SourceNEW DELHI, INDIA, December 13, 2004: There are 3,372 languages in India, but only 216 are spoken by a group of 10,000 persons or more, the Rajya Sabha (upper house of parliament) was informed on Monday. As per the Census of India, 1991, there are 1,576 classified and 1,796 unclassified languages, and out of these 10,000 persons or more speak…
SourceNEW DELHI, INDIA, December 13, 2004: 13: India ranks a poor 106th among 127 nations in its educational reach, according to Unesco’s Global Monitoring Report for 2005, parliament was informed Monday. In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh said the Education for All Development Index of India was 0.658 in the 2003-4 Global…
SourceKANCHEEPURAM, INDIA, December 7, 2004: The Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam of Kancheepuram on Tuesday came out with full-page advertisements in national and regional newspapers seeking to refute allegations that Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati had any hand in the murder of a temple official, Sankararaman. The Shankaracharya is currently in judicial custody in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore Jail in connection with the case. Sankararaman,…
SourceSIEM REAP, CAMBODIA, December 9, 2004: It has been a case of once bitten twice shy for the archaeologists working on the restoration projects at the historic Angkor Wat temple complex here after the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was criticized for its work a decade ago. Aware of the flak the ASI received for making the Angkor Wat look…
SourceAMRITSAR, PAKISTAN, December 9, 2004: A 91-member party of Hindu pilgrims today crossed over to Pakistan in the Samjhauta Express train to pay obeisance at the Shadani Darbar in Sind province and other shrines in Lahore. The party mainly included pilgrims from Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, which was led by one Satyavarth Shadani. They will return on…
SourceNEW DELHI, INDIA, December 9, 2004: (HPI note: We include this article to help people understand why India has had an anti-Hindu tendency since Independence. The country’s first prime minister, Nehru, held a Marxist attitude toward religion.) Jawaharlal Nehru had a word of caution for those mixing religion with politics: it is a kind of self-intoxication which dulls the mind…
SourceKAULA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, December 9, 2004: The Malaysia Hindu Sangam issued the following press release: We have in our midst ideal sons and daughters, who have silently, reverently and patiently, loved and cared for their parents who may have been ill, weak, handicapped or dependent. This could have been for long periods, running into decades. Still these “heroes” and “heroines”…
SourceKANCHIPURAM, INDIA, December 5, 2004: (HPI note: We are reproducing below in full this report by the New York Times. We have left alone in this report their use of “Mr. Saraswati” instead of “the Shankaracharya,” but have complained to their public editor. “Mr. Saraswati” is also being used by the BBC.) On a recent evening at the Kanchi Mutt,…
Religion News ServiceLONDON, UK, Tuesday 7, 2004: The British Ministry of Defense will soon start advertising in the national and religious press for qualified people to serve as Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh chaplains to the British armed forces. Some 300 Christian chaplains already minister to the 210,000 personnel of the Royal Navy, the army, and the Royal Air Force.…
SourceTHE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS, December 7, 2004: Recently the first graduates of the Dutch Hindu Cleric Academy received their certificates as “Hindu Cleric.” The aim of the DHCA (in Dutch: Nederlandse Opleiding Hindoe Geestelijke, NOHG) is to educate people (both men and women) who will be able to provide spiritual guidance, based on Hindu religious, philosophical and ethical principles. This three-year…