Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

NEW DELHI, INDIA, 27 Jun 2009: Was Indian society tolerant of homosexuality before the colonial administration proscribed it in 1860?

On a petition pending before the Delhi high court seeking to decriminalize homosexuality, the government said in its counter affidavit that that there were “no convincing reports to indicate that homosexuality or other offenses against the order of nature mentioned in Section 377 IPC were acceptable in the Indian society prior to colonial rule.”

According to Goolam Vahanvati, attorney-general, “Around the early 19th Century, you probably know that in England they frowned on homosexuality. In 1860 when we got the Indian Penal Code, which was drafted by Lord Macaulay, they inserted Section 377 which brought in the concept of sexual offenses against the order of nature. Now in India we didn’t have this concept of something being ‘against the order of nature. It was essentially a Western concept, which has remained over the years.”

While the penalty imposed by Section 377 goes up to life sentence, there is nothing close to it in Manusmriti, the most popular Hindu law book of medieval and ancient India. Literature of that time also referred to homosexual practices with no negative bias.

Home minister P. Chidambaram is learnt to have expressed an opinion that favors the repeal of Section 377. The matter is also being taken into consideration by the health ministry and the Prime Minister.

Source: www.nytimes.com

New York, USA, July 1, 2009: Spurred by a broad coalition of religious, labor and immigrant groups, New York’s City Council overwhelmingly passed a resolution on Tuesday to add two of the most important Muslim holy days to the public schools’ holiday calendar.

But the vote, which was non-binding, put the Council in conflict with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who has the final say to designate the days off and has said he is resolutely opposed to the idea. The mayor told reporters before the vote that not all religions could be accommodated on the holiday schedule, only those with “a very large number of kids who practice. If you close the schools for every single holiday, there won’t be any school,” he said.

The current school calendar recognizes major Christian and Jewish holy days like Christmas and Yom Kippur, but no Muslim holy days.

Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid, a leader of the campaign to add the holidays, said that if the mayor continued to oppose the move, the results for him at the voting booth could be “catastrophic” among the city’s roughly 600,000 Muslims. “We really have confidence in the mayor’s intelligence,” said Imam Talib.

The resolution’s advocates said that since about 12 percent, or more than 100,000, of the city’s public school students are Muslim, they deserved recognition. The two holidays have already been adopted by school districts including Dearborn, Mich., and several municipalities in New Jersey.

The holy days have long posed a painful choice for Muslim students: Should they go to class in the interest of their grades and attendance record, or cut class to be with their families?

When Rebecca Chowdhury, 18, was young, she said, she generally skipped school. But as she grew older and faced more academic demands, she often had to forgo the celebrations. “It created a great divide between myself and my family,” said Ms. Chowdhury, who graduated last week from Stuyvesant High School. [HPI note: it is not clear in the original if Ms. Chowdhury is a Muslim or a member of another minority religion.]

The campaign to recognize the two holy days has been coordinated by La Fuente, a grass-roots organizing group, and supported by a coalition; at its core are dozens of Muslim organizations.

Source: http://www.yogafestival.de/index.en.php“>www.yogafestival.de

BERLIN, GERMANY, July 1, 2009: The 5th Yoga Festival Berlin, the largest gathering of this type in Germany, will be held from July 3rd to 5th. This year’s theme is “Yoga - way to nature.” Aimed at presenting a unified view of the science of yoga in all its aspects, the program will include 55 international speakers and 55 workshops, with yoga hours, lectures, many high-carat concerts, the first Berlin child yoga convention and much more. Complementing this year’s nature theme, there will be camping, swimming and boating. More than 5000 people are expected to attend.

Source: www.hinduismtoday.com

Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person is a little like expecting the bull not to attack you because you are a vegetarian.
   Dennis Wholey

Source: www.startribune.com

MINNESOTA, U.S., June 26, 20009: Eleven years after the Hindu Society of Minnesota picked out a cornfield near Maple Grove as the spot for its new home, one of the largest Hindu temples in North America celebrates its completion this weekend.

Crowds of up to 1,500 are expected each day of the three-day festival at the Minnesota Hindu Temple, which serves as a cultural and spiritual hub for about 30,000 Hindus in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota and the southern part of Manitoba.

Officially known as the Raja Gopuram Mahotsav (Celebrating the Divine Gateway), the celebration’s focal point will be the just-completed 65-foot-high sculpted tower, the Raja Gopuram, that stands as an archway over the temple’s main entrance.

The building, which houses 19 small shrines as well as an auditorium, dining room, classrooms and office space, had its grand opening three years ago when five of the shrines were ready.