In India, All Religions Join In 'The Big Day' (Christmas)

India, the birthplace of Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism, marks the birth of Jesus with a national holiday.

lol...that’s just part of it! Limey’s aside, it is important for two reasons, first it is so extensive in it’s material coverage and second, it is so ancient, as much as 10,000 years ancient!

Anyways, to end this conversation on a civil tone, one must take a note of how many religions began and flourished in India (Hindustan). More major religions are being practiced in modern India than any other major country. That says something about tolerance. Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by a fanatic mainly because he preached tolerance.

I have been out of India for half a century. But I know India, having spent my first 20 years there. Among my best friends there were Sikhs, Muslims & Jains. We never argued about religion. I observed some of the Muslim rituals with wonder but never with disdain. And I observed a lot since my house was surrounded by a bevy of Muslim residents.

The OP talks about religion based national holidays. India celebrates them all! The world’s most populous democracy can probably considered 8th wonder of the world, when you consider how many different cultures, languages, religions exist there, and for 65 years they have had continuous elected government. Then look at Pakistan, they have one religion predominantly, one language, and a host of changes between dictatorships and elections. Pakistan was integral part of Hindustan before Partition in 1947. Goes to show you the difference between predominant Muslim Pakistan and predominant Hindu India.

Btw its time Indians look beyond Pakistan Not only Indians, but also how about our American leaders? They keep feeding Billions to Pakistan at US taxpayer's expense. All that while all the attacks on our troops in Afghan come from across the border in Pakistan.

The Indians can't ignore Pakistan so long as they keep sending terrorists every month to Kashmir and other parts of India such as Mumbai. Indians can't ignore Pakistan anymore than US can ignore Al Qaeda or Israel can ignore Hamas & Hezbollah.

US is in cahoots with Pakistan and the Muslim world. Always has been and will continue being so for the foreseeable future. And it doesn’t matter even if Republicans come to power. It will still be the same. It’s better we accept that as the reality and deal with it accordingly.

And it’s not like India is completely helpless. India is a big and powerful country and economically growing everyday. Let US send billions of dollars and weaponry to Pakistan. Won’t make any difference at all. It would have been good to have the US as an ally but India never needed US help in the past and definitely does need it now. It would be interesting to see if US can even survive four more years of Obama before folding up.

Don’t pin your hopes on US, India can do a lot on her own.

You are right about the military comparison. I don’t think India is the least bit worried about Pakistan. It is nothing more than a nuisance to deal with monthly terrorist attacks. These two countries have already fought 3 or 4 wars, each war being more disastrous for Pakistan.

But I can assure you leaders in Pakistan are having hearty laughter every evening during cocktail hour about the dumb Americans.

The entire middle-east strategy is foolish. After Trillion dollars in treasure and thousands of soldiers dead or maimed, Iraq is a disaster, with Iran firmly in charge of events. Afghanistan is even a bigger disaster because the population is largely tribal and uneducated.

The excuse our leaders proclaim is we need the oil from middle-east. What difference does it make who sells us the oil, a dictator, a Mullah or a Islamist. They all have to sell oil to eat. Most of the oil from that region now goes to China. We get most of ours from Canada, Mexico & S. America.

So here is grand dichotony...we fight wars in middle-east with money borrowed from China to protect oil lanes to China! I am certain Chinese leaders must also be laughing their heads of during cocktail hour about the dumb Americans.

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