Posted on 02/14/2006 5:26:56 AM PST by Alex Marko
NEW DELHI, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Hardline Hindu groups and radical Muslims burned Valentine's Day greeting cards on Tuesday and held protests across India against celebrating the festival of love, saying it was a Western import that spread immorality.
Saint Valentine's Day has become increasingly popular in India in recent years, a trend led by retailers who do healthy business selling heart-shaped balloons and fluffy teddy bears.
But the growing popularity of the day in officially secular, but mainly Hindu India has also sparked protests which have sometimes turned violent.
On Tuesday, protests were held in the capital New Delhi, some towns in the country's south and the only Muslim state of Jammu and Kashmir, where an Islamic insurgency has raged since 1989.
About two dozen women separatists, veiled in black from head to toe, rummaged shops and burnt Valentine's Day cards in Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital, witnesses said.
"Valentine's Day spreads immorality among the youth," Asiya Andrabi of the Dukhtaran-e-Milat (Daughters of the Muslim Faith), a group of women separatists, said in a statement.
"We appeal to our children to stay away from this western culture."
In Bangalore, India's technology capital, as well as Hubli town, both located in the southern state of Karnataka, groups of Hindu nationalists burnt a big heart-shaped card.
About 50 Hindu activists wearing holy saffron-coloured scarves held a noisy protest in a popular market near the Delhi University campus, a Reuters photographer said.
They burnt greeting cards which they were carrying and shouted "Down with Valentine's Day". (Additional reporting by Sheikh Mushtaq in SRINAGAR)
do an FR search for "India", with posts ordered by time, not relevance.
See what you find...
And plus, I can guarantee I know more about India than you do, my friend. I have been there before recently, and my relatives go back every year. So I know what I am talking about.
"We dont wanna be western....... just Indian."
No, you want to be Western. English isn't a major language in say, China, and India emulates many western customs, such as "High Tea" and chess and about a bazillion others, which I would list in great detail if / when I have time.
Even the celebration of st. Valentine's day is an attempt to be western.
"My GF is better than your GF."
You mean your shemale GF?
Whats her name? Hill of Tranny?
Anyways good for you.
"Better than your barbarian parents, siblings, and yourself.
Take the hill and shove it up your tara."
Is that supposed to be an insult against Irish people? Ireland and the Irish are far more civilized than demon-worshipping Hindu barbarians who do human sacrifices and worship cows.
And we don't rape nuns or murder priests or force our daughters to marry men they dont love.
OR have an EVIL CASTE SYSTEM!
Can the adminsitrators of this site write a cron job to automatically post an article like this every Valentine's day?
It would save some Freeper the trouble of posting essentially the same article every year.
Chess originated in India, you moron. It was called Shatranj.
Um, no. Actually chess originated in Germany. Check your history. A google search might help.
Parcheesi came from India, not chess.
I've never met anyone with such a strange hatred of India and Hinduism.
What's your deal?
"Whats her name? Hill of Tranny?"
Um, no actually not.
"Anyways good for you."
Why thank you kind sir.
The Hindu God of love is Kamdeva but Krishna bettered them all, the ultimate casanova.
The earliest mention of chess is in the Mahabharata from around 2000 BC. The people living in Germany at the time were primitive barbarians.
I dont have a hatred of India. Nor do I hate Hindus. But I am not fooled into thinking India is America's best friend, and a civilized country, unlike some on FR who have become India-philes and apparently are blinded to the truth.
read #132
He seems like a party guy. There's some linkage between Krishna and Dionysus. I believe they are derived from a common source.
did you do the google search?
India was a civilized country while your ancestors were still in caves. And if you are any indication of Ireland (I hope not), it is far more civilized than Ireland.
By the way, when did you joint the IRA? When your "civilized" countrymen blew your manhood off?
Don't you think you are biased in favor of India because you are Indian?
Your posts seem to say otherwise.
But I am not fooled into thinking India is America's best friend,
Of course not. India's a Great Power with its own interests. For the most part, however, those interests align with America's. The two countries are pretty natural allies at this point.
and a civilized country
A stable, cosmopolitan nation with a burgeoning economy, a rising English-speaking middle-class, no aggresive designs on its neighbors and a parliamentary democratic government doesn't qualift as civilized, in your mind?
"blinded to the truth"
Yeah, so you tell us the truth.
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