GO TO SOURCE NEW DELHI, INDIA, December 7, 2002: The Ramakrishna Mission has been selected for an honorary mention of the UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Prize for Promotion of Tolerance and Nonviolence 2002. The selection was unanimous, made by an international jury that met in Paris on October 3 and 4. UNESCO’s communication sent to the Ramakrishna Mission states, “This honorary…
Source: The Times of India TIRUCHIRAPALLI, INDIA, December 4, 2002: A writ petition has been filed in the Chennai High Court seeking to revive the age-old practice of reciting Vedic hymns at the Srirangam Ranganthaswamy Temple during annual festivals. The petitioner, Vaishnava Sri A. Krishnamachari, editor of Paanjchanyam, a religious monthly, has requested that the court issue directions to the…
GO TO SOURCE NEW DELHI, INDIA, Dec 4, 2002: Brides are becoming scarce in India because of a growing imbalance in the number of males and females being born here. The situation is so bad that some parents are not only dropping demands for wedding dowries, but are also offering a “bride price” when asking for a woman’s hand in…
GO TO SOURCE CHENNAI, INDIA, December 6, 2002: Eighty-six people converted to Christianity and Buddhism in Chennai on Friday to protest against the Anti-Conversion Act of the Tamil Nadu government, organizers claimed. The All India SC and ST Federation, the main organizer of the program, had earlier said 2,000 dalits (“untouchables”) would embrace Buddhism and another 1,000 Christianity. However, police…
Source: The Hindu THANJAVUR, INDIA, December 1, 2002: People in Thanjavur affectionately call him “Maharaja,” but S. Babaji Rajah Bhonsle Chattrapathy, Senior Prince of Thanjavur, is a civil engineer with a keen interest in preserving heritage structures. He is the hereditary trustee of the Thanjavur Palace Devasthanam, which comprises 88 temples, including the Brihadeeswara Temple. Chattrapathy is also the sixth…
GO TO SOURCE RAIPUR, INDIA, November 29, 2002: Names like Rajesh Sindhi, Salim Mussalman, Sudhir Bengali and Babulal Satnami will no longer figure in the records of Chhattisgarh Police. There will be only proper names and surnames. The state police have decided to completely do away with recording the caste of both the complainant and the suspect/accused from complaint registers,…
GO TO SOURCE BHUBANESWAR, INDIA, November 29, 2002: Servants of Puri’s Lord Jagannath might soon have an added qualification on their resumes. Priests who have spent a lifetime fine-tuning ritual supplication will now learn the art of resistance. Wary of an Akshardham or a Raghunath temple-style attack, administrators of Puri’s most famous landmark have decided to impart martial arts training…
GO TO SOURCE LONDON, ENGLAND, December 2, 2002: With the lecture room packed to capacity a recent talk at King’s College focused on relationship of Hinduism with findings of modern sciences, reports Jay Lakhani of the Vivekananda Center here. “One student asked about the importance of Hanuman and this topic brought into focus a serious flaw seen in the way…
GO TO SOURCE JAIPUR, INDIA, December 2, 2002: Geologists in India say they have found an elephant fossil in the Thar desert of Rajasthan, supporting earlier theories that the vast desert was once a fertile area. They said the discovery also lent credence to the belief that a mighty river, named in the ancient Hindu Vedic texts as Saraswati, flowed…
GO TO SOURCE SONEPAT, INDIA, November 29, 2002: This lengthy article compares the economy of the world’s two most populous countries, China and India. Once close economic rivals two decades ago, each is struggling to bring progress to vast numbers of impoverished people. But now China has surged far ahead. According to the World Bank, the average Chinese citizen now…