Source: Hindustan Times NEW DELHI, INDIA, August 18,2002: The police crime branch has commissioned new weapons for its crime-busters: prayers and vaastu shastra (sacred architecture). As cases pile up and leads are hard to come by, police are going in for shuddhi pujas (purification rites) at various crime branch offices. During the last fortnight, puja was carried out in at…
GO TO SOURCE MADURAI, INDIA, August 21, 2002: At least 105 children were “buried alive” for one minute in Perayur village, near Madurai, on Wednesday to propitiate two female deities even as a government minister watched. The children — who were first rendered unconscious — were sunk into makeshift graves, covered completely, kept there for 60 seconds and then pulled…
GO TO SOURCE COLOMBO, SRI LANKA August 22, 2002: After touring the heartland of Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war Thursday, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said what he saw reminded him of the devastation of the Vietnam War. Armitage’s visit was the first to Sri Lanka by a senior U.S. official since the war began in 1983 and reflects…
GO TO SOURCE MAHARASHTRA, INDIA, August 13, 2002: The age-old tradition of naagpanchami celebrations at Batis Shirala may never quite be the same again. The Mumbai High Court has banned the use of snakes in any procession or competitions. This has angered the villagers, as they are left with no option but to follow the court orders under the supervision…
GO TO SOURCE SIKKIM, INDIA, August 22, 2002: In the last ten years Sikkim, a state in NE India sheltered in the Himalayas, has undergone changes. A senior bureaucrat in the Sikkim government says, “Our religio-demographic pattern has undergone such a change in the last decade that Sikkim is no more a land of Hindus and Buddhists.” The article says,…
GO TO SOURCE NEW YORK, NEW YORK, August 21, 2002: Swami Satchidananda, initiated into the sannyasa (Hindu monasticism) by Swami Sivananda on the banks of the Ganges River, July 10, 1949, died Monday in Madras (Chennai), South India. Swami arrived in America on the crest of a wave of fascination with India in the 1960’s, as sitar music, meditation and…
GO TO SOURCE CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, August 23, 2002: A Chicago-based company has created a process for turning cremated bodies into diamonds. LifeGem is taking orders to make jewellery from the carbon remains of people or pets for US4,500. Dean Vanden Biesen, who helped set up the company, says the idea came from his brother who is also working on the…
GO TO SOURCE GODHRA, INDIA, August 22, 2002: Giving a sensational new turn to the investigation of the Godhra massacre, a Hindu youth, who has admitted to having been a member, albeit unwilling, of the group (otherwise all Muslim) that ferried inflammable material to the spot where the Sabarmati Express was stopped on the fateful morning of February 27, has…
GO TO SOURCE BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, August 19, 2002: In the past thirty years, the religious landscape of the U.S. has changed radically. Islamic centers and mosques, Hindu and Buddhist temples and meditation centers are found in virtually every major American city. How Americans of all faiths begin to engage with one another in shaping a positive pluralism is one of…
Source: Times News Network MAHUDI, GUJARAT, August 20, 2002: It was pure vitriol that flowed out of this pilgrim village on Tuesday as religious leaders from across Gujarat representing various sects gave vent to their disenchantment with the Bharatiya Janata Party and Vishwa Hindu Parishad. According to this report, they said the BJP-VHP combine used them for 20 years to…