THE BATTERED HINDU


Book Description

It is a readable history of India from 712 A.D. to August 1947. Quotable opinions about Hindu Civilization are followed by six collections of the verses of the HOLY QURAN for the readers to determine whether Muslims are a separate nation; whether the structure of a typical Muslim society is owing to class struggle as defined by Marx; why Communism failed to make a dent in Islamic societies and whether it is possible to live peaceably with Muslims. By the beginning of the eighth century A.D. Mussalmans ventured effective thrusts into Indian Sub-continent. Hindus were ruthlessly converted to Islam and within two centuries Hindu Civilization was wiped out of the entire region of Sindh. The Arabs learned from HINDUS the decimal system of writing numbers, logic, astronomy, architecture, medicine, and fine arts. Arabs made incursions into India for plundering and destroying places of worship of kafirs and collecting lawful war booty consisting of unimaginable wealth, prized women, and slaves. The events are presented without any emotional muck or pre-conceived notions. Muslim rule was characterized by compulsions, carnages, vandalism, and cataclysmic upheavals for the subject race, not for days or months, or years but from century to century. Muslim conquerors dashed from one corner to the other of the sub-continent. The natives dispossessed of nationality were under constant persecution scourged by calamities, epidemics, famines, and large-scale slaughters. As the attrition between Shia principalities of the south and Delhi Sultanates was taking different aspects Europeans came prowling through various sides for trade and foothold and Christian proselytism. Mughal emperors, Farruk Siyar and Shah Alam II transferred de jure sovereignty of India to the English. How Indian slaves were treated as “Jungli” wretches by the British is a tantalizing story. An English civil servant A.O.Humes laid the foundation of the Indian National Congress with the blessings of Lord Dufferin. Varied and mosaic political activities of the party accentuated communal fault lines which pulled apart appreciable chunks of land in the East and West as a separate homeland for Muslims. There are separate chapters on Mahatma Gandhi and Subhash Chandra Bose. I desired to write a book for Hindus. Though I wrote some books and poetry but could not find time to write this book. In 2002 I suffered a serious accident and had to be hospitalized for a head injury and later for prostrate resection. It took a long time to recover. I am really indebted to my wife who made it possible for me to write this book and complete it. I am thankful to my daughter Dr. Raj Shree Dhar, Professor of Mathematics, for her creative suggestions in publishing the manuscript. T.N. Dhar




Arise Arjun


Book Description

First published 2003 March




Religion and Men's Violence Against Women


Book Description

This reference offers the nuanced understanding and practical guidance needed to address domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking in diverse religious communities. Introductory chapters sort through the complexities, from abusers' distorting of sacred texts to justifying their actions to survivors' conflicting feelings toward their faith. The core of the book surveys findings on gender violence across Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Eastern, and Indigenous traditions--both attitudes that promote abuse and spiritual resources that can be used to promote healing. Best practices are included for appropriate treatment of survivors, their children, and abusers; and for partnering with communities and clergy toward stemming violence against women. Among the topics featured: Ecclesiastical policies vs. lived social relationships: gender parity, attitudes, and ethics. Women’s spiritual struggles and resources to cope with intimate partner aggression. Christian stereotypes and violence against North America’s native women. Addressing intimate partner violence in rural church communities. Collaboration between community service agencies and faith-based institutions. Providing hope in faith communities: creating a domestic violence policy for families. Religion and Men's Violence against Women will gain a wide audience among psychologists, social workers, marriage and family therapists, and other mental health professionals who treat religious clients or specialize in treating survivors and perpetrators of domestic and intimate partner violence, stalking, sexual assault, rape, or human trafficking.




Hindu Nationalism in India and the Politics of Fear


Book Description

The representation of the Muslims as threatening to India's body politic is central to the Hindu nationalist project of organizing a political movement and normalizing anti-minority violence. Adopting a critical ethnographic approach, this book identifies the poetics and politics of fear and violence engendered within Hindu nationalism.




Being Hindu In Bangladesh


Book Description

For those who carry the scars of Partition, more than seven decades after arbitrary lines scarred the subcontinent, home is still on the other side of the Padma river. They pine for those who were left behind as a great mass of humanity moved from the east to the west of Bengal to settle in Hindu-majority India. Where are they today in the land that was then east Bengal, which became East Pakistan in 1947, and then Bangladesh in 1971? According to an estimate from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, there were 17 million Hindus in Bangladesh in 2015, though the population is steadily dwindling. Hindus in Bangladesh in the late 2000s were almost evenly distributed in all regions of the country, with large concentrations in Gopalganj, Dinajpur, Sylhet, Sunamganj, Mymensingh, Khulna, Jessore, Chittagong and parts of Chittagong's Hill Tracts. Since the rise of Islamist political formations in the country during the 1990s, many Hindus have been threatened or attacked, and substantial numbers are leaving the country for India still. Despite their dwindling numbers, Hindus wield considerable influence because of their geographical concentration in certain regions of the country. They form a majority of the electorate in at least two parliamentary constituencies and account for more than 25% in at least another thirty. For this reason, they are often the deciding factor in parliamentary elections where victory margins can be extremely narrow. It is also alleged that this is a prime reason for many Hindus being prevented from voting in elections, either through intimidating voters, or through exclusion in voter list revisions. In Being Hindu in Bangladesh, journalist Deep Halder and academic Avishek Biswas explore the ground realities behind the statistics. Through extensive research in Bangladesh and using archival material and records, they attempt to sift out the truth behind the numbers. Their aim is to find out the lived experience of those who stayed on in the country, and ask important questions about the nature of identity, its connection with religion, and ultimately, the very idea of 'home'.







Hinduism


Book Description

An invaluable encyclopedia of Hinduism Hinduism is one of the world’s oldest religions; an amalgam of diverse beliefs and schools, it originates in the Vedas and is rooted in Indian culture. Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide illuminates complex philosophical concepts through lucid definitions, a historical perspective and incisive analyses. It examines various aspects of Hinduism, covering festivals and rituals, gods and goddesses, philosophers, memorials, aesthetics, and sacred plants and animals. The author also explores pivotal ideas, including moksha, karma, dharma and samsara, and details the diverse commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita and other important texts. Citing extensively from the regional languages, the book describes Hinduism’s innumerable myths and legends, and looks at the many versions of texts including the Ramayana and Mahabharata, placing each entry in its historical context and tracing its evolution to the present. • Outlines all eighteen major Puranas, the 108 Upanishads, and a selection of Vaishnava, Sahiva and Tantric texts • Provides quotations from rare original texts • A product of years of research, with a wide range of entries




The India I Know and of Hinduism


Book Description

Liberals in India appear to think that it is their birth right to bash the Hindus. Liberalism only entails criticising the majorities not to touch minorities remotely. It goes without saying that Indian minorities, most of them, were Hindus once upon a timeOnce a Hindu gets converted, he becomes a minority. Whatever special privileges the minorities have will apply to him! The minorities have their personal laws, educational institutions, rights to promote, and propagate their religion, to uplift their language, to keep up their identity. The other countries recognise minorities on ethnicity. Attacking majorities in India is easier than anywhere in the world. For the successive governments of the Congress have weakened and made them emasculated and incapable of intellectually defending themselves. The baiting of Hindu majorities of India is continually being done in other western countries also by our Indian diehard leftists, extreme secularists, and the academic fringe to the amusement of the intellectuals of those countries. The type of calumny they have been doing against Hindus, no civilized person on earth could ever do. About them, the less said, the better! However, in India Hinduism still persists in its pristine form for two reasons. One, basically Indians are religious, and the other, an organisation like the RSS works for the cause. There is one cautionsome media groups have been consistently trying to bring all and sundry so-called Hindu groups into one umbrella and whatever havoc they cause on Hindu name, they are covering the rot with a nomenclature of Hindu or saffron terror. They are promoting a dubious brand name, in all these cases. In any case, the miscreants should be booked as per the law of the land and punished. When terrorism has no religion, so also the criminality.




The Scientific Basis of Hinduism - Volume I


Book Description

The doctrine of Sanatana Dharma acquired a tag, Hinduism during the passage of time, when or why, no one seems to be sure. The word Hinduism is a misnomer – the word Hindu is mentioned nowhere in the scriptures as is the term “Hindu mythology.” When comprehension became difficult, all that is inexplicable found refuge under the term mythology. Were the ascetics who lived in forests and mountains foolish enough to portray the picture of a God, who finds His perch on top of a serpent in an ocean of milk? Or a creator finding His work place atop a lotus that springs from the navel of Vishnu? Or that Lord Shiva should be polymorphic with the visage in one form, sporting all sorts of weird articles as ornaments, half feminine in another and a phallus in yet another form? If such descriptions defy comprehension, it only means the inability to understand allegory. The author has tried to unravel all these in layman’s logic and is not trying to masquerade in mysticism when confronted with the inexplicable. The book begins with the Pranava mantra and then it cruises through the Trimurthis, their significance, the mahavakyas and ends in the soul and the advaitha philosophy with an insight on how Science sees all these.




Eternal Values for a Changing Society : Vol. 3


Book Description

Swami Vivekananda believed that eternal spiritual values alone can hold the ship of human society firmly and give stability to it and, in the process, bring meaning to the varied human activities and endeavours. This book in 9 volumes comprising the speeches and writings of the Revered Swami Ranganathananda, the 13th President of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, posit the 'Eternal Spiritual Values' as an answer to the many fundamental social, political, economic, and spiritual problems that beset the modern age. Swami Ranganathananda travelled across the world and enthralled people with his magnificent exposition of India's ageless culture. He gave due place to the role of science and technology in human affairs, while remaining firmly rooted in the Indian scriptures. He beckoned to the past only to illumine the present; he held up the spiritual goals of the Vedas and the Upanishads but didn't decry the material benefits of modern science and technology. His exposition of Indian spiritual and social values is as much derived from an intensive study of ancient and modern books as from his own authentic experience as a Sannyasin. Published by Advaita Ashrama, a publication branch of Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math, volumes 1 and 2 deal with ‘Philosophy and Spirituality’, volumes 3 and 4 with ‘Great Spiritual Teachers’, volumes 5 and 6 with ‘Education for Human Excellence’, and volumes 7, 8 and 9 with ‘Democracy for Total Human Development’. This is volume 3 of the nine-volume series.