Harassment of Sikhs in New York and Mississippi

HARASSMENT OF SIKHS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE
Dr. Prabhojot Singh and Jageet Singh harassed in New York and Mississippi

URL - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/harassment-of-sikhs-in-ne_b_3997899.html 

We have ways to go to fully realize the value of our constitution, it is violated every day. We take the pledge that we are one nation under God with liberty and Justice for all, and yet we go out and tear the nation apart on the basis of race, religion or sexual orientation, and take away the liberty and justice of others.  It is not acceptable, particularly if the violations come from the law enforcement officials. We have to fix this and we need all Americans to take a stand.

How many of us value our pledge, the pledge of allegiance?

Of course, the majority values it, but the tiny minority of about 1/10th of 1% of the people does not value any laws. That is the case in every aspect of life. It is that tiny group of individuals who violate the laws of the land or guidance of the religions as they did in Kenyan Shooting and bombing the Church in Pakistan.

Unity Day USA - September 11, 2012

Dr. Prabhjot Singh, a Professor at Columbia University lives in one of the most urban of cities of America, New York. Last week he faced utter humiliation. Police said one of the men pulled Prabhjot Singh's beard while the teenagers yelled "get Osama" and "terrorist." Singh, who wears a turban per his Sikh religious tradition, and is a public advocate for interfaith dialogue, was kicked several times to the body and face.

Jageet Singh, a truck driver was pulled over by the Police in Mississippi, and the officers demanded that "Mr. Singh remove the Kirpan. When Mr. Singh explained that he was a Sikh and that the Kirpan was a sacred religious article, the officers laughed at him and mocked his religious beliefs. One officer declared that all Sikhs are "depraved" and "terrorists." They continued to taunt him, and forced Mr. Singh to circle his truck with his hands on his turban while they searched the vehicle. Finally, not content with this humiliation, they arrested him, claiming that Mr. Singh had refused to obey an officer's lawful command." On the top of that, Judge Rimes, ordered that Mr. Singh would not be allowed to re-enter the courtroom unless he removed "that rag" from his head and threatened to call Mr. Singh last on the docket if he continued to wear the religious headdress.  

First of all, as Americans we condemn the behavior of the teens, police officers and the judge, this is not acceptable in our country, and secondly, we need to penalize the involved and have them pay for it to set a precedent that this behavior is not acceptable.

What do we need to do in the long run? 

We need to learn about each other, not because it is a noble thing, but because we all have to live together with least tensions.

Our Founding Fathers laid the ground work for such a society, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

 

Martin Luther King Jr. said that we should be judged by what we can deliver, rather than our race, religion or ethnicity.

Chief Seattle, a Native American said this perfectly, "All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does it to himself."

How are we going to preserve that delicate web? What issues divide us and how do we cope with them?  How do we allay the prevalent phobias? How do we focus on our vision for a prosperous America?

John F Kennedy was blunt, "ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."  We need to channel that energy and passion in building a cohesive America.  

Every American must feel a sense of security, safety and freedom. If we can learn to respect the otherness of others and accept the God given uniqueness of each one of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge.

Last year on September 11, we held Unity Day USA, an inclusive event that brings Americans of different faiths, or no faith and races together. In its 9^th years, the Sikh community was highlighted for the outstanding Model behavior they created in response to the Wisconsin shooting; we also focused on the 1984 Sikh Genocide of New Delhi in our 6^th Annual Holocaust and Genocides event. It was good for the fellow Americans to learn and know about them, and we hope to continue to do programs to bring people together, so we can learn about each other.

If we can learn to respect the otherness of others, and accept the God given uniqueness of each one of the 318 Million Americans, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge.

Mike Ghouse is committed to building a cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day - More about Mike at www.MikeGhouse.net 

 

http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2013/08/potent-memories-from-divided-india.html

Its a difficult story of rape, murder and inhumanity in us.

I heard the sad story of migration first hand from Sunder Lal in 1972. That was the first time, I have had any contact with people from Pakistan in my 19 years of life. His story was a very sad one, his sister was killed on his way from Lahore, the old man cried, but he was not bitter about it, he accepted it as his Karma. He built a huge empire in Bangalore - Sunder Chemical Works, where I worked, and his Son Harbans Lal is my eternal friend - it was his encouragement and stoking that made me a writer. I owe my gratitude to him.

My friend Shri D. D. Maini was born and raised in Kasur near Lahore. His family walked part of the route, he was a young man out of high school then. Thank God, his family arrived in Delhi Safely without incidents.

Since 1993, I have been in the Desi Community and started the Asian News Paper, the first Desi Paper that ran for about 7 years, and Asian News Radio commenced in 1996, the grand daddy of Fun Asia Radio. That is where I got to know the people of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, almost after the full Banvas.

I got to hear the painful stories of partition from both sides. There is a huge number of Indians who were born in Pakistan, and like wise there are many Pakistanis who born in India. Both people have had agonizing experiences.

Dr. Akbar Ahmed wrote a beautiful poem called Suspended, and I wrote the  review for the same. http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/06/dr-akbar-ahmeds-poetry-suspended.html

Dallas has a reservoir of people who have the paritioin experience, both good and bad,   and I hope someone chronicles this for posterity.
I have a difficult suggestion for you: If you hear the stories without hatred for the other - Indians for Pakistanis and Pakistanis for Indians, you'll realize a great human in you full of compassion, kindness and understanding. You will feel good about yourselves. Try it.
Mike Ghouse
www.MikeGhouse.net

Potent Memories From a Divided India

By SOMINI SENGUPTA

Courtesy NY Times
Published: August 13, 2013

BERKELEY, Calif. — Growing up, Guneeta Singh Bhalla heard a terrifying story from her grandmother. In August 1947, as British India was being partitioned into independent India and Pakistan, her grandmother fled Lahore, in what was soon to become Pakistan, for Amritsar, in what was soon to become India. All around her was carnage. Clutching her three young children, she looked out the train window to see bodies strewed along the tracks. The memory haunted her until she died.

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Margaret Bourke-White/Time Life Pictures, via Getty Images

Sikhs migrating to a new homeland after the violent partition of British India in 1947.

For years afterward, Ms. Bhalla regretted not recording her grandmother’s story, and it spurred her to begin recording other people’s memories of that time. The project, known as the 1947 Partition Archive, has grown far bigger, far quicker than she ever imagined. Since its inception here two years ago, its dozens of volunteers have video-recorded 647 oral histories from more than seven countries and stored them digitally. It describes itself as “a people’s history” of that wrenching time.

“It’s something that’s been brewing in my mind since high school,” recalled Ms. Bhalla, a research physicist who is now 34, about the same age as her grandmother in 1947. “As I was growing up, it was always in the back of my head, and bothersome, as family members were passing.”

The partition, which carved up British India roughly along religious and political lines, uprooted over 10 million people. Hindus and Sikhs escaped to India; Muslims to Pakistan. Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians were left to choose where to live as minorities. The dead were difficult to count; estimates range from 250,000 to two million. No one knows how many were raped.

The oral history project is equally remarkable for being the first of its kind. As much as the partition hangs over the politics and psyche of the Indian subcontinent, there is no memorial — digital or analog — to mark it. This homegrown, volunteer-run project, directed from a few cubbies at the University of California here, is one of the first efforts to collect those memories. Now, because most of the partition’s witnesses are gone — most subjects are in their 70s and 80s — the project has taken on new urgency. At least 20 of the 100 people Ms. Bhalla has interviewed have died, she said. And so, with help from donors, the archive plans to dispatch 20 story gatherers this year to several cities in South Asia to collect stories while their tellers are still alive.

Video by 1947PartitionArchive

Radhika Kishin Chehnani on her move from Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan to Mumbai, India.

Many stories come from South Asians now living in the United States, though most are from those still living in India, Pakistan or Bangladesh, which was part of Pakistan until 1971. The accounts, once they start pouring out, are one to four hours long. They are told in Urdu and Punjabi, Hindi, Bengali and English.

Having spent the last two years collecting stories, the project is now planning to develop new ways to share them. Its Web site will soon feature a “story map” with migration routes, excerpts from individual accounts and a tool to help partition migrants connect online with one another.

Some of those interviewed have never told their stories before, not even to their families. A Zoroastrian woman from Karachi recalls how her grandmother hid her Hindu maid from family members who wanted to convert her against her will. A Hindu man from a village near Lahore recalls surviving the train journey to India only because a Muslim man, a stranger, hid him in his first-class compartment; other Hindus on that same train were killed or wounded. A Muslim man from what is now Indian Punjab describes watching a mob stab his mother as she tried to protect her older son.

Video by 1947PartitionArchive

Ravi Chopra on his move from Sialkot, Punjab, Pakistan to Firozpur, Punjab, India.

Video excerpts from a handful of interviews can be viewed on the Web site. Streaming all of them, in their entirety, will cost more than the project now has: about $56,000 from community donations and a grant from the American India Foundation. Ms. Bhalla hopes that one day the stories can be housed by libraries or research centers worldwide.

Like Ms. Bhalla, most story collectors are two generations removed; many are Americans of South Asian descent. They have fanned out to mosques and temples across the United States to solicit accounts from elders, and recorded them on hand-held video cameras and smartphones. One volunteer, Farhana Afroz, flew from Fremont, Calif., where she lives now, to several cities in Bangladesh, where she was born, to collect stories, leaving her husband and children back home.

Volunteers are sometimes asked: Who are you? Why are you doing this? Their answer: Because we must not forget. They are backed by no government, which helps. The goal is to record oral histories without judgment or analysis — or, indeed, corroboration.

Their list of questions include: When did you first hear about the partition? Did you have to defend yourself against violence?

And: Did you help drive out people from your area?

Video by 1947PartitionArchive

Abdul Jabbar on his move from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India to Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. 

In California, Ms. Bhalla came upon two men — one Sikh, one Muslim — who had spent their childhoods in neighboring villages in what is now the state of Punjab in India. Ali Shan, a Muslim who fled to Pakistan, was living in Fremont, south of here. Hardev Singh Grewal, a Sikh who remained in India, was living in neighboring Union City. Ms. Bhalla asked if they wished to meet. Of course, they said.

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Margaret Bourke-White/Time & Life Pictures via Getty Images

During the partition period in British India, Muslims pass the dead of a previous caravan and the bones of their buffaloes.

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Margaret Bourke-White/Time & Life Pictures via Getty Images

A Muslim woman being carried as her family flees her homeland.

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Margaret Bourke-White/Time & Life Pictures via Getty Images

Sikh refugees in 1947.

On a rainy Saturday evening, they shared samosas and tea at the Grewal home. Mr. Shan, 72, sat stiffly at first on a white leather sofa. For the first couple of hours, they reminisced about an annual fair in Jurrahan, where Mr. Shan once lived. They remembered the names of the local schools. As the evening wore on, the more difficult stories trickled out. Mr. Shan told Mr. Grewal how a mob stabbed his mother and brother before his eyes when he was 6 — and then how a man in that mob inexplicably took him home.

Mr. Grewal, 76, inched close to him, patted him on the shoulder. Mr. Shan’s eyes filled with tears. He kept going. He remained with the stranger’s family for months, he said, and then an uncle took him to Pakistan. Mr. Grewal kept his arm on Mr. Shan’s shoulder.

Mr. Grewal recalled that the elders of his village, Gujjarwal, barely four miles from Jurrahan, had offered to save its Muslims if they converted to Sikhism. “They meant well, but looking back, I don’t think it was a good thing,” Mr. Grewal told Mr. Shan.

Nor did it save them. They were attacked as preparations were under way for the conversion ceremony. Mr. Grewal had no idea how many were killed, only that there were enough bodies to fill ox carts and a mass grave. Mr. Grewal remembered, too, that his older brother had taken home three of his school friends, all Muslims who had been injured in the attack. They stayed in the Grewal home until they were fit enough to travel to Pakistan. He has no idea what became of them.

“Ali, I want to ask you,” Mr. Grewal finally ventured, “do you get nightmares?”

Mr. Shan shook his head: “As soon as I forgave the people who killed my family, I was a new man.”

Ms. Bhalla took it all in. This year she left a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to devote herself full time to the project.

“Both survivor and citizen oral historian come away changed,” is how she put it.

Happy Independence Day India! Its 67 Years of freedom!

Fellow Indians, 

We are Indians and nothing but Indian.

An Indian is an Indian is an Indian, period.

We are Adivasis, Atheists, Bahais, Bos, Buddhists, Chrsitians, Dalits, Hindus, Jains, Jewish, Muslim, Sikhs, Tribals, Zoroastrians and every possible grouping. We are Brown, Black, White, Yellow and green with envy and phir bhi dil hai Hindustani (our heart is Indian).

Our Motherland is represented by every race, nationality, ethnicity, language, culture and religion. We see God as one, none and many; and in every form; male, female, genderless and non-existent, being and non-being, nameless and with innumerable names.

We are proud of our heritage - a multi-faith, multi-cultural, multi-regional and multi-linguistic society, where we have come to accept and respect every which way people have lived their lives. For over 5000 years, India has been a beacon of pluralism - it has embraced Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Baha’i and Zoroastrianism to include in the array of the indigenous religions; Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism.  

We may want to consciously start thinking and acting as one people, one people within a nation and a community and one people globally. It’s like home when we are conflict free.  I do hope each one of us purges any bias towards the other, there is joy in being free from ill-will. Try to be free from it this day forward… free from anything that prevents you from being a part of the whole.

Our combined philosophies believe in one world ; Hinduism describes the world as Vasudaiva Kutumbukum, the whole world is one family, the idea of Ek Onkar(one) in Sikhism, you are all created from the same couple as Quraan puts it and Jesus embraced every one regardless of who any one is... similar philosophies are grounded in all our religions.

A few don't follow their own heritage and resort to theivary, loot, murder, terrorism, rioting, rapes, infanticide and other evils that destroy the fabric of the society,  but a majority of every group goes about their own way, living their life with struggles and ease and don't even bother others. We should build upon the 99% of population and not on the less than 1% that does not follow any principles.

On this day, and every day from here forward, make a pledge to yourselves to talk about in terms of we Indians - and not Malyalee, Gujarati, Bengali.... or Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isaee. Don't expect others to jump and say the same, give them the time and if you are consistent for at least a year, you will see others emulating you.

India led the way to the freedom movement, since 1947 every country has been liberated from colonialism. Indian democracy is a shining example to the world, where the people have peacefully transferred the powers. Indians are inherently secular and economically capitalistic. They believe in "live-and-let-live" life style, which is the essence of capitalism.

Through the years we have expressed the highest degree of maturity on handling extreme situations; the more divergent opinions we hear, the larger our heart grows, the bigger our embrace would be and we can cushion more differences. Let’s continue to honor the concept that there is always another side to the story, as finding the truth is our own responsibility. I am proud of my heritage and am proud to be an Indian-American.

Click and enjoy:

Our National Anthem National Anthem 2 Twenty Patriotic songs 

Jai Hind

Mike Ghouse

Committed to cohesive societies
www.MikeGhouse.net
Please visit for more details about India. http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/

PATRIOTIC SONGS

• Vande Mataram - AR Rahman
• Vande Mataram
• Sarfaroshi ki Tamanna ab
• Saray jahan say achha -1
• Saray Jahan say achha - lata
• Mere Desh Ki Dharti
• Mera rangde basanti chola
• Kar chalay hum fida,
• Jahan Daal Daal par sone
• Hum laye hain toofan say kishti
• Hai preet jahan ki reet sada
• Ganga Meri Maa ka Naam
• Apni azadi ku hum hargiz
• Apni Azaadi ko hargiz hum
• ai watan ai watan, tujh ko
• Ai mere pyaare watan,
• Aao bachcho tumheien sire
• A jo des hai tera - Shahrukh
• A desh hai veer jawanon ka

MikeGhouse is committed to building a Cohesive Societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. He is a professional speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, civic affairs, Islam,India, Israel, peace and justice. Mike is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he writes weekly at Dallas Morning News and regularly atHuffington post, The Smirking Chimp and several other periodicals. His daily blog iswww.TheGhousediary.com

The Indosphere: Should we trust Made in India?

SHOULD WE TRUST INDIANS?
URL - http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-indosphere-should-we-trust-made-in.html


I have been planning to do my bypass surgery in India, one of the questions I am answering frequently is the expression of doubt about Indian Doctors. My head hangs in shame that my fellow Indians are expressing this.

My counter is, I am an Indian, and I am on par if not excel than most people in my field (Pluralism discourse or Management Consulting) - how can I even underestimate my fellow Indians? Whether the Doctor is in India or here in the US, he or she will be the same doctor. We may have greater tools here, but the the care would be the same.

This is something we need to seriously think about, and ask fellow Indians - if they are good in what they do,  then we need to ask them, if they were to do the same job in Bangalore, should we discount them and their work because they are in India?

It is time for us to think about this.

Jai Hind



Mike Ghouse
http://MikeGhouseforIndia.blogspot.com

The Indosphere

Made outside India

As growth slows and reforms falter, economic activity is shifting out of India

Aug 10th 2013 | COLOMBO, DUBAI AND MUMBAI |From the print edition

INDIA’S diaspora of 25m people is something to behold. In colonial times Indian labourers and traders spread across the world, from Fiji to the Caribbean. A second wave of Indians left between the 1970s and mid-1990s, when the economy was in a semi-socialist rut. Migrant workers rushed to the Persian Gulf and South-East Asia, then booming. Educated folk and entrepreneurs fled to the rich world. Plenty struck gold, including engineers in Silicon Valley and Lakshmi Mittal, boss of ArcelorMittal, a giant steel firm. Often they now have little to do with India beyond sending cash to relatives and groaning as the once-vaunted economic miracle fades.

Yet alongside this distant diaspora, a network of people and places is more directly engaged with India’s economy. Its most conspicuous element is the plutocrat who owns firms in India, but like his Russian and Chinese peers shops in Paris, educates his children in America and Britain and sometimes has foreign citizenship: Cyrus Mistry, the boss of Tata Sons, India’s biggest firm, has an Irish passport. At the network’s core, however, is not the gilded elite but offshore hubs, including Dubai and Singapore, often with sizeable Indian populations and with their own economic strengths.

The idea that some things are better done abroad is hardly new. Hong Kong was a gateway to imperial and then Red China. In 1985 Yash Chopra, an Indian film-maker, led a trend of shooting Bollywood “dream sequences”—in which the hero and heroine sing amid meadows and snowy crags—in Switzerland. The Alps were easier, cheaper and safer than the more familiar location of Kashmir.

Film buffs now view Swiss dream-sequences as cheesy, but India’s big offshore hubs are more in fashion than ever. They present a mirror image of India’s red tape, weak infrastructure and graft. Dubai is a prime example. For long-haul flights Indians prefer its airline, Emirates, to their own. More than 40% of long-haul journeys from India go via a non-Indian hub, often in the Gulf. Indian airports no longer make grown men cry (Delhi’s is first rate), but few foreign airlines want to make them their base. Indian planes are usually serviced in Dubai, Malaysia and Singapore, reflecting a history of penal taxes in India and high customs duties on imported spare parts.

A stroll round Dubai’s gold souk, a glittering warren of shops and discreet offices, housing bullion worth $3 billion-4 billion, points to another specialism—trading jewellery as well as precious stones and metals. A third of demand is from India, reckons Chandu Siroya, one of the market’s big participants. Indians go to Dubai to avoid taxes at home and because they trust its certification and inspection regime.

Dubai’s ports, air links and immigration rules also make it a better logistical base than India. Dawood Ibrahim, a Mumbai mafia don, ruled from Dubai by “remote control” before eloping to Pakistan in 1994. Since those wild days legitimate Indian firms have thrived in Dubai. Dabur, which makes herbal soaps, oils and creams, runs its international arm from there. Dodsal, which spans oil exploration in Africa to Pizza Huts in Hyderabad, is based in the emirate. Its boss, Rajen Kilachand, moved from Mumbai in 2003. “Dubai is a good place to headquarter yourself,” he says, adding that a “Who’s Who” of Indian tycoons has a presence. Dubai is gaining traction in finance, too. Rikin Patel, the chief executive of Que Capital, an investment bank, says Indian firms are raising debt in Dubai to avoid sky-high interest rates at home.

Treasure Island

About 5,000km (3,000 miles) south of Dubai lies Mauritius, an island so beautiful that Mark Twain said God had modelled heaven on it. About half its people are descended from labourers brought from India when Britain ruled both places. It is the main conduit for foreign investment into India with 30-40% of the stock of foreign capital sitting in funds domiciled in the island. A 1982 tax treaty allows investors using Mauritius to pay tax at the island’s rate (which, in practice, is zero), not the Indian rate. Foreigners also like the stability of Mauritius’s rules and its army of book-keepers and administrators. Many investors also use “P-Notes”—a kind of derivative with banks that gives them exposure to Indian shares without having the hassle of directly owning them.

Sri Lanka has testy relations with India, but Colombo is a vital port. About 30% of containers bound for India go via intermediate hubs fed by small vessels, either because big shipping lines do not want to deal with India’s customs regime or because their ships are too big for the country’s ports. About half of this trans-shipment business happens in Colombo. Its importance could increase now that a big extension to the port there has just opened. The project was funded by a Chinese firm probably too polite to admit that its investment is partly based on the idea that India’s ports will never be world-class.

A roll of the dice

Sri Lanka also wants to develop a casino industry. Gambling is illegal in almost all India, so people use offshore bookies or the internet. James Packer, an Australian business dynast with a gambling empire in Macau, is said to be considering creating a casino resort in Colombo aimed at attracting Indian high rollers.

The largest hub for Indian trade is probably Singapore. It is the centre for investment banking, which thrives offshore, owing to the tight regulation of India’s banks and debt markets. Reflecting this, the global exposure to India of Citigroup and Standard Chartered, the two foreign banks busiest in India, is 1.9 times the size of their regulated Indian bank subsidiaries.

More: http://www.economist.com/news/international/21583285-growth-slows-and-reforms-falter-economic-activity-shifting-out-india-made-outside

Dr. Amartya Sen Won’t apologize for Modi remarks

URL- http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2013/07/dr-amartya-sen-wont-apologize-for-modi.html

It was exciting to read a part of the interview of Dr. Sen about 10:30 PM tonight, Friday the 26^th of July 2013. The rest of the interview will be published by Times of India on Sunday. 

Dr. Amartya Sen and Mike Ghouse at SMU

Most people appreciate when some one speaks out against the atrocities of the majorities, powerful dictators, monarchs and bullies. The politically motivated Hindu, Muslim and Christian men and women in particular appreciate it,  if it favors them.

My Hindus friends have rejoiced every time I have routinely stood up for them (incomplete list at: http://standingupforothers.blogspot.com/2012/04/standing-with-hindus.html ), but won't appreciate if a Hindu Dr. Amartya Sen does the same. 

Let me assure you this,  the good people outnumber all others 95:5, eventually  some one or the other from the majority, be it in India, America, Bolivia or South Africa, and even from Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Christians and Buddhist speaks up for the rights of the deprived, disadvantaged, women, minorities and the weak. God of all creation makes sure his creation has boundaries and has enough peace makers to prevent the world from total annihilation. Bhagvad Gita is clear, "Whenever there is adharma, God will bring about some one to restore Dharma" and Quran beefs it up, "To every tribe, every community and every nation God sends his peace makers to keep peace."

The more people speak up, the better the world would be. So, please do your part.
This morning I defended Dr. Sen’s action with a few friends (appended below) and now, when I read the partial interview, it caused me to go searching on my blog of the similar thoughts I have struggled with. 

I have consistently advocated that the peace is the responsibility of the majority; indeed, the civility of a nation is determined by how it treats its women, children, disadvantage, the weak and the minorities. It is in the interest of the nation, particularly the responsible men and women from the political, civic or religious majorities to speak up. It is in everyone's interest for every one to walk well together and not limp.Two of the statements, I wrote resonate with Dr. Amartya Sen’s words

On March 15, 2013, a press release was sent and was published in Bangladeshi News papers and at www.WorldMuslimCongress.com , this was also a part of my speech at Bangladesh Human rights organization in Dallas.

 “The success of a nation depends when her citizens feel secure; in this case, it is   the duty of the state to ensure the safety of Hindus, Buddhist, Shia, Ahmadiyya, Christian and other minorities.

It is also the obligation of the Bangladeshi majority to continue to speak up against the brutal treatment of fellow Bangladeshis who are Hindu. Indeed, the safety of a community is the responsibility of the majority.”
(URL - http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2013/03/muslims-condemn-brutal-attacks-on.html )

The Daily Times of Pakistan published my piece on Imran Khan, and I wrote, “Humanity in general and Muslims in particular are guided to stand up for justice. Only the civility of majority can change things. Minorities do not have a voice in Pakistan and they live on with apprehensions. The Hindu parents worry when their daughter will be abducted and forced to convert or when the Ahmadiyya girl student will be kicked out of school or their graves are desecrated, Shias ordered out of the bus and shot point blank and Christians will be framed with blasphemy charges. Societies are judged by how they treat their minorities, women and children. Good Pakistanis are letting bad things happen in their names.”

(URL - http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2013%5C05%5C08%5Cstory_8-5-2013_pg3_5 )

A note came from a friend, “What irked me was his (Dr. Sen) comment on Modi not doing enough for the minorities.” And, “Sen does not address those issue but more interested in bad mouthing Modi on minority issues because it is a very popular and sophisticated issue.” 

My response was, “I must add that collectively different Indians have to speak on different topics - including far and against to bring different angles to the fore - Dr. Sen has picked one that he probably feels has not been given enough attention. Each one of us has to focus on many strands of democracy.”

Glad to see a positive response about democracy from my friend later.

Won’t apologize for Modi remarks, Amartya Sen says

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Wont-apologize-for-Modi-remarks-Amartya-Sen-says/articleshow/21380639.cms?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral

MUMBAI: Even as the firestorm over Amartya Sen's remarks about Narendra Modi refuses to die down, the Nobel-winning economist said he had nothing to apologize for saying that he did not wish to see the Gujarat chief minister become India's next Prime Minister.

In an exclusive interview to TOI (read the full interview on Sunday), Sen pointed to his fundamental right to raise such issues and also clarified that it was his duty as a member of the majority community to speak up about the fears of minorities.

"I am not apologizing for the statement on Modi," he said, while explaining that "as an Indian citizen I am very worried that we're not doing enough on many things in public discourse, that we're not raising the right viewpoints on several issues."

'Gujarat model not good'

Defending his remarks on Gujarat CM, Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen told TOI, "I've tried to point to this when it kept being brought up about why I made that statement about Modi. I felt that as a member of the majority community in India it is my duty, not merely my right, to speak up about the concerns of the minority. We often forget that as members of the majority," Sen said.

"Despite the fact that there are many things that Modi has done as CM which are interesting and important — and I've talked about them even though when held up as a model I don't think it makes for a very good one — there's still that scare, that sense of fear," he said.

Quoting 19th-century English philosopher John Stuart Mill, who wrote that the security of minority rights really depends on the majority, Sen also pointed to how debates in the US (where he spends some time teaching at Harvard University) often go on at great length about the need to better secure minority rights.

"I live there as part of a minority and you see how concerned they are about these issues. Here, I have to exercise my duty as part of the majority and bring up my concerns. This is essential to the practice of democracy, which, like liberty, must be vigorously defended. Eternal vigilance is the price you pay for that liberty," he said.

. . . . . 

EDITORIAL: Mr. Narendra Modi, you have a choice

http://www.indianmuslimobserver.com/2012/06/latest-editorial-mr-narendra-modi-you.html
. . . . .


Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at work place. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. He believes in Standing up for others and has done that throughout his life as an activist. Mike has a presence on national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News; fortnightly at Huffington post; and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes all his work through many links

World's 'most racially intolerant country is not India = the survey is flawed and must be questioned

I am outraged at this map about India. Not because I am an Indian, but because it is flawed. I have consistently stood up against wrong surveys and mis-representation of people, all people.  This is the second international survey that is so much out of the line this year. 

The first one was about the Sharia Survey by Pew on April 30, 2013 - and I have appeared on Fox News on May 1st to refute it and have written about it in Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/a-few-talking-points-about-sharia-after-losing-a-sean-hannity-shouting-match_b_3200730.html

 

India is pegged as the most racially intolerant country in the world, and this is not acceptable, off hand these are the questions; 

First of all, the question about race is flawed. To a typical Indian, there is only one race in India. However, the majority of Indians are not aware of the existence of all the anthropological races in India - Caucasian, Mongoloid, Negroid and the Brown, although the awareness has increased since globalization started. They may have colored the question differently or it was misunderstood.

Secondly, it is rather religion that is the cause of discrimination* than race in the subcontinent. Race, religion, language and caste are excuses to exploit the greed of humans. We should call it greed than race.  "Rang aur Nasl, Zaat aur Mazhab, Jo bhi aadmi say kamtar hai" (color, race, caste and religion are inferior to humanity) are all clubbed in many a songs as discriminating factor.  

Thirdly - depending on the strict race question, Pakistan has ranked as a tolerant nation, because in theory rarely a Muslim believes in superiority of one race over the other, as the Prophet had said in his last sermon**, but do they really follow the Prophet?  Had they followed, they would speak up against injustice and harassment of Hindu women, Sikhs and Christians, and stop the killing of Ahmadiyya and Shia Muslims. 
  
Pakistan is shown a higher degree of tolerance than India. No doubt, India does not have an impeccable record on religious discrimination, but it is much better than many of the other nations. India should realistically rank as more tolerant nation.

* Although discrimination is illegal in India as in the United States, but it is practiced widely where as in the US individuals have recourse with Law. India does not have anEqual Opportunity and Housing discrimination department to access. Urbanization is removing the barriers, but it would be the law on the side of the discriminated, that will change the society. 

** A survey is warranted here in the United States, a good percentage of Desi Americans (subcontinentians -south Asians of all religions) living in America are racist pigs, I am sick of their racist remarks. This needs to go, and I get stared at with contempt when I speak up against racism. 

I protest the survey and ask the Surveyors to reconsider the data and club the Rang aur Nasl, Zaat aur Mazhab, Color and race, caste and Religion as one item and redo the survey and rank the nations. 

May be the civility of nations index is warranted based on how they treat their minorities – race, religion, ethnicity, culture and language. 

The survey is flawed, and India does not deserve to be # 1 in negative way. This is my protest and if I get the support, I will take it further.

Mike Ghouse

The Book "Standing up for others" will be released on July 4th.  Mike Ghouse is committed to build cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.

 
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The Telegraph, UK
Saturday 22 June 2013
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/10061025/Worlds-most-racially-intolerant-countries-mapped.html

Swedish economists have stated that India, Jordan and Bangladesh are among the least tolerant countries in the world, while Britain is among the most accepting.

The World Values Survey asked respondents in more than 80 different countries to state the type of people they did not want as neighbours.

Over 40 per cent of respondents in India, Jordan, Bangladesh and Hong Kong said they would not want a neighbour of a different race.

The British were among the most tolerant, along with former colonies the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. People in Latin American counties were also prepared to embrace racially diverse neighbours.

The data from the survey by Niclas Berggren and Therese Nilsson wasmapped by the Washington Post by Max Fisher.

In India, 43.5 per cent said they did not want someone of a different race as their neighbour. In Jordan it was 51.4 per cent, while in Hong Kong and Bangladesh, over 70 per cent said someone of a different race was their biggest concern in a neighbour.

Europe showed widely varying results, with France coming out as notably racially intolerant at 22.7 per cent. Former Soviet states such as Belarus and Latvia proved to be more tolerant than many of their European neighbours, according to the study.

Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/05/15/a-fascinating-map-of-the-worlds-most-and-least-racially-tolerant-countries/

• Wide, interesting variation across Europe. Immigration and national identity are big, touchy issues in much of Europe, where racial make-ups are changing. Though you might expect the richer, better-educated Western European nations to be more tolerant than those in Eastern Europe, that’s not exactly the case. France appeared to be one of the least racially tolerant countries on the continent, with 22.7 percent saying they didn’t want a neighbor of another race. Former Soviet states such as Belarus and Latvia scored as more tolerant than much of Europe. Many in the Balkans, perhaps after years of ethnicity-tinged wars, expressed lower racial tolerance.

• The Middle East not so tolerant. Immigration is also a big issue in this region, particularly in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which often absorb economic migrants from poorer neighbors.

• Racial tolerance low in diverse Asian countries. Nations such as Indonesia and the Philippines, where many racial groups often jockey for influence and have complicated histories with one another, showed more skepticism of diversity. This was also true, to a lesser extent, in China and Kyrgyzstan. There were similar trends in parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

• South Korea, not very tolerant, is an outlier. Although the country is rich, well-educated, peaceful and ethnically homogenous – all trends that appear to coincide with racial tolerance – more than one in three South Koreans said they do not want a neighbor of a different race. This may have to do with Korea’s particular view of its own racial-national identity as unique – studied by scholars such as B.R. Myers – and with the influx of Southeast Asian neighbors and the nation’s long-held tensions with Japan.

• Pakistan, remarkably tolerant, also an outlier. Although the country has a number of factors that coincide with racial intolerance – sectarian violence, its location in the least-tolerant region of the world, low economic and human development indices – only 6.5 percent of Pakistanis objected to a neighbor of a different race. This would appear to suggest Pakistanis are more racially tolerant than even the Germans or the Dutch.


Update: I’ve heard some version of one question from an overwhelming number of readers: “I’ve met lots of Indians and Americans and found the former more racially tolerant than the latter. How can these results possibly be correct?” I’d suggest three possible explanations for this, some combination of which may or may not be true. First, both India and the U.S. are enormous countries; anecdotal interactions are not representative of the whole, particularly given that people who are wealthy enough to travel internationally may be likely to encounter some subsets of these respective populations more than others.

Second, the survey question gets to internal, personal preferences; what the respondents want. One person’s experiences hanging out with Americans or Indians, in addition to being anecdotal, only tell you about their outward behavior. Both of those ways of observing racial attitudes might suggest something about racial tolerance, but they’re different indicators that measure different things, which could help explain how one might contradict the other.

Third, the survey question is a way of judging racial tolerance but, like many social science metrics, is indirect and imperfect. I cited the hypothetical about Swedes and Finns at the top of this post, noting that perhaps some people are just more honest about their racial tolerance than others. It’s entirely possible that we’re seeing some version of this effect in the U.S.-India comparison; maybe, for example, Americans are conditioned by their education and media to keep these sorts of racial preferences private, i.e. to lie about them on surveys, in a way that Indians might not be. That difference would be interesting in itself, but alas there is no survey question for honesty.

Correction: This post originally indicated that, according to the World Values Survey, 71.7 percent of Bangladeshis and 71.8 percent of Hong Kongers had said that they would not want a neighbor of a different race. In fact, those numbers appear to be substantially lower, 28.3 percent and 26.8 percent, respectively. In both cases, World Values appears to have erroneously posted the incorrect data on its Web site. Ashirul Amin, posting at the Tufts University Fletcher School’s emerging markets blog, looked into the data for Bangladesh and discovered the mistake. My thanks to Amin, who is Bangladeshi and was able to read the original questionnaire, for pointing this out. His analysis is worth reading in full, but here’s his conclusion:
The short answer is, yes, someone did fat finger this big time. “Yes” and “No” got swapped in the second round of the survey, which means that 28.3% of Bangladeshis said they wouldn’t want neighbors of a different race – not 71.7%.