Free Republic

The king (left) is spending five days in India India and Bhutan are due to update their friendship treaty to give the Himalayan kingdom greater control over many areas of governance. The revised 57-year-old agreement will allow Bhutan more freedom in areas of foreign policy and military purchases. The Bhutanese monarch, Jigme Khesar Namgyel, will meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi to sign the treaty. In 2008 Bhutan becomes a parliamentary democracy with a new constitution. The meeting is part of a six-day visit by the Bhutanese monarch to India. After taking over from his father, King...

Archipelago-subcontinent ties ancient Rita A. Widiadana, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar A global trade system involving Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent and the Mediterranean basin might have existed since pre-historic times based on various archaeological findings on the island of Bali and several archaeological sites across Indonesia, a noted archaeologist says. I Wayan Ardhika, professor of archaeology at the University of Udayana in Denpasar, theorized that the findings in northeastern coast of Bali, especially at the pre-historic sites of Sembiran and Pacung revealed innumerable Indian ceramics, believed to be the largest collection of ancient Indian-made roulette ware (between 150 BC and...

A scheme to make the shallow strait between India and Sri Lanka navigable has upset environmentalists and the port of Colombo. To its supporters, it is a dream project, no less than the “Suez of the east”; to its opponents it is an environmental catastrophe. Either way, plans to dredge a channel in the seabed between India and Sri Lanka will be controversial, and could alter maritime and military operations in the Indian Ocean. The $400m project, called the Sethusamudram Ship Canal, involves digging a 152km, 300m-wide channel through the Palk Strait, a shallow stretch of sea separating the south...

'Lost river' could rewrite history books February 19 2002 at 08:33AM Madras India, - The discovery of an ancient city on the seabed off India's western coast has scientists salivating at the prospect of a fundamental rewrite in the chronology of ancient human society. Preliminary tests have suggested the site in the Gulf of Cambay off Gujarat state could date as far back as 7 500 BC, several thousand years older than what were previously known to be the first significant urban settlements. The discovery was made purely by chance last year as oceanographers from the National Institute of ...

Indian Police Fire at Peaceful Sikh Protestors India Again Shows It Is Not a Democracy WASHINGTON, D.C., August 5, 2002–The Times of India reported on August 1 that police in Malout fired on a crowd of peaceful protestors, injuring many of them. Several have been admitted to Civil Hospital, Malout. Eight protestors were arrested. The police used tear gas on the demonstrators. Two people suffered bullet wounds, according to the article. The demonstrators were protesting against a so-called religious function organized by the Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan which was aimed at undermining the Sikh religion and slandering the Sikh gurus,...

Charity... or terrorism? By Robert M. Hathaway It is probably advisable for the American Government to hold an official inquiry into fund-raising in the U.S. by groups implicated in the Gujarat violence. TERRORISM COMES in many guises. An armed assault against Parliament House in New Delhi. A suicide bomber detonating high explosives in a crowded bazaar. Political assassination. Angry young men flying commercial aircraft into the World Trade Center. And, yes, hate-consumed mobs butchering innocent women and children. The people of India need no instruction from foreigners regarding the moral issues raised by this spring's communal violence in Gujarat. Except...

Indian Government Admits Its Responsibility for Massacre in ChithisinghporaEvidence a Fraud, Indian Soldiers Implicated Council of Khalistan Said India Was Responsible When Massacre HappenedContinues Pattern of Pitting Minorities Against Each OtherWASHINGTON, D.C., August 2, 2002–According to today’s Washington Times, the Indian government has admitted that its forces were responsible for the massacre of 35 Sikhs in the village of Chithisinghpora, Kashmir on March 20, 2000. India finally admitted that the evidence it used to implicate alleged Kashmiri “militants” in the murders was faked. This is a victory for Sikhs, including the Council of Khalistan, who have maintained that the Indian...

The danger of an armed conflict between India and Pakistan may have lessened but their propaganda war has heightened. Mobilizing troops may have cost India more but it is a small price to pay to win on the propaganda front, which indeed it has. New Delhi has succeeded in making the world believe that the cause of discontent and bloodletting in Kashmir is not the repression by India but the terrorists coming from Pakistan. The long-standing issue of the people's right to self-determination has thus been reduced to terrorism. What turn of opinion and events could be sadder for a...

INDIA -- (House of Representatives - June 18, 2002) [Page: H3612] GPO's PDF --- (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.) Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to condemn the atrocities committed by Hindu extremists in Gujarat, India , against Muslims and other minority groups. Last week I met with human rights, academic and religious leaders from India who shared reports documenting the designs of the extremist groups against Muslims, Christians, Dalits and others. Trained combatants in Gujarat entered villages and attacked men, women and...

Research and Analysis Wing [RAW] The Cabinet Secretariat Research and Analysis Wing [RAW] is India's foreign intelligence agency. RAW has become an effective instrument of Indian national power, and has assumed a significant role in formulating India's domestic and foreign policies. RAW has engaged in disinformation campaigns, espionage and sabotage against Pakistan and other neighboring countries. RAW has enjoyed the backing of successive Indian governments in these efforts. Working directly under the Prime Minister, the structure, rank, pay and perks of the Research & Analysis Wing are kept secret from Parliament. In 1968 India established this special branch of its...

IS INDIA AN ALLY OR A TERRORIST STATE? -- HON. DAN BURTON (Extensions of Remarks - June 06, 2002) [Page: E974] GPO's PDF --- HON. DAN BURTON OF INDIANA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Wednesday, June 5, 2002 Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, recently, the news website NewsMax.com ran a vary comprehensive article called ``India : Allies or Instigators?'' It details India's pattern of abuse against the Christians, Sikhs , Muslims, and other minorities, its anti-Americanism, and its support of terrorism against its neighbors. The article shows that the Indian government has killed tens of thousands of Sikhs ,...

June 3, 2002IN THE SHADOW OF SHIVACrazed Hindu-fascists threaten the world "I am become Death, the shatterer of worlds." In the wake of 9/11, much has been written of the link between religion – specifically, Islam – and the rise of the terrorist threat: the religion of Mohammed, we are told, represents a dire threat to the West, comparable, in scope and potential lethality, to that of the old Soviet Union – perhaps greater. In recent days, we have been subjected to warnings that this threat will "inevitably" take the form of a nuclear device, detonated, perhaps, in an American...

Congratulating the People of PakistanGauri and Shaheen Missile Tests Have Deterred India’s Plan to Attack In Case of Nuclear War, Punjab and Kashmir Will Be DestroyedPeace in South Asia Depends on Freedom for All Nations and Peoples WASHINGTON, D.C., May 28, 2002 – The Council of Khalistan congratulates the people of Pakistan on the successful tests of their Gauri and Shaheen missiles. These missiles are a shield that deters India from starting a war, according to Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan. The Council of Khalistan is the government pro tempore of Khalistan, the Sikh...

May 21, 2002 Clouds of War Between India and Pakistan GatherIndia Is on the Verge of Disintegration Sikh Soldiers and Officers Should Not Fight for India But to Free KhalistanNow Is the Perfect Time to Launch Shantmai Morcha to Liberate Khalistan Dear Khalsa Ji: WAHE GURU JI KA KHALSA, WAHE GURU JI KI FATEH! War clouds are gathering in South Asia. War between India and Pakistan looks imminent. It is expected to break out this fall. Troops have been gathering on the borders, and the recent killings in Kashmir provide the Indian government with an excuse to attack Pakistan. The...

The recent rounds of violence between religious groups in India do more than reveal the fragility of India's secular state. They highlight the inability of Indian democracy to combat what is essentially a fascist onslaught. At first glance what happened in India appears to be another--if extreme--case of religious passion gone awry. A train carrying Hindu activists to the disputed religious site of Ayodhya was firebombed by a mob, killing 58 of the activists. Several days of revenge attacks by Hindus against Muslims followed in the state of Gujarat, killing over 700. However, India's Hindu Nationalists have always resembled 1930s...