[INDOLOGY] Ananya Vajpeyi on Hindutva, caste, and Brahminical values

Thu Oct 8 18:42:10 UTC 2015

one paragraph of this USCIRF report looks interesting

"Violations against Sikhs India’s Sikh community has long pursued a change
to Article 25 of India’s constitution which states, “Hindus shall be
construed as including a reference to persons Reportedly, local police
seldom provide protection, refuse to accept complaints, rarely investigate,
and in a few cases encourage Christians to move or hide their religion.
USCIRF | ANNUAL REPORT 2015 151 INDIA professing the Sikh, Jain or Buddhist
religion, and the reference to Hindu religious institutions shall be
construed accordingly.” The lack of recognition of Sikhism as a distinct
religion *denies Sihks access to social services or employment and
educational preferences that are available to other religious minority
*communities
and to scheduled caste Hindus. (This is also true for the other faiths
listed in Article 25.) Sikhs are often harassed and pressured to reject
religious practices and beliefs that are distinct to Sikhism, such as
dress, unshorn hair, and the carrying of religious items, including the
kirpan." (pp.150-151)

 NCM profile is clear on who is minority
http://ncm.nic.in/Profile_of_NCM.html
http://ncm.nic.in/pdf/success%20stories/EU%20Ambassador%20reply.pdf

Ananya Says

"*Adhikaara *is once again usurped exclusively for *Hindus, men and upper
castes*......
Right-wing Hindu NRIs speak of the *adhikaara **to study Indic knowledge
systems* and Indian history, which according to them belong only to
Indians, Hindus and those representing “The Tradition” (howsoever dubious
their definition or mistaken their grasp of “tradition”). Foreigners,
Muslims, Christians and critical or dissenting voices, even among Hindus,
and especially from women scholars, are summarily dismissed through
gestures of *bahishkaara*,"

Ananya Vajapeyee seems to be not aware of the facts that more and more
people from so called bahiskrta class are in samskrit studies here.
http://www.sanskrit.nic.in/Ins_shastra_vv_datewise.pdf

Years after years  all kinds of people from Europe Us and other parts fly
to India to study samskrit, yoga etc. who is discriminating?
Even Wendy Doniger studied in india for one year.
is criticising a Bahiskaara?

I hope "it" prevails.

On Thu, Oct 8, 2015 at 10:24 PM, Audrey Truschke <audrey.truschke at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I face questions about data collection in India, how do we know if
> problems with intolerance have increased, etc. from undergraduate students
> with some regularity. One of my go-to sources is USCIRF reports, which
> provide a concise overview of the escalation of attacks against religious
> minorities in India and the key players involved. See the most recent one
> here:
> http://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/India%202015.pdf
>
> I'll also note that it is not hard to find criticisms of the USCIRF.
> Especially after the 2015 report on India came out, there was a flurry of
> op-eds in the Indian press, several of which I find very valuable for
> teaching purposes.
>
>  Audrey
>
>
> Audrey Truschke
> Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow
> Department of Religious Studies
> Stanford University
> e- <audrey.truschke at gmail.com>mail <audrey.truschke at gmail.com> | website
> <http://www.stanford.edu/~truschke/>
>
> On Thu, Oct 8, 2015 at 12:26 AM, Nityanand Misra <nmisra at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> >
>> > Similarly, Tufail ignores what Sonia Faleiro (see her Op-Ed in the New
>> York Times) and others have been pointing out for some time: that the
>> frequency of attacks on scholars, writers, and religious minorities has
>> increased observably since the installment of the current BJP government,
>>
>> Dear Tyler,
>>
>> While we may differ in our views, I would like to know if the statement
>> that the frequency of attacks has observably increased since May 2014 is
>> based on a direct source, e.g. statistics on incidents charged with
>> corresponding sections in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as reported by the
>> National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) of India? Or is it based on indirect
>> sources like proportion of news coverage or number of editorials written on
>> certain specific events?
>>
>> If the former, I would be interested in seeing the data myself. If the
>> latter, there is a possibility the conclusion may be different when we look
>> at the actual data.
>>
>> I am reminded of similar news coverage late last year and earlier this
>> year, when there was a spate of news articles and editorials suggesting
>> that incidents targeting churches in Delhi were a part of a pattern of
>> rising intolerance under the new government. Most news sources did not
>> report comparative statistics from previous years or statistics of
>> incidents targeting other religious places. One weekly source, The Sunday
>> Standard (published by the New Indian Express Group), did; and here is the
>> article in which data showed a different picture:
>>
>> http://www.newindianexpress.com/thesundaystandard/Stealing-Communal-Advantage-Leaves-Cops-Fuming/2015/02/15/article2668964.ece
>>
>> This article was referred by Rupa Subrahmanya in her article Crying wolf:
>> The narrative of the ‘Delhi church attacks’ flies in the face of facts
>> published in February 2015 by Firstpost:
>>
>> http://www.firstpost.com/india/crying-wolf-the-narrative-of-the-delhi-church-attacks-flies-in-the-face-of-facts-2101105.html
>>
>> Kind regards, Nityanand
>>
>
>
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-- 
Veeranarayana N.K. Pandurangi
Director of Academics
Dean, Faculty of Vedantas
Karnakata Samskrita University,
Pampa Mahakavi Road,
Chamarajpet, Bengaluru.

अथ चेत्त्वमिमं धर्म्यं संग्रामं न करिष्यसि। ततः स्वधर्मं कीर्तिं च हित्वा
पापमवाप्स्यसि।।
तस्मादुत्तिष्ठ कौन्तेय युद्धाय कृतनिश्चयः। निराशीर्निर्ममो भूत्वा युध्यस्व
विगतज्वरः।। (भ.गी.)

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