Articles on the religious situation in India

Muslim group boycotts Nanavati Commission

by Sukrat Desai ("Indo-Asian News Service," July 16, 2003)

The Nanavati Commission, probing last year's sectarian violence in Gujarat, started its hearings in Ahmedabad on Wednesday under a cloud of controversy with a prominent Muslim organization boycotting the proceedings.

"Our stand has been clear from the day Justice KG Shah was inducted into the commission. We knew that justice would elude us," chairperson of the Gujarat chapter of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Mohammed Safi Madni said.

The group, which has been involved in relief work, is currently engaged in helping rehabilitate the riot victims.

As the two-member commission began hearing depositions of the riot victims, there were others who expressed their lack of faith in it.

Senior High Court advocate Mohsin Quadri said it was a state government tool.

"The commission is the state government's tool to collect evidence in support of the perpetrators of the communal violence," Quadri alleged.

The two-member commission, headed by retired Justice GT Nanavati, has been entrusted with the task of investigating the causes of last year's riots, which killed at least 1,000 people.

The hearings in Ahmedabad, the last stop before the commission completes its investigation, are considered particularly crucial because the city accounted for about half of the killings.

In the first phase of the hearings until July 22, the commission will hear only those from the predominantly Hindu neighbourhoods of western Ahmedabad.

It is only in the second phase, scheduled to begin from July 28, when the commission will investigate the killings in Naroda-Patia and Gulbarg Society -- 85 people were killed in Naroda-Patia and 39, including former Congress parliamentarian Ehsan Jafri, in Gulbarg Society in eastern Ahmedabad.

Thus, the riot victims of two of the most brutal incidents in last year's violence will have to wait before they get a chance to depose.

Human rights activists pointed out that only incidents of looting of Muslim property and minor skirmishes were reported from western Ahmedabad. The major incidents of violence occurred in the eastern Ahmedabad, which has a mixed population of Hindus and Muslims.

But controversy is not new for the commission.

Two months ago in May, Nanavati created a storm when he gave a clean chit to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. He said the government had no role to play in the communal violence and there was no clinching evidence available against it.

This was despite several rights groups and victims who said the state government had actively colluded with rightwing Hindu groups in the riots.

Following the widely criticized statement, the commission's hearing in Vadodara last month was boycotted by several NGOs and civil liberties groups.

The commission began its hearing last year from Godhra, from where the riots had sparked off after the killing of 59 train passengers.

The commission has so far held hearings in 22 of the 25 districts and received more than 4,000 representations from the riot victims narrating incidents of violence.

A priest allegedly murdered his daughter to appease his goddess at Madlehalli in Tiptur taluk of Tumkur district recently.

Narayanappa, a priest at the Chowdeshwari Temple at Dasarighatta, took his daughter, Ambika (12), to Tiptur on the last new moon day (June 29) on the pretext
of buying her textbooks.But the next day, he returned home without her.His wife, Gowramma, who suspected foul play, lodged a police complaint about the missing girl
after a week.

Police found the body of Ambika at Galibande hillock about one km away from Madlehalli on Wednesday. Her head was tonsured.There were signs of sacrificial
rites at the spot. Her plaited hair was also found at a distance.

The Deputy Superintendent of Police, L. Shivashankar, visited the spot. The priest is reported to be absconding.

Salman Khan, Bollywood's bad boy, has dropped plans to play the role of the Hindu god Lord Rama after receiving threats allegedly from Hindu hardliners, according to his personal friend Bunty Walia.

Khan, 37, who has been in the news for beating girlfriends and a fatal hit-and-run controversy, announced earlier this year that he was to star as Lord Rama in the big-budget Ramayana.

"He (Khan) as well as I have received a number of threats from certain people, following which we have decided not to make the movie, at least for now," said Walia.

The Asian Age newspaper reported that Khan, a Muslim, had received threats from the Hindu right-wing group Bajrang Dal for taking the role.

"We had started pre-production work on the film, but there are some people who think that I should not play Rama because I am a Muslim," the report quoted Khan as saying.

"How can people forget that my mother is a Hindu? And if my mother had not been there, how would I be here today? It is frustrating and sad, but what can I do?"

Walia said the project was being kept in abeyance and might be revived later.

Ramayana was to be produced by Khan and Walia's production company, GS Entertainment, with a budget of more than 1,0 billion rupees (R167-million).

 

Bhaur for new ways to propagate Sikhism

("The Tribune," July 6, 2003)
 

Jathedar Sukhdev Singh Bhaur, a former acting SGPC president and an Akali stalwart, today underlined the need for new methods for propagation of Sikhism to usher in a renaissance in the Sikh religion and to bring back those who had got weaned away from the faith. He was addressing the 86th “Jor Mela” at nearby historic Palahi village on the concluding day. The three day “Jor Mela” was held to observe the fifth battle fought by the sixth Guru Hargobind, against the Mughal rulers at Palahi village in 1634.

Jathedar Bhaur told the congregation that he was not satisfied with the traditional ways of propagation of Sikhism, confined to the gurdwara.

The emergence of godmen like Baba Ashutosh and Piara Singh Bhaniara, the episode at Talhan, the distribution of trishuls and lathis were stagemanaged to erode Sikhism, which championed the cause of humanity, he said. He also held that the satellite channels responsible for diluting spiritual values. He attributed the present plight of Sikhism to the penchant for taking religious preachings casually.

The Punjab Social Welfare Minister, Mr Joginder Singh Mann, while addressing the congregation, eulogised Guru Hargobind as the author of the concept of saint-soldier. Sikhism stood for the well-being of one and all, added Mr Mann. Both Jathedar Bhaur and Mr Mann were honoured with siropas. Noted ‘Dhadi’ singers included Swaran Singh Maheru, Jawala Singh Patanga, Jaswant Singh Josh and Ram Singh Raftar. 
 

Burning the dead: Ancient Hindu ritual poses environmental crisis (AP, July 14, 2003)

Tears rolling down his face, Bachchan Singh Bahadur poured cups of melted butter on the wood fire of his father's funeral pyre on the outskirts of New Delhi.        He was in keeping with a centuries-old Hindu funeral     tradition, but it's also the stuff of ecological nightmares for the Indian government.

The 35-year-old government clerk could have used an electricity-powered crematorium less than half a mile away for just one-tenth of the price, t

 
 

Pope calls for conversions in India

("The Tablet," July 12, 2003) 

 

 Pope John Paul II has told India’s bishops that missionary activity should focus on converting people to Christianity. The Pope’s words came as the subcontinent’s most prominent Hindu organisation repeated its claims that the Pope is interfering in India’s affairs. It is the second time in recent weeks he has been criticised by Hindu nationalists.

On 3 July, the Pope told bishops on their ad limina visit to the Vatican that Christianity separated from a proclamation of Jesus as the only Saviour “is no longer Christian”.

“Any theology of mission that omits the call to a radical conversion to Christ and denies the cultural transformation that such conversion will entail necessarily misrepresents the reality of our faith, which is always a new beginning in the life of him who alone is the way, the truth and the life”, John Paul II said.

The Pope cited “ample evidence” in the bishops’ reports that the Church’s missionary efforts in India were taking root. He noted numerous adult baptisms despite social obstacles faced especially by aspiring converts who are poor, the high percentage of Catholics who attend Sunday Mass, and increasing numbers of laity “properly participating” in the liturgy.

The issue of conversions is controversial in India, where right-wing Hindu organisations accuse Christians of seeking to convert Hindus by force. Six states have passed conversion laws, which Hindu groups say protect poor Indians against forced conversions and which Christians say are discriminatory and curtail religious freedom. Last month, the Pope expressed his concerns about India’s conversion laws, provoking a barrage of criticism from Hindu groups and a prominent politician.

At its annual gathering earlier this month, India’s most prominent right-wing Hindu group again accused the Pope of interfering in Indian affairs. The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), which has close ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which leads the country’s coalition adminstration, demanded that the central government “lodge a protest” with the Pope. It warned that India’s legacy of tolerance should not be construed as a licence to others “to infringe on our national ethos and disturb peace”. The issue dominated discussionsat the group’s two-day meeting in Kanyakumari, a town on India’s southernmost tip.

In Rome, Archbishop Ignatius Pinto of Bangalore told the Pope that many non-Christians in India “would love to come into the fold, but the fear of social ostracism, deprivation of hereditary rights and privileges and other similar benefits keep them from embracing Christianity”.

Christians account for two per cent of the overwhelmingly Hindu population of India
 

 

 

Muslim polygamy a mere myth: Survey

by Rathin Das ("The Hindustan Times," July 12, 2003)

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi may have jibed at Muslims during his 'Gaurav Yatra' last year by saying the fruits of development are neutralised by those who believe in 'hum paanch, hamare pachchis' (we five, our 25). Perhaps he didn't know what he had said is pure myth. A survey conducted in Muslim-dominated areas of Ahmedabad stands contrary to the general belief surrounding the community's alleged polygamous tendencies, the staple diet of the Sangh Parivar's diatribe. The survey, conducted in 1993, found that only two persons had four wives, two others had three wives and 279 had two wives. The survey covered eight blocks in the old city and some other areas, which together account for almost the entire Muslim population of Ahmedabad. While Muslims have often been jeered, that fact is that Hindus are also involved in polygamous practices. As many as 29,951 cases of 'Maitri Karar’ (friendship contract) were found officially registered at the District Collectorate at that time. The Maitri Karar was a pact between a married Hindu man and his 'other woman' to circumvent provisions of the Hindu Marriage Act that prohibits another marriage while the wife is still alive, said sources in the legal fraternity. "It was not legally enforceable, but the Maitri Karar was meant to give a sense of security to the married man's 'other woman'," said lawyer Girish Patel. Among the Muslims too, the survey— conducted by the Gujarat affiliate of MARG— found that most of the second marriages could be attributed basically to extra-marital affairs, which were legitimised taking advantage of the Shariat laws. In few cases, the second marriage was solemnised as the first wife was unable to bear a child, said former corporator J.V. Momin. Momin had ordered the survey in the wake of intense criticism from the Sangh on this score soon after the Babri Masjid demolition. Some cases of second marriage among the Muslims emanated from the need to provide security to widowed sister-in-laws.

 

 
 

Does sperm have a religion?
 

("The Sydney Morning Herald," July 14, 2003)

It's not the physical attributes or medical history of sperm donors that worry many Indian couples opting for assisted reproduction.

Their main concern is religion, a report said yesterday.

Infertility specialists in the western city of Bombay said two in every 10 couples contemplating in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) insisted on knowing the religion of the donor, the Asian Age newspaper reported.

Gynaecologist Hrishikesh Pai said: "Recently a couple insisted the sperm be from a Catholic donor. After a lot of counselling, they agreed to a general donor. Muslims, too, are particular about the religion of the donor."

One couple from the Parsi community decided to remain childless after their request for a Parsi donor was turned down, the report said.

Another doctor, Nandita Palshetkar, said: "A Parsi man had a very low sperm count. He was adamant the donor be Parsi. We tried our best but they would not listen to us. The husband refused IVF for his wife, saying it was better not to have a baby."

Dr Pai said: "What is the religion of the sperm or egg? It's not possible to get donors of a particular caste or religion. Couples going for IVF must not be biased."

In one case, a Hindu vegetarian couple insisted the donor also be vegetarian, the report said.

 

 

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