SourceNASIK, INDIA, July 30, 2003: The Kumbha Mela began at Nasik on Wednesday, amidst a total boycott of the opening Dhwajarohan (flag hoisting) ceremony by sadhus and mahants from various akhadas (monastic orders). Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi and Maharashtra chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde opened the 13-month-long celebrations of Kumbha Parva by jointly hoisting a flag at Ramkund on…
SourceAHMEDABAD, INDIA, July 21, 2003: After last year’s communal killings in Gujarat, huge gates came up around Hindu- and Muslim-dominated areas of Ahmedabad to keep mobs from each other’s communities at bay. Fear among the Hindus and Muslims led to iron gates being erected in as many as 13 places. However, on Sunday, the 20-feet high iron gates in Sayed…
SourceBANKURA, WEST BENGAL, INDIA: August 3, 2003: Ten sanyasins from the Matrivedi Shamayita Math in West Bengal, India have founded a group called Atmadwip to make the poor economically self-reliant. The sanyasins are between the ages of 25 and 33, are very well-educated and come from middle class families. They help poor farmers in West Bengal’s Bankura district, organise mobile…
SourceALAPPUZHA, July 26, 2003: As many as 1,474 organizations in Kerala received foreign contributions totaling US$75 million during 2000-2001. Almost 90 per cent of them belong to the Christian community. Gospel for Asia tops the list of organizations in Kerala to receive foreign contributions worth $12 million, followed by Mata Amritanandamayi Mission with $4.8 million. At the all-India level, 14,598…
SourceNASHIK, INDIA, July 30, 2003: Despite monsoon floods, hundreds of thousands of Hindus on Wednesday thronged to the temple city of Nasik for the beginning of the Kumbha Mela. The Mela kicked off in the Trimbakeshwar at 11:51 am when the Sun and Jupiter entered the constellation of Leo. Over half-a-million people took part in a colorful inaugural ceremony. The…
SourceNEW DELHI, INDIA, July 26, 2003: The Union Ministry for Tourism and Culture has recommended to UNESCO World Heritage Center that the Golden Temple at Amritsar and the city of Varanasi be included in the world body’s list of heritage sites. The Golden Temple is the principal place of worship of Sikhs, a three-storied shrine crowned with a golden dome.…
Sunday TimesDURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA, July 20, 2003: The Durban High court has heard how the spiritual head of a Hindu movement and his followers were allegedly “taken hostage” by a group of sign-carrying protesters. The trustees of the Chinmaya Mission of South Africa, based in Chatsworth, asked the court for an urgent decree to prevent 27 members of the movement…
SourceNASHIK, INDIA, July 28, 2003: Steady rains in Nashik the past two days have inundated several low-lying areas, including the Ram Kunda on the banks of the flooded Godavari river, the site of the Sinhastha Kumbha Mela scheduled to start on July 30. “All low-lying areas are flooded … many tents in ‘Sadhugram’ here and at Trimbakeshwar are submerged now,”…
SourceMUMBAI, INDIA, July 24, 2003: (Note: this report appeared four days earlier than the above report) Preparations for pilgrimage on a grand scale are being made in Maharashtra for the Grand Pitcher festival or Kumbh Mela. Expecting hundreds of thousands to millions of Hindus in the twin towns of Nasik and Trimbakeshwar, 125 miles from Mumbai, the high point of…
SourceSOUTH AFRICA, July 24, 2003: The National council for Eastern Languages claimed a major victory when national education minister Kader Asmal overturned his decision to remove Eastern languages from the school syllabus. The council, officials of the South African qualifications authority, South African Hindu Maha Sabha and the SA Tamil Federation met Asmal in Pretoria this week to discuss the…