INDIA'S DAUGHTERS OR ENGLISH MEDIA DEVILS?

A WIDE CANVAS

INDIA'S DAUGHTERS OR ENGLISH MEDIA DEVILS?

The BBC film  'India's Daughter' on the Nirbhaya rape incident has become handy for our English language newspapers to have another go at Indians, Hindus who are called by all names including 'misogynist'. That the film was banned by the Govt. has added grist to their mill. Following the noise made in the media, a German female professor denied admission to two Indian students  in German institution.

The question of the ban is a matter I don't take up now. There are other aspects to deal with now. The media makes it appear as if India is a country of rapists. Rape is no doubt a horrible crime, but the cacophony raised by our newspapers is silly and motivated. First, some statistics.

By Wnavarre85 (own work) [CC BY SA-3.0 http::// Creative commons.org/ via Wikimedia Commons.

According to a report in the English newspaper   Guardian, appearing on 22 January 2015, England and Wales recorded a 31% increase in reported rape cases in 2014 over the previous year, to 24,043- the highest level in the last 10 years. Overall sexual offences increased by 22%, while there was a drop of 11%  in overall crime rates. A 2006-2007 crime survey in UK had found that 1 in 200 women suffered from rape during that period. According to www.rapecrisis.org.uk/Statistics2.php (accessed 17 March 2015 16.25 hrs), 85,000 rape cases are reported annually in England and Wales (as against 400,000 cases of sexual violence). I in 5 aged between 16 and 59 have experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of 16. There were 230 cases per day. In the US 1 in 6 women had experienced rape or attempted rape in a lifetime. In all countries many cases go unreported, either due to reluctance of the victims to report, or the police procedures. (Google and YouTube are full of information that the govt of England refuses or hesitates to share.)

In the UK there is another phenomenon. Young white school girls are systematically raped by Muslims, mainly immigrants. In one small town Rotherham (population 2,75,000) it was found that 1400 white school girls had been raped repeatedly by Muslim immigrants  from Pakistan between 1997 and 2007. This continued right up to 2013. But when a report was made to the Rotherham council in 2002, it was quashed by the authorities for political reasons and the author was sent for "diversity training"!

In 2002, Labour MP Ann Cryer complained to the police  about "young Asian lads" raping girls in her constituency. Of course, these were Pakistani lads, but her party had ruled that it should not be mentioned openly.  

In 2011, British Labour MP and former Home Secretary Jack Straw said that "there is a specific problem which involves Pakistani heritage men....who target vulnerable young white girls."

(See:www.nationalreview.com/article/387428/1400-english-girls-raped-multiculturalism-denis prager.
Accessed 17 March,2015 at 12.55 hrs)

Nothing came of such complaints. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. For, the UK govt is also following "political correctness", following the leftist-secular agenda of suppressing  crimes involving Muslims. Devil take the truth, while the govt will deliver political correctness!

Now the question to BBC is: with so much happening in your backyard, why are are you so eager to shoot a film about India? Do you have the courage to show what is happening on your soil, in your "beautiful" England? Are you "free" to deal with the matter, as you claim your freedom in regard to  covering what happened in India? Will  you mind your arse-hole first? 

No reasonable person will justify rape or other serious crime involving women or human beings generally. But the kind of motivated and lop-sided coverage given by our English language newspapers clearly shows that they have lost all sense of proportion and original thinking. As the German Ambassador noted, India did not keep quiet when the Nirbhaya incident happened; the whole country protested. As a matter of fact, the rape rate in Germany  (as in the other 'developed' countries- US, Canada, UK, Sweden, France )is much higher than in India. This is not a justification for what happens in India, but to show that it happens everywhere and we should not lose the sense of proportion.

Another word bandied about in this connection is that Indians are 'misogynist'. From where do our progressive professors get such ideas?  Individuals are found everywhere who may be misogynist- ie dislike women. But Hinduism as a whole never advocates hating women. If we tabulate what the major religions say on issues connected with women, it will be found that Hindu provisions are most liberal., and the Islamic provisions the most outrageous and backward. Manu no doubt says that women need protection; the progressive secular elements and women libbers shout against it. Yet how many of them can make a woman walk the streets of our cities alone at night- anywhere in the world ( except perhaps Ahmedabad in India)? In many areas of cities like Chicago and New York, they cannot walk alone, even during the day. In orthodox Hinduism, the man is not eligible to  perform any ritual without the participation of the woman- who is his Sahadharmini- partner in the dharma. The man is not even free to offer the fee to the priest without the  formal, ceremonial permission of the wife- which is a recognition of the fact that she is the master of the household income. Compare the provisions of other religions in these matters and you will know the truth.

It may be objected that these are ideals may be, but hardly ever observed in practice. Yes, it is true- we are not following many things. Do we follow our Constitution perfectly? Do all citizens of India know the National Anthem or the National Song? Do we all know how to honour the National Flag? But that is no reason to blame the Anthem or the song or the Flag. Our religion has the prescription in support of women; show similar prescriptions in the Abrahamic religions, which are male centred. 

Eve shown as riding the snake! Laach Abbey Church
By Dietrich Krieger (Own work) [GFDL (http:://www.gnu.org/copuleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 http:://Creative commons.org/licenses/sa/3.0] via Wikimedia commons."

It is they who are misogynic- Bible says woman is responsible for the temptation and fall of man!  In Islam, misogynistic tendencies are traced to the Quran- Sura 4, verse 34. Islam is on the whole male-centred.

It was Milton who had the courage to say that even when expelled from the Garden and thrust into the world 'our ling'ring parents' walked hand in hand:

In either hand the hast'ning angel caught
Our ling'ring parents and to the eastern gate
Led them direct and down the cliff as fast
To the subjected plain, then disappeared.
They, looking back, all th' eastern side beheld,
Of Paradise, so late their happy seat,
Waved over by that flaming brand. The gate
With dreadful faces thronged  and fiery arms.
Some natural tears they dropped but wiped them                                                                      soon.
The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide.
They hand in hand with wandering steps and slow
Through Eden took their solitary way.

(Paradise Lost, Book XII, 637-649)

Milton dictating Paradise Lost to his three daughters.
Eugene Delacroix. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.
Milton was a revolutionary, was against the Anglican Church. He was not buried in the poets corner of Westminster Abbey.
  


Unfortunately, neither our critics nor the women libbers themselves study these issues from the original sources. They are simply carried away by the winds of fashion blowing from the West, in the name of modernity. Arun Shourie pointed out this trend among our so called 'intellectuals':

Most of the intellectual work in India consists in writing footnotes to the work done in the West.....And when our intellectuals are not engaged in writing these footnotes, they are busy following the fashion of the day in Western circles, busy 'applying', as the phrase goes, to Indian material the notion or 'thesis' which has become fashionable in the West. In a word, our scholarly work is derivative.

(From:  The World of Fatwas, Introduction. HarperCollins Publishers India, 2012.)

DIPLOMATIC LEADERS AND DIFFERING DOCTRINES

A WIDE CANVAS

 DIPLOMATIC LEADERS  AND  DIFFERING DOCTRINES

We normally expect people in authority to speak the truth, and stick to facts, especially in serious matters. Opinions do differ- educated people hardly agree on anything these days. But they are not expected to whitewash facts. Yet this is what Obama's White House has done, not for the first time.

On 14 February 2015, the Islamic State beheaded 21 Coptic Christians of Egypt in Libya. The White House issued an official statement on 15 February. While it condemned the unrestrained barbarity, it did not reveal  the reason  given by the killers. - that the victims were Christians!   But there is nothing to be surprised about here: America and the entire West are multicultural societies and the leaders have to be diplomatic, whatever people may think.Truth is often the casualty of diplomacy.

Most of us Indians have been led to believe that all religions are true, that all religions are equal, that we reach the same goal in the end. They take the name of Sri Ramakrishna, Mahatma Gandhi etc in support. What they don't realise is that Saints like Sri Ramakrishna lived at a different level of consciousness. He felt gold and a clod of earth were the same. He saw divinity even in a prostitute.Unless we reach that level, there is no sense in our repeating what he said in these matters. While the ultimate goal may be the same, it is a matter of personal experience, not its verbal expression.

 Our Veda says that 'Truth is one, but sages call it by various names.' But other religions of the world do not accept that.The Abrahamic religions ( Judaism, Christianity and Islam) believe that there is only one God, which is their God, and that there is only one way to reach him, which is their way. This surely is not the Hindu view or way.

If we study the major religions of the world, we notice major differences in their approach.

 Christianity believes that man is born in sin. Their solution is 'Salvation', which is possible only through Christ. There is no scope for any argument. And they quote Christ as saying that he is the truth and he is the way. So, the people of the world have to be converted to the way of Christ. Which is what they have been doing for the last 2000 years.

Islam believes that man's problem is pride and the solution is submission. The very word Islam means submission to the will of God. But the will of God is what the Prophet Mohammad had revealed. Those who do not believe in their God and their prophet are infidels-kaffirs- and they have to be converted. This is official Islamic doctrine. And they have been enforcing this on other people for the last 1400 years.

Buddism believes that the major problem of mankind is suffering- dukhkha- and the solution is Awakening through right knowledge and right conduct. The Buddha is there to help people on the path- he has refused Nirvana till the last sentient being in the world gets it!

The Buddha departing from the palace, renouncing the life of luxury!
Gandhara art, 1-2nd Century. Guimet Museum
"The Great Departure" Licenced under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Judaism believes that they were the chosen people of God but they have been exiled. So they have to return to God. They are still awaiting their prophet to achieve this. Since they are alone the chosen people, they do not believe in admitting others into their charmed circle- they do not believe in conversion.

Jews praying in Synagogue on Yom Kippur
Maurycy Gottlieb. Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons.


Confucianism believes that the world is in a state of chaos. The solution is to restore social order.

Seated Confucius, from Japan.
By John Hill (Own Work)
[CC BY-SA 3.0 http::// Creative Commons  Wikimedia.

As against all this, Hinduism believes that man suffers from Ignorance- forgetfulness of his own real,divine nature. Right knowledge alone can remove this ignorance, as light alone can remove darkness. So we speak of Enlightenment- Liberation from ignorance and all associated problems. We say Ego is the problem leading to ignorance and ego has to be worked out through  right works, right consciousness , right inquiry and knowledge , or devotion  or any combination of any or all of these. God may be worshipped in any form, any name; we may believe any philosophy, any theology. What matters is removal of Ignorance-Ajnana. The greatest and most universal, non-denominational prayer of the Hindus- the Gayatri- just prayers for Enlightenment! No claptrap, no doctrine, no theology!

We can thus easily see that all religions are not equal in what they perceive as the human problem or what they prescribe for the solution. Ramakrishna used to say that we can enter a house either through the main door or through the rear door. 

We Hindus have no problem with any one following any path. We never preach to others or seek to convert any one. We sincerely respect all religions,and venerate all saints and sages. But the religious problem in the world was  first created by the Christians  and then by the Muslims. Today, the whole world is engulfed by this Christian -Islamic conflagration.

Christians started as a splinter group of Jews. For three hundred years, they operated mainly as small, secret groups. They claimed they were persecuted by the Romans but this is not true or is highly exaggerated. The Roman empire gave the fullest freedom to all religious groups, so long as the official Roman religion was not denigrated or dishonoured . The problem with Christianity was that they could not tolerate others, and would not coexist peacefully with others. But in the 4th century, Christianity was accepted and then they started persecuting others. They eliminated all the old religions, calling them Pagan. Then it became the State religion, enjoying enormous wealth and power. It was challenged later by the rising, militant Islam and the two have been uneasy with each other. In course of time, they splintered into different groups and they quarrelled among themselves, sometimes violently. For instancce, the Catholics of France massacred Waldensians, another sect of Christians, in 1545 and 1655, by simply pushing them off rocks. Milton wrote about it in his sonnet On the Massacre at Piedmont:

Avenge,O Lord......
Forget not: in thy book record their groans
Who were thy sheep and in their ancient fold Slain by the bloody Piedmontese that rolled
Mother with Infant down the Rocks.

And we have an old painting depicting this very scene:

Massacre of Waldensians at Merindol, 1545.
19th Century painting by Gustave Dore
Public Domain. Wikimedia commons.

If philosophers like Marx reacted angrily against organised religion, calling it the opium of the people, it is understandable in the light of such incidents. We in India who have never known such persecutions  on religious grounds, before the Muslim invasions, can hardly realise the tragedy of such violence within the same religion.


Note: 
The following books may be seen in this connection:
1. Candida Moss: The Myth of Persecution: HarperOne 2014.
2.James McDonald: Beyond Belief. Ithaca Press,2009.

Following Renaissance and Enlightenment, Humanism has replaced religion as the guiding principle of societies, and the Church has been separated from the State. Most Western govts designate themselves as 'secular' in the sense that they do not follow any authorised religion. People are free to follow any religion or no religion at all, so long as the civil laws are kept.

During the Enlightenment period, Christian dogma became thoroughly discredited in the eyes of educated people as its beliefs were disproved and discredited by science. This position continues even today. More and more educated people leave organised Christianity. They may believe in God or Some Ultimate principle, but not in organised church and its dogma. They call themselves 'spiritual  but not religious'. The number of people not owing allegiance to any religion is the third largest group in the world today- about 1.1 billion= 110 crores!- 16% of the world population.

Islam has so far resisted all attempts at modernisation.They are faithful to their Book. Almost all Muslim states are theocratic. Turkey under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk tried to modernise (ie Westernise and secularise) itself and he abolished the Caliphate.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk- president of Turkey: 1923-1938

Turkey has been a strategic point between Asia and Europe., having been part of Alexander's, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires. It was the seizure of Constantinople (modern Istanbul) by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 that led to the scramble among the European powers to find a sea route to India, eventually leading to the colonisation of America and India! 

A Greek painting showing the battle inside Constantinople.

Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons.

Turkey also harboured more than 10 races and big ethnic groups and many smaller ones from ancient times. But over the years, diversity has been reduced due to the exchange of population between Greece and Turkey and emigration of other ethnic groups. Turkey is surrounded by 8 countries! Between 1914 and 1927, non-Muslims declined from 19% to 2.5% of population and today, 99.8% of the population are Muslim! There is therefore tremendous pressure against secular claims.. On the one hand, Turkey is trying to get integrated into the European Union; on the other, it has to cater to its Muslim majority! This shows how difficult it is for a Muslim country to be 'secular'. The ban on the 'hijab' was removed between 2009 and 2014!

Hagia Sophia:  Christian Cathedral built by Roman Emperor Justinian in 537, it was converted into a Mosque in 1453, and today it is a Museum.
By Dennis Jarvis from Halifax, Canada (Turkey 3019-Hagia Sophia uploaded by russavia CCBy-SA 2.0 Creative Commons.via Wikimedia Commons.

Islam enforces uniform Arabisation on all followers.. But the Middle East, like the Balkans, is home to numerous ethnic, religious and cultural groups all of which are not absorbed comfortably by the ethnic or religious majority. This is the reason behind the present violent conflicts in the Muslim countries and ethnic minorities are emigrating across borders. We thus see the wisdom in the observation of Toynbee that more than national boundaries, it is ethnic-cultural-religious factors which are potential forces in civilisations. Political borders may change, but the cultural compact does not disappear except under genocide. The European powers always sided with the majority and let the minorities suffer.

Female Hijab in Islam. We cannot deny that it adds a certain dignity to women. Whether modern women themselves view it like that is a different matter.

It is here that India stands out: it has never interfered with or curtailed or erased the identity of any group in any manner. As Vivekananda pointed out, we can see everything from the grossest fetishism to the loftiest Vedanta in this land, all existing side by side!.

Balkans - another area of ethnic-religious conflict

Even in Europe, where the Christian Church extinguished  all old religions, they are making a come back- even in the very name of Paganism which has many modern adherents!

A modern Pagan beating a drum during a ceremony in England.

From: www.bpnews. Thanks.

God has not abandoned any people anywhere on earth. The whole earth is a great garden with infinite array of flowers and plants. Why should any one seek to make it a farm of monoculture- or land of one religion?  Even Christ reportedly said that " In my Father's house are many mansions". (John 14.2) Non-Christians and some Christians take it to imply the presence of many religions, most Christians do not accept that interpretation!

NOTE:

It cannot be stressed too strongly or too often that Hindus have no problem with any religion. In their long history, they have welcomed and given shelter to people of all religions. Their scriptures do not ask them to hate or convert others. They have never fought to force their religion on others. The problem of  conversion is due to the Abrahamic. Those who claim a right to convert, cannot deny the right of resistance to the targeted group!