Dr. Ronaldo Ferrario of Brazil, Anyone can!

Submitted by Rakshas 10 Anan (India), Aug 23, 2006 at 07:54

Everything that you have mentioned is a part of India's history, and all shades of opinion on it are a matter of open public debate in India, historically. But with the permission of Dr. Pipes, I can provide brief answers here, although I'm surprised that you should raise these questions in this forum.

India is an old civilisational melting pot, very open to intellectual debate, with a strong ancient tradition of pursuit of knowledge over a wide range of subjects, sensitively accomodative to diverse perspectives, and fundamentally based on a universal humanitarian approach, as seen in one of the earliest Vedic injunctions of Vasudhaiva kutumbakam, i.e. the whole world is a family! There have been serious aberrations, even a degeneration of high Vedic thought, but being an open and compassionate society, throughout its history there were challenges to established thought and cultural practices that were accepted as a part and parcel of its civilisation, and not as alien streams of thought! The reform movements did not meet the same degree of challenge (including terror and threat of physical annihilation) as was witnessed in comparative theological systems elsewhere in the world!

Now to answer your specific questions:

1. Mahatma Gandhi was killed by a Hindu Brahmin intellectual, Nathuram Godse, who opposed his singular appeasement policy towards Pakistan even after vicious Hindu killings in East and West Pakistan, after partition of India by the British, just before they finally quit India! Majority of the Muslims stayed behind in India, and their person and properties were safe, so that India in effect became a nation of the second largest Muslim population in the world, after Indonesia! Godse did not resist arrest on the spot. This was followed by widespread arson of Brahmin homes in India, especially in the western region that he hailed from, although there were no retaliatory killings! He defended himself at the trial, giving a clear rational for his unjustifiable violent act in a fair trial in free and independent India, and was soon hanged according to the prevalent law. Mahatma Gandhi continues to be revered in India as Father of the Nation, although his legacy of Truth and Non-violence has been severely challenged in recent times of globalisation of the drugs, crime, automatic weapons and bombs culture. India continues to remain a free and open country in essence.
2. Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were both victims of terror, and India did not eschew the process of open inquiry and free trial in case of both the assassinations, which were a part of the deadly geopolitical games in the neighbourhood! What must be mentioned is that although Indira Gandhi displayed dictatorial tendencies especially during the two year emergency rule, she was voted out of office in democratic tradition, and similarly, voted back into power later on. There were unforgivable murders of Sikhs in rioting organised by her Congress Party in Delhi and a few norther pockets, but the rule of law reasserted itself. While the Sikh terrorists were sponsored by Pakistani ISI, peace was established through wholly indigenous efforts, and it is interesting that today Sikhs are heading the Congress Party (coalition) governments in both the Centre and the State of Punjab. There were no riots after the Rajiv Gandhi assassination, although the nation unanimously cut off all negotiation or support for the Tamil separatist movement in Sri Lanka. This policy continues despite serious overtures from both the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil separatists to intervene in the on-going crisis. One group then in support of Rajiv Gandhi's killers was until recently a part of the coalition government led by Sonia Gandhi. The Tamils in Sri Lanka are descendents of the poor indentured labourers (slaves) transported by the British colonial government to work on the tea plantations in Sri Lanka. The war between Buddhists, Muslims and Hindu Tamils in Sri Lanka has not affected the cordial give-and-take between Buddhists and Indians in India. An interesting fact in the struggle is that the Israeli military was at one time simultaneously engaged in training both the Sri Lankan army personnel and LTTE cadres in its camps in Israel! The Dalai Lama of Tibet openly acknowledges the hospitality of India towards the Tibetan Buddhist diaspora despite severe provocation from China, including a difficult war in 1962. China has also made overtures to the Indian government to hand over the holiest of Hindu pilgrim sites in the Kailas-Mansarovar region of Tibet to Indian sovereign control, in exchange for India's repudiation of the Dalai Lama. Any such move will be strongly opposed by majority Indian population! As a result, China is in close alliance with Pakistan in a plot to dismember India at its extremities through subversive armed struggles under the Maoist baton, in the northeastern Christian areas sharing common borders with China! This is what is the problem in the areas mentioned by you, but it will be resolved within the framework of the Indian Constitution, and not under the Pakistani jihadi braggadacio of 'bleeding India through a thousand cuts', which is its sole reason for existence! Many of these problems, like what the western world is now facing, will not go away until the threat of total Islamisation of India is destroyed and the scourge of jihad annihilated from the face of the earth! Ditto, Maoist adventurism.
3. Indian civilisation is Arya-Sanskrit-Vedic-Sanatan civilisation, indigenous to its core -- Neigbour's Envy, Owner's Pride! Secure and safe in its living oral traditions to this day. Its openness and free and vibrant intellectual core is the reason for its continuing cultural traditions that have survived thousands of years to this day. This is what makes Kashi-Varanasi a magnet for the whole world today. This rich and contemplative tradition has even stood up to the challenges of modern science, for e.g. ayurveda and yoga. Yoga continues to be taught to the Israeli mililary recruits for over 4 decades now! When the British colonists came to India, they couldn't believe the richness of the intellectual tradition of India that they witnessed, esp. Sanskrit, and out of missionary compulsions, tried to fit Indian civilisation somewhere in the timeline of the Biblical theory. India finds it difficult to completely discard the stranglehold of the Western and also Marxist academicians on its history (translated in English and German in the main), while the continuing Sanskrit Indian traditions give the lie to the theory of Aryan Invasion. There is nothing comparable of an alien Aryan civilisation in the Caucasus, Russia, Germany or anywhere else on earth! The proof of the pudding is in the eating, as it is eaten on a daily basis in India and India alone!!! Yet today, to do a PhD in Sanskrit at any university in India, it becomes necessary to visit Heidelburg, Berlin, Moscow , London, or Oxford to source the original texts hijacked from India during long colonial rule. As for the other groups of invaders, jihadi or Christian, India was the fabled land of riches, the quest for which led to the 'discovery of America' by the later Europeans! At the end of all the concerted greedy invasions that fuelled all the claims of modern cultural and scientific renaissance in their original impoverished desert or plague-ridden terrains, India was completely dismembered and impoverished at the time of independence in 1947! It is thanks to its inner vibrant tradition of fairness, intellectual pursuits, and vigrous debate and reform, that India has risen from the ashes of slander and calumny, to its rightful place among the leading nations! Unfortunately, the jihadi-leftist axis will continue to sap its resources at every turn in the immediate times.
4. India sent thousands of troops to fight the British Wars, and higly decorated veterans of both the World Wars, esp. WWII in its desert theatre opposing Rommel, are still found in homes in its remote villages. India supported the Khilafat movement under Gandhi's influence, opposed Israel for many decades in continuation of that policy. Today majority educated Indians support Israel in its battle for survival, and in appreciation of Israeli support to India, so that developing this alliance is asserted to be a matter of our national interest in open debates, despite the long tradition of muslim appeasement, which always serves to undermine the unity and integrity of India!
5. As for the temple and mosque controversies, India has been most generous to the opium-addled bloodthirsty marauders of Islamic jihad, who wave upon wave invaded, looted, pillaged and raped across the western borders of India, that one time stretched all the way into Afghanistan! The great temples, repositories of art and culture, its libraries were burnt down repeatedly, its women raped and vast numbers of slaves captured as war booty. Chinese travellers have described the great centres of learning of India, including Nalanda and Takshashila, where even Jesus is said to have visited, and there are old icons of Jesus meditating in the manner of yogis! Islamic invaders wiped out the defenceless Buddhist monks and their monasteries, while the Hindus gave stiff resistance. Thus finally, more than 30,000 temples across the length and breadth of India were destroyed by the jihadis, and many had makeshift mosques constructed over the ancient powerspots. It is a tribute to the misplaced Hindu tolerance that all these jihadi monuments have been protected at the cost of Hindu pride! It was the practice of the barbarians to construct huge pyramids of skulls of those killed after the invasions. They would destroy fantastic architectural feats witnessed in the Hindu temple constructions, turn them into mosques, and bury the sacred idols in the steps leading to the mosques! Every Moghul ruler had to satisfy the jihadi mullahs from their homelands by laying claim to the title of ghazi -- kaffir killer -- by personally savaging a captured Hindu in his Court! These were the rulers who Indians were taught to respect for their great civilising efforts by a cruel twist of colonial and Marxist history writers! This is also the origin of worldwide jihad in the current times, the heritage of briliant Vedic genes married by force to Islamic jihad and all its corrupting influence, which is what Pakistan represents in the world today!
6. Buddha was a Hindu Prince who set out to investigate the source of human misery as a poor monk with the begging bowl in his hands. His was a reform movement based on the earlier Jain tradition of yoga and ahimsa, taught to him by his first preceptor who was a Jain ascetic. They were both a part of the strong Vedic tradition of free inquiry! So also Sikhism, which was later converted as the fighting arm of India against the jihadi invaders. All three of these peaceful movements drew adherants from among the Indians (Hindus), who never saw themselves as rebels or revolutionaries out to destroy the very hand that fed them! They have considerably enriched Indian traditions in turns, especially in preserving, nurturing and returning to modern India unknown facets of its hidden Vedic heritage! India survived the worst of onslaught of focused jihad over so many centuries, because from its very roots there sprang up time and time again wise gurus and kings, like Shivaji, Chhatrasal Bundela and Gobind Singh, who united men and fought hard to defeat the jihadis encircling them, to show that the Spirit of ancient India thrived and was on the winning side! Finally, Queen Victoria's emissaries took over the reign of India not from the Moghuls, but from hundreds of independent kings and rulers who had carved out their own embattlements to defeat the jihadi monster in their midst! This is a fact of recorded history so deviously misrepresented by Marxist historians hand-in-glove with the jihadis in modern India!
7. The caste system was also a unique creation of India in peaceful times, that was open -- each according to his ability -- and not at all like the projected monstrosity after all the subversion and destruction of indigenous institutions that colonial rule represented in essence. The jihadis especially have limited understanding of how freedom and openness to change and periodic reform contributes to real wealth and culture in a society, which in India's case, was the reason for its misery and destruction over the centuries! If Indian today seems chaotic, that is the direct result of its legacy of barbaric invasions and colonisation. Its very vibrancy will ensure that this phase shall also pass into history very soon.
8. So, the thousand cuts are in fact like innoculation to ensure that India will meet the challenge with strength, good health, courage and firm resolve as a united modern nation, in the face of viciousness of the attacks and propaganda by its enemies. Unlike the western world, we are used to deprivation, even poverty, and genuine compassion-based self-sacrifice. How can the jihadis ever win against India?
9. As for Taj Mahal, if the jihadis want to destroy it, they will, like they did the Bamiyan Buddhas. But the latter were in Taliban country, and the Taj Mahal is in the heart of India. What will happen to the jihadi conglomerate thereafter in anybody's guess!

I hope this hurried and relatively superficial response to your well-intended queries on this forum provided most generously by Dr. Daniel Pipes will whet your apetite further to undertake much historical research on the subject of your interest in future. You are most welcome to bring your students over for the purpose of this study. And please pardon my unedited quick, yet detailed response for whatever typos that may have inadvertently remained therein.

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