PANCHWAD, INDIA, September 12, 2004: Indian police used a baton charge to drive back hundreds of slogan-shouting Hindu hardliners trying to make their way to a controversial 17th century Muslim general’s tomb they have threatened to demolish. Police said they charged a crowd of about 500 people throwing stones at them and passing vehicles in Panchwad village near the heavily guarded tomb in western Maharashtra state, about 250 km (150 miles) from Bombay. Some 2,000 officers have been deployed in the area.



“The mob turned unruly, started chasing press people and throwing stones at police. We had no option but to resort to a baton charge to restore law and order in this area,” C.G. Kumbhar, district superintendent of police, told Reuters. “They started chanting slogans that they should be allowed to go and carry out their work of destroying the tomb.” Kumbhar said about 100 people had been detained after the clash and authorities were on alert to prevent anybody from sneaking up the hills to the tomb of the general, Afzalkhan, which Hindus want to remove as it lies near the fort of the Hindu warrior king, Shivaji, whom he tried to murder. Police had already detained hundreds of people as a preventive measure and set up dozens of barricades on the winding roads leading to the tomb and the Pratapgadh fort near the hill resort of Mahabaleshwar.

PALANI, TAMIL NADU, INDIA, September 12, 2004: Palani temple, the second richest after Tirupati, is all set to have a ropeway to the hilltop shrine. The new rope car system is being installed at an estimated cost of US$1.1 million. Palani, is one of the most popular temples in Tamil Nadu dedicated to Lord Muruga, the supreme commander of the celestial army. The temple located atop the Palani hills, about 450 metres above the sea level, has 690 stone steps. A Kolkata-based “Rope-way Resort” company will be completing the project and also maintain it for five years. Salil Mukherjee, rope car manager, said this facility would enable pilgrims to reach the temple in a mere two minutes which earlier took them hours to trek. “There are 24 cabins in the ropeway. In each cabin there are four passengers,” said Mukherjee. Presently, pilgrims coming to the temple use a winch facility but it can carry only 200 pilgrims in an hour.

NEW DELHI, INDIA, September 12, 2004: An important meeting of the representatives of the prominent temples of West Delhi to plan the Sanatan Dharma Sammelan which is being held under the auspices of All India Sanatan Dharama Representative Sammelan on September 26, 2004, was held in the Sanatan Dharam Temple in Mianwali Nagar, West Delhi. According to the general secretary of the All India Sanatan Dharam Representative Sammelan, Shri Anil Gulati, the planning session was attended by the representatives of around 80 prominent temples of West Delhi. Addressing the gathering, a senior Sanatan Dharma leader and a Congress Party Legislator from New Delhi, Shri Rama Kant Goswami said that politics had no place in dharma and dharma was above politics. He said that the time has come that all the Sanatan Dharma bodies must come together and save the dharma from all kind of attacks that are being made on it today. Another general secretary advocate Shri R.N. Vats said that in the forthcoming Sammelan all the representatives of Sanatan Dharma bodies and temples of New Delhi would be extended the invitation to participate.



HPI’s New Delhi Correspondent Rajiv Malik adds: The All India Sanatan Dharama Representative Sammelan is a body patronized by the young journalist turned Congress leader, Shri Rama Kant Goswami, whose father was a well known Hindu scholar and priest late Shri Girdhari Lal Goswami who was close to the Gandhi family.

TRINIDAD, September 12, 2004: Ram Leela reflects the human condition in man’s journey to divinity, according to prominent Trinidad Hindu thinker, Ravji. The Indian-trained thinker and Hindu activist noted that Ram Leela is a ritual which attempts to stitch together the metaphor of our journey from animality to humanity and then on to divinity. “Ram Leela is an on-going yatra (pilgrimage) of the peoples of the Caribbean to experience, vision and shape ourselves,” he said. Ravji was giving the Eighth Lecture series on Indian Thought and Philosophy organized by the Indian High Commission. Shri Virendra Gupta hailed the lecture as, “another initiative aimed at educating the world of India’s rich cultural and religious and spiritual heritage.” Raviji said that Ram Leela, a theatrical experience, focuses on the Life and Times of Lord Rama on earth, but noted that it continues to be diluted from its rich spirituality. “Indian languages have encouraged, within the rather large cluster of classic variations of words and even scripts, new meanings. Such newly shaped words continue their original meanings,” Raviji noted. “Ram Leela in Trinidad and Tobago never remained disconnected from space and time.” He made reference to Nobel Laureate Derrick Walcott’s passage in one his books of Ram Leela in Felicity, Chaguanas. “We must resolve to make Ram Leela a priority project in every community spreading across the country,” Raviji said.

HOUSTON, TEXAS, September 10, 2004: Jayanthi Raman, whose touring Indian temple dance Gajamukha visits Houston Saturday, has created nine full-length ballets, won a slew of awards and gained a reputation as one of the nation’s premier classical Indian dancers. Gajamukha draws on stories about the Hindu deity Lord Ganesh, the elephant-headed “remover of obstacles” who is worshipped at the beginning of any task. Raman’s choreography for seven dancers from India and the United States fuses folk and contemporary movement with three styles from southern India: lyrical Mohini Attam, a female’s dance of enchantment; Bharatha Natyam, which involves every part of the body and requires mastery of facial expressions; and Kuchipudi, in which the performers speak as well as move. The elaborate production also features five internationally renowned musicians: carnatic vocalist O.S. Arun, veena player Rajesh Vaidya, flutist V.K. Raman, and percussionists Chendai Kesavan and N. Ramakrishnan. The lyrics, in Sanskrit and Tamil, will be explained in English before each of the five sections. Gajamukha’s Houston stop is timely; Sept. 18 is the day Hindus celebrate Ganesh’s birthday. Presented by the Indo-American Association, the performance is at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas. Phone: 281-648-0422.