Pervez Musharraf and India Pakistan Rapproachment Dost Mittar,

I read your article but found time to respond only now. You have characterised the improvement in relations between the two nations and all the related events very well. But as some have already pointed out that this rapproachment was perhaps more due to forced circumstances than Pervez Musharraf. The official stance of GOI after emergency spoke very well about the reasonable response to their situation and our improvements with them. I think it went something like "It does not matter who rules pakistan as far as policies towards India is concerned. Whether army or civilian rules, they have consistently been the same."
I believe you are giving more credit to mushy than he deserves. Yes he is decisive, but that does not mean his decisions were always good. He was forced to bring about this rapproachment decisively only due to external circumstances. He is thorough bred army walla who puffs his chest up at the mere mention of India.
In general on the policy of rapproachment with Pakistan I think the cautious line taken by the GOI in my opinion is reasonable. There is a lot of bon homie between the two peoples today. But it is best not to forget times like Kargil also. If you would like, check the posts of some of our 'friends' who are ridiculing musharraf today. They were in absolute glee when musharraf came to power dislodging the same man who has been elected today. They were praising him to heavens for his brilliant move in kargil.
I think that if the new leadership of pakistan can manage to stop this jehadi buisness at their homes we can talk of rapproachment. Until then let them blow each other up. We have got enough problems of our own to take care of.
I don't believe I'm a hardliner, but do think of the Indian jawans who laid down their lives fighting the jehadi maniacs over the years. That too is a reailty and should be considered before any rapproachment.
Adios

What is Hinduism? A Personal View It is quite rare to find an article on Hinduism written with as much objectivity as possible by a Hindu or an outsider for that matter. I can say that most Hindus' sentiments on their religion/way of life will be echoed by this write up.
On Sankhya Yoga though, I think Bhagvad Puraan and not Bhagvad Gita gives a better description of being thesitic as opposed to athestic. There is some confusion regarding Kapila muni. There were two different ones perhaps. But the Sankhya philosophy mentioned in Bhagvad Puraan is somewhat as follows:
The universe is made up of 25 different qualities. Of these 24 are static and only the 25th i.e. time is dynamic and creates a dynamic and ever changing universe. The 24 qualities include consciousness, matter etc.
I don't remember Gita speaking about Sankhya philosophy in this vein though.
Anybody volunteer to dispell this confusion?

Adios

Where is Ibn-Sina of the 21st Century? Feroz,

Since you are a muslim, I think you should read Hammurabi's code and compare them to the laws in Koran.You can objectively assess about the originality of such islamic laws and question its moral foundation and perhaps look at them as secular and hence changeable laws.
It is amazing how the poor mesopotamians were screwed despite being the original civilization. The barbarians around the mesopotamians hated its culture and destroyed it. And yet took the same secular laws from them and relabeled them as moral laws handed by the creator. It was carried originaly by the jews, then the christians and finally the muslims.
Fortunately the renaissance changed all that and we have reverted back to the original concept of secular laws like those of Hammurabi. A walk in the natural history museum in NYC will tell you how the modern western laws are based upon Hammurabi's original secular laws. In India manusmriti has been relegated to the dustbin replaced by the constitution. No one dares to mention manusmriti's laws to govern the public life.
Do you think something like that can happen in the islamic world?

Adios

Where is Ibn-Sina of the 21st Century? Hamidm,

Don't worry about belittling our religion. I think we ourselves do a better job doing that. I remember my high school teacher (a muslim) taunting us Hindus in the class one day, that we are so disrespectful towards our religion. He asked us to emulate the muslims and christians in showing reverence towards their respective religions. But I think we hindus are too thick skinned to take anything seriously.

It is good to have humorous stories in one's mythology. Ganesha's stories of riding on a rat are funny and I remember every kid reading it laughing. So is Hanuman, pretty much the first superman like character in the world.

But I think the serious side of Hinduism that gets overlooked in this caricature of sorts is captured well by people like Joseph Campbell for the western audience. If you see or read his "The Power of Myth" you'll perhaps appreciate the mythmakers too and understand why they are not prone to crusades.

Adios

Adios

Search for Origins of Mahayana Buddhism Dear Mahfari,

How do you relate holocaust with godhra and nandigram? And secondly, I think we were debating about the tendency of certain groups of people to destroy the religious and cultural places of others. I was trying to inform you that there is enough evidence to show that abrahamic faiths have quashed and estroyed other cultures' temples or learning centers. Don't take it personally but even the portugese did the same in Elephanta caves. This issue is deeply seated in the desert cultures/religions.

Also ,I was trying to point out that most pakistanis falsely assume that objective historical records were made by al beruni and other europeans.
History remains objective as long as it does not concern the author's nationality or religion. Work done by others and translated into one's own language does not automatically bestow a new authorship.

Adios

Search for Origins of Mahayana Buddhism Mystic,

You can also deduce from that paragraph that those spared were not in the main root of the invasion. Hence invasion still was the cause of the ultimate destruction.
The decline of Buddhism started with Hinduism accepting Buddha as the ninth Avatar. Even now most of the concepts in both are not much different.

Adios

Search for Origins of Mahayana Buddhism Mahfari,

I will read Al Beruni's Al Hind since you have talked so much about him. There seems to be a lot more to Beruni then just translating and propagating works as you are claiming.
It is a widely hels notion by historians that the arabs were excellent traders not just in goods but in ideas too. The muslims in spain translated works from the east and created a vast library in Al Andalus.

Yes, I'll quote you the exact issues regarding the Rushdie affair and his claims soon enough.

Adios

Search for Origins of Mahayana Buddhism Mahfari,
In your excitement please don't post the same thing over and over.

Search for Origins of Mahayana Buddhism Mahfari,

Your post reveals a bias impossible to bridge with facts. Posidonius from Greece had already developed a way to measure earth's circumference. Alberuni did nothing original. He took the indian numerals and later the same were spread as arabic numerals. This is what a simple search in wikipedia will give you about nalanda ,

"In 1193, the Nalanda University suffered a final blow after the complex was sacked by Muslim armies[18] under Bakhtiyar Khilji; this event is seen as a milestone in the decline of Buddhism in India."

You are free to assume that no muslim was involved in it. As far as Bin Qasim is concerned, try and remember that for administration of iraq even the US had to turn back to the old baathists. The truce they have made with them has ensured peace. Bin Qasim's attempt to run Sindh by the help of locals cannot be taken as an act of mercy. He needed them.

I do not wish to offend you again, but you are quoting me abrahamic texts showing tolerance and mercy. Unfortunately, the acts in the name of faith that have beeen commited are just the reverse. I have not forgotten the calls for decapitation of salman rushdie for mentioning some historical facts about temple destruction in arabia during the times of the prophet of Quran. Is it a historical fact that a temple was destroyed by your prophet after pledging just the reverse? And if so then how does it show tolerance towards others. Why should his followers not walk in the same footsteps?
What kind of objectivity can you bring in this discussion of temple destruction anywhere but a sense of bigotry.

I do not believe that issues of religion can ever be discussed objectively. Destruction of temples and universities done by anyone in whatever name cannot be judged by any historian objectively. The perpetrators will always claim innocence under some pretext. But the bottom line is intolerance towards any other view but their own.

Adios

Search for Origins of Mahayana Buddhism Mahfari,
You are quoting alberuni as an objective historical source. Well, the guy critiqued indian mathematical contribution without knowing much about it in the first place. He thought of most of the mathematical constructs as useless as he could not understand it himself.
If a catholic considers the history maintained by the church as objective then I think we need a new definition of objective.
Please do not be offended, but it is clearly recorded by the Turk invaders that they destroyed the Nalanda university thinking it to be a temple (A later rationalization in my opinion). It was common culture in the middle eastern societies to destroy the places of worship of their enemies. So they were not doing anything unusual in India.
Somehow the eastern traditions are less hung over on the religious/spiritual practices of others. As an example when Cyrus the great invaded Jerusalem, he did not destroy any Jewish temple or obstruct the locals in their religious beliefs. Tolerance for others is actually presented as a vice in any Abrahamic faith.

As far as objectivity in history is concerned, I do not think that there is any nation and organized religion which has recorded its history objectively. It is a useless excercise to rationalize the existence of the statecraft.

You are right about the Brahminical discrimination towards the dalits. Which is why, from 47 onwards the laws have been formulated to wipe out such discrimination. It takes time to root out ingrained prejudices. But at least to begin with laws exist to counter that in India. The same shastras that you remember well have been forgotten by the upper castes in India and no one gives them any respect anymore. I think not taking any religious word literally for the word of God is essentiual for any such change.
This reminds me of the famous Buddha teaching that you should have talked about too apart from just statues in Pakistan,
"Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true."

Adios

Search for Origins of Mahayana Buddhism Mahfari # 20,

"Muslims were in Bamiyan in 7th century and reached upto the place called Bamiyan and it is also near Ghazni, the Empire of Mahmood Ghazanavi, so why they were not destroyed then by those but-shikans then?"

If it took your firendly neighbourhood ISI bomb experts more than two attempts to blow up the Bamiyan with the most modern explosives, what chances of sucess of destroying them existed in the hands of tech. challenged muslim medival hordes?

This article is a good attempt by a pakistani to start looking for a better understanding of his history. But anyone can see that all Pakistanis suffer from a complete lack of knowledge about anything nonislamic in their country's past.
An interesting and relevant issue for pakistanis with regards to Buddhism would be that Buddha's pictures and statues did not exist for atleast 4 centuries after his death. His message precluded people from worshipping him. Yet centuries later as is the human tendency, people erected statues and pictures to honor him and eventually worship him as a personal deity. Interestingly there is nothing in Buddhism that condemns these followers to hell or decapitation for such acts.

Adios

Bobby & Jerry : Rise of a Coloured ‘son’ Retold Mr. Patwardhan,

Your artcile makes no sense to the people on whom a basic irony is lost. That is, in a country like India, there are christian CM's being elected without having to renounce their religion or become hindu hardliners. But in the US without converting and becmoing a hardline conservative it would be impossible for a desi to be elected to such an office.
Imagine if a desi had to convert to islam to be elected to such an office in a muslim country. The same people on this board would be crying hoarse about islmaic fundamentalism and societal values.
But To figure out such a thing you need a spine. And Darwin would have been surprised (had he been alive) that we indians are evloving from vertebrates to invertebrates.
Adios

Periyar An Iconoclast and a Reformer In the past this author has tried to put up articles on dalit chirstian's rape from some propaganda site. Now he chooses Periyar's life and his anti-hindu rhetoric used by DMK to suggest equality comes only through these methods.
His attempts to belittle anything hindu are becoming desparate.
Atleast it gives some purpose to Mr. Dutta's life.

India\'s first Citizen Journalists Meet held in New Delhi Author,
Is it the same esteemed shantanu dutta who wrote a propaganda piece on the rape of a dalit christian at chowk? If so then your citizen journalists meet is quite lame and pathetic.

Dodging Pakistani Sleuths to Cover a War and a Coup Jawed,
If you notice, the 'tabloid' journalists in India actually project family members as viable successors. Any wonder then, they do not ask such questions. This is despite the recent elections in UP that cut to size the Gandhi family. At least the electorate in UP showed better judgment then the journalists who peddle nonsense.
Adios

A Pakistani-American in India Kabuliwallah,
Technically, wanting segregation on the basis of race/ethnicity is termed apartheid. In the case of Indian sub-continent something similar happened with the creation of Pakistan. Amrtya Sen mentions in his book "The argumentative Indian", that even the creation of Pakistan is nothing but the accomodating spirit of India to allow a contradicting ideology have a full say. But personally I think, those who wanted out of the inclusive model should just stay out and never have another say.
I have lost all sympathies for Bangladeshis and Pakistanis who once were just like us. They chose a destiny that has taken them excatly where they are today. For anyone to clamor from the other side that we should help them is completely bogus and nonsensical. Let them live out what they aspired for.
Adios