MATHURA, INDIA, September 7, 2004: Temples in Mathura, the birthplace of Lord Krishna, on Tuesday began celebrations to mark Janmashtami, the day of His birth. Millions of devotees thronged the beautifully illuminated and decorated edifices to offer their prayers to the Lord. A number of processions were also taken out on the occasion and special ballets popularly known as Raas Leela, depicting the love stories of Lord Krishna, were staged across the city. “It is our cultural heritage which says that our Gods, ancestors have done this sort of Leela. The people are made aware of our culture and heritage through the Raas Leela (ballet),” said a performer. Hindus are keeping a daylong fast that they will break at the stroke of midnight, the time of Krishna’s birth. “I liked it very much here and I am glad to be here,” said Bansiwala, who has been visiting the city for past 30 years. Krishna was the eighth incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu took birth as Krishna to destroy the evil king of Mathura, Kansa. His parents, imprisoned by Kansa, had to smuggle out the child born at midnight to save him. Vasudev, Krishna’s father, carried the newborn child in a reed basket and left him in the care of another couple at Gokul away from Mathura. Thus Janmashtami is celebrated on two consecutive days, the first is the day when Krishna was actually born, and the second is when he reached Gokul. Some parts of northern India are also celebrating Janmashtami on Wednesday. (ANI)

KASHMIR, INDIA, September 7, 2004: For the first time in the past 15 years, the Pandits of Kashmir valley on Tuesday took out a procession to celebrate Janmashtami. Amidst religious chants in praise of Lord Krishna, the procession began from Raghunath temple at Barbarshah in Srinagar, passed through Durganaag temple at Dalgate and concluded at the place of its origin. Organizer of the procession, Hindu Welfare Society, the representative body of Kashmiri Pandits who have stayed put in the valley despite militancy, said the function was scheduled to be held yesterday but authorities did not give permission. The permission was given for today and the procession passed off peacefully, the society said. This is for the first time in the past 15 years, since the eruption of militancy in the state, that the Janmashtami procession has been taken out anywhere in the valley. The last such procession was taken out in 1988. One of the devotees said the procession was an open invitation to their migrant brethren to return to their homeland as the situation had improved over the past few years.

LONDON, ENGLAND, September 8, 2004: Today we were invited to a special Janmashtami celebration at the House of Commons promoted by Tony McNulty a Member of Parliament and sponsored by NV Lakhani foundation. The guest speakers included the deputy prime minister, cabinet ministers, and a host of other Members of Parliament as well as Ken Livingston the Mayor of London. The unique feature about this gathering was the fact that the parliamentarians thanked the Hindu community for taking Janmashtami celebrations into the House of Commons thus infusing a spiritual message into the politics of UK. It was wonderful to hear the Members of Parliament commending the role of the Hindu community in the United Kingdom and suggesting that such celebrations should be a yearly event. What we are seeing is a serious shift of emphasis in the UK of not just tolerating other religions but ‘accepting other religions’ as equally valid. We were very impressed by what we saw and heard.

CRAWLEY, ENGLAND, September 8, 2004: After a 15-year effort the Hindu community of Crawley has secured land to build the Sanatan Mandir and Community Centre (SMCC). The shila nyas (ground breaking) has been performed for the temple to be built on a 2.9 acre land. The ceremony was attended by over 500 guests including national and local dignitaries, councillors and members of the local community. Bharat Lukka, the President of the Gurjar Hindu Union (GHU), said: “We really had a fantastic and very successful ceremony. It was the second major event for the GHU and the Hindu community of Crawley. We had a good day with many local people supporting the event. The great thing was that we raised around US$170,000! This sets out and progresses further our agenda on the development of our SMCC Project.” The GHU, which is behind the project, is finalizing the designs with local architects and also professional temple builders from India on the finer details of the project. The main temple is to be in hand-carved Indian marble. The overall design has been made with local planning laws and consideration The entire project is estimated to cost over $6 million including the purchase of the site, for which fundraising efforts are in full swing. Construction is expected to begin next year and be completed by 2007.

DELHI, INDIA, September 8, 2004: Bogged down by the controversy over the accuracy of its figure on Muslim population growth rate to the tune of 36 per cent, the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India (RG&CCI) on Wednesday temporarily stopped the sale of its reports on the Census 2001, on Religion. Deputy Registrar General RG Mitra on Wednesday told The Pioneer that the sale of the report has been stopped just for a day or two to make a small amendment in the analytical and introductory part of the report. Mr. Mitra added that the analytical part of the report had inadvertently overlooked the fact that the census had not been carried out in Assam in 1981 and in Jammu and Kashmir in 1991. If this factor is taken into consideration, the actual percentage of Muslim population growth rate can come down significantly. The officials at the RG&CCI admit that if the Jammu and Kashmir population was excluded from the current census also, the growth rate for Muslims would have been 29.3 per cent and for Hindus 19.9 per cent. But the fact remains that the Muslims would still have got the distinction of being the fastest growing community with their growth rate still being higher than the national average of roughly 22.7 per cent. Meanwhile, the National Commission for Minorities on Wednesday constituted a four-member cell to examine the Census 2001 Report on Religion and identify various community-specific problems in various states and recommend corrective measures for them.