#Hindu majority India

[curtwilde]

TW: Rape, violent language, islamphobia.

On Slide 3 you can see the vile genocidal fantasies of hindutva ghouls towards grieving Palestinian mothers and children, and yet they'll whine about safety of Hindu women just to demonize Muslim men. Please remember every accusation from the Hindutva genocidal majority is a confession.

Source

This is what hindutvavadis - even the soft sanghis here on tumblr - support and align themselves with. This is what they believe and what they vote for.

[peachiyyy]

ind*a’s h*nduv*ta issue needs to be addressed globally bc they essentially want to do the same thing isr*el is doing to non-hindu indians. They’re also one of isr*el’s biggest supporters + isr*el funds the indian occupation in kashmir. B*p and m*di are garbage and I pray for their downfall everyday. Considering the history of 🇮🇳 , being in favor for genocide should be anti-indian but they hate muslims so much that they don’t care. But when I talk about it some yt saviour on here wants to tell me, a DESI- not just south asian, a DESI person, that im ‘racist’ for calling majority of them garbage lmfao.

[shesnake]

“Monkey Man” was shot and completed in 2021, and Netflix soon after acquired the rights for around $30 million, but it’s been on the shelf for three years and they‘ve all of a sudden decided to get rid of it? What gives? It turns out, according to an in-the-know source, that it was the portrayal of a fictional right-wing Hindu Nationalist character in the film that worried Netflix about their future dealings in India. And even though they had paid more than twice the production cost, they decided to give the film back to the producers, which is what caused the long delay. Universal and Peele eventually took a particular liking to the film, so much so that they suggested possible editing changes and delayed the release until what they thought would be the right date. It’s as simple as that. In the end, it was all about politics and optics for the streaming giant, especially since India has become the current top growth market for Netflix. Co-Founder Reed Hastings has mentioned that a majority of the service's next 100 million subscribers would most likely come from India.

Universal/Jordan Peele's "suggested possible editing changes" in question:

[sunncourts]

for me, the heart of monkey man was its immense love for india, and the confidence of articulating that love through representation and criticism—the things that make india beautiful are not the colorist, hindu-nationalist propoganda stories of bollywood but largeness of the diaspora: indians who trans, who are muslim, who have been oppressed by their government, who are unacknowledged by society, etc—and prevail despite the odds stacked against them. they are encouraged to be themselves and fight against these occupational forces.

major props to dev patel for showing that hey, you actually can make a movie about indians in a way that perfectly encapsulates the various cultures, mythologies, AND egregious political climate, while also highlighting indian people and giving them the recognition and respect they often don't recieve in western—OR bollywood—canon. now that we know it's possible (it always was) i want more! thanks!

(also it helped that he was either in a suit, shirtless, or covered in blood [sometimes two at a time] for most of this movie. dev patel, i literally only need one chance...)

[reasonsforhope]

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is, by some measures, the most popular leader in the world. Prior to the 2024 election, his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held an outright majority in the Lok Sabha (India’s Parliament) — one that was widely projected to grow after the vote count. The party regularly boasted that it would win 400 Lok Sabha seats, easily enough to amend India’s constitution along the party's preferred Hindu nationalist lines.

But when the results were announced on Tuesday, the BJP held just 240 seats. They not only underperformed expectations, they actually lost their parliamentary majority. While Modi will remain prime minister, he will do so at the helm of a coalition government — meaning that he will depend on other parties to stay in office, making it harder to continue his ongoing assault on Indian democracy.

So what happened? Why did Indian voters deal a devastating blow to a prime minister who, by all measures, they mostly seem to like?

India is a massive country — the most populous in the world — and one of the most diverse, making its internal politics exceedingly complicated. A definitive assessment of the election would require granular data on voter breakdown across caste, class, linguistic, religious, age, and gender divides. At present, those numbers don’t exist in sufficient detail. 

But after looking at the information that is available and speaking with several leading experts on Indian politics, there are at least three conclusions that I’m comfortable drawing.

First, voters punished Modi for putting his Hindu nationalist agenda ahead of fixing India’s unequal economy. Second, Indian voters had some real concerns about the decline of liberal democracy under BJP rule. Third, the opposition parties waged a smart campaign that took advantage of Modi’s vulnerabilities on the economy and democracy.

Understanding these factors isn’t just important for Indians. The country’s election has some universal lessons for how to beat a would-be authoritarian — ones that Americans especially might want to heed heading into its election in November.

-via Vox, June 7, 2024. Article continues below.

A new (and unequal) economy

Modi’s biggest and most surprising losses came in India’s two most populous states: Uttar Pradesh in the north and Maharashtra in the west. Both states had previously been BJP strongholds — places where the party’s core tactic of pitting the Hindu majority against the Muslim minority had seemingly cemented Hindu support for Modi and his allies.

One prominent Indian analyst, Yogendra Yadav, saw the cracks in advance. Swimming against the tide of Indian media, he correctly predicted that the BJP would fall short of a governing majority.

Traveling through the country, but especially rural Uttar Pradesh, he prophesied “the return of normal politics”: that Indian voters were no longer held spellbound by Modi’s charismatic nationalist appeals and were instead starting to worry about the way politics was affecting their lives.

Yadav’s conclusions derived in no small part from hearing voters’ concerns about the economy. The issue wasn’t GDP growth — India’s is the fastest-growing economy in the world — but rather the distribution of growth’s fruits. While some of Modi’s top allies struck it rich, many ordinary Indians suffered. Nearly half of all Indians between 20 and 24 are unemployed; Indian farmers have repeatedly protested Modi policies that they felt hurt their livelihoods.

“Everyone was talking about price rise, unemployment, the state of public services, the plight of farmers, [and] the struggles of labor,” Yadav wrote...

“We know for sure that Modi’s strongman image and brassy self-confidence were not as popular with voters as the BJP assumed,” says Sadanand Dhume, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who studies India. 

The lesson here isn’t that the pocketbook concerns trump identity-based appeals everywhere; recent evidence in wealthier democracies suggests the opposite is true. Rather, it’s that even entrenched reputations of populist leaders are not unshakeable. When they make errors, even some time ago, it’s possible to get voters to remember these mistakes and prioritize them over whatever culture war the populist is peddling at the moment.

Liberalism strikes back

The Indian constitution is a liberal document: It guarantees equality of all citizens and enshrines measures designed to enshrine said equality into law. The signature goal of Modi’s time in power has been to rip this liberal edifice down and replace it with a Hindu nationalist model that pushes non-Hindus to the social margins. In pursuit of this agenda, the BJP has concentrated power in Modi’s hands and undermined key pillars of Indian democracy (like a free press and independent judiciary).

Prior to the election, there was a sense that Indian voters either didn’t much care about the assault on liberal democracy or mostly agreed with it. But the BJP’s surprising underperformance suggests otherwise.

The Hindu, a leading Indian newspaper, published an essential post-election data analysis breaking down what we know about the results. One of the more striking findings is that the opposition parties surged in parliamentary seats reserved for members of “scheduled castes” — the legal term for Dalits, the lowest caste grouping in the Hindu hierarchy.

Caste has long been an essential cleavage in Indian politics, with Dalits typically favoring the left-wing Congress party over the BJP (long seen as an upper-caste party). Under Modi, the BJP had seemingly tamped down on the salience of class by elevating all Hindus — including Dalits — over Muslims. Yet now it’s looking like Dalits were flocking back to Congress and its allies. Why?

According to experts, Dalit voters feared the consequences of a BJP landslide. If Modi’s party achieved its 400-seat target, they’d have more than enough votes to amend India’s constitution. Since the constitution contains several protections designed to promote Dalit equality — including a first-in-the-world affirmative action system — that seemed like a serious threat to the community. It seems, at least based on preliminary data, that they voted accordingly.

The Dalit vote is but one example of the ways in which Modi’s brazen willingness to assail Indian institutions likely alienated voters.

Uttar Pradesh (UP), India’s largest and most electorally important state, was the site of a major BJP anti-Muslim campaign. It unofficially kicked off its campaign in the UP city of Ayodhya earlier this year, during a ceremony celebrating one of Modi’s crowning achievements: the construction of a Hindu temple on the site of a former mosque that had been torn down by Hindu nationalists in 1992. 

Yet not only did the BJP lose UP, it specifically lost the constituency — the city of Faizabad — in which the Ayodhya temple is located. It’s as direct an electoral rebuke to BJP ideology as one can imagine.

In Maharashtra, the second largest state, the BJP made a tactical alliance with a local politician, Ajit Pawar, facing serious corruption charges. Voters seemingly punished Modi’s party for turning a blind eye to Pawar’s offenses against the public trust. Across the country, Muslim voters turned out for the opposition to defend their rights against Modi’s attacks.

The global lesson here is clear: Even popular authoritarians can overreach.

By turning “400 seats” into a campaign slogan, an all-but-open signal that he intended to remake the Indian state in his illiberal image, Modi practically rang an alarm bell for constituencies worried about the consequences. So they turned out to stop him en masse.

The BJP’s electoral underperformance is, in no small part, the direct result of their leader’s zealotry going too far.

Return of the Gandhis? 

Of course, Modi’s mistakes might not have mattered had his rivals failed to capitalize. The Indian opposition, however, was far more effective than most observers anticipated.

Perhaps most importantly, the many opposition parties coordinated with each other. Forming a united bloc called INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance), they worked to make sure they weren’t stealing votes from each other in critical constituencies, positioning INDIA coalition candidates to win straight fights against BJP rivals.

The leading party in the opposition bloc — Congress — was also more put together than people thought. Its most prominent leader, Rahul Gandhi, was widely dismissed as a dilettante nepo baby: a pale imitation of his father Rajiv and grandmother Indira, both former Congress prime ministers. Now his critics are rethinking things.

“I owe Rahul Gandhi an apology because I seriously underestimated him,” says Manjari Miller, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Miller singled out Gandhi’s yatras (marches) across India as a particularly canny tactic. These physically grueling voyages across the length and breadth of India showed that he wasn’t just a privileged son of Indian political royalty, but a politician willing to take risks and meet ordinary Indians where they were. During the yatras, he would meet directly with voters from marginalized groups and rail against Modi’s politics of hate.

“The persona he’s developed — as somebody kind, caring, inclusive, [and] resolute in the face of bullying — has really worked and captured the imagination of younger India,” says Suryanarayan. “If you’ve spent any time on Instagram Reels, [you’ll see] an entire generation now waking up to Rahul Gandhi’s very appealing videos.”

This, too, has a lesson for the rest of the world: Tactical innovation from the opposition matters even in an unfair electoral context.

There is no doubt that, in the past 10 years, the BJP stacked the political deck against its opponents. They consolidated control over large chunks of the national media, changed campaign finance law to favor themselves, suborned the famously independent Indian Electoral Commission, and even intimidated the Supreme Court into letting them get away with it. 

The opposition, though, managed to find ways to compete even under unfair circumstances. Strategic coordination between them helped consolidate resources and ameliorate the BJP cash advantage. Direct voter outreach like the yatra helped circumvent BJP dominance in the national media.

To be clear, the opposition still did not win a majority. Modi will have a third term in office, likely thanks in large part to the ways he rigged the system in his favor.

Yet there is no doubt that the opposition deserves to celebrate. Modi’s power has been constrained and the myth of his invincibility wounded, perhaps mortally. Indian voters, like those in Brazil and Poland before them, have dealt a major blow to their homegrown authoritarian faction.

And that is something worth celebrating.

-via Vox, June 7, 2024.

[timetravellingkitty]

I think if you're going to fearmonger about how bangladeshi muslims are illegally entering india to turn it into a muslim country you should be shot dead. especially considering that the 1947 massacres of muslims in jammu perpetrated by the rss and hari singh facilitated an artificial demographic change which is why it's hindu majority now

[transmutationisms]

hi! i was wondering if you’ve ever talked about your thoughts on yoga?

um. no but i have a friend who writes about it in relation to early 20th century degeneracy theory in india—yoga was part of the whole physical and spiritual practice meant to counter degeneration and strengthen the race and nation, analogous in some respects to the emphasis on gymnastics in french medicine in the nineteenth century. also some overlap between this genre of degeneracy theorist and some of the major figures in the creation/popularisation of modern ayurveda (predictably predominantly hindu, upper-caste, some gaining positions in colonial government and synthesising eg sanskrit medical texts w/ anthroposophist ideas, etc). wish i could link his stuff but he hasn't published yet and doesn't blog

[poetessinthepit]

It's amazing how many people are incredibly uncharitable towards Palestinians and Arabs in general. I can recall this one video on YouTube where an Israeli guy is asking a handful of Palestinians what they think of Hitler; it's hardly scientific. The majority of Palestinians interviewed in the video have an unfavorable view of Hitler. One guy specifically says Hitler was evil because he burned jews. There are a few of them who say positive things, but then the translator makes it clear that they are joking or being sarcastic. Only 1 or 2 people in this video say good things about Hitler in seriousness.

While that is alarming and no one should be praising Hitler, I think you'd sadly find similar answers in any area of the world where people do not get a decent education on WW2, the holocaust, Hitler, etc. For example, when I was in India, I saw a pack of cigarettes at a truck stop called Hitler cigarettes. My assumption was not India is full of nazis but that there is ignorance about who Hitler was in India ( hindu nationalists/modi supporters are actually comparable to nazis, but that's another convo).

Even with this minute sample size, the video hardly confirms the popular Israeli narrative that Palestinians are nazified people. Yet, if you only read the comments in the video and you didn't watch it, you'd think the opposite was true.

Many of the comments say the video is terrifying and chilling and proof that Palestinians don't want peace/hate jews/are nazis. Some say that even the Palestinians who called Hitler "bad" or "evil" or a "tyrant" are just lying for the camera, and you can tell by their body language. Commenters who don't speak a lick of Arabic insist that in the cases where the translator says the interviewee is not being serious, the translator is whitewashing the answers. Apparently, arabs incapable of joking. If somebody randomly came up to me on the street and asked me, "Do you think Hitler was good?",I can imagine easily laughing and sarcastically saying,"No, he was a good guy. " Maybe not if someone shoved a camera in my face, but I have an awareness of how things could be misconstrued that these people most likely do not.

And I'm not saying there is no antisemitism in Palestine,that would be ridiculous, but it's interesting to me that Israelis can say the most explicitly anti-arab racist shit and people will go out of their way to not see it for what it is, but a Palestinian can clearly state say Hitler was evil man because he burned jews and people will insist that their body language reveals they are a secret nazi.

I might remember some of the details wrong, but I'm just spitballing about something I vaguely remember.

[room-surprise]

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES IN DUNGEON MESHI: INDIAN PHILOSOPHY

(SPOILERS FOR DUNGEON MESHI BELOW)

We know that Ryoko Kui spent considerable time at the beginning of working on Dungeon Meshi doing research and planning the series. Kui constantly references real world culture, history and mythology, but she also occasionally references real-world philosophy.

The story of Dungeon Meshi is full of philosophical questions about the joy and privilege of being alive, the inevitability of death and loss, the importance of taking care of yourself and your loved ones, and the purpose and true nature of desire. Kui explores these issues through the plot, the characters, and even the fundamental building blocks that make up her fictional fantasy world. Though it’s impossible to say without Kui making a statement on the issue, I believe Dungeon Meshi reflects many elements of ancient Indian philosophy and religion.

It’s possible that Kui just finds these ideas interesting to write about, but doesn’t have any personal affiliation with either religion, however I would not be at all surprised if I learned that Kui is a Buddhist, or has personal experience with Buddhism, since it’s one of the major religions in Japan.

I could write many essays trying to explain these extremely complex concepts, and I know that my understanding of them is imperfect, but I’ll do my best to explain them in as simple a way as possible to illustrate how these ideas may have influenced Kui’s work.

HINDUISM

Hinduism is the third-largest religion in the world and originates in India. The term Hinduism is a huge umbrella that encompasses many diverse systems of thought, but they have some shared theological elements, and share many ancient texts and myths.

According to Classical Hindu belief, there are four core goals in human life, and they are the pursuit of dharma, artha, kama, and moksha.

Dharma is the natural order of the universe, and also one’s obligation to carry out their part in it. It is the pursuit and execution of one’s inherent nature and true calling, playing one’s role in the cosmic order.

Artha is the resources needed for an individual’s material well-being. A central premise of Hindu philosophy is that every person should live a joyous, pleasurable and fulfilling life, where every person's needs are acknowledged and fulfilled. A person's needs can only be fulfilled when sufficient means are available.

Kama is sensory, emotional, and aesthetic pleasure. Often misinterpreted to only mean “sexual desire”, kama is any kind of enjoyment derived from one or more of the five senses, including things like having sex, eating, listening to music, or admiring a painting. The pursuit of kama is considered an essential part of healthy human life, as long as it is in balance with the pursuit of the three other goals.

Moksha is peace, release, nirvana, and ultimate enlightenment. Moksha is freedom from ignorance through self-knowledge and true understanding of the universe, and the end of the inevitable suffering caused by the struggle of being alive. When one has reached true enlightenment, has nothing more to learn or understand about the universe, and has let go of all earthly desires, they have attained moksha, and they will not be reborn again. In Hinduism’s ancient texts, moksha is seen as achievable through the same techniques used to practice dharma, for example self-reflection and self-control. Moksha is sometimes described as self-discipline that is so perfect that it becomes unconscious behavior.

The core conflict of Hinduism is the eternal struggle between the material and immaterial world. It is often said that all of the material world is “an illusion,” and what this means is that all good and bad things will inevitably end, because the material world is finite. On the one hand, this is sad, because everything good in life will one day cease to exist, but on the other hand, this is reassuring, because all of the bad things will eventually end as well, and if one can accept this, they will be at peace.

The central debate of Hinduism is, which is more important: Satisfying your needs as a living thing, having a good life as a productive member of society, serving yourself, your family, and the world by participating in it the way nature intended? Or is it rejecting desire and attachment, discovering the true nature of existence, realizing the impermanence of material things, and that one can only escape the suffering that comes from the struggle of life by accepting that death and loss are inevitable?

There is no set answer to this question, and most believers of Hinduism tend to strike a balance between the two extremes simply because that’s what happens when a person leads a normal, average life, however there are also those who believe that pursuing extremes will lead to ultimate enlightenment and final release as well.

BUDDHISM

Buddhism is an Indian religion and philosophical tradition that originated in the 5th century BCE, based on teachings attributed to religious teacher the Buddha. It is the world's fourth-largest religion and though it began in India, it has spread throughout all of Asia and has played a major role in Asian culture and spirituality, eventually spreading to the West beginning in the 20th century.

Buddhism is partially derived from the same worldview and philosophical belief system as Hinduism, and the main difference is that the Buddha taught that there is a “middle way” that all people should strive to attain, and that the excesses of asceticism (total self-denial) or hedonism (total self-indulgence) practiced by some Hindus could not lead a person to moksha/enlightenment/release from suffering.

Buddhism teaches that the primary source of suffering in life is caused by misperception or ignorance of two truths; nothing is permanent, and there is no individual self.

Buddhists believe that dukkha (suffering) is an innate characteristic of life, and it is manifested in trying to “have” or “keep” things, due to fear of loss and suffering. Dukkha is caused by desire. Dukkha can be ended by ceasing to feel desire through achieving enlightenment and understanding that everything is a temporary illusion.

There are many, many other differences between Hinduism and Buddhism, but these elements are the ones that I think are most relevant to Kui’s work.

Extreme hedonism involves seeking sensual pleasure without any limits. This could just be indulging in what people would consider “normal” pleasures, like food, sex, drugs and the arts, but it can also involve doing things which are considered socially repugnant, either literally or by taking part in symbolic rituals that represent these acts. Some examples are holding religious meetings in forbidden places, consuming forbidden substances (including human flesh), using human bones as tools, or engaging in sex with partners who are considered socially unacceptable (unclean, wrong gender, too young, too old, related to the practitioner). Again, these acts may be done literally or symbolically.

Extreme ascetic practices involve anything that torments the physical body, and some examples are meditation without breathing, the total suppression of bodily movement, refusing to lay down, tearing out the hair, going naked, wearing rough and painful clothing, laying on a mat of thorns, or starving oneself.

HOW THIS CONNECTS TO DUNGEON MESHI

Kui’s most emphasized message in Dungeon Meshi is that being alive is a fleeting, temporary experience that once lost, cannot truly be regained, and is therefore precious in its rarity. Kui also tells us that to be alive means to desire things, that one cannot exist without the other, that desire is essential for life. This reflects the four core goals of human life in Hinduism and Buddhism, but also could be a criticism of some aspects of these philosophies.

I think Kui’s story shows the logical functionality of the four core goals: only characters who properly take care of themselves, and who accept the risk of suffering are able to thrive and experience joy. I think Kui agrees with the Buddhist stance that neither extreme hedonism nor extreme self-denial can lead to enlightenment and ultimate bliss… But I also think that Kui may be saying that ultimate bliss is an illusion, and that the greatest bliss can only be found while a person is still alive, experiencing both loss and desire as a living being.

Kui tells us living things should strive to remain alive, no matter how difficult living may be sometimes, because taking part in life is inherently valuable. All joy and happiness comes from being alive and sharing that precious, limited life with the people around you, and knowing that happiness is finite and must be savored.

Dungeon Meshi tells us souls exist, but never tells us where they go or what happens after death. I think this is very intentional, because Kui doesn’t want readers to think that the characters can just give up and be happy in their next life, or in an afterlife.

There is resurrection in Dungeon Meshi, but thematically there are really no true “second chances.” Although in-universe society views revival as an unambiguous good and moral imperative, Kui repeatedly reminds us of its unnatural and dangerous nature. Although reviving Falin is a central goal of the story, it is only when Laios and Marcille are able to let go of her that the revival finally works… And after the manga’s ending, Kui tells us Falin leaves Laios and Marcille behind to travel the world alone, which essentially makes her dead to them anyway, since she is absent from their lives.

At the same time, Kui tells us that trying to prevent death, or avoid all suffering and loss is a foolish quest that will never end in happiness, because loss and suffering are inevitable and must someday be endured as part of the cycle of life. Happiness cannot exist without suffering, just like the joy of eating requires the existence of hunger, and even starvation.

Kui equates eating with desire itself, using it as a metaphor to describe anything a living creature might want, Kui also views the literal act of eating as the deepest, most fundamental desire of a living thing, the desire that all other desires are built on top of. If a living thing doesn’t eat, it will not have the energy necessary to engage with any other part of life. Toshiro, Mithrun, and Kabru are all examples of this in the story: They don’t take care of themselves and they actively avoid eating, and as a result they suffer from weakness, and struggle to realize their other desires.

Kui suggests that the key difference between being alive or dead is whether or not someone experiences desire. If you are alive, even if you feel empty and cannot identify your desires like Mithrun, you still have desires because you would be dead without them. The living body desires to breathe, to eat, to sleep, even if a person has become numb, or rejected those desires either to punish themselves, or out of a lack of self-love.

Sometimes, we have to do things which are painful and unpleasant, in order to enjoy the good things that make us happy. I believe Kui is telling us that giving up, falling into despair, and refusing to participate in life is not a viable solution either.

The demon only learns to experience desire by entering into and existing in the material, finite world. This experience intoxicates the demon, and it becomes addicted to feeling both the suffering of desire, and the satisfaction of having it fulfilled. This unnatural situation is what endangers the Dungeon Meshi world, and it’s only by purging the demon of this ability to desire that the world can be saved. The demon is like a corrupted Buddha that must give up its desires in order to return to the peaceful existence it had before it was corrupted.

The demon curses Laios to never achieve his greatest desires at the end of the manga, which manifests in several ways, such as losing his monstrous form, Falin choosing to leave after she’s revived, and being unable to get close to monsters because they are afraid of him. In some ways you could compare Laios to a Bodhisattva, a person who tries to aid others in finding nirvana/moksha, even if it prolongs their own suffering and prevents them from finding personal release. Laios gives the demon peace, but Laios himself will never be able to satisfy his desires, and must eventually come to accept his loss and move on with his life.

(This is an excerpt from Chapter 3 of my Real World Cultural and Linguistic influences in Dungeon Meshi essay.)

[incorrectmahabharatquotes]

as an atheist, i believe that religion is the root cause of all evil in the world, and when religion takes the form of religious extremism to promote political agenda, it gets ugly, no matter what religion practices this.

but if push comes to shove, ill take a hindu majority state any day over an islamic majority state. religion, in itself, is bad, but different religions have different levels of bad in them. between hinduism and islam, the former is the lesser evil for me.

Memes aside, it is very interesting that you think all religions are bad but there are some religions that are uniquely MORE evil than others. It's almost like, you believe Hinduism to be a special case of religions where it's more tolerant than others against your better judgement. I'm sorry to tell you that the only reason India isn't AS bad as the Islamic states you mentioned is because the Constitution of India was set up (and was/is updated, when need arises) to act as a safeguard against some of the worst of what some Hindus are capable of. We wouldn't have had to create laws specifically criminalising casteist violence if Hinduism was quite as tolerant as the narrative wants us to perceive it.

No religion is uniquely more evil or less. It's all just people wielding the power that organised religion gives them. There is always a need to have checks and balances to ensure the people don't get too cocky about said power.

I think you might have more work to do in unlearning the biases that you have grown up in your life. Some of this shit is ingrained in us that we don't even notice what we're saying.

-Mod S

I heard this shit somewhere.....hmmm......

Oh yeah!

-Mod G

[magic-coffee]

Books to Learn More About Hindu History

List and description under the cut >>

The India They Saw : Foreign Accounts from 5th Century BC -> 19th Century

Spanning over 4 volumes, this comprehensive collection brings together account of various foreign travelers, explorers and scholars. Their wonder at her rich philosophical efflorescence and material abundance.

Hindu Temples : What Happened To Them Vol 1+2, Sita Ram Goel

The first volume includes a list of 2,000 mosques that the author claims were built on Hindu temples, based primarily on the books of Muslim historians of the period or inscriptions found on mosques. The second volume excerpts from medieval histories and chronicles and from inscriptions concerning the destruction of Hindu, Jain and Buddhist temples. The authors claim that the material presented in the book as "the tip of an iceberg"

Heroic Hindu Resistance to Muslim Invaders (636 AD - 1206 AD), Sita Ram Goel

An analysis of Ram Gopal Misra's Indian resistance to early Muslim invaders, up to 1206 A.D.

Invaders and Infidels: From Sindh to Delhi: The 500-Year Journey of Islamic Invasions, Sandeep Balakrishna (Book 1 + 2)

Tells the story of the origins and trajectory of Islamic invasions into India. It begins with the first Muslim conquest and ends with Babur's invasion of Hindustan, spanning the period of the Delhi Sultanate which was in power for almost 320 years. This epochal story encompasses a vast sweep of events, which changed the history of India forever, and introduced it to an alien faith and a religious despotism such as the country had never experienced before. It comprises major and minor sagas of great heroism, untold savagery, stout resistance, brutal intrigues and epic tragedies.

The Hindus of Hindustan: A Civilizational Journey, Meenakshi Jain

Notwithstanding the views of a section of historians and literati, spiritual, religious, and cultural continuity in India goes back many millennia. Identification with, and adoration of, the land was expressed in the sixty-three verses long Prithvi Sukta of the Atharva Veda, described as the first “national song” in the world. Veneration of the land remained a recurrent theme in sacred literature.

Kautilya, in the Arthasastra, articulated the ideal of political unification, when he said that from the Himalayas to the seas, the land should have one ruler. That ideal was accompanied by a consciousness of cultural union.

Evidence of continuity of religious beliefs and motifs could be traced to the late Upper Palaeolithic (c. 9000-8000) site of Baghor I (Sidhi district, Madhya Pradesh), to the celebrated Indus Valley Civilization, and well thereafter.

Fight For Deities and Rebirth of Temples, Meenakshi Jain

This work examines the medieval response to temple destruction and image desecration. While temples were destroyed on a considerable scale, also noteworthy were the repeated endeavours to reconstruct them. In each instance of rebirth, the temple retained its original name, even though there was a visible downsizing in its scale and grandeur. The Keshava temple at Mathura, the Vishwanath temple at Kashi, the Somnath temple in Saurashtra, the Rama mandir at Ayodhya were among the shrines continually restored, well after Hindus had lost all semblance of political power. The Bindu Madhava, the most important Vishnu temple in Varanasi, was demolished in 1669 and a mosque constructed in its place. The temple now bearing the name Bindu Madhava is a modest structure in the shadow of the mosque, but continues the traditions associated with the site. Intriguingly, mosques built on temple sites often retained the sacred names —Bijamandal mosque, Lat masjid, Atala masjid, Gyanvapi mosque, and not to forget, masjid-i- janamsthan.

The Battle for Rama, Case of Temple at Ayodhya, Meenakshi Jain

From questioning the antiquity of Rama worship and the identity of ancient Ayodhya, certain historians have also challenged the widely held belief that Babri Masjid was built on the site of the Janmabhumi temple. Scholars have, however, traced the antiquity of the Rama Katha as far back as the sixth-fifth century BCE, when ancient ballads (Akhyanas) transmitted Rama's story orally. Valmiki’s Ramayana itself has been dated to the fourth-third century BCE. Over the centuries, Rama's story has been re-told in many vernaculars of the country. Rama is the exemplar of moral values for Hindu society and epitomizes its aspirations of Artha, kama, and above all, dharma. The proceedings of the Allahabad High Court have exposed the vulnerabilities of Left historians. They could proffer no evidence of continued Muslim presence at Babri Masjid, while the unwavering commitment of Hindu devotees to the site has been attested by several sources. Babri Masjid was not mentioned in the revenue records of the Nawabi and British periods, nor was any Waqf ever created for its upkeep. No Muslim filed an FIR or complained of dispossession or obstruction in his alleged use of the Masjid when the image of Sri Rama was placed under the central dome on 23rd December 1949. The Sunni Central Waqf Board entered litigation on 18th December 1961, just five days before the twelfth anniversary of the placement of the image in the Masjid, on which date any claim would have become time-barred. The Board did not file a suit for a possession; instead, it sought a declaration on the status of the property. Further, excavations of the ASI revealed uninterrupted occupation of the site since the 13th-century BCE. They also exposed remnants of the temple on which Babri Masjid was erected. The assertions of Left historians on Babri Masjid have all been found to be erroneous, yet there has been no public retraction. Indeed, they continue to peddle their discredited theories despite the mounting evidence against them.

Waiting for Shiva: Unearthing the Truth of Kashi’s Gyan Vapi, Vikram Sampath

Half Temple, Half Mosque. Few places in the world carry the heavy burden of history as effortlessly as Kashi, or Varanasi, has. The holy city embodies the very soul of our civilization and personifies the resilience that we have displayed over centuries in the face of numerous adversities and fatal attacks.

Waiting for Shiva documents these cataclysmic events in the temple’s history. The final death blow was dealt in 1669 by the Mughal despot Aurangzeb, who demolished the temple and erected few domes on the partially destroyed western wall to call it a mosque. The temple complex was desecrated and left strewn with ruins as a grim reminder of the humiliation and insult that Hindus had to face as a consequence of their holiest shrine being torn down to smithereens. The area that is now called the Gyan Vapi mosque and the surrounding land that lies adjacent to the new temple of Vishwanath, which came up towards the end of the 18th Century, has always been one of intense contestation.

Vasudeva Krishna and Mathura, Meenakshi Jain

This work examines the antiquity of image worship in India. Its main focus is the Bhagavata religion that evolved around Vasudeva Krishna of the Vrishni clan. At Mathura, several noteworthy archaeological finds dated to the early Common Era were recovered from the site of Katra Keshavadeva.

In the medieval period, Katra Keshavadeva was subjected to repeated devastation, beginning with that by Mahmud Ghaznavi in 1071 CE. However, within a century a temple dedicated to Vishnu was built at Katra Keshavadeva. Thereafter, the story of destruction followed by construction was repeated over and over again. In 1670, the Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb ordered its destruction. An Idgah was built at the site. Later developments at Katra Keshavadeva were recorded in the judicial records of colonial India. In 1815, Katra Keshavadeva was sold by auction to Raja Patnimal of Banaras.

Sati : Evangelicals Baptist Missionaries and the Changing Colonial Discourse, Meenakshi Jain

In it, as a meticulous professional historian, she quotes all the relevant sources, with descriptions of Sati from the ancient through the medieval to the modern period. She adds the full text of the relevant British and Republican laws and of Lord Wiliam Bentinck’s Minute on Sati (1829), that led to the prohibition on Sati.

This book makes the whole array of primary sources readily accessible, so from now on, it will be an indispensible reference for all debates on Sati.

Hindus in Hindu Rashtra, Anand Rangnathan

To those who claim we are now living in a totalitarian, fascist, Hindu Rashtra, one must ask: What kind of a Hindu Rashtra is this where a billion-strong Hindus have been, through our parliament, through our courts, our education system, and our constitution, reduced to not just second-class but, rather, eighth-class citizens? What kind of Hindu Rashtra is this where Ram Navami, Hanuman Jayanti, Durga pooja processions, and even Garba celebrations, are attacked and stoned with impunity? What kind of Hindu Rashtra is this where a sitting Prime minister says minorities have the first right to resources? What kind of Hindu Rashtra is this where Hindus are forced to be refugees in their own land, where one can settle 40,000 Rohingya Muslims but not 700,000 Kashmiri Hindus, the land’s original inhabitants; where the judiciary says it is too late to prosecute those who raped, murdered, and ethnically cleansed lacs of Hindus? What kind of Hindu Rashtra is this where Hindu temples are exclusively controlled by the State, where Hindus must beg for Waqf land to celebrate their festival while the government usurps hundreds of thousands of acres of temple land and is responsible for more than 100,000 temples losing lakhs of crores in rental income? What kind of Hindu Rashtra is this where the Right to Education Act discriminates only against Hindus and their schools, forcing tens of thousands of them to shut down? What kind of Hindu Rashtra is this where monsters like Aurangzeb and Tipu who perpetrated large-scale Hindu genocides are eulogised through State sponsored publications, naming of roads and cities, and organising of festivals? What kind of Hindu Rashtra is this where a law was about to be enacted through with only the Hindus would have been held guilty in a communal riot even if they were in a minority for example in Kashmir? What kind of Hindu Rashtra is this where court judgments like the Sabarimala and legislative enactments like the Hindu Code Bill purport to reform only Hindu religious practices but dare not touch practices of other religions, and if they do, the decisions are promptly reversed like in the Shah Bano case? What kind of Hindu Rashtra is this where The Places of Worship Act continues to deny the Hindus their legitimate right to correct historical injustices and reclaim thousands of demolished temples? What kind of Hindu Rashtra is this where the Waqf Act gives overarching powers to Muslims to declare a 1500-year-old Hindu temple to be on Islamic land when Islam is only 1300 years old? If this is how a Hindu is rewarded in a Hindu Rashtra, he’d much rather be in a Muslim Rashtra because then at least there’d be no pretence of equality - a Kafir will get what he deserves. In this searing commentary penned with clinical precision, the author shreds to smithereens once and for all the guilt-tripping, self-loathing fake narrative that Hindus have been duped with since Independence. There is no pretence, no political correctness, only unvarnished truth – that the Hindus are living under State-sanctioned Apartheid.

India that is Bharat, J Sai Deepak

India, That Is Bharat, the first book of a comprehensive trilogy, explores the influence of European 'colonial consciousness' (or 'coloniality'), in particular its religious and racial roots, on Bharat as the successor state to the Indic civilisation and the origins of the Indian Constitution. It lays the foundation for its sequels by covering the period between the Age of Discovery, marked by Christopher Columbus' expedition in 1492, and the reshaping of Bharat through a British-made constitution-the Government of India Act of 1919. This includes international developments leading to the founding of the League of Nations by Western powers that tangibly impacted this journey.

[curtwilde]

The oldest Sufi shrine in Delhi has been demolished.

"The earliest Sufi Shrine in Delhi - belonging to a relative of Prithviraj Chauhan and dating from BEFORE the Turkish conquest - has been Demolished by the Delhi Development Authority in an "anti encroachment" drive.

In the late 12th century, a group of Afghan pastoralists, suddenly burst onto the world stage. In a matter of years, they toppled their rulers of Ghazni and seized major Persian cities like Herat, and then established the major Indian sultanate in Delhi.

We often think of this "Islamic invasion" as the start of the Muslim presence in India. Yet recent scholarship has shown that by the time of Ghori's conquest of Delhi, Muslims were already a central part of Indian society

Some of the earliest mosques are found in Kerala, dating from a few decades after the prophet Muhammad's death. Tamil Pallava, Chola and Pandya kings all built sizeable mosques

Delhi also had a single sufi shrine before the Afghan conquest - this one.

Until 31 January, when it was demolished, the shrine of Baba Haji Rozbih had been located by the Fateh Burj, or Victory Gate of Lal Kot. The grave next to it under a reddish Chador belongs to his female disciple Bibi. Bibi was said to be a close relative of Prithviraj Chauhan who embraced Islam under the aegis of Haji Rozbih.

This demolition is an UTTERLY MINDLESS LOSS and complete cultural desecration.

What's more the "anti encroachment" drive is apparently scheduled to include the Aashiq Allah Dargah dated to 1317AD which is where the great Punjabi Saint Baba Farid used to meditate, and his small 'chillagah' is still visible here.

Please do share and write about this so we can save what remains! "

- from the historian Sam Dalrymple .

...

This is the third Islamic structure to be demolished in Delhi this month. Isn't it funny how only certain structures are the victim of anti- encroachment drives? This is part of a planned programme by the current right-wing government of India that is violently islamophobic and wants to create a hindu ethnostate modeled after Israel.

[whencyclopedia]

Khajuraho

Khajuraho was an ancient city in the Madhya Pradesh region of northern India. From the 10th to 12th century CE it was the capital of the Chandella kings who ruled Bundelkhand. Despite Khajuraho's once great reputation as an important cultural centre there are no surviving non-religious buildings, but the presence of 35 Hindu and Jain temples make it one of the most significant historical sites in India today and worthy of its name given by the 11th century CE Muslim historian Abu Rihan Alberuni as 'the City of the Gods'. Khajuraho is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

Architectural Highlights

Most of the temples at Khajuraho were built using sandstone but four also used granite in their construction. In the latter group is the Chaunsat Yogini (64 tantric goddesses), built c. 875-900 CE, which has 64 shrine rooms arranged around a rectangular courtyard. Next in the site's development came the Lalguan Mahadeva, Brahma, and Matangesvara temples which are all quite plain in design and decoration compared to the later temples.

The majority of temples at Khajuraho were constructed between 950 and 1050 CE and are either Hindu (Saiva or Vaisnava) or Jain. The most famous is the Kandariya Mahadeo built in the early 11th century CE and dedicated to Shiva. The more or less contemporary Laksmana temple was built in 954 CE by King Dhanga (r. 950-999 CE) to celebrate independence from the Gurjara-Pratihara rulers and has a similar layout and exterior to the Kandariya Mahadeo. So too does the Visvanatha temple (c. 1002 CE) which was designed by Sutradhara Chhichchha. Both temples have shrines at each corner of their terrace platforms. The Laksmana was dedicated to Vishnu and its terrace is of particular note as it carries a narrative frieze running around all four sides: Elephants, warriors, hunters, and musicians form a procession watched by a ruler and his female attendants.

Other notable temples at the site include the single-towered Caturbhuja and Vamana, the squat Matulunga, and the rectangular, more austere Parshvanatha Jain temple with its unique shrine added to the rear of the building (c. 950-970 CE). Probably the latest temple at Khajuraho is the Duladeo which was built on a star-plan.

Continue reading...

[thecoiledserpent]

hi,🐰 I want to ask you about food theory around Indian culture. Eating non veg or not . Because I can't grasp my mind around it. Why would say one cannot eat certain food . There has to balanced. I am not talking about cow or pigs but meat , chicken and fish. And don't we relate taurus with meat?????

Please 🎀

hi! well actually the debate about non-veg or veg is majorly among the hindus and it's not an indian thing as such, many non vegetarian dishes are native to india. hindus, in particular, abstain from it.

there are three major reasons:

meat, onion, garlic and wine or drugs of any sort are of tamasic guna or impure or unholy nature. they increase laziness, anger, lust and greed while reducing the wisdom and sattva guna, or the positive qualities of a person.

that which lives is of krishna, or achyuta, or lord vishnu. even a worm, an ant, an unmoving tree or a fish or bird belongs to him and all that he creates has a right to live. we, as humans, are not given the right to kill these innocent beings for any purpose.

karma; every action, good or bad, comes back to you. animals cannot speak, but they can feel fear, anxiety, anger and hate. when we kill them, they express these negative emotions towards us which comes back to us in the future.

just as the christians have their bible, hindus have the geeta as their code of conduct. geeta, or bhagvad geeta, is essentially a guide to life and spirituality. geeta was narrated orally by lord krishna to arjuna in which he told arjuna about the way of living, the nature of death and the atman (soul), and spirituality and peity towards gods.

while various other hindu texts talk purely about knowledge (you could call them ancient encyclopedias or books), the bhagvad geeta is a summary of human life and guides the person on how to live.

now, in bhagvad geeta, lord krishna explains to arjuna the influence of food on the human body and mind, as in the following verses:

Bg 17.7 — Even the food each person prefers is of three kinds, according to the three modes of material nature. The same is true of sacrifices, austerities and charity. Now hear of the distinctions between them. Bg 17.8 — Foods dear to those in the mode of goodness increase the duration of life, purify one’s existence and give strength, health, happiness and satisfaction. Such foods are juicy, fatty, wholesome, and pleasing to the heart. Bg 17.9 — Foods that are too bitter, too sour, salty, hot, pungent, dry and burning are dear to those in the mode of passion. Such foods cause distress, misery and disease. Bg 17.10 — Food prepared more than three hours before being eaten, food that is tasteless, decomposed and putrid, and food consisting of remnants and untouchable things is dear to those in the mode of darkness.

COMMENTARY ... Nature has designed the human body to be vegetarian. Human beings do not have long canine teeth as carnivorous animals do, or a wide jaw suitable for tearing flesh. Carnivores have short bowels to allow minimal transit time for the unstable and dead animal food, which putrefies and decays faster. On the contrary, humans have a longer digestive tract for the slow and better absorption of plant food. The stomach of carnivores is more acidic than human beings, which enables them to digest raw meat. Interestingly, the carnivorous animals do not sweat through their pores. Rather, they regulate body temperature through their tongue. On the other hand, herbivorous animals and humans control bodily temperature by sweating through their skin. While drinking, carnivores lap up water rather than suck it. In contrast, herbivores do not lap up water; they suck it. Humans too suck water while drinking; they do not lap it up. All these physical characteristics of the human body reveal that God has not created us as carnivorous creatures, and consequently, meat is considered impure food for humans ...

Meat-eating also creates bad karma. The Manu Smṛiti states:

māṁ sa bhakṣhayitā 'mutra yasya māṁsam ihādmy aham etan māṁsasya māṁsatvaṁ pravadanti manīṣhiṇaḥ

“The word mānsa (meat) means “that whom I am eating here will eat me in my next life.” For this reason, the learned say that meat is called mānsa (a repeated act: I eat him, he eats me).”

Lord Krishna proceeds to mention that all people who understand that an unmoving tree, a small ant, a fish, a docile cow, a lovely parrot and even another human being is equivalent to himself is very precious to him.

Bg 12.13-14 — One who is not envious but is a kind friend to all living entities, who does not think himself a proprietor and is free from false ego, who is equal in both happiness and distress, who is tolerant, always satisfied, self-controlled, and engaged in devotional service with determination, his mind and intelligence fixed on Me – such a devotee of Mine is very dear to Me.

once again, dairy products are alright bcs you aren't killing an animal or hurting them for it. in fact milk, clarified butter, butter, cottage cheese etc are all said to be our deities' favourites.

note that, however, krishna or no hindu text says 'Don't eat meat.' no hindu text or verse is like that; they only serve to tell you about the consequences of your actions so that you know what you're doing before you go on to do it. fairly insignificant considering i just spoke of the words of krishna, but my personal opinion stands that fresh fruit and vegetables are quire unbeatable. have three nice apples in the morning and nothing else and you wont feel drained until 12.

as for a balanced diet, tbh pure food, like pure milk, fresh fruits and vegetables etc are all rich in vitamins, minerals and proteins and are usually enough to sustain the body but you cant even find fresh stuff or pure milk nowadays 🤦‍♀️packaged milk is not the same as freshly taken milk from a cow, so it doesn't have that much effect,

i wont go too deep into this, but in our culture things like amla, neem, haldi, chia seeds, jeera, cinnamon etc are very commonplace. like neem is the healthiest thing you can eat, it literally eradicates all impurities from the body. you wont actually need anything else and you'll really feel well. but i do understand that these things wouldn't be available that commonly in foreign countries so i don't mention it too much.

now, like if say you're from a very isolated region in the world where proper nutrition can only be derived from animals and by eating their meat, then such a person will be more exempt from their sin then someone who willingly ate meat when they could avoid it. although ofc, you can't ever run away and eventually things come back, regardless of limitations, lack of knowledge or simply bad luck.

i'd like to end this with another verse from the geeta:

BG 18.63: Thus, I have explained to you this knowledge that is more secret than all secrets. Ponder over it deeply, and then do as you wish.

[cottoncandytrafficcones]

10 Cool Jewish Women from Modern Day: Part 4 as a Shabbat treat

Siona Benjamin, an author and artist. Born in Mumbai, she is an Indian-American artist living in New York City. Born to a Bene Israel family, she was brought up in a predominantly Hindu and Muslim India. Her work has been featured in a variety of media including The New York Times and The Chicago Tribune. Most of her work figures women, including Miriam, Rachel, Leah, and Esther, and often features Indian themes and clothing. She is the illustrator of children's books On a Chariot of Fire, The Blue Butterfly of Cochin, and I am Hava, as well as the semi-biographical Growing Up Jewish in India.

Becky Albertalli, an American author and former psychologist. Raised in a Reform Jewish household, she has a BA and a PhD in psychology. In her practice, she specialized in working with Queer youth. Her first book, Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda, was published in 2015. She came out as bisexual in an essay in 2020. She has received acclaim from several reviewers. One of her books was named a Stonewall Honor Book.

Rabbanit Sally Mayer, Rosh Midrasha at Mideshet Lindenbaum, as well as a teacher of Talmud and Halcha. She has worked as an editor for the new Korean translation of the Talmud. Born in America, she chaired the Talmud Department and Israel Guidance center for Ma'ayanot. She holds a BA from Stern and an MA in Medieval Jewish History from YU.

Aly Raisman, a retired American artistic gymnast and two time Olympian who participated in the 2012 and 2016 Olympic games, winning gold and bronze medals, as well as the 2011 and 2015 World Championships, where she won bronze and gold medals. Born in Boston, she takes pride in being a member of the Jewish community. She was awarded the Arthur Ashe Courage Award for coming forward as a victim of sexual abuse, and has participated in a documentary about it. She finished fourth place in season sixteen of Dancing With the Stars, and has worked to empower women.

Tali Golergant, an Israeli-born Luxembourgish singer, songwriter, actress, and vocal coach who represented Luxembourg in Eurovision 2024. Born to a Peruvian Jewish father and an Israeli mother, she lived in several countries including Chile and Argentina before settling in Luxembourg. She began playing the piano at 7, and singing and acting at 12; she is fluent in Hebrew, Spanish, French, and English.

Marissa Avram, the first Thai soldier to serve in the IDF. Born to an Israeli father and a Thai mother who converted, she has an MA in Counter-Terrorism, Intelligence and Cybersecurity from Reichman University.

Alysa Stanton, American Reform rabbi and the first African American female rabbi and the first African American rabbi to lead a majority-Ashkenazi congregation. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, she converted to Judaism at 24. She earned a BA in psychology and an MA in education from Colorado State University, and used to be a psychotherapist.

Alison Levine, a Canadian boccia competitor and Paralympic athlete. Diagnosed with idiopathic muscular dystrophy as a teenager, she threw boccia for the first time in 2012. She made her Paralympic debut in 2016, and won her first gold medal at the Montreal World Open in 2019. She has won medals in both singles and pairs boccia.

Dalila Bela, a Canadian-American actress of English, French, Brazilian, Panamanian and Spanish ancestry. She is publicly bisexual. Appearing in her first commercial at age five, she is known for her work as an actress in Anne With an E.

Leigh Bardugo, an Israeli born author known for the Grishaverse. Of Sephardic, Russian Jewish and Lithuanian Jewish heritage, she graduated with a BA in English from Yale. She had published several books, including ones with Jewish protagonists.