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GANGES, MICHIGAN, May 9, 2001: The public is invited to attend a conference, "Vedanta in the Third Millennium," in western Michigan from June 22-24, 2001. Twelve senior swamis of the Ramakrishna Order will assemble at the Vivekananda Monastery and Retreat, in Ganges, Michigan, about a two-hour drive from Chicago. According to Dr. Shyam Bhatia, professor at the University of Chicago, the conference is intended primarily to "explain how the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda movement can be a part of that urge for a new spiritual age that is being felt in the West." The three-day program includes meditation, devotional bhajans, worship, Indian cultural events and a youth essay competition based on the ideals of Swami Vivekananda.

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BANGLADESH, May 8, 2001: Bangladesh police have increased security at cultural centers connected with Rabindranath Tagore, the revered author and poet. Authorities fear the centers may be subjected to bomb attacks. Tuesday is the 140th anniversary of the birth of Tagore, whose largely secular legacy of poems and song stir great emotion in Bangladesh. The government accuses hardline Islamic groups of demonstrating their intolerance against Bengali culture by instigating a series of bomb attacks over the the last two years at cultural festivals. The recent attacks have fueled the debate about the country's future, whether Bangladesh will assume a more overtly Islamic character or whether it will continue to take pride in secular Bengali culture and tradition.

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JAMMU, INDIA, May 10, 2001: Suspected Islamic guerrillas beheaded eight Hindu villagers and seriously injured three others Thursday after abducting them from a forest in Kashmir state, police said. Police said the militants came to the mountainous area as the 11 villagers were grazing cattle near the village of Sajan in the Doda district, about 150 miles northeast of Jammu, winter capital of Jammu-Kashmir state.

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PANAJI, INDIA, April 17, 2001: It is estimated that, by the year 2025, India will have the largest number of diabetics in the world. Unable to afford the insulin used in the allopathic treatment of diabetes, Indians are turning toward yoga practices and related changes of lifestyle, according to this article, and achieving some success in the control of the disease.

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KOLKOTA, INDIA, May 3, 2001: A more complete, though not necessarily unbiased, report on the attack and subsequent arrest of dozens of people at the ISKCON temple in Kolkota (Calcutta) is posted at "source" above. The report reads in part, "The high drama began on Friday afternoon as 100 'devotees' from Mayapur burst into the Calcutta temple. The so-called 'devotees' also contained many professional 'heavies' who had been hired especially for the event. They immediately demanded to take possession of the temple, and began to occupy the ashram and other parts of the building. Devotees from the temple who got in their way were beaten and sustained injuries."

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NEW JERSEY, USA, May 11, 2001: On May 19, 2001, the Chinmaya Mission will be holding a gathering of all Indian and Hindu organizations in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania to announce the grand spiritual and cultural extravaganza planned for July 8-14, 2001. The year 2001 marks the Golden Jubilee of the Chinmaya Mission, founded by H.H. Swami Chinmayananda. For details, click on "source" above.

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MUMBAI, INDIA, May 7, 2001: Hiro Shroff's project, "Sindhi Jottings," covers the worldwide migration of Sindhis from Pakistan following the partition of India in 1947. He would appreciate input from HPI readers for his project. Contact him at "source" above. This email address has been corrected from yesterday's HPI.

Source: Agence France-Presse

NEW DELHI, INDIA, MAY 5, 2001: With the population count showing a dramatic drop in the male-female ratio among children in many parts of the country, India's Supreme Court has directed the government to enforce the ban on procedures to determine the sex of unborn children. Such procedures have led to abortions of female fetuses and an increasing imbalance in the ratio of males to females in the population. The Times of India reported that, "The court has asked state governments to furnish quarterly reports on the enforcement of laws banning sex-selective abortions in the country and to begin a campaign against female infanticide and prenatal determination of sex."

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AGARTALA, INDIA, April 10, 2001: A Buddhist temple and several huts of the Chakma community were ransacked and torched by All Tripura Tiger Force insurgents in Dhalai district of Tripura, police said on April 10. A group of ATTF insurgents raided Taichakma village on Sunday night and ransacked and set ablaze a thatched Buddhist temple, police said quoting delayed reports. Villagers who tried to extinguish the flames were severely beaten by the extremists, who then set ablaze 13 huts belonging to five chakma families. Earlier, insurgents of National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), which had served a notice in the hill areas last year warning of stern action against villagers who practice any other religion except Christianity, had on December fifth ransacked a Buddhist temple and taken away scriptures and the idol in Almara village of south Tripura district.

Source: The Guardian

NEW DELHI, INDIA, May 9, 2001: This heart-wrenching article exposing the injustices against Dalit ("untouchable") women in the feudal states of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, is based on a study done by Amnesty International. Reportedly women from the untouchable class are routinely raped and harassed by upper caste villagers and landlords. To make matters worse, if rape victims report the attack to the police they could be assaulted, their families threatened, or their statement ignored and dismissed as false. Police have also been known to participate in the rape assaults. As a result, less than five percent of cases make it to court. Besides sexual assaults, the whole untouchable class have been treated poorly for years. Dalits riding a bicycle, wearing shoes in front of a upper-caste person or drawing water from a designated upper-class well could be harassed or beaten. Spokeswoman for Amnesty International, Emma Blower, is quoted as saying, "There is a hideous amount of violence against women in rural areas."

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COLOMBO, SRI LANKA, May 10, 2001: A senior US official has criticized Sri Lanka's sweeping ban on genetically modified (GM) food imports, according to this report in India Abroad, describing it as "totally unwarranted" and without any "credible scientific evidence" to support it. Weyland Beeghly, the agricultural counselor at the US mission in New Delhi, said Thursday that Sri Lanka's ban, which came into effect May 1, was the first anywhere in the world. It is somewhat difficult to understand this claim, as both Europe and Japan prohibit the sale of GM foods out of safety concerns. In a related development, the New York Times reported that more than one quarter of the America's seed suppliers have found corn seed contaminated with traces of a biotech variety wasn't approved for human consumption. The biotech seed, named StarLink, was approved only for animal consumption because of unanswered questions about whether a special protein, called Cry9C, in the corn can cause allergic reactions in people.

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MUMBAI, INDIA, May 7, 2001: Hiro Shroff's project, "Sindhi Jottings," covers the worldwide migration of Sindhis from Pakistan following the partition of India in 1947. He would appreciate input from HPI readers for his project. Contact him at "source" above.

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PENANG, MALAYSIA, May 7, 2001: The Malaysia Hindu Sangam has demanded an apology of Idris Omar, a member of PAS, the Pan-Malaysia Islamic political party. This report in The Star newspaper states, "The Malaysia Hindu Sangam demanded a public apology from Idris for his statement that PAS would destroy all statues in non-Muslim places of worship if it came into power. 'We condemn him if he had made such remarks and call on him to apologize and retract the statement immediately,' said its president, A. Vaithilingam. He said the organization was shocked to find out about the statement, and had passed a resolution against Idris. Democratic Action Party national deputy chairman Karpal Singh said he believed Omar could be charged with sedition.

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CHINA, May 6, 2001: China has announced plans to build the world's largest statue, a 509-ft Buddha. The statue of Bodhisattva is to be built at Jiuhua Mountain, one of the four major Buddhist shrines in China. It is will be the largest statue of Bodhisattva, the Buddha of Compassion, in the world. When completed, the statue will consist of 1,100 pieces of copper and weigh over 1,000 tons. Construction will begin in September and is scheduled for completion in 2004. The entire project is estimated to cost around $55 million. Meanwhile, Indian and British planners, connected with the Maitreya project, may be dismayed at the announcement. A 500-ft Buddha, currently underway in the northern Indian province of Bihar, was in the running for the title of the world's largest statue. The Chinese appear to be planning to outdo their Indian competitors at the finish line also, with a projected finish date of 2005. The Indian Buddha will be completed a year after the Chinese project.

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PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA, May 9, 2001: Phnom Penh's National Museum of Art, forgotten for many years, is once again showing the world its true colors. The extraordinary collection of bronze and stone statues on display here is unmatched elsewhere in the world. Tragically, looting and war have removed most of the decorative statues and reliefs from Angkor's temples, making the museum's collection all the more important as evidence of the artistic achievements of this ancient culture. The first temporary exhibition in the museum's history took place last year, with a display of statues of Ganesh, the elephant-headed Hindu god. Other gems include the 7th-century statue of the horse-headed Vaijmukha and a delightful tiny 11th-12th century bronze figure of a dancing woman on a lotus flower. Beauty is only part of it. For these are sacred objects, and the museum has taken care to position them much as they would have been placed in temples. Indeed, many of the Cambodians who come to the museum are not simply admiring art works -- they are paying homage to holy icons and small shrines have been set up where offerings of flowers can be made.