Source: www.ptinews.com

WASHINGTON, DC, USA, August 12, 2009: Appointed by the US President Barack Obama as a member of a faith-based advisory council of the White House, Anju Bhargava, a banker and a Hindu priest, hopes to remove the ignorance about Hinduism and spread the “real meaning” of the rituals associated with the religion.

Forty two-year-old Bhargava, president of the Asian Indian Women in America (AIWA), is the second Indian American to be appointed to the council which includes religious, secular leaders and scholars from different backgrounds as its members.

Bhargava, who was born and brought up in Chennai, said, “Most people do not understand Hinduism or the ritual process. I have a computer presentation to explain the context, the meaning of the symbols and why we do the puja. It is not just a traditional recitation.

“I would say, actually, for me, doing pujas took 25 years of preparation. Most people go from ritual to philosophy. I have gone from philosophy to ritual”, Bhargava, possibly the only Indian American women priest in the United States, said.

She stressed on the need “to bridge the gap between philosophy and rituals”.
“Only then will the rituals be meaningful and not just something we are doing because someone is telling us to do them and in a language we don’t understand,” Bhargava, whose mother Sarla Bhargava hailed from Rewari and who herself shared a “deep-rooted” connection with the district, said.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2009/08/06/stories/2009080659930300.htm“>www.hindu.com

CHENNAI, INDIA, August 6, 2009: The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board has requested the public to use only Ganesha statues made of raw clay during Vinayaka Chathurthi festival on August 23. The recent trend of immersing Ganeshas made with plaster-of-Paris, chemicals and paints has resulted in pollution of the water bodies.

While the Board’s powers only apply to industries, it has asked the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department to educate the public on this issue. It has also asked the Police Department to identify and prevent the sale of Deities made with polluting materials.

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

RAWALPINDI, INDIA, August 11, 2009: For the last five decades, 80-year-old Indu Mitha has been teaching the beautiful and deeply religious Bharatanatyam dance to Pakistanis. Dance, it seems, can cross cultural and religious boundaries.

Teaching traditional Indian dance in Pakistan required a delicate balancing act, which she successfully performed along her dance steps. Dance was considered “haraam” - or un Islamic - during the tenure of President Zia ul Haq, when a “no objection certificate” was needed for every performance.

Identified with the Hindu religion, Bharatanatyam originated in southern India and has spread worldwide. The delicate, highly emotional dance form is characterized by glittering costumes, colourful lyrics and the frequent use of percussion instruments.

Source: www.scribd.com

KAUAI, HAWAII, August 16, 2009: In our effort to improve the teaching of Hindu and Indian history, Hinduism Today magazine has posted on the free site, scribd.com, a series of history books used in India. Clicking on the URL above will take you to the page where each can be read, or downloaded as a PDF file.

They include:

1. Themes in Indian history, parts 1, 2 and 3, for 12th standard
   
2. Our Pasts I for standard 6
   
3. Our Pasts II for standard 7
   
4. Our Pasts III, part 1, for standard 8 (there is no part 2 for Our Pasts III)
   
5. Medieval India, for 11th standard, by Meenakshi Jain, the so-called “saffronized” textbook produced under BJP rule
   
6. Ancient India, for 11th standard, by Makkhan Lal, also a BJP-period book
   
7. History in the New NCERT textbooks a critique of the BJP books by the Indian History Congress, a Marxist group of historians
   
8. Fallacies in the IHC report, a rebuttal of the above
   
9. The 6th to 12th standard history books presently in use in Tamil Nadu, with an emphasis on South India
   

Also included are Hinduism Today’s history material:

1. Chapter One: Hinduism from Ancient Times
   
2. Chapter Two: Hindu India: 300 to 1100 ce
   
3. Sets of six lesson plans each for the above chapters.
   

All of the books are useful. The Indian books are “controversial” only in regard to the Aryan Invasion and the Muslim period. The current government puts forward the Aryan Invasion and emphasizes positive aspects of the Muslim period. The BJP books question or reject the Aryan Invasion and emphasize the devastation of the Muslim period.

However, on both counts, a balanced view can be gotten by examining the material in the BJP books, comparing it with the current official books and reading the critiques. The BJP books were written by qualified historians at Indian universities and represent true scholarly difference in point of view.

All the India textbooks benefit from a generally comprehensive and sympathetic view of India’s history and communities, one not found in Western textbooks. They are far more extensive in scope than anything found in the US or Europe for the K-12 curriculum.

Source: www.hinduismtoday.com

Culture without religion is tourism.
   Anonymous