12-30-2007, 11:33 PM
Available at Amazon:
<b>Lies, Lies and More Lies: The Campaign to Defame Hindu/Indian Nationalism </b> (Paperback)
by Vivek (Author)
Excerpt p 63:
When a quarter million people belonging to a specific community are driven from their homes to become refugees in their own country, when thousands of families see their abodes go up in flames right before their eyes, when men have to endure the agony of their daughters and wives being blatantly molested in their presence or carted away as booty and we, as a people and a nation choose to remain mute spectators, what does it say of us? Yes, this is the heart-rending tale of the Kashmiri Pandits, forsaken and forgotten by a society of which they are a part, ignored by a press that is supposed to champion the cause of the oppressed, and betrayed by a nation of which they are citizens. This is the ethnic cleansing the worldâand more importantly Indiaâchooses not to see and appears to have forgotten.
To drive home the magnitude of the crime that is occurring, let me cite some statistical data. These are figures derived from independent international organizations. The Global IDP project of the Norwegian Refugee Council is an international non-governmental body working for the welfare of internally displaced people. Their records indicate that close to 350,000 (three and a half lakh*) Kashmiri Pandits have been displaced from the Valley, constituting more than 90 percent of the Hindu population of Kashmir.2 The exodus has not stopped; unopposed threats by militants ensure its continuity. In 2004, another 160 of the remaining 700 families fled the Valley.
Kashmiri Pandits are the original inhabitants of Kashmir with a culture and tradition that goes back 5,000 years. At the beginning of the century there were close to 1 million Kashmiri Pandits. Today, not more than 9,000 Pandits remain in the Valley according to Global IDP. Others put the figure even lower, at 3,000. Data from the National Human Rights Commission indicate that Kashmiri Hindus made up 15 percent of the population in 1941. By 1991, their numbers had dwindled to comprise a mere 0.1 percent of the population. These are the stark facts that tell the tale of the Kashmiri Hindu. When the population of a specific community is decimated by fear from over 1 million to less than 10,000 and now constitutes a bare 0.1 percent of the population, there is only one word to describe it: ethnic cleansing. No amount of explanations, no amount papering over can contradict this harsh reality. Neither can this be wished away as the propaganda of Hindu communalists. Figures donât lie. In addition at least 1,000 Pandits have been killed and close to 16,000 homes have been burnt. To sum it all up: 350,000 displaced; over 1,000 killed; and at least 16,000 homes burnt. Let these figures sink in for you to decide for yourself the enormity of this human calamity.
The world has seen other instances of attempted ethnic cleansing in modern times, but that of the Kashmiri Pandits stands out as the only one that has been carried out to completion with near-total eradication of a community from a region. While in Rwanda and Bosnia the numbers involved were larger, the redeeming feature was that the international community stepped in, aborted the ethnic cleansing and reversed the situation. In contrast, nothing of that sort is in the offing in Kashmir, making it by far the largest and worst case of successful ethnic cleansing.
* One lakh is equal to 100,000.
2. IDMC Online, http://www.internal-displacement.org, February 24, 2007.
Comment
Why Hindu Nationalism?
5:57 PM PST, November 26, 2007
Lies, Lies and More Lies. The Campaign to Defame Hindu/Indian Nationalism (ISBN0595435491)
Excerpt p 3:
Indian history from the seventh century onwards till the twentieth century has been one long, tragic story of repeated foreign invasions, inhumane butchery of millions of innocent Hindus, senseless destruction of hundreds of Hindu temples, and economic devastation that reduced one of the richest countries in the world to unimaginable penury. Islamic invaders who reached Indiaâs borders in the seventh century a.d. gave a new meaning and a new dimension to the words destruction, loot, repression, and human carnage.
The brutalities of this era are clearly corroborated by world historians and are not the fantasies of Hindu nationalists as some in India claim. Alain Danielou in Histoire de lâInde writes:
From the time Muslims started arriving, around a.d. 632, the history of India becomes a long, monotonous series of murders, massacres, spoilations, destructions. It is, as usual, in the name of âa holy warâ of their faith, of their sole God, that the barbarians have destroyed civilisations, wiped out entire races.
American historian Will Durant in The Story of Civilization categorically states that the Islamic conquest of India is âprobably the bloodiest story in historyâ[emphasis mine]. He adds: âIt is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precarious thing, whose delicate complex of order and liberty, culture and peace may at any time be overthrown by barbarians invading from withoutâ¦.â
More recently Francois Gautier, the India correspondent for the French newspaper Le Figaro has this to say about the Muslim invasion in his book Rewriting Indian History:
Let it be said right away: the massacres perpetrated by Muslims in India are unparalleled in history, bigger than the holocaust of the Jews by the Nazis; or the massacre of the Armenians by the Turks; more extensive even than the slaughter of the South American native populations by the invading Spanish and Portuguese.
It was in this setting that the ideology of Hindutva (Hindu Nationalism) began taking shape. I would have considered it perverse had such all-consuming evil evoked no resistance or response from the Hindus. I would have considered the Hindus effete had they not rebelled against this injustice. It rankles me even today when people try to gloss over these atrocities or attempt to mitigate the magnitude of these crimes.
I am willing to forgive, but I am not willing to forget. For to forget is to leave the door open for these atrocities to recur.
Comment
Does a billion-strong community which accounts for 80 percent of the country's population require protection?
5:22 AM PST, November 17, 2007
Excerpt p 8:Lies,lies and More Lies.The Campaign to defame Hindu/Indian Nationalism (ISBN 0595435491)
Today when I write this it is July 3, 2004.The Amarnath yatra (Hindu pilgrimage) is under way in Kashmir, India. But it is shrouded in controversy. The state government of Kashmir, a part of the democratic, secular nation of India is imposing restrictions on the duration of the yatra.They have a point: the yatra is a plum target for Islamic militants operating freely within the borders of the so-called secular democratic nation of India. But is it not the duty of the government to provide the security and freedom to practice any religion anywhere in India? Or is that a right only conferred to the non-Hindu or non Vedic religions? Have you ever heard of any Muslim religious pilgrimage in India being targeted violently by Hindus? So, if in a democratic, secular nation with an 80% Hindu majority, the Hindus need protection to practice their religion and if there are restrictions imposed on their religious practices, am I wrong to infer that the Hindus are a community whose rights need to be safeguarded?
Read also about how millions of dollars donated to Hindu temples in India are siphoned by the government to benefit Islamic institutions and those of other religions in direct contravention of secular principles in Lies, lies and More Lies. The Campaign to defame Hindu/Indian Nationalism (Ch. 15).
Comment
⺠Read more of Vivek's Blog
Inside
<b>Lies, Lies and More Lies: The Campaign to Defame Hindu/Indian Nationalism </b> (Paperback)
by Vivek (Author)
Excerpt p 63:
When a quarter million people belonging to a specific community are driven from their homes to become refugees in their own country, when thousands of families see their abodes go up in flames right before their eyes, when men have to endure the agony of their daughters and wives being blatantly molested in their presence or carted away as booty and we, as a people and a nation choose to remain mute spectators, what does it say of us? Yes, this is the heart-rending tale of the Kashmiri Pandits, forsaken and forgotten by a society of which they are a part, ignored by a press that is supposed to champion the cause of the oppressed, and betrayed by a nation of which they are citizens. This is the ethnic cleansing the worldâand more importantly Indiaâchooses not to see and appears to have forgotten.
To drive home the magnitude of the crime that is occurring, let me cite some statistical data. These are figures derived from independent international organizations. The Global IDP project of the Norwegian Refugee Council is an international non-governmental body working for the welfare of internally displaced people. Their records indicate that close to 350,000 (three and a half lakh*) Kashmiri Pandits have been displaced from the Valley, constituting more than 90 percent of the Hindu population of Kashmir.2 The exodus has not stopped; unopposed threats by militants ensure its continuity. In 2004, another 160 of the remaining 700 families fled the Valley.
Kashmiri Pandits are the original inhabitants of Kashmir with a culture and tradition that goes back 5,000 years. At the beginning of the century there were close to 1 million Kashmiri Pandits. Today, not more than 9,000 Pandits remain in the Valley according to Global IDP. Others put the figure even lower, at 3,000. Data from the National Human Rights Commission indicate that Kashmiri Hindus made up 15 percent of the population in 1941. By 1991, their numbers had dwindled to comprise a mere 0.1 percent of the population. These are the stark facts that tell the tale of the Kashmiri Hindu. When the population of a specific community is decimated by fear from over 1 million to less than 10,000 and now constitutes a bare 0.1 percent of the population, there is only one word to describe it: ethnic cleansing. No amount of explanations, no amount papering over can contradict this harsh reality. Neither can this be wished away as the propaganda of Hindu communalists. Figures donât lie. In addition at least 1,000 Pandits have been killed and close to 16,000 homes have been burnt. To sum it all up: 350,000 displaced; over 1,000 killed; and at least 16,000 homes burnt. Let these figures sink in for you to decide for yourself the enormity of this human calamity.
The world has seen other instances of attempted ethnic cleansing in modern times, but that of the Kashmiri Pandits stands out as the only one that has been carried out to completion with near-total eradication of a community from a region. While in Rwanda and Bosnia the numbers involved were larger, the redeeming feature was that the international community stepped in, aborted the ethnic cleansing and reversed the situation. In contrast, nothing of that sort is in the offing in Kashmir, making it by far the largest and worst case of successful ethnic cleansing.
* One lakh is equal to 100,000.
2. IDMC Online, http://www.internal-displacement.org, February 24, 2007.
Comment
Why Hindu Nationalism?
5:57 PM PST, November 26, 2007
Lies, Lies and More Lies. The Campaign to Defame Hindu/Indian Nationalism (ISBN0595435491)
Excerpt p 3:
Indian history from the seventh century onwards till the twentieth century has been one long, tragic story of repeated foreign invasions, inhumane butchery of millions of innocent Hindus, senseless destruction of hundreds of Hindu temples, and economic devastation that reduced one of the richest countries in the world to unimaginable penury. Islamic invaders who reached Indiaâs borders in the seventh century a.d. gave a new meaning and a new dimension to the words destruction, loot, repression, and human carnage.
The brutalities of this era are clearly corroborated by world historians and are not the fantasies of Hindu nationalists as some in India claim. Alain Danielou in Histoire de lâInde writes:
From the time Muslims started arriving, around a.d. 632, the history of India becomes a long, monotonous series of murders, massacres, spoilations, destructions. It is, as usual, in the name of âa holy warâ of their faith, of their sole God, that the barbarians have destroyed civilisations, wiped out entire races.
American historian Will Durant in The Story of Civilization categorically states that the Islamic conquest of India is âprobably the bloodiest story in historyâ[emphasis mine]. He adds: âIt is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precarious thing, whose delicate complex of order and liberty, culture and peace may at any time be overthrown by barbarians invading from withoutâ¦.â
More recently Francois Gautier, the India correspondent for the French newspaper Le Figaro has this to say about the Muslim invasion in his book Rewriting Indian History:
Let it be said right away: the massacres perpetrated by Muslims in India are unparalleled in history, bigger than the holocaust of the Jews by the Nazis; or the massacre of the Armenians by the Turks; more extensive even than the slaughter of the South American native populations by the invading Spanish and Portuguese.
It was in this setting that the ideology of Hindutva (Hindu Nationalism) began taking shape. I would have considered it perverse had such all-consuming evil evoked no resistance or response from the Hindus. I would have considered the Hindus effete had they not rebelled against this injustice. It rankles me even today when people try to gloss over these atrocities or attempt to mitigate the magnitude of these crimes.
I am willing to forgive, but I am not willing to forget. For to forget is to leave the door open for these atrocities to recur.
Comment
Does a billion-strong community which accounts for 80 percent of the country's population require protection?
5:22 AM PST, November 17, 2007
Excerpt p 8:Lies,lies and More Lies.The Campaign to defame Hindu/Indian Nationalism (ISBN 0595435491)
Today when I write this it is July 3, 2004.The Amarnath yatra (Hindu pilgrimage) is under way in Kashmir, India. But it is shrouded in controversy. The state government of Kashmir, a part of the democratic, secular nation of India is imposing restrictions on the duration of the yatra.They have a point: the yatra is a plum target for Islamic militants operating freely within the borders of the so-called secular democratic nation of India. But is it not the duty of the government to provide the security and freedom to practice any religion anywhere in India? Or is that a right only conferred to the non-Hindu or non Vedic religions? Have you ever heard of any Muslim religious pilgrimage in India being targeted violently by Hindus? So, if in a democratic, secular nation with an 80% Hindu majority, the Hindus need protection to practice their religion and if there are restrictions imposed on their religious practices, am I wrong to infer that the Hindus are a community whose rights need to be safeguarded?
Read also about how millions of dollars donated to Hindu temples in India are siphoned by the government to benefit Islamic institutions and those of other religions in direct contravention of secular principles in Lies, lies and More Lies. The Campaign to defame Hindu/Indian Nationalism (Ch. 15).
Comment
⺠Read more of Vivek's Blog
Inside