Hindu Pakistan

Rahul Gandhi is useless, my apologies for the language.

He is a chuwwa, bloody scared of the Billi even at a hiss. He should not apologize or discourage Shashi Tharoor or Mani Iyer’s stand against BJP.  BJP does not understand grace and civility, they understand bullying back. The billi will pause if chuwwa shows strength. Did this weakling ask Modi and other creeps to apologize for the bad things they have said? 

Rahul is bad for the nation, need a strong leader like Shashi or Aiyer to lead, they have the balls.

Mike Ghouse
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/hindu-pakistan-not-quite-5290928/

Hindu Pakistan? Not Quite

Fanaticism has grown in India, but not been sanctified in its constitution, penal code
Written by Khaled Ahmed | Updated: August 4, 2018 11:29:43 am

Hindu fanaticism has spread under the BJP to alarm the world. (Illustration by C R Sasikumar)

Shashi Tharoor said India will become a Hindu Pakistan if the BJP wins elections in 2019. The BJP was deeply offended because in India, Pakistan is no model to follow. It wanted the Congress party president Rahul Gandhi to apologise for the remark by his partymen. 

Alarmed, the Congress distanced itself from Tharoor. But similarities on the surface can’t be ignored. Pakistan’s major living poet, Fahmida Riaz fled General Zia-ul Haq’s religious tyranny and sought refuge in India. If she thought she had walked into a secular paradise, she was mistaken and wrote a poem, “tum toh hum jaise hi niklay” (you turned out to be just like us) to express her disenchantment.

Hindu fanaticism has spread under the BJP to alarm the world but it is still not like what Pakistan has done to itself through its constitution and the penal code. Yet, India’s extremism will tend to shock more because of B R Ambedkar’s Constitution and how it is becoming irrelevant on the Indian street. Mamata Banerjee’s “Talibani Hindus” will become germane if India removes the word “secular”, put into the Constitution through an amendment by Indira Gandhi.

Islamabad High Court’s Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, who is under challenge by the Supreme Judicial Council for misconduct, thinks that the Ahmadi sect — already declared non-Muslim by the constitution and barred from voting together with Muslims and non-Muslims under a system of joint electorates — will have to be purged. The National Identity Card already requires identification by religion and Ahmadis are not supposed to declare themselves Muslims. What more does the judge want? You can guess. Maybe he wants them to walk around in special clothes so that they can be targeted by pious Muslims to earn paradise.

Pakistan is constitutionally unkind to its non-Muslims and women because the Islamic Law of Evidence gives them an unequal status. It is an ideological state which must converge through constitutional amendments to the “purity” attained by Iran, where formal opposition is not allowed and women are coerced to wear hijab. It is true that embracing a totalitarian version of Islam is what the Muslim states are converging to, provided the clerics know how to run the national economy and make people prosperous in their inhumanity. Pakistan is lost on the way but remains hopelessly path-dependent.

In many ways, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Recep Erdogan are comparable. They are taking the state back from constitutional pluralism to an order where human rights will be violated in the name of religion. Indian Muslims will suffer, as will the Kurds of Turkey. The erosion of democracy will be accompanied not by poverty but high growth rates, and a kind of apathy will spread with prosperity. Will India follow the “Muslim model” of Turkey or will it evolve its own “Hindu model”, which will make India look like Pakistan? The BJP will win the 2019 polls and Modi will keep on travelling away from the Nehruvian model that had kept India poor. He is definitely not like Erdogan or like a Pakistani general. He will be pragmatic and will not throw India into the isolationism that seduces most Muslim leaders.

But the rare Tharoors of our day will go on protesting. In Pakistan too, some people have a conscience and speak out. Tharoor began by embracing Indian nationalism and its anti-British Raj narrative and now resists India’s process of “going back” to the nationalism of its “real identity”. Tharoor will have a tougher time in Pakistan than in India. In Pakistan, the “quality of man” is much worse today than it was in 1947; and this is owed to the ideology the state had to embrace. Literacy has damaged the Pakistani man through textbooks that fail to help in the transfer of technology, given that an engineering university in “nuclear” Pakistan may boast a strong Islamiat department but is of no help in indigenising car manufacture like India.

The writer is consulting editor, Newsweek Pakistan

Gandhi’s talisman for Rahul

Mahatma Gandhi's talisman was strengthening the weaker parts of the society so the nation can stand firmly on all its columns. Otherwise, India would be stressed and limp along. If people around you are doing well, you will do well. The myopic men of BJP may look to it as charity rather than investment in human development. 

Years-ago, i wrote a piece called the nation is a bus that’s on a journey, imagine each tire is a community, and each tire has the necessary air to assure safe journey. In the 2nd bus, the tires with full air can scream at low air-tires, look I  worked hard to be full, you need to pick the slack and come up to our level  ... whose loss is it if they cannot? It behooves the majority to uplift the minority, not for charity but for parity and preventing a drag. The more people we pull out of ditches onto a level playing field,  the bigger the consumer market would be, all will gain from it.

Obviously, the bus with full air in the tires will have a safe journey over the limping one.
Whose journey is assured? 

We need to make a short video clip contrasting the difference to bring cohesion in society and get rid of the nonsensical idea that it is appeasement of minorities.


What do you think?
Mike
Thank you

Thank you

What do we do at the Center for Pluralism

http://centerforpluralism.com/what-do-we-do-at-center-for-pluralism   

 
Mike Ghouse

Center for Pluralism, Washington

Pluralism studies in religion, politics, culture, workplace and society.
(214) 325-1916- Cell
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Gandhi’s talisman for Rahul

Courtesy - Indian Express

It is good that even when an imaginary Hindu fear has paralyzed the Indian political mind and Muslims are being invisiblised, Rahul Gandhi and the Congress are returning to their Gandhian roots, even if their steps are yet not that firm.

“How can you be a party of Muslims?”, the leaders and ministers of the Bharatiya Janata Party fumed after an Urdu daily Inquilab reported Rahul Gandhi saying that the Congress was a party of Muslims. It turned out that it was a gross misrepresentation of his conversation with a group of intellectuals with Muslim names. This meeting was also decried as a partisan and divisive move. The BJP demanded an explanation from Rahul Gandhi, taunting that on the one hand he claimed to be a pucca Hindu, a Shiv bhakt, and on the other, he was meeting Muslim intellectuals and declaring the Congress a party of Muslims.

As if my Hinduness is defined by its opposition to Muslims or my standing up for the rights of Muslims presupposes disowning Hindus. Only a small mind can think like this. But India is now being ruled by a very narrow vision. In more democratic and normal times, one would have dismissed the attack by the BJP on Rahul Gandhi as absurd. But these are viciously extraordinary times. Keeping company with a Muslim or Christian can turn you into an anti-Hindu and anti-national.

It was good that Rahul Gandhi was not unsettled by the assault on him. He repeated that he and his party stood for all marginalised people, irrespective of their religious or caste identities.

Muslims, all of us know, are among the most marginalised communities in India according to all social and economic indicators. They continue to be Indian citizens with equal rights. But since they are like the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, who have been pushed behind other communities, they would need a supporting hand from the state to give them a sense of equal citizenship. That is why former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that the minorities had the first claim on national resources. Sadly, this statement has been twisted into a weapon against the Congress and no independent analyst or intellectual has thought of defending the ex-PM. For what he was saying was truly Gandhian.

It also gave you solace to see the Congress regaining that old, forgotten Gandhian courage. It was, in fact, the talisman he had given. When in doubt about the appropriateness of your action, you should think how it would impact the last person in the line.

Since the new mascot of the BJP is Gandhi, if we leave Ambedkar aside, let us remind the party of what Gandhi had said in the most difficult days of his life. His last days were the most trying times. He himself admitted that his battle with the British was not as difficult as the one that he was having with his people. Failing to persuade the Hindus and Sikhs of Delhi to end violence against Muslims, Gandhi decided to go on fast to cleanse himself and also the hearts of the hate-filled Hindus and Sikhs who wanted to make Delhi Muslim-free. While on fast, he was charged with partisanship: The fast was on behalf of the Muslims and he was pro-Muslim. Gandhi, as was his habit, discussed and responded to the charge in his daily deliberation.

I am fasting for Muslims and since the fast in on their behalf, it is against Hindus and Sikhs, Gandhi said. As polite and non-polemical as he was, Gandhi never believed in mincing words. He was fighting against those who called themselves Hindus and thought that they had not just the first but the only claim on India. All others had to live according to their wishes. Gandhi rejected this claim emphatically.

Gandhi saw himself as a man responsible for both Pakistan and India. So, he added that in India this fast was for Muslims and in Pakistan, it was for the Hindus and Sikhs.

A simple principle of statecraft to remember — minority rights are the foundation of a democracy. Always stand for the rights of the minorities because majorities tend to hegemonise the political, social and cultural space of a nation. This applies to all countries, religions and ethnicities. Had Gandhi been in Pakistan, he would have fought against the Sunni Muslim majoritarianism and in Sri Lanka, he would have stood up against the Buddhist Sinhalese majoritarianism. He wrote that he had learnt it from a European friend while he was in South Africa that when in doubt you must side with the minorities.

It is good that even when an imaginary Hindu fear has paralysed the Indian political mind and Muslims are being invisiblised, Rahul Gandhi and the Congress are returning to their Gandhian roots, even if their steps are yet not that firm. When in doubt, stand with the persecuted and the minorities. Do not fall into the trap of false equivalence. Would it win Congress seats? What this conviction did to Gandhi, we know. The walk back to Gandhi may not take the Congress to power. But it is a process of recovery of its conscience. No small gain.

Religious Scriptures: evokes conflict or builds harmony.

Wishing for India

Whenever I see the news like this - where powerful people have to resign for uttering racial comments, I wish India grows up to be a nation like the US. 


From Linked-in, " Papa John's founder John Schnatter has resigned as chairman of the company's board of directors, after previously apologizing for using a racial slur during a conference call in May. The resignation comes after Major League Baseball indefinitely suspended a promotion with the company due to fallout from Schnatter's comments. According to a company statement, a new chairman of the board will be appointed in the coming weeks. • Here’s what people are saying. "

We do have our own problems, but there is always a recourse to right the wrong.

In India, the extremists have no qualms in making discriminatory statements about Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Dalits, and others. There is no consequence to it, laws are there, but are not enforced. The leadership in India remains silent, encouraging the extremists to keep doing what they do.

At one time, India lead the nations in progressive thinking with a perfect constitution respecting all her citizens. Since Modi took over, India's social coherence is dimming. 

Freedom is not a value to the Modi's party, they want to force what one eats or not eats, ridicule what one believes..... 

Mike Ghouse

Nupur Sharma on Kashmir

Nupur, I'm glad you are making an effort to bring sense to this issue. It's not easy to be fair and just, but you've demonstrated it in this video.
The point you've made about seeing the humanity in each one is the point missing in the equation for the last 70 years.
To feel sad for the death of kids who got run over by the truck or to feel sad if the driver was lynched, and Gandhi’s example of burning the policemen are worth pondering and adopting as solutions to the conflict.
There was a week I stood up for Jews from the harassment by Pastor Phelps, the very next week I stood up against Israeli bombing of Gaza. Both situations were about standing up for human rights, and not the politics of taking sides.
Your thoughts and voice need amplification, so more people can see the issue as a human rights issue. Kashmiris of all hues, Muslims, pundits and all people must be a party to a just solution.
Deep down, all parties to the conflict are looking for a genuine, just and fair voice, and God has blessed you with that, and I stand with you in exploring solutions in building a cohesive Kashmir where no Kashmiri has to live in apprehension or fear of the other.
17 years ago, Varadarajan and I were speaking on a panel on Kashmir in Boulder at the University of Colorado. He has the same sense of justice and fairness as you do.
God bless you, Amen Here is the video)

https://www.facebook.com/TheWireUrdu/videos/2042622775990981/

Caste System in India is a bane on human rights, even the president is not spared

I have welcomed all religious groups in America to move towards the center, to reflect the universal values enshrined in their respective religions. The problem is never with religion, but those individuals who want to control their religions and of course God. 

I laud the Hindu Organizations in the United States, particularly those who are fighting to portray the egalitarian aspect of Hinduism to take up the fight with their mother organization in India; RSS, which is deeply entrenched in hatred for the other. Indeed, their survival is based on hatred for Christians, Muslims, and Dalits. Many of them have carried that hatred even to the United States.  They want all the benefits of equality this society offers but want to deny the same to Indians in India. 

Caste System is a bane on humanity.

Several Years ago, a Kannada film actress from a lower caste visited a Hindu Temple in Kerala - the world was going to come apart. They washed the Temple 7 times to clean it from her presence.

Now, the President of India, a Dalit, so-called untouchable, visited a Temple, he was hassled there. Not sure if they washed the temple 7 times.

As a kid, in my little town, when water lines were laid,  they placed a water tap at the corner of every street, a public tap for people to come and collect the water. Before that people drew the water from the wells.

I have written extensively about this, the "untouchables" had another line, and for every two people in the general line, one Dalit was allowed to collect the water. If the upper caste man's turn came after Dalits - there was a fricking show - washing the tap, and the whole area before the asshole collected the water. 

It was humiliating to the Dalits - and these guys did not have any conscience or sense of justice. I have fought against that, to have one each, but could not get all to stand in the same line. 

My focus is US and India, I care about other countries, but care more about these two. 

Mike Ghouse

President of India, his wife were 'misbehaved' during their visit to Puri Jagannath Temple

http://ummid.com/news/2018/June/28.06.2018/president-kovind-first-lady-misbhaved-at-puri-jagannath-temple.html

New Delhi: In a shocking portrayal of how deep-rooted discrimination in India is based on someone's caste, President Ram Nath Kovind and his wife Savita Kovind were misbehaved and harassed during their visit to Jagannath Temple in Odisha on March 18.

As reported by The Times of India some servitors had obstructed the path of the President near the shrine’s sanctum sanctorum. The incident came to light after Puri district administration initiated an investigation into the incident three months after it took place.

The newspaper in its report said a group of servitors blocked the President’s path near the sanctum sanctorum of the shrine on March 18 and shoved the First Lady.

Rashtrapati Bhavan had on March 19 sent a strong note of protest against the servitors’ conduct to Puri collector Aravind Agarwal, following which a meeting was held by the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) the next day.

On March 18, the temple was kept out of bounds for devotees from 6.35am to 8.40am to ensure smooth darshan for the dignitaries. A handful of servitors and government officers were allowed to accompany Kovind and his wife inside the temple, the report stated.

As per Pragativadi, a local daily, when President Kovind walked towards Ratna Singhasana in Puri Jagannath temple, a Khuntia Mekap servitor reportedly did not give the President proper space. The report added that some servitors ‘nudged’ the couple while they were having darshan.

The incident was confirmed by SJTA chief administrator, IAS officer Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra. Mohapatra, however, refused to elaborate further. “We discussed the matter at a meeting of the temple managing committee a few days ago. It is being investigated,” he said.

For all the latest News, Opinions and Views, download ummid.com App

What is a Good Life?

Note:  You’ll find an occasional sprinkling of Urdu/ Hindi/ Kannada languages in all my essays written at this particular site.. I let my Indianness ooze out of me with occasional references to things that are Indian. In all other writings, it is nothing but English, if you have a need to understand them, please shoot an email to MikeGhouseforIndia@gmail.com  

Is it about having what others have or living your own life? Until a decade ago I had a great materialistic life from the first point of view, but in the last several years, I’ve chosen to live a minimalist’s life, that is living with bare necessities, only what is needed. Indeed, happiness and desire for things are inversely proportional to each other.

If we focus on living our own lives, we’ll live happily. The problems begin when we want to have what others have, there is no end to having things, and there is nothing wrong with wanting and having stuff if that is what you want.

I am hoping, each one of us can find a new mirror to see ourselves, and purposefully determine what we want out of life.

Tum bhi ek din mar ja o’gay, hum bhi ek din mar’jayeingay
Ana ki Takraron ko mita kay, sukoon hum kab payeiengay?

One day, your life will come to an end, and mine too. If we keep arguing with our egos, when will we find peace?  When will we stop and smell the roses?

IT IS GOOD TO BE FREE

Whether it is new or an age-old tension between you and your sister, brother, parents, spouse or kids, and friends, customers or clients, how long will you carry the burden?

Tum bhi ek din marja o’gay, o bhi ek din mar’jayeingay

Death will end the complaints anyway, then why do we need to carry the burden through death? Why not end them now and enjoy the rest of the life? It is good to be free, free from anxieties and tensions.

Whether it is hatred for an individual, a group, or their faith, race, ethnicity, nationality, culture or other uniqueness, it is our burden, they quietly come and go, they may not even know about our hate, but we’d be still carrying the burden, anger, and pain.  As a corollary, you or your friends may have loved someone intensely during your teen years without the other person even knowing about it. Pyaar huwa chup ke se, huwa tha na?

LET YOUR LOVED ONES BE FREE 

All the stuff I have accumulated over the years would be useless whenever I croak.  It would be a hassle for my kids to get rid of that crap (good stuff to me) should something happen to me, and my kids have zero interest in anything I own except the family pictures.

Why should my kids spend time in disposing of the stuff they don’t need?   Should I burden them with a sense of guilt to get rid of that stuff?   Should I worry what they will do to my stuff after I am gone?  They have their own stuff they have accumulated like I did, and I should set them free to live their own lives.

Should I become a watchdog guarding my ego, my way of doing things, controlling and seeking perfection in others? To be tense and give tension to others?  It’s a choice we make, to enjoy life with or without things we need, and do things that give us peace of mind.

I came from a 5000 Square foot home with lots of great furniture, paintings, silverware, expensive knick knacks etc… you name it, I had it. Three years ago, I gave away everything I had and chose to live in an apartment with bare necessities. The 4th copy of one of the Russian paintings that I gave away sold for 45,000 to a Bible Museum in Dallas. I did not flinch losing it. I am glad, I did not feel the blood rushing either. I had some extraordinary sandalwood carvings – I am happy I don’t have any of that and when I die, I will go with freedom. I am free now. “Ab shaad hoon main, azaad hoon main, kuch kaam nahin hai aahon say.”

I FOUND MY MIRROR 

With a few exceptions that I regret, I have not maligned anyone in my life, or gone around telling bad things about others.  I have no grudges in my heart either.

What is the gain with hatred and malice or backbiting? It’s actually a loss, it keeps you bonded with the dislike of others.

Asking others to forgive you for your shortcomings is not giving away control of your life, but giving an expression tof how you feel. If they act up, you forgive them and move on.  Let it not be you who gives up on hope.

Let’s tie the loose ends of life, every day and live a full life!  My mother tied the loose ends, and I was able to facilitate Najma, my late wife to do the same, and here I am, making the efforts.

Michami Dukadam friends. Let’s start our life afresh with a clean slate, now, from today!

I went to Dallas to attend celebrating a friend’s life who had passed away a week ago, he was a great soul. It was time to reflect on life. While there, I went around in Plano with my son and his family. The Quality of life is undoubtedly far better here than most places to raise a family, and the amenities and facilities were incredible. Plano and Richardson are beautiful cities with God’s diversity of creation, people of different races, faiths, and ethnicities were all there. I went to watch my Grandson play soccer indoors, and it was a joy to see all of God’s creation there.

On the way back home to DC, I was sitting on the plane next to a friendly sociable woman, and we had a good healthy conversation over a period of four hours. She had so many experiences to share, and occasionally my mind wandered at the possibility of taking this conversation further, and each time, I dropped the idea. Thanks to the problem in the plane, it was delayed by an hour and I was secretly humming the song, “Aye abr-e Karam, aaj itna baras…”

As we landed at Reagan Airport and walked towards the baggage, another song helped me preserve these beautiful moments.  “Chalte Chalte, younhi koi mil gaya tha.” In the journey of life, I ran into someone,  those few moments were pleasant, and let them remain so, and let them remain a dream. We parted, I did not ask for her phone number nor she did.

For a few moments the desire to live that life again surfaced, but am glad, I quickly came out of it and woke up reminding myself of what I’ve chosen. My commitment is to Pluralism, and I should stick to it until the Center of Pluralism is doing everything I wanted it to do. I have to live a purposeful life and leave behind ideas and practices that may benefit one soul or the other. This is not a noble thing or a great thing, it is simply what I want to contribute to my planet.

Tying the loose ends of life – the real story of my late wife Najma
http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2008/06/celebration-of-spirit-of-volunteerism.html

Mike Ghouse