the readers

Just Checking

Harpo #271

Ajay Devgan is a Sikh????

LoL @ Shankar

;)

hehehe

Ref AlephNull #277

[Finally, driving a Mercedes or living lavishly is a rather stupid criterion of achievement. Christians from South India woud tend to be frugal rather than the flashy in their lifestyles conforming to the common South Indian stereotype, whereas my sense is that Punjabis tned to spend or display their wealth somewhat more freely.]

Some years back (7-8 years ago), there was a concert by Jesudas, a major film musician from Kerala (and nominally at this point in his life, a Christian) in San Mateo. The only person who came in a Rolls Royce was someone that Androscoggin might deride. I was told that this particular gentleman was in the check cashing business -- a business that would pay a lot since the discount rate is very high because a lot of those cashing checks might be illegal aliens.

Yes, there are some South Indians who don`t mind flaunting their wealth and there are those with no high educational qualifications who make it big.

Thanks AlephNull for a very valuable post. I agree that the percentage of Sikhs and Christian in diaspora is more than 2.5-3 percent in India. I did not know the percentage of Christians in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Parsesh although I know many Andhra Christians from Hyderabad, as a tight knit religious community.
This is not the right board but I would be very much interested to know Christain conversions in India since independence. The story before independence is familiar to me to some extent. Is there some good book or souce with details about the role of Christians in independence movement?

SameerJB #275

{Some 25-30 years ago, Muslims from Karachi (Mohajirs) and Christian nurses from Kerala were well-representd group. Now they have moved up to middle class level and later brought their families/ relatives on family visa.}

{He also wildly exaggerated the BMW, Mercedes owning among Hindus and Christians. Absolute nonsense! The group that could afford these cars were medical doctors, a profession well represented by Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus alike but less Christians perhaps due to their localization in Kerala and Goa or some other reason.}

Sameer Sahab, a couple of comments re Christians in India. Their total numbers are about 25 million, around the same as Sikhs. Three Southern states - Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, account for about 1/3, 1/6, 1/10 respectively of the total number. There are also smaller but still significant numbers in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Bihar, Meghalaya, Orissa, Manipur, Goa, Madhya Pradesh (in approximate descending order).

It doesn`t make much sense to generalise about Christians in India (or about most religious communities, for that matter) since a person`s culture and outlook are most strongly influenced by region and language. Apart from nominal religion, a Christian from Kerala would have far more in common, in terms of language, diet, general worldview, with another Keralite irrespective of religion, than with a Christian from Bihar or Nagaland. Moreover, even within a given state one often finds multiple Christian communities with distinct histories etc and thus with different current economic and occupational profiles.

That said, my impression is that, overall, Christians in India are slightly overrepresented in the `professions` - medicine, engineering, academia, the sciences, journalism etc - whether in India or the US. One particular community with which I`m somewhat familiar - so-called `Syrian` Christians, of various denominations - has historically been very well-educated and is markedly overrepresented [you might want to check out (past?) office-bearers of the Indian physicians` organisations in the US, for instance]. However, about half the time their names are not an immediate giveaway of origins except to initiates. To a casual Pakistani observer and most North Indians they might well pass as Hindus.

Finally, driving a Mercedes or living lavishly is a rather stupid criterion of achievement. Christians from South India woud tend to be frugal rather than the flashy in their lifestyles conforming to the common South Indian stereotype, whereas my sense is that Punjabis tned to spend or display their wealth somewhat more freely.

None of this is to endorse 30-head`s worldview, of course

Harpreet #269

You`re most welcome .. I`m glad I could be of help with the earlier reference..

Harpreet,

arjun beat me to it:)
(shucks, arjun, please dont tell me you are a Bombayite!)

Anyways, if you go to Sion-Kohliwada, you`d probably see more turbans than in Delhi. The place is famous for its Punjabi fish & other heavenly Punjabi cusine...

Best of all, if you ever go to Bombay, dont miss a women`s hockey game at Khalsa college. Gotta say this, but most of those young kaurs are not only beautiful, but ...er..well ..er endowed, in the right places...they jiggle while they dribble to the goal....a naughty little secret only Bombay collegewallahs knew...

But that was 24+yrs ago, when I was young, handsome & single:) Maybe things have changed now. Man, those kaurs could dance in a disco with the same flair...put Travolta to shame...seems to me a bra doesnt restrain those bouncing boobs!!:)

Only one caveat, though...you better treat them like shareef ladies, even in a disco...ie. NO slow dances, even if she encourages it....:)
Hell hath NO fury like a pissed off sardar father or brother:)!!

Sigh.....woh zamaana guzar gaya...hum buddae hogaye!:)

The post by Androscoggin that started this discussion was stereotypical, bogus or described small segment of socisety.
Some 25-30 years ago, Muslims from Karachi (Mohajirs) and Christian nurses from Kerala were well-representd group. Now they have moved up to middle class level and later brought their families/ relatives on family visa. Next wave Gujratis did the same but they were more into business than seeking jobs. Now it is Bengalis and Panjabis. Just like Panjabi taxi drivers and gas station workers, plenty of Bengalis, both Hindus and Muslims are at the lower end work force. Androscoggin did not go through the construction industry. There are plenty of Chaterjees, Banerjees, Refugees, Ghosh laying bricks and roofing in New York. Another favorite of Bengalis is waiteressing in NY. Among Bengalis, Muslim and Hindus are at roughly same economic level.
He also wildly exaggerated the BMW, Mercedes owning among Hindus and Christians. Absolute nonsense! The group that could afford these cars were medical doctors, a profession well represented by Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus alike but less Christians perhaps due to their localization in Kerala and Goa or some other reason. Now medical profession has saturated due to doctors coming not just from subcontinent but from all over the world. Large number of desis families with housewives or comparatively much lower earning wives, and also higher saving rate do not favor these luxury cars.
Harpreet: I graduated from former Khalsa College, Rawalpindi now known as Government College, Rawalpindi. The richest American before the stock market crash was a Sikh from Dallas owning a business sofware company, ITWO. I do not know what is his worth now but for a while he was worth 9 billion dollars.

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

Shankar: A Hindi writer wrote a short story on a Sikh beggar. I read it over 15 years ago so don`t remember the details but the main point was that the narrator/writer had never seen a Sikh beggar in his entire life until one day in November 1984 when he saw a proud sardar begging for his family`s life in a train.