India-US News and Discussion

[sanjaychoudhry]

This "South Asian" thingie has its origins in US think-tanks. Be very careful of it. It is meant to denationalize Indians and benefit Pakistanis. All these "south Asia TV" and "South Asia forums" and "South Asia Times" and "South Asia cultural festivals" have mostly US funding. Pakis are a side show. The agenda of Americans is quite sinister if you think it through. This "South Asia" business is psyops on a national scale to the detriment of Indians. The Yanks have already erased the "Indian Subcontinent" word from everywhere and replaced it with "South Asia."

My advice to Indians: Assert your Indian nationality at every opportunity and flatly deny that you are a South Asian. The Pakis will try to introduce you to others in a gathering as "both of us are South Asians." Your response should be: "Actually, I am an Indian. He is from Pakistan."

For Pakis all over the world, their nationality has become a burden and they now hide behind the "south Asian" label to keep the other confused about their true identity. There is no reason why Indians should agree to do the same.

But this is not the agenda of American thinktanks which have coined this strategy of popularising the "South Asian" word. They have a more sinister agenda of screwing the Hindus. They want to dilute nationalities of both Indians and Pakistanis and eventually merge them. In short, the Americans know the projected population of Muslims in the Indian subcontinent 30 years from now, and are making plans for reunification of Indian and Pakistan where Hindus will drown under an overwhelming Muslim mass. This reunification is the hottest topic of debate currently in the drawing rooms of Pakistani elite.

The antidote to this South Asian psyops? It is simple. Wear your Indian nationality on your sleeves, proclaim it loudly everywhere you go and make it a point to clearly distinguish yourself from the Pakistanis. And refuse to go to any function or event with the word "South Asia" in its name. Keep repeating to everyone that you are an Indian, not a South Asian.

Here are views of Radha Ranjan, editor of Vigil Online, about this South Asia nonsense.

The “South Asia” Subversion

The third idea they are propagating is the concept of South Asia. This concept of South Asia which has no legitimacy is a political construct with its origins in American think tanks where they seek to subsume — Please understand one thing. If there is one thing both Islam and Christianity are afraid of, it is Hindu nationalism. Hindu nationalism poses the biggest threat to both Islam and evangelical church. They are propagating the concept of South Asia where they hope that India’s territorial borders and her Hindu identity will be subsumed in the larger Muslim-dominated region of Pakistan and Bangladesh. When they say South Asia, I don’t think they have Bhutan and Sri Lanka in mind. When they say South Asia, they primarily mean India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

[surinder]

Sanjay,
Too late for that. Most Indians have embraced the South Asian label quite well now. They do not see any sinister origins. This thing has acquired a life of its own, most South Asian things are now equally sponsored by Indians & Pakis, I am afraid you don't need USG prompting anymore.

The other day I heard South Asian Spelling Bee. Why does the spelling Bee for this region? Well the web site explained that becuse "South Asians have been winning spelling bees for so long." Afghanistan is included in SA. How many Nepali, Bangladeshi, Afghani spelling bee champs do you know?

Some universities have started South Asian enterpreneur awards. It is all a big rage now.

[sanjaychoudhry]

Most Indians have embraced the South Asian label quite well now.

Well, all I can say is "lambs to the slaughter." It is humiliating to find average Indians so woolly headed and gullible like innocent babies. It is amazing how other more shrewd races manage to fool and decieve them again and again. Did these idiotic "south Asian" Indians paus even for a moment to think what accepting this label of South Asia as our primary identity would mean for us and Pakistanis and how one would gain and the other would lose, and what is in it for us and who is making all this noise about "south Asia" and which behind-the-scenes force is pushing us in that direction of shedding our national identity and taking on a geographical one instead? The idiotic Indians start walking in any direction they are lured into.

It is demeaning to think that we are no better than guinea pigs and truly behave like them, almost begging thugs of the world to come and fool us and take away what belongs to us. Not for once can we guess the intent of the enemy and plot counter-moves. It is a sad commentary on our race, the inheritors of the wisdom and shrewdness of Chanakya.

If Indians were smart, they would have never agreed to accept the term "South Asia" as replacement for "Indian Subcontinent." It is only a matter of time before Indian Ocean becomes "South Asian Ocean."

I will agree to call myself as a South Asian only after all Americans agree to not call themselves Americans anymore but call themselves as "earthlings." The conversation will go something like this:

"Hey American, yo there! Where are you from?"
"Oh, I am not an American. I am from the earth. I am an earthling and this Mexian standing next to me is also an earthling. Both of us are earthlings and both of us are same people with same culture. Our ancestors came to this continent on boats and slaughtered all Red Indians. Both of us have this shared history and culture. Would you like to come to the Earthling Spellling Bee contest we are organising? Since the last five years, it is being won by earthlings, most of whom are from New York."

[skbanner]

This "South Asian" disease is more widely spread than you think and props up in unexpected quarters. Case in point, this is the subject line from a mailing from a trade magazine I got today:

South Asian operators show interest in mobile TV at BroadcastAsia; few have firm plans for deployments

The actual article however has the following title:

India’s Bharti Airtel embraces three-screen future

Link: http://broadcastengineering.com/product ... rtel-0818/

Most likely the magazine's editorial staff has a "South Asianist" in house.

[archan]

Its never too late. The Indians when they realize they are being shortchanged with this grouping, will start breaking the shackles. It is mostly due to ignorance I suppose.

[Gerard]

Nothing cures South-Asia-itis like Pakistanis doing what Pakistanis do best. Watch how fast people assert their identity the next time a group of Pakistani origin attacks a western target.

[surinder]

I don't think Indians will learn, quite frankly. All the Pakis have to do is to say sweet things like "we are all one ... we want peace" for Indians to smile and join in. I have already started seeing books from academics titled "South Asian History ...", which it nothing but "Indian History". I am reading sections from such books like "Alexandar Attacks South Asia". "South Asian King Porus does xyz".

Yes, I am pretty sure that Indian Ociean will become South Asian Ocean in not too distant a future.

Sanjay, Yes this is indeed the fate of the descendent of Chanakya. One does not know whether to weep or laugh.

[brihaspati]

Surinder,
I think we can reverse what is sought to be put on us. US may not be able to decide a "South Asian" agenda for long. It rather has to become an equal partner of Bharat and share Bharat Mahasagara. The AFG situation will reverse rather more quickly than projected. Chanakya's genes are well spread out. Don't worry!

[krisna]

The term "south asian" may be accepted by many- but the younger gen of indians are more aware of asserting their Indian identity than the older gen. this is from my experience. I belong to the young gen ones. Of course lot of gyaan for me has come from BRF. My friends and myself assert our identity proudly.

One of the older gen who is in usa for over 30 yrs said to me that nowadays the Indians are more self confident and know what they want and more assertive of the Indian identity.

Hope the numbers build up in favour of Indian identity.

[NRao]

On a slightly different note.

IMHO, ALL Bollywoodites need to be under extra microscope. After all they are in the payroll of Dawood. And, they are the most likely ilk that will break some rules/s for their Boss.

[vera_k]

There's a book here that has a chapter on the adoption of 'South Asian' within Area Studies departments. The claim is also made that Area Studies is a political tool developed for fighting the Cold War.

Even here, there are signs of change with UPenn running a Center for the Advanced Study of India.

[V_Raman]

i never shy away from asserting my indian identity and even talk about the deep differences with pak whenever i get a chance. many of my indian co-workers do the same nowadays.

[vera_k]

Meanwhile, from the karma is a female dog department

I would go to the US to drink Pepsi, says SRK

[svinayak]

<span>There's a book [url=<a href="http://repositories.cdlib.org/uciaspubs ... %5B/url%5D" class="smarterwiki-linkify">http://repositories.cdlib.org/uciaspubs ... volumes/3/]here[/url]</a> that has a chapter on the adoption of 'South Asian' within Area Studies departments. The claim is also made that Area Studies is a political tool developed for fighting the Cold War.</span>

<span>Even here, there are signs of change with UPenn running a [url=<a href="http://casi.ssc.upenn.edu/about%5DCenter" class="smarterwiki-linkify">http://casi.ssc.upenn.edu/about]Center</a> for the Advanced Study of India[/url].</span>

http://repositories.cdlib.org/uciaspubs ... lumes/3/9/
http://repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/viewc ... tedvolumes

Origins
South Asian studies in the United States began in the conjuncture between
Sanskritic scholarship and the strategic concerns and contexts of World War II. 2 This
conjuncture has had vast importance in the shaping of South Asian area studies, which in
its early years was dominated by concerns having to do on the one hand with ancient
Indic civilization and on the other with contemporary society, politics, and economy.
Only in recent years, in the wake first of the critique of Orientalism, and subsequently of
the rise of Subaltern Studies, have the fields of colonial and postcolonial studies, modern
history, and contemporary cultural studies emerged as a new conjunctural foundation for
the study of South Asia, albeit one still unevenly represented in some of the principal area
centers. It is the aim of this paper to tell the story of this transition, and to speculate in
preliminary ways about the larger implications of this transition as we look towards the
next century.
The person at the heart of the original conjuncture was W. Norman Brown,3
founder of the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of South Asia Regional Studies
and Professor of Sanskrit at Penn between 1926, when Franklin Edgerton vacated the
Sanskrit Chair and moved to Yale, and 1966, when Brown retired. Along with several
specialists of the Near East, Brown founded the Oriental Studies Department in 1931, and
he played a key role in initial discussions in the 1930s, some of them sponsored by the
Committee on Indic and Iranian Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies.
But it was the war, and the dearth of personnel trained to deal with issues in
contemporary Asia, that crystallized these discussions, both for South Asia and other area
studies initiatives. The University of Pennsylvania was the only University conducting
any courses of intensive language and area study during the war, and it was at the
University of Pennsylvania that South Asian studies was to be born soon after the war
was over.
In 1944 Brown advocated the serious development and funding of Oriental
Studies in a draft document in which he wrote: “During the course of the war the US
govt. agencies have needed information about the Orient to a degree far beyond
anticipation… Our nation must never again be caught so ill-equipped with knowledge
and specialists on the Orient as it was at the end of 1941. The postwar Orient will also
probably be freer than before to engage in trade with the Occident… To meet this new
situation America will need to acquire information and develop personel able to handle
the increased political, business, and cultural relations.”4 In 1947 he revised this draft
and expanded his vision of Oriental Studies: “It is… possible for us in the West to view
the Orient as a large area with a certain number of problems and cultural movements
common throughout its major divisions. This has been the condition in the Orient
throughout 5000 years… Today the whole Orient has a common political problem of
reaction against occidental colonialism; it has a general economic problem of developing
its natural and human resources to produce an industrial civilization which can exist
beside that of the West; it is bound to expand trade relations between its different
divisions; it has inner social and cultural adjustments to make between its own great
divisions, and then with the West.”5 It was with this intellectual argument and rhetorical
justification that Brown advocated Asian studies. The context for interdisciplinary
regional studies was in large part the result of this broad based sense of world
civilizational areas in which the present – however embedded in the historical experience
of colonialism and no matter how quickly drawn into the spiral of modernization and
technological transformation – could not be understood without taking into account the
great sweep of the civilizational past.6 The broad contours of Edward Said’s critique of
“Orientalism” fit the case precisely.7
Soon after rewriting this draft document, Brown abandoned the idea of regional
Oriental studies and argued instead for the development of a more bounded version of
South Asian regional studies. No doubt this decision correlated with the announcement
of India’s independence in the summer of 1947, the very summer that the University of
Pennsylvania offered a summer school in Indian studies for the first time. This summer
session, funded by the ACLS among other sources, served as the basis for the
establishment of the Department of South Asia Regional Studies in 1948, an institutional
development that was funded by the Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Ford Foundations.8
Brown recruited a number of scholars who had worked with him first during the war in
Washington, where they furnished South Asian expertise for military and strategic
purposes, initially in the Research and Analysis Division, later in the planning staff of the
Office of Strategic Services: Holden Furber, a British imperial historian, Daniel Thorner,
an economist who was later fired by Penn as a result of McCarthy’s red scare, and
Dorothy Spencer, an anthropologist. By the academic year 1949-50, a complete program
for South Asia Regional Studies, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, had been
established under Brown’s leadership, and an affiliated faculty of twenty one scholars,
covering such fields as geography, linguistics, Hindustani, sociology, and other affiliated
fields in Asian studies, were listed in the catalog.
The Department of South Asian Studies (and the area center that subsequently
developed out of this initiative once federal funding was established for area studies in
the 1950s) at Penn both trained many of the first generation of U.S. South Asianists and
provided a model for and a set of institutional and intellectual concerns critical to the
development of South Asian studies across the United States. Additionally, graduate
students interested in South Asia but working at other Universities often went to the
summer sessions at Penn and established ideas and contacts that carried Penn’s influence
far and wide. In the summer of 1948, according to the reminiscences of Robert Crane,9
four scholars who went on to play major roles in South Asian studies all attended the
summer session and began close professional and personal associations that were to last
for some thirty years and affect developments at Universities as various as Chicago,
Michigan, and Duke, as well as at Penn. One of these was Richard Lambert, a prominent
sociologist who later succeeded Brown as Chair of the Penn Department in 1966, and was
one of the chief advocates for South Asian studies in the 1960s and 70s. Also in
Philadelphia that summer was Richard Park, a political scientist who earned a Ph.D. from
Harvard in 1951 for work on India before joining the faculty at Berkeley that same year,
later becoming the first Director of the Berkeley South Asia Program where he also
created the Modern India Project, which was sponsored by the Ford Foundation and ran
between 1954 and 1957. In 1959 Park moved to the University of Michigan, where
Crane had begun teaching Indian history in 1956. According to Crane, the South Asia
Program at Michigan was “designed as a multi-disciplinary program, a format already
well established… in the Center for Japanese Studies. The Asian Studies Committee of
the University was creating a new, multidisciplinary undergraduate core course in
comparative Asian civilizations. This new core course received Foundation and
University support and this enhanced our need for qualified South Asianists on the
faculty. That facilitated a challenging offer to Richard Park who, in 1959, became an
Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the new Center for Southern
Asian Studies.”10 Park not only continued to play a major role in the development of
South Asian studies at Michigan and elsewhere (ultimately becoming President of the
Association for Asian Studies in 1978), he soon became one of Norman Brown’s key
collaborators in the establishment of the American Institute for Indian Studies in 1961.
In many ways, then, W. Norman Brown set the tone and the most prominent
institutional context and agenda for the early development of South Asian studies in the
United States, both through his intellectual vision and his institutional investments. His
legacy continues to be seen at Penn, and perhaps even more importantly in the American
Institute of Indian Studies which since its origins has been the primary funding agent for
U.S. doctoral and postdoctoral research on South Asia. Given his preeminent importance
in the establishment of South Asian studies, it is worth dwelling for a moment on
Brown’s own scholarly interests and commitments.. Brown was classically trained as a
Sanskritist, earning his Ph.D. in 1916 under Maurice Bloomfield at Johns Hopkins (six
years after his father, who had been a missionary in India, also attained a Ph.D. in
Sanskrit under Bloomfield at Hopkins for a thesis on the human body in the Upanisads).11
Norman’s thesis had been on the relationship between the Pancatantra and modern Indian
folklore, and was part of a broader collaboration that included Franklin Edgerton’s more
philologically based work on the classical text. Brown’s own work bridged philological
and contemporary issues, demonstrating, according to Rosane Rocher, “a basic interest in
studying the Indian tradition from its most ancient sources to its most recent
manifestations

[shiv]

It took me two years to realize, that it is true. My initial impression was right. Americans are not worldly. But then it was an epiphany for me that what I thought was a weakness is actually the strength of America and the weakness of India, People here care more about their immediate neighborhood and local affairs first than something that may happen 15000 miles away where these folks have hardly any influence.

Manny let me point out that my own perspective on this issue has changed. The "worldly attitude" of Indians that you refer to is restricted to the Indian elite. It is absent from 90% of Indians who are interested only in local issues.

This is a blessing for India in some ways - but we the elite tend to miss the facts here. We tend to believe that we in our knowledgeable "worldliness" represent all Indians. We don't. We represent a small elite.

Speaking of my own experiences - it took me - as you said - a mere two years to become Briton in Britain with a healthy interest in local issues . Returning to India I found a dysjunction between the attitudes of the elite filled cities and the local locals. The elites in the cities were "worldly" and contemptuous of the locals whom they always tried to teach all the good things "worldly people" had learned about other countries (primarily the anglophone West).

Only lately is there increasing awareness among the Indian elite in India that they too are Indians of particular type and their involvement in local issues is more important than their worldliness. But there is a lot more depth in this topic under Indian conditions - OT for this thread.

[svinayak]

Manny let me point out that my own perspective on this issue has changed. The "worldly attitude" of Indians that you refer to is restricted to the Indian elite. It is absent from 90% of Indians who are interested only in local issues.

This is a blessing for India in some ways - but we the elite tend to miss the facts here. We tend to believe that we in our knowledgeable "worldliness" represent all Indians. We don't. We represent a small elite.

Indian elite due to european colonization have a 'western view' of the world and not a INDIC VIEW of the world, NOT INDIC view of races and nation.

[John Snow]

Every time you buy Bollywood DVD/VCD in Jackson Heights or in NJ you know its going to awood bahi period.

[shiv]

Indian elite due to european colonization have a 'western view' of the world and not a INDIC VIEW of the world, NOT INDIC view of races and nation.

It is.

Our own pride in being knowledgeable about the world is a false pride about knowledge that is unnecessary for most people - as Manny's example about Americans shows.

In any case the raisin dieter of the "pride" in knowing about the rest of the world among other Indians is merely to compare and contrast and show how India and Indians are bullshit and need to change in order to improve.

If this is not fractal recursivity in which a section of the formerly colonized take on the attributes of the colonizer, I don't know what is.

[Hari Seldon]

Would have been nice if Sri SRK could have shown a brief trailer of the atrocities of 26/11 and asked for donations to help the victims of 26/11 from the supposed 'South Asian' crowd.

BTW, about the woolly headed yindians who seem keen on falling for the packee 'south asian' trick - are these more fresh off the boaters, ABCDs, or older generation folks on the average? Just wondering.

[darshan]

Would have been nice if Sri SRK could have shown a brief trailer of the atrocities of 26/11 and asked for donations to help the victims of 26/11 from the supposed 'South Asian' crowd.

BTW, about the woolly headed yindians who seem keen on falling for the packee 'south asian' trick - are these more fresh off the boaters, ABCDs, or older generation folks on the average? Just wondering.

I have seen all variety.

[pgbhat]

BTW, about the woolly headed yindians who seem keen on falling for the packee 'south asian' trick - are these more fresh off the boaters, ABCDs, or older generation folks on the average? Just wondering.

In my Uni ..... ABCDs invite pakis for even participation in India night ..... FOBs don't even bother saying hi if they come to know someone is a Paki.

[putnanja]

In my opinion, it is these volunteers from NGOs who spout this south asian nonsense the most. I guess they are trying to see if they can get people from other countries too to contribute. People should boycott these "south asian" programs to bring an end to this term. I myself don't attend these anyway, but more awareness is required. And it is not limited to younger or older generations. I have seen people of all ages spout the "south asian" nonsense.

[harbans]

Did'nt know where to post this, but since it is in context to the Newsweek articl on "We are all Hindu's now", this is one one of the finest concise expositions on Hinduism as explained to the uninitiated along with some reactions to it:

Posted By: cpgmm @ 08/18/2009 11:07:41 AM

Context 1:
Western concept of liberty as a political system: e.g. "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". It's a very broad framework. It does not go into the minutia or stipulate what it is that would make you happy etc.. Does it mean, that you can bring in a rigid system of communism or fascism ideology under that framework of "LLPH"? Obviously not since those political ideologies would violate the basic framework of liberty in the political context. However, you can still have socialism as normative values within the frame work of "LLPH".

Now apply the same concept when it comes to Hindu religion vs a vis other religions. There is no set ideology that Hindus should adhere, to be a Hindu.. Hinduism is freedom of spiritual quest for an individual as long as the framework is not violated. if you insist that your belief or ideology is the only true one and every other faith is in violation, then you are violating the basic freedom of spiritual quest and most Hindus would not accept that as being Hindu.

Context 2:

Another illustration is how western liberal ideology is pilloried by some conservative society of the world by pointing out to the worst in western civilization as an excuse for they not adopting a free society. They often point to p-orno-graphy in the west as failure of a free society They conveniently do not realize that westerners do not necessarily celebrate p-orno-graphy instead consider that a price they have to pay for living in a free society.

Let me apply that to Hinduism. Because there is no rigid rules, you would find some odd and strange practices within Hinduism including some bizarre Tantric rituals. Missionaries and religious supremacists often illustrate these sects to point to the failure of Hinduism just like countries that have a tyrannical political system who point to p-orno-graphy as the central tenet of free society. Hindus would tolerate these bizzare tantric practices (within the context of a law and order) and not necessarily celebrate them as Hindu customs.


Context 3.

Process of scientific quest: Scientists and the process of scientific quest is about the pursuit of that never reaching wall of knowledge. Its the pursuit and not about finding all the answers there is to know. Its about the constant debate. Yet, you would find some individuals (Creationists) who would use this as a weakness to deride scientists and what they do.

In Hinduism, its not about a set of revealed set of truth given to 1 or 2 individual that has adjudicated all questions and that subsequent generation would just have to accept this "adjudicated revealed truth" hence forth and that they would be punished if they challenge these "truths". Instead, Hindu beliefs are really musings of individuals (sears) over a period of time and these musings still continue and will never end just like scientific musings are a never ending pursuit.

Hope that helps

A reply to the above:

WOW! That is a fantastic explanation of Hinduism.

Thank you cpgmm.

So if a person is tolerant of other people finding their own way to God and pluralistic , they fall under the big tent called "Hindusim" no matter what their personal faith is. As long as they are tolarant and pluralistic, they could be Christian, Mohammadan or whatever, they would be considered as Hindus!

That is so wise and cool! Now, I understand the premise of this author and the article.

Bigotry can never be a theology. Even if a God is a jealous God, an individual should be willing to stand up to his or her God and speak for other human beings. One should have the courage to stand up to ones God if necessary instead of selling out so YOU could get to heaven.

Posted By: humanChild @ 08/18/2009 11:21:46 PM

Another reply to cpgmm:

Hinduism does not encourage possessive or invasive thinking and activities. Hinduism does not claim that everybody or all good human souls are Hindus. It is all about diversity - tolerance towards difference, and acceptance of difference. How one will identify oneself depends on that self ??? how an individual wants to reveal his/her spiritual identity to other fellow human beings? If you feel comfortable and happy by identifying yourself as Christian or Hindu or Jew or atheist or agnostic, go for that. It is all about your comfort level and happiness. As long as you are not doing any harm to others, you should be fine.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/212155/output/comments

[RajeshA]

harbans, thanks for posting this!

cpgmm really deserves credit and praise for his analogies.

Now that is good response to USCIRF.

[Manny]

Hey that cpgmm is me

[harbans]

Yea.. i was jst about to tell them that!

[RajeshA]

Hey that cpgmm is me

Great piece, Manny!

[harbans]

Indeed, and you should go and see how Paki's are tring to spam everything..it's a Buddhist who's an ex hindu mind you though..i was expecting the spamming once Manny posted his classic there..

I was trying to get through to an earlier comment in reply to the post, that said so "Liberty is to political freedom what Hinduism is to the spiritual". I see no better way of explaining the fabric that Hinduism spreads despite having inherent contradictions in approach paths. And one might seek a lower truth, but evolution (spirtitual) will take one to a higher plane..each time, unless you drown yourself like the Pakis..a quote from the BG..

Arjuna. Who is that BRAHMA? What that Soul of Souls,
The ADHYATMAN? What, Thou Best of All!
Thy work, the KARMA? Tell me what it is
Thou namest ADHIBHUTA? What again
Means ADHIDAIVA? Yea, and how it comes
Thou canst be ADHIYAJNA in thy flesh?
Slayer of Madhu! Further, make me know
How good men find thee in the hour of death?
Krishna: I BRAHMA am! the One Eternal GOD,
And ADHYATMAN is My Being's name,
The Soul of Souls! What goeth forth from Me,
Causing all life to live, is KARMA called:
And, Manifested in divided forms,
I am the ADHIBHUTA, Lord of Lives;
And ADHIDAIVA, Lord of all the Gods,
Because I am PURUSHA, who who begets.
And ADHIYAJNA, Lord of Sacrifice,
I- speaking with thee in this body here-
Am, thou embodied one! (for all the shrines
Flame unto Me!) And, at the hour of death,
He that hath meditated Me alone,
In putting off his flesh, comes forth to Me,
Enters into My Being- doubt thou not!
But, if he meditated otherwise
At hour of death, in putting off the flesh,
He goes to what he looked for, Kunti's Son!
Because the Soul is fashioned to its like.

[pankajs]

India's entry to UNSC a must: Burns

Wonder what is going on? Is this another prop for MMS after the Sharm-nakh deal? Or is something else cooking behind the scene and this is the soon to be withdrawn carrot being dangled.

While he was in government, Burns, was never enthusiastic about India in the UNSC. But as an academic and political analyst, his views are now very different.

[Hari Seldon]

India's entry to UNSC a must if only Kashmir could be solved: Burns

There, fixed it.

[pankajs]

Good one

[harbans]

Yes, lets solve Kashmir, break up Pakistan. Jai Balochistan, Jai Sindh.

[RajeshA]

India's entry to UNSC a must: Burns

Wonder what is going on? Is this another prop for MMS after the Sharm-nakh deal? Or is something else cooking behind the scene and this is the soon to be withdrawn carrot being dangled.

While he was in government, Burns, was never enthusiastic about India in the UNSC. But as an academic and political analyst, his views are now very different.

This usually happens to American officials when they leave Office. While in office, they represent US's national interests and enjoy wide influence, privilege and perks. When out of office, they all remember these obscure causes for doing-good, and doing-right in the world. They lose access to foreign-governments and important personalities after they leave office, which may still be needed for their future career. So they have to latch on to causes to keep themselves afloat.

[Gerard]

While he was in government, Burns, was never enthusiastic about India in the UNSC. But as an academic and political analyst, his views are now very different.

Future career as lobbyist perhaps?

[pankajs]

Could be saar, could be.

Then again MMS is smarting after the hiding he received in India for his last under the last under the table deal with uncle. So this time they find the biggest band-aid available for MMS and apply it before and then try a new under the table deal.

[pankajs]

India to ink agreement with USPTMO to prevent wrong patents

Ramesh said about 1,500 patents for Indian medicine-based products are issued in the US and Europe every year and to prevent this the Digital Library is envisaging documenting "oral knowledge" as well.

[Hari Seldon]

Parties deal blame as White House goes solo on health reform

President Obama now realizes he probably will have to pass health reform with Democratic votes alone, White House officials say.

The admission is a monumental shift in Washington’s top fight of the year, with the energy now shifting to differences among Democrats, rather than efforts to lure a critical mass of Republicans.

The aides call it more a prediction than a strategy shift, and blame the GOP.

Wow.

Seems like Sri Obama will spend his enormous political capital on his ambitious health plans. More power to him, I say. The Dems have filibuster proof majorities in both houses. Whats the problem, I fail to see....

[amdavadi]

If Dem goes alone they Own the whole thing. What will happen to blue dog dem when they go back to their district? I am
pretty sure dem doesnt want to own this thing by a mile, otherwise they will end up paying in 2010.

[Singha]

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20090818/8 ... s-now.html

Newsweek says "We Are All Hindus Now"

Tue, Aug 18 03:50 PM

Nevada (US), Aug.18 (ANI): "We Are All Hindus Now"-headlines the article in the upcoming edition of prestigious newsmagazine "Newsweek", saying "U.S. Views on God and Life Are Turning Hindu".

Written by its religion editor Lisa Miller, it says, "...recent poll data show that conceptually, at least, we are slowly becoming more like Hindus and less like traditional Christians in the ways we think about God, our selves, each other, and eternity."

Commenting about the Newsweek viewpoint, Rajan Zed said that community was glad that rich philosophical thought of Hinduism was being recognized and accepted widely outside the Hindu circles.

The article quotes a religion professor at Boston University who has long framed the American propensity for "the divine-deli-cafeteria religion" as "very much in the spirit of Hinduism..."

It further says: "So here is another way in which Americans are becoming more Hindu: 24 percent of Americans say they believe in reincarnation, according to a 2008 Harris poll. So agnostic are we about the ultimate fates of our bodies that we're burning them-like Hindus-after death. More than a third of Americans now choose cremation, according to the Cremation Association of North America."

The article ends with: So let us all say "om." (ANI)

[Singha]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/212155

We Are All Hindus Now
Reed Saxon / AP
By Lisa Miller | NEWSWEEK
Published Aug 15, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Aug 31, 2009

America is not a Christian nation. We are, it is true, a nation founded by Christians, and according to a 2008 survey, 76 percent of us continue to identify as Christian (still, that's the lowest percentage in American history). Of course, we are not a Hindu—or Muslim, or Jewish, or Wiccan—nation, either. A million-plus Hindus live in the United States, a fraction of the billion who live on Earth. But recent poll data show that conceptually, at least, we are slowly becoming more like Hindus and less like traditional Christians in the ways we think about God, our selves, each other, and eternity.


The Rig Veda, the most ancient Hindu scripture, says this: "Truth is One, but the sages speak of it by many names." A Hindu believes there are many paths to God. Jesus is one way, the Qur'an is another, yoga practice is a third. None is better than any other; all are equal. The most traditional, conservative Christians have not been taught to think like this. They learn in Sunday school that their religion is true, and others are false. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me."

Americans are no longer buying it. According to a 2008 Pew Forum survey, 65 percent of us believe that "many religions can lead to eternal life"—including 37 percent of white evangelicals, the group most likely to believe that salvation is theirs alone. Also, the number of people who seek spiritual truth outside church is growing. Thirty percent of Americans call themselves "spiritual, not religious," according to a 2009 NEWSWEEK Poll, up from 24 percent in 2005. Stephen Prothero, religion professor at Boston University, has long framed the American propensity for "the divine-deli-cafeteria religion" as "very much in the spirit of Hinduism. You're not picking and choosing from different religions, because they're all the same," he says. "It isn't about orthodoxy. It's about whatever works. If going to yoga works, great—and if going to Catholic mass works, great. And if going to Catholic mass plus the yoga plus the Buddhist retreat works, that's great, too."

Then there's the question of what happens when you die. Christians traditionally believe that bodies and souls are sacred, that together they comprise the "self," and that at the end of time they will be reunited in the Resurrection. You need both, in other words, and you need them forever. Hindus believe no such thing. At death, the body burns on a pyre, while the spirit—where identity resides—escapes. In reincarnation, central to Hinduism, selves come back to earth again and again in different bodies. So here is another way in which Americans are becoming more Hindu: 24 percent of Americans say they believe in reincarnation, according to a 2008 Harris poll. So agnostic are we about the ultimate fates of our bodies that we're burning them—like Hindus—after death. More than a third of Americans now choose cremation, according to the Cremation Association of North America, up from 6 percent in 1975. "I do think the more spiritual role of religion tends to deemphasize some of the more starkly literal interpretations of the Resurrection," agrees Diana Eck, professor of comparative religion at Harvard. So let us all say "om.