Cultural Protectionism - Global & Indian Trends

[vishvak]

'Private funeral' held for Steve Jobs as Apple says no public service is planned... and church group threatens picket

Tweet here:
He had a huge platform; gave God no glory & taught sin.
Hardly a connection between going to heaven and picketing Steve Job's funeral!

[RajeshA]

Originally posted by svenkat

Published on Oct 28, 2011
By Dean Nelson
The Indian preacher and the fake orphan scandal: The Telegraph

Parents paid a child-trafficker more than £100 to take their daughters to good schools in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, but instead they were taken more than 1,200 miles to Tamil Nadu, southern India.

At the Michael Job Centre, a Christian orphanage and school in Coimbatore, they were converted to Christianity, given western names and told that its charismatic founder, Dr PP Job, was now their father.

On websites, the children were given serial numbers and profiles. The charity claimed they had been either abandoned by their parents who did not want the financial burden of raising girls, or orphaned after their "Christian" parents were murdered by Nepal's Maoist insurgents.

The profiles were used to attract financial sponsors from around the world.

Many of the donors were in the United States, Holland and Britain, where Dr Jobs's sister organisation, Love in Action, is run from St Mary's C of E Church in Stoke-sub-Hamdon, Somerset.

[RajeshA]

Originally posted by Manny

Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines
Authors: Rajiv Malhotra, Arvindan Neelakandan



(i) Islamic radicalism linked with Pakistan (ii) Maoists and Marxist radicals supported by China via intermediaries such as Nepal (iii) Dravidian and Dalit identity separatism being fostered by the West in the name of human rights. This book focuses on the third: the role of U.S. and European churches, academics, think-tanks, foundations, government and human rights groups in fostering separation of the identities of Dravidian and Dalit communities from the rest of India. The book is the result of five years of research, and uses information obtained in the West about foreign funding of these Indian-based activities. The research tracked the money trails that start out claiming to be for education,A" "human rights," empowerment training,A" and leadership training,A" but end up in programs designed to produce angry youths who feel disenfranchised from Indian identity. The book reveals how outdated racial theories continue to provide academic frameworks and fuel the rhetoric that can trigger civil wars and genocides in developing countries. The Dravidian movement's 200-year history has such origins. Its latest manifestation is the "Dravidian Christianity" movement that fabricates a political and cultural history to exploit old faultlines. The book explicitly names individuals and institutions, including prominent Western ones and their Indian affiliates. Its goal is to spark an honest debate on the extent to which human rights and other empowerment projects are cover-ups for these nefarious activities.

[vishvak]

plan to Build Church on Hindu Trust Land foiled
Some details.

[Prem]

Rule of Lord

( Buttttt India must be secular)

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_ ... lity_.html
Is the United States sliding toward theocracy? That’s what Republican presidential candidates have told us for more than a year. Radical Islam, they’ve argued, is on the verge of taking over our country through Sharia law. But this weekend, at an Iowa forum sparsely covered by the press, the candidates made clear that they don’t mind theocracy—in fact, they’d like to impose it—as long as it’s Christian.You can find video of Saturday’s “Thanksgiving Family Forum” on the Web sites of two organizations that sponsored it: CitizenLink and the Family Leader. Here are highlights of the candidates’ remarks.

1. Religious Americans must fight back against nonbelievers. To quote Herman Cain:

What we are seeing is a wider gap between people of faith and people of nonfaith. … Those of us that are people of faith and strong faith have allowed the nonfaith element to intimidate us into not fighting back. I believe we’ve been too passive. We have maybe pushed back, but as people of faith, we have not fought back.

Rick Perry warned:

And the question is: Whose values? And let me tell you, it needs to be our values—values and virtues that this country was based upon in Judeo-Christian founding fathers.

.

Our laws and our national identity are Judeo-Christian. Michele Bachmann explained:
American exceptionalism is grounded on the Judeo-Christian ethic, which is really based upon the 10 Commandments

.

No religion but Christianity will suffice. Perry declared, “In every person’s heart, in every person’s soul, there is a hole that can only be filled by the Lord Jesus Christ.”
5. God created our government. Bachmann told the audience

.

Anything that’s immoral by religious standards should be outlawed. Santorum again:

.

The federal government should impose this morality on the states. Santorum once more:
The idea that the only things that the states are prevented from doing are only things specifically established in the Constitution is wrong. Our country is based on a moral enterprise.

12. Freedom means obeying morality. Santorum concluded, “Our founders understood liberty is not what you want to do, but what you ought to do. That’s what liberty really is about.”

[Prem]

Good folks who think these "candy-dates" are out of sync need to make few rounds of countryside, rural America. Can a Hindu or Sikh politician in india dare to speak like these contenstants ? Dies will Die Discovering the deficencies in the fluid dynamics during getting chocked by their own thick vomit.

[vishvak]

Good folks who think these "candy-dates" are out of sync need to make few rounds of countryside, rural America. Can a Hindu or Sikh politician in india dare to speak like these contenstants ? Dies will Die Discovering the deficencies in the fluid dynamics during getting chocked by their own thick vomit.

The human rights organizations, == fakers and the people of whole edifice of pseudo secularism who talk about Saffron terror all the while and ignore these rants are bigoted who have created falsehood around human rights. The human rights are declared Universal but do you see these applied Universally in here?

Why should Hindu minority in America have to hear all such news from these extremely right wing people? Where is UN and the real Human Rights agencies?

The global village is extremely unbalanced against Hindus.

[vishvak]

link
What's being 'foreign' got to do with healthcare, Mr Cain?

The American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin -- arguably the largest and most influential international medical organisation in the country -- has slammed African American Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain's bigoted remarks about minority physicians.

See how deep the rot is against Indians in USA, in particular Hindus.

he would not see a physician whose name sounded "too foreign" or practiced a different religion

Where are the human rights activists? Why is the minority mistreated this way?

[Prem]

http://godlessandblack.blogspot.com/201 ... sited.html
The Big White Rabbit Revisited

You choose your religion. You don't choose your race, sex, or sexual preference. Those type of prejudices should be frowned upon and those classes protected. Idiotic beliefs and ideologies should not. Ridiculing religion should be considered a virtue. Let's look at it this way...Imagine that there was a presidential candidate who claimed to see, speak to, and derive his moral beliefs from a big, white, talking, rabbit that grants wishes. Would you vote for them? Would you feel that this would be a good enough reason not to? Imagine what you would think if a candidate for the most powerful position on the planet were to begin his speech, "I would like to first thank the big, white, talking, rabbit, without whom, none of this would be possible." What would you think? Would you be ready to hand over the keys to the kingdom to such a lunatic? Would you see nothing wrong with making this whackjob the head of the most powerful military force on the planet?We ought to question our religious leader's beliefs, particularly when those beliefs are nonsensical, racist, homophobic, sexist, classist, or simply illogical. The inability to think logically in regards to existential issues could very well be indicative of a larger problem. The guy who can't see that there's no magic in them thar undies, may not be capable of recognizing other obvious truths, like the fact that "trickle-down economics" has never helped the middle class. The guy who is incapable of thinking beyond the outdated, barbarous morality of the bible, is probably not the guy who should be electing judges to the Supreme Court.The idea that religious beliefs should be above scrutiny and their adherents beyond question is a bizarre one. These are the beliefs that guide their actions, shape their opinions and their world view. For our worlds leaders, these are the beliefs upon which public policy will be based and laws and constitutional amendments will be drafted. I want to know if a guy's religion once considered women as cattle and black people as evil (and yes, I'm talking about Mormonism.) Of all the beliefs and ideas a candidate holds, their religious beliefs should be the ones most heavily scrutinized.

[SwamyG]

Vishvak: I thought he made a comment regarding the Muslim sounding name of 'Abdallah'. Did he say anything specific against Indians or Hindus? If so, can you share that here? Thanks.

[vishvak]

Vishvak: I thought he made a comment regarding the Muslim sounding name of 'Abdallah'. Did he say anything specific against Indians or Hindus? If so, can you share that here? Thanks.

Yes I understand, though his utterances are about 'minority vs majority' in nature which is crass anti minority.

If I am incorrect, please delete that and this post as well.

[SwamyG]

No, no don't get me wrong. I was seeking information on something he possibly could have said on Hindus (in particular). My intention was, if he done that, then to pass that to someone I know outside BRF.

[RajeshA]

Dalit theology and Dalit liberation: problems, paradigms and possibilities
By Peniel Rajkumar

In fulfilling the long-awaited need for a constructive and critical rethinking of Dalit theology this book offers and explores the synoptic healing stories as a relevant biblical paradigm for Dalit theology in order to help redress the lacuna between Dalit theology and the social practice of the Indian Church. Peniel Rajkumar's starting point is that the growing influence of Dalit theology in academic circles is incompatible with the praxis of the Indian Church which continues to be passive in its attitude towards the oppression of the Dalits both within and outside the Church. The theological reasons for this lacuna between Dalit theology and the Church's praxis, Rajkumar suggests, lie in the content of Dalit theology, especially the biblical paradigms explored, which do not offer adequate scope for engagement in praxis.

Peniel Rajkumar is an ordained minister of the Church of South India, Diocese of Vellore. He is a lecturer in Christian Social Ethics at the United Theological College, Bangalore, India. Prior to coming to India he served as an Assistant Curate at St.John the Evangelist Church, Upper Holloway in the Diocese of London and was involved in part-time lecturing at the University of Kent at Canterbury.

The Church has now made Conversion into a Science, fit for the assembly-line!

[RamaY]

^ they are making "Dalit" as a separate non-hindu identity. In no time it will be a version of Indian Christian identity.

Like some posters salivated, they hope to grab 60% Hindu population.

Soon we will see two chrisitan groups in india. Christianity for non-Dalit Hindus and Dalit-Christianity for Dalits.

[RajeshA]

RamaY ji,

Hindu Religious Organizations need to be a lot more vocal about this casteism nonsense and about the non-discriminatory nature of Dharma today!

But often the Hindu Religious Organizations feel they have all the time in the world, that the problem would go away by its own, that the problem has decreased substantially and so it needs no more highlighting, that it is better not to talk about it, etc, and that the "Dalits" would remain in the Hindu fold automatically and forever. They still have not understood that they would have to fight for the faith of the last man! Dharmic Proselytization is not just to win over those who have converted out but also to keep those who are still in the fold! It seems the Hindu Religious Organizations are still asleep and have not learned the abc of modern marketing!

[vishvak]

More barbarism in Afrika:

link

A story of an estimated 15,000 children in Africa’s Niger Delta being denounced by Christian pastors as witches and wizards and then killed, tortured or abandoned by their own families.

Youtube link of the same: link

[RajeshA]

Rajiv Malhotra has a GoogleGroup and there was a discussion thread on 'Sita Sings the Blues' Animation Film by an American woman Nina Paley. I am reproducing my comment in the group.

----------------------



In February, 2008, 'Sita sings the Blues' was shown in the Berlinale. I was in Berlin at the time so I went to see it with my wife.

As entertainment it was amusing, especially for Western audiences. However I was incensed. So at the end of the screening, I got up and told Nina Paley and her Indian friends standing on the dais, that she was very insensitive to the feelings of the Hindus. I said it was an Indian cultural affair, and being an outsider she was incompetent to pass judgements on it and she dealt with the holy epic in a very irreverent fashion.

Her response was that Ramayana is also present in Indonesia, Nepal, etc.

If one has to criticize her, then one needs to first devise the right responses. Here are my efforts:

1) The Hindu Continuum is open for self-criticism. Nobody in Hinduism is objecting to any Hindu questioning or criticizing anything. So it is not criticism of our tenets that bothers us per se.

2) Sure outsiders can do scholarly analysis of Hinduism and that too is okay. Many would be doing so for academic reasons to get a better understanding of the Hindu Continuum, but several would do this for political reasons. In any case there will be debates on it, but the Outsiders need not fear that they will lose their lives due to it.

3) There where the Hindu Continuum comes into contact with the outside world and the Hindus impinge into the world of others who live differently and have different beliefs, there too the Outsiders have a right to comment about this meeting of the worlds, be it positive or be it negative.

Negative reporting, one could think of say if Hindus were big proselytizers of the world, or we were going around blowing up other people for our beliefs or due to what our scriptures ordain us, so the question arises that if we believe in the 'live and let live' motto, should others start going on some media campaign against us. But even if they do, nobody is going to question their right, only their sanity and their agenda. Still one would hope that this is limited to whatever is annoying the other person.

4) Now as far as Nina Paley is concerned, what is the basis of her commentary on the Ramayana.
a) It is not a scholarly thesis.
b) It is not some commentary on Hindu society bothering her, and even if it were, she can hardly make the case that that has to do with Ramayana!

5) Hindu scriptures are the PROPERTY of the HINDU CONTINUUM. They are open for scholarly analysis and even commentary otherwise should they in some way impinge on the lives of the OUTSIDERS as long as the commentary is limited to the part that impinges. Any ART or MERCHANDIZE which is based on Hindu Scriptures should not earn the DISAPPROVAL of the Hindu Society.

Basically it is a LIMITED OPEN SOURCE LICENCE where OUTSIDERS are required to take back any ART or MERCHANDISE based on SYMBOLS of HINDU MYTHOLOGY which VIOLATE the SENSITIVITIES of the HINDU SOCIETY UNLESS the OUTSIDER can PROVE that the SUBJECT of the ART & MERCHANDISE has done the OUTSIDER some HARM. ALL NON-FICTION COMMENTARY is PERMITTED for OUTSIDERS if it is for SCHOLARLY ANALYSIS. POLITICAL AGENDA-based commentary would be challenged.

Nina Paley is using Hindu-based Art to promote herself as well as commercially. According to the "Licence" above she is allowed to unless it earns the disapproval of the Hindu Society. If Nina Paley was not an Outsider, but rather a Hindu, she probably would have been allowed by the Hindus to make 'Sita Sings the Blues'!

But Nina Paley is an Outsider and as an Outsider she should not be allowed to get rich and famous by dissing something that is dear and revered by so many Hindus.

[RajeshA]

Rajiv Malhotra Discusses his Book Being Different @IIT Madras

[Klaus]

Rights activists express outrage over 'human zoo' in the A&N islands.

British newspaper The Observer released the video showing Jarawa tribal women...

Survival International, which lobbies on behalf of tribal groups worldwide, said the video showed tourists apparently enjoying "human zoos".
In June last year, Survival International accused eight Indian travel companies of running "human safari tours" so tourists could see and photograph the Jarawa.

The London-based lobby group called for tourists to boycott the road used to enter the reserve of the Jarawa tribe, who number just 403 and are in danger of dying out.

The Andaman police downplayed the video, calling it "old" and blamed the British journalist for forcing the Jarawas to dance for the tourists.

"It is obvious that it is the videographer who is breaking the law of the land and who is inciting the tribals to dance," senior Andaman policeman S.B. Deol said in a statement.

The video can be viewed at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2 ... uman-safar i-video

The story has been presented both from the perspective of the local police and the British lobby group. The incident needs to be investigated for psy-ops intent too as there are two Brit media outlets and a lobby group behind this release.

[vishvak]

link
About Surya Namaskar event in MP:

Meanwhile, the Isai Mahasangh (IMS), that had been opposing the event stated that it would approached the Guinness World Records authorities asking them not to include the event, as it promotes communal discord in a multi-religious society.

Would Guinness World Records authorities even hear what followers of an religion with exclusive outlook about a multi-religious society?

[RajeshA]

I think in the coming years one would be seeing a lot of controversy of ban on cow slaughter in many states. An argument is being advanced that cow eating was allowed in the Vedas.

I see acute danger in this issue. The problem is that Western scholars and philosophers have taken it upon themselves to translate Vedic Sanskrit and to offer their own analysis of Vedic society. Since the normal people cannot understand Sanskrit, they would accept the interpretations and analysis from whatever quarter which can offer them that in an ostensibly "unbiased" manner, through channels of information they usually access - school education, media, both of which are under the control of "secular" brigade.

Let's suppose these Western Vedic scholars can get the message through that during Vedic times, people indeed use to slaughter and eat cows. Lets say some Hindus of the secular variety decide that they want to live according to those Vedic times and want to eat beef, that they should have the right to eat beef as it was allowed in the Vedic times. It can very well turn into a controversy.

Sometime it suffices that a party can make an issue controversial, for an ostensibly neutral Government to declare that there are two views to the issue, and each side should be allowed to live as they please.

There would be many vote banks riding on this issue. The Muslims would of course want the ban on cow slaughter to go. "Secular" parties can claim that the ban is not defensible as in Vedic times too cows were slaughtered and refer to the arguments given by many Western scholars and their Indian academic chamchas with various awards from the West under their arm.

There are many people writing on this issue already:

Code: Select all

http://beef.sabhlokcity.com/

Who says Hindus were cow eaters?

The Hindu organizations should never allow themselves to lose their monopoly over the interpretation of Sanskrit texts. They need to defend that monopoly in a systematic way. Secondly it is important that Sanskrit again be introduced to the public in a big way, so that the people can themselves see the Western propaganda to be false.

[shiv]

Please can someone explain the rationale here. But beware - my mind is bristling pisko thoughts - not all being generous towards India.

Below is a cross post from another thread. Check the video out - 60 seconds.

• Fact: Ukrainian women are emancipated enough in their own country to be able to expose their breasts and still not be raped or called
  prostitutes.
• Fact: Women who are "bold" enough to do this would be welcomed by the wealthy Indian male who protests if his mum or sister wants to do it. Indian attitudes to mum and sister are like Islamic attitudes to Muslim women.
• Fact: Women who might genuinely visit India and get a wealthy Indian boyfriend will be called prostitutes, but perhaps not without justification because there are Indian men on the lookout for such women whom they can "use"
• Fact: Indian men pretend that they don't like women to expose breasts or even that they slobber over women because mummy won't like it and family honor will be sullied if they do this openly

Exactly what culture is being protected by the confused government of India by doing special checks on Ukrainian women of an age that is recognised as being suitable for sexual activity?

Is this actually a Freudian Indian slip where India admits that we slobber over sexy bold while women but want to gratuitously pretend that we are strict about these things - which we are not? It's a complete and utter fraud. But we Indians are all hypocrites when it comes to sexuality.

This is laughable IMO.

Remember how we desis felt when Britainistan started doing what appeared to be "virginity tests" on Indian women?

There was a topless protests by a few women outside indian mssion in Ukraine the other day because MEA tightened visas for women in 15-40 age group becuse of the number of prostitutes coming to India. Now we want to give them VoA

Yep. Here is the video of that. Mods, please delete it it violates forum rules.

[RajeshA]

shiv saar,

in India, prostitution is legal though not brothels, prostitution rings or pimping. Prostitutes also cannot publicly solicit or 'seduce' customers.

So when Ukrainian women are protesting that they are not prostitutes and should not be considered by the Indian Embassy as such, Indians can retort that we don't find prostitution objectionable. Even if they were prostitutes, Indian law would not have a lower opinion of them. It is their own insecurity and their international image that is bothering them, for which India cannot do anything. India does not want to offend Ukrainian women but India still needs to go by the world statistics, especially European statistics where there is a large percentage of prostitutes from ex-Soviet Republics.

Our problem is not with the prostitution as a profession, but whether women from ex-Soviet Republics would indulge in prostitution in India without a work permit. Anyway so much for an official Indian position.

If however India wants to allow international prostitutes to work in India, it should be only under work permit. Secondly they should get such a permit only after HIV and other tests. Thirdly India should tax them. If fact India should allow so many of them into India that it does not remain a novelty. As such the prices would fall. More market competition is always good for customers. Now of course the local prostitutes would find that foreigners are taking away their jobs. Taxing the foreigners could generate some revenues to improve the living and working conditions of the local prostitutes.

Perhaps I am leaning a bit too much out of the window with such opinions.

[shiv]

Perhaps I am leaning a bit too much out of the window with such opinions.

Probably

If however India wants to allow international prostitutes to work in India, it should be only under work permit.

Imagine a woman who writes, under the column "Purpose of visit to India" the words "To be a Prostitute".

However she could write "To visit the Taj Mahal" and then fall in love with the romance of India and have a series of lovers who gift her with many things. This in fact is probably what is actually happening.

But exactly what is India afraid of here? Flight of capital? Loss of work for Indian prostitutes? Innocent Indian boys being "led astray" by wicked white women?

There is the more sinister "explanation" that the ISI would hire Ukrainian women to work for them and get into the beds of Indian men in high up places. But that brings me full circle. Indian men are tempted by white women no? At least if you allow prostitutes in legally you can keep a tab. Check their background etc. If they put up a pretence like they are doing now - the women will come in anyway using some excuse

[ManuT]

Why can't the book ban on Satanic Verses by Rush-Die (as he was referred to when Iranian fatwa was issued by Khomeni) be lifted, in this day and age?

Any tweets from A Roy or Diggy on the matter?

[chackojoseph]

US Mormon Church baptises Mahatma Gandhi by proxy?

[vishvak]

US Mormon Church baptises Mahatma Gandhi by proxy?

Hindus should convert him back to Hinduism, post-mortem onlee. And then more.

[Virupaksha]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtra ... daism.html

Something on these lines??

[Aditya_V]

US Mormon Church baptises Mahatma Gandhi by proxy?

Hindus should convert him back to Hinduism, post-mortem onlee. And then more.

why bother?? If they can baptise someone 48 years after his death, they can baptize the whole world repeatedly. I don't the rest of 99%+ population non Mormons should care a rats ass about it.

[vishvak]

why bother?? If they can baptise someone 48 years after his death, they can baptize the whole world repeatedly. I don't the rest of 99%+ population non Mormons should care a rats ass about it.

So Hindus can also do 'Ghar-waapasi' of all the fellow human beings.

So if Hindus ghar-wapas all of the world - past present and future Mormons only for spiritual enlightenment, why would Mormons or anyone else bother?

[chackojoseph]

Proxy baptism by relatives only : Mormon Church

[chetak]

US Mormon Church baptises Mahatma Gandhi by proxy?

Hindus should convert him back to Hinduism, post-mortem onlee. And then more.

Why accept the "conversion" in the first place?

Or they expecting the mahatma to rise and walk again?? This would be a paki wet dream, by the way

mormons or morons??

Slithery, surreptitious and duplicitous, as all such conversion usually is.

Theoretically, they could convert ALL hindus this way.

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

[vishvak]

Proxy baptism by relatives only : Mormon Church

Perhaps Hinduism has no such restrictions. Anyone can do ghar-waapasi of those who have left the mortal body.

[vishvak]

Why accept the "conversion" in the first place?

I agree, though it does give an insight. So by this very same understanding, there is a huge potential for ghar-wapasi post-mortem.

Who can complain if all Mormons are converted to Hinduism post-mortem?

[RajeshA]

X-Posting from "India Nuclear News and Discussion 4 July 2011" Thread

Published on Mar 06, 2012
By Shishir Gupta
4 NGOs behind N-plant stir got Rs 36 crore from abroad: Hindustan Times

The four non-governmental organisations (NGOs) being probed for links with the protests against the Kundankulam nuclear plant received no less than Rs 36.37 crore as foreign donations from 2006 to 2011 even as 16 other NGOs have come under the scanner of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, or FCRA.

The People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy is not on the list of NGOs being investigated for alleged FCRA violations but its coordinator SP Udayakumar is part of a resource network of one of the NGOs having received funds from Sweden.

Home ministry officials said the four NGOs which have been stopped from receiving foreign contributions are the Tuticorin Diocesan Association, Rural Uplift Center, Good Vision Charitable Trust and Trust for Rural Uplift and Education. The chief functionaries of these NGOs have been identified as Father Yvon Ambrose, Maria James, Manoj Thangaraj and J Napolean, respectively.

[abhischekcc]

Can we convert Jesus to Hinduism? It would not even require permission of next of kin because as per legend, Jesus had no children.

[RajeshA]

Can we convert Jesus to Hinduism? It would not even require permission of next of kin because as per legend, Jesus had no children.

Today my wife told me how one of her colleagues had started going to some Yoga ashram where they had a picture of several Gurus decorating the wall with Jesus as one of the Gurus right at the beginning of the gallery.

This particular school considered Jesus as a Guru. They say that when Jesus sat on the mountain and contemplated in himself, he was doing nothing other than yoga and meditation. The Resurrection too is considered as a step in the Reincarnation process.

So some are already doing so!

[RajeshA]

X-Posting from "India Nuclear News and Discussion 4 July 2011" Thread

The People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy is not on the list of NGOs being investigated for alleged FCRA violations but its coordinator SP Udayakumar is part of a resource network of one of the NGOs having received funds from Sweden.

Also there is one photo, posted 3 pages before, where Mr.Udaykumar is attending some meeting/conference in Sweden.

So how are the Swede not funding protests in next door neighbor France that gets 80% of power from nuclear as also exports? (Nuclear power in France)

What has Sweden got to do with this that it has not got to do in France? Is it religion?

I believe that many Christian groups would involve themselves with humanitarian causes, environmental causes, and human rights violation protests, land appropriation disputes, etc. to put themselves front and center of these movements which may appeal to the poor and the disempowered so as to increase their base of support.

They want to be seen with other people from the poor strata, tribals, etc. to show that they have the cause of the poor and dispossessed close to their hearts. This would allow them to undertake more conversions.

The thing is that these organizations all receive monetary help from abroad. It may be for certain movements or it may be general support to them as church groups. We have to make the case that this monetary help they receive from abroad is for a certain movement which is foreign intervention in internal Indian affairs, and we need to put these pastors and others behind bars! If they get involved in any environmental issues, the Government makes the case that they are against development, use the money transfer records to prove that they are being supported for this from abroad, and then we stop their activities. If they involve themselves with human rights violation, then we make the case that they are inciting communal tensions and we put them away. If they get involved in humanitarian issues, we put them away for not taking government permission on this or that and again we put them away, taking over their humanitarian cause.

We will need to be aggressive in this!

[member_20617]

Can we convert Jesus to Hinduism? It would not even require permission of next of kin because as per legend, Jesus had no children.

The gospels have accounts of events surrounding Jesus' birth, and the subsequent flight into Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod (Gospel of Matthew 2:13-23). There is a general reference to the settlement of Joseph and Mary, along with the young Jesus, at Nazareth (Matthew 2:23; Gospel of Luke 2:39-40). There also is that isolated account of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus' visit to the city of Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, when Jesus was twelve years old (Luke 2:41-50).

Following that episode, there is a blank space in the record that covers eighteen years in the life of Christ (from age 12 to 30). Other than the generic allusion that Jesus advanced in wisdom, stature, and in favor with God and man (Luke 2:52), the Bible gives nothing more about Jesus' life during this time span. A common assumption amongst Christians is that Jesus simply lived in Nazareth during that period, but there are various accounts that present other scenarios, including travels to India.

Several authors have claimed to have found proof of the existence of manuscripts in India and Tibet that support the belief that Christ was in India during this time in his life. Others cite legends in a number of places in the region that Jesus passed that way in ancient times.[1] The Jesus in India manuscript was first reported in modern times by Nicolas Notovitch (1894). Subsequently several other authors have written on the subject, including the religious leader Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (founder of Ahmadiyya movement) (1899), Levi H. Dowling (1908), Swami Abhedananda (1922),[2] Nicholas Roerich (1923–1928),[1] Mathilde Ludendorff (1930), and Elizabeth Clare Prophet (founder of Ascended Master Teachings New Age group) (1956).[3]

It is possible that Jesus may have popularised Vedic/Buddhist ideas when he returned home.

The Jesus in India idea has been associated with Louis Jacolliot's book La Bible dans l'Inde, Vie de Iezeus Christna (1869)[9] (The Bible in India, or the Life of Jezeus Christna),[10] but there is no direct connection between his writings and those of writers on the Himmis mauscripts.

Jacolliot compares the accounts of the life of Bhagavan Krishna with that of Jesus Christ in the gospels and concludes that it could not have been a coincidence that the two stories have so many similarities in many of the finer details. He concludes that the account in the gospels is a myth based on the ‘mythology’ of ancient India.

The possible influence of Buddhism on Christianity (and possibly of the Essenes) has been suggested, but with more emphasis on doctrine than mythology. Nevertheless, it has been noted that the life of Christ bears strong similarities to the life of Buddha. This was initially interpreted by certain Catholic missionaries in terms of the "demonic imitation" theory.[51]

More recently it has been taken by some scholars as far as a "Copycat Christ" theory, postulating that Jesus is simply a Judaistic retelling of the story of Buddha. Thus, T. W. Doane in his 1882 Bible Myths opined that "nothing now remains for the honest man to do but acknowledge the truth, which is that the history of Jesus of Nazareth as related in the books of the New Testament, is simply a copy of that of Buddha, with a mixture of mythology borrowed from other nations." (p. 286)

Max Müller in his 1873 Introduction to the Science of Religion noted that
"Between the language of The Buddha and his disciples, and the language of Christ and his apostles, there are strange coincidences. Even some Buddhist legends and parables sound as if taken from the New Testament, though we know that many of them existed before the beginning of the Christian era."

Th. J. Plange in 1906 concluded that early Christianity was the product of Buddhist missionaries. Such ideas were critically reviewed by Richard Garbe in his 1914 Indien und das Christentum. Garbe noted that the similarities between Christian and Buddhist tradition have invited much dilettante speculation, but he nevertheless acknowledged some possible influence, in particular on later Christian legend (suggesting that Josaphat is a corrupted form of Bodhisattva, and identifying Eustachius and Hubertus with Samantabhadra). Garbe accepted the historicity of Christ, but identified four passages[which?] in the gospel narrative as borrowed from Buddhist scripture.

I find many similarities between Hinduism and Christianity as shown below:

Hindu Samskara
The Hindu Samskāra are a series of sacraments, sacrifices and rituals that serve as rites of passage and mark the various stages of the human life, such as pregnancy, childbirth, education, marriage, and death. Although, the number of major samskaras fluctuates between 12 and 18 in the Grhya Sutras, later, it became 16 (Hindi: sola) in number.

Christian Sacraments
The following are the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church, here listed in the traditional order: Baptism (Christening), Confirmation (Chrismation), Holy Eucharist Penance (Confession), Anointing of the Sick (known prior to the Second Vatican Council as Extreme Unction (or more literally from Latin: Last Anointing), then seen as part of the "Last Rites") Holy Orders, Matrimony (Marriage)

Worship in temple
Idol worship of Gods/Goddesses
Prayers, scripture readings and singing of Bhajans
Prasada (food offered to God) distribution in Temples
Use of Agarbati (Burning Incense)/Loban
Aarti/bell ringing
Offering of food/money/flowers/jewellery etc

Worship in Church
Idol worship of Jesus and/or Mary
Prayers, scripture readings and congregational singing of hymns.
Use of bread and wine in Churches
Burning of Incense
Bell ringing
Collection

Significance of Fasting in Hinduism
Fasting is a very integral part of the Hindu religion. Individuals observe different kinds of fasts based on personal beliefs and local customs.

Significance of Fasting in Christianity
Fasting laws are stricter in Orthodox Church than in the West. On fast days, the faithful give up not only meat, but also dairy products, and on many fast days they also give up fish, wine and the use of oil in cooking. The Rite of Constantinople observes four fasting seasons: Great Lent, Nativity Fast, Apostles' Fast and Dormition Fast. In addition, most Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year are fast days. Many monasteries also observe Monday as a fast day. (Compare this with Hindus fasting on Mondays for Bhagwan Shiv or Shankara)

Hindu Aarti Times
Temple pujas are elaborate and typically done several times a day. I am afraid I don't know the exact times and names of prayers. Can someone enlighten us all?

Orthodox Church Prayer Times
The daily cycle of services consists of the following:
•Vespers (chanted at sunset, which is when the liturgical day begins, following the ancient Jewish tradition)
•Compline (the last prayer before sleep)
•Midnight Office (a monastic office which is chanted in the middle of the night, or early in the morning)
•Matins (the morning office—and the longest of the day—which traditionally ends as the sun is rising)
•First Hour (chanted at the rising of the sun)
•Third Hour (chanted at the third hour of the day—approximately 9:00 am)
•Sixth Hour (chanted at noon)
•Ninth Hour (chanted at the ninth hour of the day—approximately 3:00 pm)

The real evolution of the Christian service in the first century is shrouded in mystery. By the second and third centuries, such Church Fathers as Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Tertullian wrote of formalised, regular services: the practice of Morning and Evening Prayer, and prayers at the third hour of the day (terce), the sixth hour of the day (sext), and the ninth hour of the day (non)

The significance of Asceticism in Hinduism
Some forms of religion (see article Monastic life) and the Indian religions (including yoga) teach salvation and liberation and involve a process of mind-body transformation affected by exercising restraint with respect to actions of body, speech, and mind.

The significance of Asceticism in Christianity
In Catholic and Orthodox Christians have strongly tended to view Christian fasting, chastity and other ascetic practice as oriented toward desire and love for Christ (the "bridegroom" of the Church, still really present, these traditions believe, in the Eucharist) over and above all other things, even though the entire creation is affirmed as good.

In Orthodox Christianity and Eastern Catholicism, Asceticism and Christian Mysticism are part of the basic Theology of their churches and very important. In Catholic theology this is expressed as an inseparable relationship between ascetical and mystical theology, as if the human and divine dimensions of living the Christian spiritual life of incarnate divine love, for instance as described by St. John of the Cross.

Significance of Water in Hinduism
River Ganga is the most sacred river to Hindus and is also a lifeline to millions of Indians who live along its course and depend on it for their daily needs.[6] It is worshiped as the goddess Ganga in Hinduism.

Hindus consider the waters of the Ganga to be both pure and purifying. What the Ganga removes, however, is not necessarily physical dirt, but symbolic dirt; it wipes away the sins of the bather, not just of the present, but of a lifetime.

Significance of Water in Christianity
In Christianity, baptism (from the Greek noun Βάπτισμα baptisma; itself derived from baptismos, washing[2]) is for the majority the rite of admission (or adoption[3]), almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally[4]

According to Lindsay, the majority view in the Christian church identifies three modes of baptism; immersion (the baptizand enters the water bodily and submerges their head), affusion (water is poured on a baptizand who may or may not be standing in water), and aspersion (water is sprinkled on the face). (Compare this with Hindus sprinkled with Ganga water in temples)

Hindu Procession/Nagaryatra
Hindus hold grand processions or nagaryatra on auspicious days. E.g. Jagganath Festival in Odisha

Christian Procession
Christians hold processions during Easter. In South America, Catholics hold processions focusing on Mother Mary.

Mother Mary
The story of the birth of the Buddha was known in the Hellenistic world: a fragment of Archelaos of Carrha(278 CE) mentions the Buddha's virgin-birth.[34][35]

Queen Maya came to bear the Buddha after receiving a prophetic dream in which she saw the descent of the Bodhisattva (Buddha-to-be) from the Tuṣita heaven into her womb, in the shape of a small white elephant. This story has some parallels with the story of Jesus being conceived in connection with the visitation of the Holy Spirit to the Virgin Mary.[36] Kunti of Mahabharata also had immaculate conception.

The classical scene of the Virgin Mary being supported by two attendants at her side, may have been influenced by earlier iconography, such as the rather similar Buddhist theme of Queen Maya giving birth.[37]

The iconography of Mary breastfeeding the child Jesus, unknown in the West until the 5-6th century (probable date of a frieze excavated in Saqqara), has also been connected to the much more ancient iconography of the goddess Hariti, also breastfeeding her child, and wearing Hellenistic clothes in the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara.[38]

Acknowledgement:Extracts from Wiki.

[RajeshA]

Shankaraa ji,

we have to be very careful propounding such theories. On the one hand, it can Dharmics the possibility to include Jesus into our Dharmic order as a possible Rishi and Guru.

The miracles he performed back home, could have just been from Ayurvedic knowledge he may have picked up in India.

However, making such assertions are dangerous because it gives the church just as much material to tell the Indians that Jesus was one of them and we Indians should convert to Christianity. At the moment the Church is far more organized than the Dharmics, so it is the Church that would benefit from such theories.