SourceMUMBAI, INDIA, January 14, 2004: It is pitched as the most expensive train ever to run on the Indian railway tracks. After the formal flagging off ceremony by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on January 16, The Deccan Odyssey (DO), dubbed as the “five star hotel on rails,” will traverse a distance of 2,200 kilometers covering the Konkan Coast, the…
SourceBHOPAL, INDIA, January 14, 2004: Incensed by the rape and murder of a nine-year-old on a Catholic Mission School campus in Jhabua last night, a mob of VHP activists today forced their way into the campus, pelted stones and attacked the priests there, according to this report. The mob was protesting the rape and murder of a nine-year-old who was…
SourceNEW DELHI, INDIA, January 11, 2004: Starting Friday in Bombay, Hinduism’s centuries-old social hierarchy will be the focus for thousands of global activists. The World Social Forum, an annual convention of the anti-globalization movement being held in Asia for the first time, will focus on caste as one of five main themes for its panels and protests. Gautam Mody, a…
SourceARIZONA, U.S.A., January 7, 2004: Most scientists agree that the Grand Canyon–a 10-mile wide chasm in northern Arizona–was carved by the Colorado river 5 million to 6 million years ago, says this article in the LA Times. Now a book in the National Park’s bookstore tells another story. “Grand Canyon: A Different View,” by Colorado River guide Tom Vail, asserts…
SourcePUNE, INDIA, January 6, 2004: Members of the Sambhaji Brigade ransacked the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute last Monday. The vandalism was provoked by a book written by James Laine on the Hindu King in India during Islamic domination named Shivaji. The article says, “It is not known which specific passages provoked the group.” However when the Sambhaji Brigade consisting of…
SourceBANGALORE, INDIA, December 31, 2003: The Bochasanwasi Akshar Purshottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) is all set to open its temple in Bangalore. This will be followed by the setting up of the Akshardham in the next few years, like the Akshardham in Gandhinangar (Gujarat), which is huge teaching display on the history and philosophy of the denomination. Head of BAPS his…
SourceMUMBAI, INDIA, January 6, 2004: Devotees lining up at the Siddhivinayak Temple, Prabhadevi, are receiving a pamphlet distributed by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). The pamphlet says the temple’s funds are being systematically diverted to private trusts run by ministers in the state government and state officials. The state government controls the Siddhivinayak Temple trust, which is the state’s second…
SourceNEW DELHI, INDIA, January 10, 2004: NRIs (non-resident Indians) and PIOs (persons of Indian origin) who have come to India to attend the second Pravasi Bharatiya Divas celebrations are thronging the Rudra Centre gallery at Vigyan Bhavan, to buy rudrakshas, the seed of the Elaeocarpus Ganitrus Roxb tree and sacred to Lord Siva. Rudraksha specialist Kamal Narayan Seltha says that…
SourceUSA, January 10, 2003: HPI received the following article and request from Chaturbhuj N. Gidwani. Gidwani, who is attached to US forces in Okinawa, Japan, has campaigned for years to establish a Hindu chaplain in the US military. There are presently Buddhist and Muslim chaplains serving, and as yet, no Hindu chaplain. However, there is an intermediate position, that of…