India and Israel: Diverse in a homogeneous world

Jerusalem Post ^ | 5-19-09 | SETH J. FRANTZMAN

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

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[ClearCase_guy]

I'm drawing a blank on the Russian historian who argued that the Middle Ages never happened, and that Nero was emperor in Rome approximately 500 years ago. Anyone know who I'm talking about?

Historical revisionism is always annoying but some of these folks really go off into La-La Land.

[rmlew]

I thought the first part was a parody of academic anti-Judaism and anti-Zionism. It never occured to me that the left hates Hinduism.

[swarthyguy]

There is an element of truth to the cited author’s thesis.

A movement was begun in Calcutta in the late 19th Century, of religious figures and intellectuals, who attempted to come up with a modern Hinduism whose rites were derived in part from both Protestant and Church of England practices.

Many Bengali luminaries were involved, grandees of the time, but ultimately it did not succeed or thrive.

[dervish]

any thoughts?

[MyTwoCopperCoins]

The Bhagavad-Gita, and the Mahabharata, among other texts are far, far older than the 1800s. Not only because of textual and chronological evidence, but also because of evidence from far-away cultures where Hinduism spread to, ages ago.

Bali, for example. Or for that matter, the Angkor Vat in Cambodia.

As for the mention of Mughal structures in India being built over ancient Hindu temples, most of these claims are likely dubious.

[SunkenCiv]

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Gods
Graves
Glyphs

Could be a tinfoil turban job.

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The Hindus: An Alternative History by Wendy Doniger Kindle Hardcover

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[SunkenCiv]

Gotta be this guy, the "New Chronology" nutjob:

History: Fiction or Science? by Anatoly T. Fomenko

[sukhoi-30mki]

The problem with Hindu nationalism is that the nationalism part has often been supplanted by chauvenism and contempt for religious minorities. That’s a crucial difference with Zionism.

Not to mention that many leaders of the main Hindutva organisation, the RSS and other idealogues like Bal Thackeray have been admirers of a certain Adolph Hitler.

[Fred Nerks]

Dr. Wendy Doniger on Gov. Sarah Palin

with 10 comments

I couldn’t help but call Dr. Doniger, of the University of Chicago, when I read her quote on Sarah Palin, “Her greatest hypocrisy is in her pretense that she is a woman.” Amazingly, she took my call while she was on vacation at Cape Cod.

QUICK UPDATE: Suprisingly, Dr. Doniger gave $1,000 to John Kerry back in 2004. I was expecting to see a connection to Obama. Alas…. And nevermind that Unversity of Chicago students pay over $35,000 per year to be taught by people like this. Does anyone have a guess how much tax payer money is sent to the University of Chicago?

(photo)
Dr. Wendy Doniger

Her basic complaint is that Sarah Palin wants to impose her theology on women and that, “[Palin] does not speak for women; she has no sympathy for the problems of other women, particularly working class women.”
Working class women…? While Wendy Doniger spends her time in the Ivory Tower at the University of Chicago and vacations at Cape Cod while school is in session. By contrast, Palin is actually a working class woman. Remember she went back to work three days after following through on her ‘choice’ to have Trig.

My ultimate question for Dr. Doniger was, whether a woman should be defined by her behavior and political beliefs? Cleverly, she answered that she wasn’t expert on Palin’s horomones and she doesn’t doubt that Palin does have a womb. But she was clear that Palin wasn’t “acting like a woman.”

Ultimately, Dr. Doniger and her ilk, do want to define womanhood by how someone votes and their political beliefs

This is the height of sexism.

UPDATE: A clever NationalReview.com reader wrote on Dr. Doniger, “The left’s new position: Being homosexual is genetic. Being a woman is a choice.” Ah, the brilliance of leftist nuance.

http://thismodernage.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/dr-wendy-doniger-on-gov-sarah-palin/

[Fred Nerks]

http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate/tejo.html

Taj Mahal - A Hindu Temple-Palace

Excerpt:

The most valuable evidence of all that Tejo Mahalaya is not an Islamic building is in the Badshahnama which contains the history of the first twenty years of Shah Jahan’s reign. The writer Abdul Hamid has stated that Taj Mahal is a temple-palace taken from Jaipur’s Maharaja Jaisigh and the building was known as Raja Mansingh’s palace. This by itself is enough proof to state that Tejo Mahalaya is a Hindu structure captured, plundered and converted to a mausoleum by Shah Jahan and his henchmen. But I have taken the liberty to provide you with 109 other proofs and logical points which tell us that the structure known as the Taj Mahal is actually Tejo Mahalaya.

There is a similar story behind Every Islamic structure in Bharat. They are all converted Hindu structures. As I mentioned above, hundereds of thousands of temples in Bharat have been destroyed by the barbaric muslim invaders and I shall dedicate several articles to these destroyed temples. However, the scope of this article is to prove to you beyond the shadow of any doubt that Taj Mahal is Tejo Mahalaya and should be recognized as such! Not as a monument to the dead Mumtaz Mahal—an insignificant sex object in the incestous Shah Jahan’s harem of 5,000...

[ClearCase_guy]

Thanks. That’s the one.

[Cronos]

Hinduism is more a meta-religion, a collection of religions. At one extreme, you could say that everyone who lives in the indian subcontinent is hindu (in the cultural sense that is true, even among Muslims in India, but not so for Muslims in Pakistan who now, funnily enough, think they are Arabs).

And, many groups like the worshippers of Lord Ayyappa don't consider themselves hindu (why, I haven't got a clue).

[An_Indian]

Thats surprising to know. I know many people, some of them my own relatives, who are worshippers of Lord Ayyappa, yet they worship other Hindu gods and celebrate all Hindu festivals. This is the first time I am hearing something like this. In anycase, Lord Ayyappa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayyappan) is Shiva’s son. His worshipers are invariably Hindu!

[Cronos]

you are correct — I meant to say Ayyavazhi, not followers of Lord Ayyappa.

[swarthyguy]

>>cultural sense

Many, many Christians partake fully in many Hindu festivals, and social gatherings involving Hindus, Christians and Muslims are commonplace, at least in the big cities for major festival days......

Bollywood in particlar emphasizes cultural and national commonalities and unity while decrying “communalism”.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks FN!

[swarthyguy]

Funny thing is, I do know Muslims in America, in this case Shias from India, whose women used to wear saris and western dresses too, the former because of being from India.

Now, after years in America, the women are wearing traditional Islami types dresses after exhortations from their mullahs.

One of the men now claims the family’s ancestors as being from Yemen originally, instead of the Rann of Kutch.

[Cronos]

One of the men now claims the family’s ancestors as being from Yemen originally, instead of the Rann of Kutch.

The problem is that slam is really just bedo nationalism. Though the slamics will argue otherwise, there is a caste-system there: at the top are the descendents of the profit, like the Aga Khan etc. -- they have "holy blood". Then, next are the members of the profit's tribe, the Quraysh. Then, all the peninsular rabs etc.

so, in pure slammie lore, to be an "Arab" is to be part of the chosen ones. Hence, they all try to become Arabi -- Syrians are NOT Arabs, they are Arameans, Egyptians are not Arab, they are Egyptians, ditto for North Africans (all Berbers), or Iraqis (Assyrians or Mesopotamians) etc.

This is culminating in the Talibs who seek to make everyone a 6th century Bedo.

Remember, that even in the 6th century, all people speaking semitic languages weren't savages -- the Semitic speakers in Yemen, Nabatea (present day Jordan) were highly civilised -- it's just the Bedos who were the the barbarians.