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

Daughters of Hajar Mr. Gill,
If she had done the same protest in an islamic country, a new revolution in your religion would have been ushered.

Last Gasp of the Imperial Misadventure Mr. Gill,

Iraq was in a mess even brfore the US entered there. Unfortunately it appears that it may well become a bigger problem for the US as well.
Extra troops are not going to do anything worth while. But the US is caught in an inextricable dilemma. One way or the other, the outcome does not appear to be positive. In my opinion Bush has given the lead of ascendancy to Iran in the middle eastern theatre. Iran becoming more powerful may or may not be a desirable outcome for stability in the middle east. As long as the baboons in saudi are in proper control of the US, hopefully things should remain in control.
But in all this drama, the biggest loosers are ordinary iraqis who are dying for no fault of theirs. One can argue of course that they are dying because of their own prejudices and schisms in the society. First it was under saddam and now under the US occupation. I don`t think it matters to a common man if death comes to him via an al qaeda nut job, saddam or a good intentioned US soldier.
Even if this is the last gasp of imperialsim from US, it surely wouldn`t be the last one in the wrold.
Adios

India’s Foreign Policy: An Analysis Probably the most renowned scholar in the area of cultural and civilizational studies of the entire world is Joseph Needham Campbell. He is the author of many books and his conversations with Bill Moyers on the mythologies of various cultures and civilizations are available online.
He refers to indian civilization - be it hindu, buddhist or jain as a continuum rather than as separate entitites. This mindless need to call indian civilization not as a single continuity in space-time is a mere justification for separatists` existence.

Untouchability and Sex Noe where is the author of this article? Does he care to respond to some valid questions raised by interactors here?

Do Pakistanis deserve a democratic system? Sadna,

Thanks for researching so painstakingly on the partition trauma of the subcontinent. Notes written by the people involved speak louder than ``authorities`` on an emotional subject.

Adios

Untouchability and Sex srk #45, vrv #54,

Thanks for informing about PV Narsimhan Rao`s acts of bhoo daan. I bet none of the dalitistan/christian websites ever mention such acts which goes against their agenda of painting the whole community black. I`m tired of such propoganda and meaningless trash published all over.

On the other hand, it again reinforces my observation that PVN was the best PM India had. I`d like to see an article on how he, a brahmin, promoted a dalit (Sitaram kesari) to the congress cheif position only to be stabbed in the back. For once he must have thought of ending the sycophant culture in congress. But then our friend kesari`s tail started to wag for the Gandhis again. Rest is history.

Adios

Untouchability and Sex Shantanu,
I lived in AP for 4 years during my undergrad. As AVK points out, Brahmin landlords are an oxymoron. This is a useless and unsubstantiated brahmin bashing. The only landlord communities that I know of in AP are : Kamma and Kaapu. Of them Kaapu`s (Reddy`s) are fast becoming Christians and are usually filthy rich people.
For most part Brahmins are being wrongly accused of casteism as the landlords who usually commit such crimes are Thakurs, Jaats and their equivalnets in all the states of India. Brahmins are merely the scapegoats on which everyone lays blame for all the ills of the society.
I fail to understand, if the story and you in turn are trying to imply that this happened due to her being dalit christian. If so what happened to the focus on law enforcement? I think the prejudices of people can only be controlled by efective enforcement of laws.

Incidentally, I wish all the dalits converting to christianity were to read the bible before doing so. At least they`ll convert knowing fully well that christianity is no solution either. For instance:

``When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her. And if the slave girl`s owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter. If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife. If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment. (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)

At least Mariya`s dad did not sell her for sex slavery, at worst he remained apathetic.

These trashy articles of dalit discrimination lay the blame on Brahmins w/o ever considering
that no city dwelling well off dalit will be treated like this. And this is only due to awareness of rights, literacy and enforcement of law. The christian missionaries are merely happy harvesting the souls (and once that is done, the convert realizes that the clutches of caste are still holding him). He`s had a double whammy, one due to casteism and the second due to christian missionaries.
Hopefully, complete literacy and awareness of fundamental rights can remove discrmination and exploitation of such nature. Otherwise such articles are just stereotyping the existing ignorant worldviews.
Adios