www.hinduismtoday.org

KAUAI, HAWAII, May 22, 2008: Our Hinduism Today web server is undergoing an upgrade. As a result, Hindu Press International will be on hiatus until Monday, May 26–at the latest. We’ll catch up all the news as soon as we are back on-line. We include a few extra items in today’s HPI.

www.theaustralian.news.com.au

JAIPUR, INDIA, May 19, 2008: Tens of thousands of Bangladeshi migrants were last night earmarked for expulsion from India following the terror bomb blasts in the tourist city of Jaipur, while startling new evidence emerged about the motives behind the jihadi attack. Details of a five-page “manifesto for jihad” were attached to an email from a previously little-known organization calling itself Indian Mujahideen - which claimed responsibility for the Jaipur blasts. Intelligence experts said the email provided unprecedented insight into the motives and objectives of jihadi terrorists who have caused almost 4000 deaths across India in the past four years.

The document that has emerged since the Jaipur bombings chillingly spells out the intention of its authors to “demolish the faith” of the “infidels of India.” It echoes the rhetoric used frequently by Osama bin Laden about India. Significantly, given that the “Pink City” of Jaipur ranks with the Taj Mahal as a magnet for tourists from across the world, the document says that in addition to seeking to “demolish your faith in the dirty mud (Hinduism),” the bombings were carried out to “blow apart your tourism structure.” It warns that Western visitors to India “will be welcomed by our suicide attackers.”

Indian intelligence officials believe the document is authentic. Attached to the document was a photograph with a clearly identifiable serial number, of one of the pushbikes primed with a bomb taken before last Tuesday’s synchronized attacks in which more than 60 people were killed and almost 200 injured.

www.HAFsite.org

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 19, 2008: Persecution, discrimination and terror are daily realities for millions of Hindu citizens from Bangladesh and Pakistan to Malaysia and Saudi Arabia among many other countries according to a human rights report released by the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) today entitled, “Hindus in South Asia and the Diaspora: A Survey of Human Rights 2007.” The Foundation’s report (URL above) was released in Washington, D.C. today and was the basis for the testimony given by the group’s Director of Public Policy, Ishani Chowdhury, at Capitol Hill briefings on Malaysia earlier this year, and on South Asia last year. As in years past, the report considers continuing violence and terror acts against Hindus in Bangladesh and Pakistan as the most egregious. Despite a change in the government in Bangladesh, 270 acts of murder, rape and temple destruction were recorded in only the first six months, while the disproportionate enslavement of Hindus in bonded labor and kidnappings with forced conversions to Islam of Hindu women were reported again in Pakistan. Malaysia was censured for violent suppression of Hindus.

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

NEW DELHI, INDIA, May 16, 2008: According to a global survey that looked at where mothers fare best and where they face the greatest hardships, India is ranked a dismal 66th among 71 “less developed countries” — only slightly better than countries like Swaziland, Papua New Guinea and Nigeria. While China occupies 15th position, Pakistan (69) is among the only five countries in that list which are worse off than India. Bangladesh ranks 13th in a separate list that looks at maternal care in 34 “least developed countries” while Nepal is 11th. The State of the World’s Mothers report 2008, brought out by American humanitarian organization, Save the Children, says that in India, one in 70 women face a lifetime risk of dying during childbirth. In comparison, it is one in 1,300 women in China and one in 74 women in Pakistan.

It also brings to light numerous studies that have shown the inextricable link between the well being of mothers and that of their children. “When mothers are poor, uneducated and unable to access healthcare, the risks to themselves and their children multiply. Poor women often do not get adequate care during pregnancy and childbirth. Women who become pregnant in developing countries face a risk of maternal death 6-600 times higher (than) that (of) women in developed countries.”

www.hinduonnet.com

LONDON, ENGLAND, May 16, 2008: A first of its kind exhibition of 120 rare, lavishly illustrated Ramayana paintings from the volumes of Rana Jagat Singh of Mewar dated 17 Century AD opened here on Friday. The exhibition being put up by the British Library features loans of paintings, textiles and sculptures from other major collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum, the British Museum and the Ashmolean Museum, as well as shadow puppets and dance costumes from the Horniman Museum. Many of these items have never, or seldom, been publicly displayed.