#india first masjid

[rightnewshindi]

भारत की पहली मस्जिद जहां आज भी पढ़ी जाती है नमाज, किसी मुस्लिम ने नही बल्कि इस राजा ने करवाया था निर्माण

भारत की पहली मस्जिद जहां आज भी पढ़ी जाती है नमाज, किसी मुस्लिम ने नही बल्कि इस राजा ने करवाया था निर्माण

Cheraman Juma Masjid: इस्लाम धर्म के सबसे पवित्र महीने रमदान की शुरुआत हो चुकी है। जैसा कि हम सभी जानते हैं कि पूरा दिन रोजा रखने के बाद शाम को नमाज पढ़कर ही इस्लाम धर्म को मानने वाले लोग भोजन करते हैं। बड़ी संख्या में लोग मस्जिदों में जाकर नमाज कर अपने खुदा की इबादत करते हैं। क्या आप जानते हैं, भारत में कौन सी मस्जिद सबसे पहले बनी थी? जी नहीं, शाहजहां या औरंगजेब या किसी मुगल शासक द्वारा बनवायी…

[queersatanic]

Hindutva's Foreign Tie-up in the 1930s

Archival Evidence

To understand militant Hinduism, one must examine its domestic roots as well as foreign influence. In the 1930s Hindu nationalism borrowed from European fascism to transform 'different' people into 'enemies'. Leaders of militant Hinduism repeatedly expressed their admiration for authoritarian leaders such as Mussolini and Hitler and for the fascist model of society. This influence continues to the present day. This paper presents archival evidence on the would-be collaborators.

By Marzia Casolari

Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Jan. 22-28, 2000, Vol. 35, No. 4 (Jan. 22-28, 2000), pp. 218-228

'Fascist' was in Sumit Sarkar's words, "till the other day a mere epithet" ('The Fascism of the Sangh Parivar', Economic and Political Weekly, January 30, 1993, p 163). It has come to define the ideology and practice of the Hindu militant organisations. It is a common place, accepted by their opponents, as well as by those who have a critical, but not necessarily negative, view of Hindu fundamentalism. Defining the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and, in general, the organisations of militant Hinduism I as undemocratic, with authoritarian, paramilitary, radical, violent tendencies and a sympathy for fascist ideology and practice, has been a major concern for many politically oriented scholars and writers. This has been the case with the literature which started with Gandhi's assassination and continues up to the present day with works such as Amartya Sen's India at Risk (The New York Review of Books, April 1993) and Christophe Jaffrelot's The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India (Viking, New Delhi, 1996), the latest book published on the subject, or the well known Khaki Shorts and Saffron Flags (Orient Longman, New Delhi, 1993), which came out soon after the destruction of the Babri masjid. As a result, the fascist ideological background of Hindu fundamentalism is taken for granted, never proved by systematic analysis. This is an outcome that is, to a certain extent, explained by the fact that most of the above-mentioned authors are political scientists and not historians.

It is a fact that many of those who witnessed the growth of Hindu radical forces in the years around the second world war were already convinced of the Sangh's fascist outlook. Particularly acute was the perception that the Congress had of these organisations and their character. There is no need to mention the already well known opinion of Nehru, who, right from the beginning, had pointed at these organisations as communalist and fascist.

Less well known is the fact that, as shown by a confidential report circulated within the Congress most probably at the time of the first ban of the RSS, after Gandhi's assassination, the similarity between the character of the RSS and that of fascist organisations was already taken for granted. In fact, the report itself states that the RSS

...Started in Nagpur some sort of Hindu Boys Scout movement. Gradually it developed into a communal militarist organisation with violent tendencies.

The RSS has been purely Maharashtrian brahmin organisation. The non-brahmin Maharashtrians who constitute the bulk of C P and Maharashtra have no sympathy with it.

Even in the other provinces the chief organisers and whole-time workers will be found to be inevitably Maharashtrian brahmins.

Through the RSS the Maharashtrian brahmins have been dreaming of establishing in India 'a Peshwa Raj' after the withdrawal of Britishers. The RSS flag is the Bhagwa Flag of the Peshwas - Maharashtrian rulers [who] were the last to be conquered by the British - and after the termination of British rule in India, the Maharashtrians should be vested with political powers.

The RSS practises secret and violent methods which promote 'fascism'. No regard is paid to truthful means and constitutional methods.

There is no constitution of the organisation; its aims and objects have never been clearly defined. The general public is usually told that its aim is only physical training, but the real aims are not conveyed even to the rank and file of the RSS members. Only its 'inner circle' is taken into a confidence.

There are no records or proceedings of the RSS organisation, no membership registers are maintained. There are also no records of its income and the expenditure. The RSS is thus strictly secret as regards its organisation. It has consequently... (National Archives of India (NAI), Sardar Patel Correspondence, microfilm, reel no 3, 'A Note on the RSS', undated). Unfortunately the document stops abruptly here, but it contains enough evidence of the reputation the RSS already had by the late 1940s.

This document, however, is by no means exceptional. An accurate search of the primary sources produced by the organisations of Hindu nationalism, as well as by their opponents and by the police, is bound to show the extent and the importance of the connections between such organisations and Italian fascism. In fact the most important organisations of Hindu nationalism not only adopted fascist ideas in a conscious and deliberate way, but this happened also because of the existence of direct contacts between the representatives of the main Hindu organisations and fascist Italy.

To demonstrate this, I will reconstruct the context from which arose the interest of Hindu radicalism in Italian fascism right from the early 1920s. This interest was commonly shared in Maharashtra, and must have inspired B S Moonje's trip to Italy in 1931. The next step will be to examine the effects of that trip, namely how B S Moonje tried to transfer fascist models to Hindu society and to organise it militarily, according to fascist patterns. An additional aim of this paper is to show how, about the end of the 1930s, the admiration for the Italian regime was commonly shared by the different streams of Hindu nationalism and the main Hindu leaders.

Particular attention will be devoted to the attitude adopted by the main Hindu organisations during the second world war. During those crucial years, Hindu nationalism seemed to uneasily oscillate between a conciliatory attitude towards the British, and a sympathy for the dictators. This is in fact far from surprising because - as will be shown - in those years, militant Hindu organisations were preparing and arming themselves to fight the so-called internal enemies, rather than the British.

More generally, the aim of this paper is to disprove Christophe Jaffrelot's thesis that there is a sharp distinction between nazi and fascist ideology on one side and RSS on the other as far as the concept of race and the centrality of the leader are concerned.^2

I Hindu Nationalists and Italian Fascism

None of the works mentioned above, Jaffrelot's included, deals with what I consider a most important problem, namely, the existence of direct contacts between the representatives of the fascist regime, including Mussolini and Hindu nationalists. These contacts demonstrate that Hindu nationalism had much more than an abstract interest in the ideology and practice of fascism.

The interest of Indian Hindu nationalists in fascism and Mussolini must not be considered as dictated by an occasional curiosity, confined to a few individuals, rather, it should be considered as the culminating result of the attention that Hindu nationalists, especially in Maharashtra, focused on Italian dictatorship and its leader. To them, fascism appeared to be an example of conservative revolution. This concept was discussed at length by the Marathi press, right from the early phase of the Italian regime.

From 1924 to 1935 Kesari regularly published editorials and articles about Italy, fascism and Mussolini. What impressed the Marathi journalists was the socialist origin of fascism and the fact that the new regime seemed to have transformed Italy from a backward country to a first class power. Indians could not know, then, that, behind the demagogic rhetoric of the regime, there was very little substance.

Moreover, the Indian observers were convinced that fascism had restored order in a country previously upset by political tensions. In a series of editorials, Kesari described the passage from liberal government to dictatorship as a shift from anarchy to an orderly situation, where social struggles had no more reason to exist.^3 The Marathi newspaper gave considerable space to the political reforms carried out by Mussolini, in particular the substitution of the election of the members of parliament with their nomination (ibid, January 17, 1928) and the replacement of parliament itself with the Great Council of Fascism. Mussolini's idea was the opposite of that of democracy and it was expressed by the dictator's principle, according to which 'one man's government is more useful and more binding' for the nation than the democratic institutions (ibid, July 17, 1928).%4 Is all this not reminiscent of the principle of 'obedience to one leader' ('ek chalak anuvartitva') followed by the RSS?

Finally, a long article of August 13, 1929, 'Italy and the Young Generations', stated that the Italian young generation had succeeded the old one to lead the country. That had resulted in the 'fast ascent of Italy in every field'. The article went on to describe at length the organisation of the Italian society according to fascist models. The principal reasons of the discipline of the Italian youths were strong religious feelings, widespread among the population, attachment to the family, and the respect of traditional values: no divorce, no singles, no right to vote for women, whose only duty was to sit at home, by the fireplace. The article focused then on the fascist youth organisations, the Balilla and the Avanguardisti.

One may wonder how the Indian journalists could be so well informed about what was going on in Italy. Very possibly, among their sources there was a pamphlet in English, published by an Italian editor in 1928, entitled The Recent Laws for the Defence of the State (copy in NAI, Foreign and Political Department, 647G, 1927). Emphasised, right from the beginning, was the importance of the National Militia, defined as "the bodyguard of the revolution". The booklet continued with the description of the restrictive measures adopted by the regime: a ban on the "subversive parties", limitations to the press, expulsion of "disaffected persons" from public posts, and, finally, the death sentence.

Significantly, the shift from the liberal phase to fascism is described by the pamphlet in strikingly similar terms to those employed by the above-mentioned articles:

This step [the shift to fascism] has struck a death blow to the thread-bare theories of Italian liberalism, according to which the sovereign state must observe strict neutrality towards all political associations and parties. This theory explains why in Italy the ship of state was drifting before the wind, ready to sink in the vortex of social dissolution or to be wrecked on the rocks of financial disaster.

Another inspiring source of the literature published in Kesari must have been the work by D V Tahmankar, the correspondent of the Marathi newspaper from London and admirer of the Italian dictator. In 1927 Tahmankar published a book entitled Muslini ani Fashismo, (Mussolini and Fascism), a biography of the dictator, with several references to the organisation of the fascist state, to the fascist social system, to the fascist ideology, and to Italy's recent past. An entire chapter, the last, was devoted to description of fascist society and its institutions, especially the youth organisations.

One can easily come to the conclusion that, by the late 1920s, the fascist regime and Mussolini had considerable popularity in Maharashtra. The aspects of fascism which appealed most to Hindu nationalists were, of course, both the militarisation of society and what was seen as the real transformation of society, exemplified by the shift from chaos to order. The anti-democratic system was considered as a positive alternative to democracy which was seen as a typically British value.

Such literature made an implicit comparison between fascism and the Italian Risorgimento. The latter's influence on Indian nationalism, both moderate and radical, is well known.^5 However, whereas the Risorgimento appealed to both moderates and extremists, fascism appealed only to the radicals, who considered it as the continuation of the Risorgimento and a phase of the rational organisation of the state.

The first Hindu nationalist who came in contact with the fascist regime and its dictator was B S Moonje, a politician strictly related to the RSS. In fact, Moonje had been Hedgewar's mentor, the two men were related by an intimate friendship. Moonje's declared intention to strengthen the RSS and to extend it as a nationwide organisation is well known. Between February and March 1931, on his return from the round table conference, Moonje made a tour of Europe, which included a long stop-over in Italy. There he visited some important military schools and educational institutions. The highlight of the visit was the meeting with Mussolini. An interesting account of the trip and the meeting is given in Moonje's diary, and takes 13 pages (Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML), Moonje papers, microfilm, m 1).^6

The Indian leader was in Rome during March 15 to 24, 1931. On March 19, in Rome, he visited, among others, the Military College, the Central Military School of Physical Education, the Fascist Academy of Physical Education, and, most important, the Balilla and Avanguardisti organisations. These two organisations, which he describes in more than two pages of his diary, were the keystone of the fascist system of indoctrination - rather than education - of the youths. Their structure is strikingly similar to that of the RSS. They recruited boys from the age of six, up to 18: the youths had to attend weekly meetings, where they practised physical exercises, received paramilitary training and performed drills and parades.

According to the literature promoted by the RSS and other Hindu fundamentalist organisations and parties, the structure of the RSS was the result of Hedgewar's vision and work. However Moonje played a crucial role in moulding the RSS along Italian (fascist) lines. The deep impression left on Moonje by the vision of the fascist organisation is confirmed by his diary:

The Balilla institutions and the conception of the whole organisation have appealed to me most, though there is still not discipline and organisation of high order. The whole idea is conceived by Mussolini for the military regeneration of Italy. Italians, by nature, appear ease-loving and non-martial like the Indians generally. They have cultivated, like Indians, the work of peace and neglected the cultivation of the art of war. Mussolini saw the essential weakness of his country and conceived the idea of the Balilla organisation...Nothing better could have been conceived for the military organisation of Italy...The idea of fascism vividly brings out the conception of unity amongst people...India and particularly Hindu India need some such institution for the military regeneration of the Hindus: so that the artificial distinction so much emphasised by the British of martial and non-martial classes amongst the Hindus may disappear. Our institution of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh of Nagpur under Dr Hedgewar is of this kind, though quite independently conceived. I will spend the rest of my life in developing and extending this Institution of Dr Hedgewar all throughout the Maharashtra and other provinces.

He continues describing drills and uniforms:

I was charmed to see boys and girls well dressed in their naval and military uniforms undergoing simple exercises of physical training and forms of drill.

Definitely more meaningful is the report of the meeting with Mussolini. On the same day, March 19, 1931 at 3 pm, in Palazzo Venezia, the headquarters of the fascist government, he met the Italian dictator. The meeting is recorded in the diary on March 20, and it is worth reproducing the complete report.

...As soon as I was announced at the door, he got up and walked up to receive me. I shook hands with him saying that I am Dr Moonje. He knew everything about me and appeared to be closely following the events of the Indian struggle for freedom. He seemed to have great respect for Gandhi. He sat down in front of me on another chair in front of his table and was conversing with me for quite half an hour. He asked me about Gandhi and his movement and pointedly asked me a question "If the Round Table Conference will bring about peace between India and England". I said that if the British would honestly desire to give us equal status with other dominions of the Empire, we shall have no objection to remain peacefully and loyally within the Empire; otherwise the struggle will be renewed and continued. Britain will gain and be able to maintain her premier position amongst the European Nation (sic) if India is friendly and peaceful towards her and India cannot be so unless she is given Dominion Status on equal terms with other Dominions. Signor Mussolini appeared impressed by this remark of mine. Then he asked me if I have visited the University. I said I am interested in the military training of boys and have been visiting the Military Schools of England, France and Germany. I have now come to Italy for the same purpose and I am very grateful to say that the Foreign Office and the War Office have made good arrangements for my visiting these schools. I just saw this morning and afternoon the Balilla and the Fascist Organisations and I was much impressed. Italy needs them for her development and prosperity. I do not see anything objectionable though I have been frequently reading in the newspapers not very friendly criticisms about them and about your Excellency also. Signor Mussolini: What is your opinion about them? Dr Moonje: Your Excellency, I am much impressed. Every aspiring and growing Nation needs such organisations. India needs them most for her military regeneration. During the British Domination of the last 150 years Indians have been waved away from the military profession but India now desires to prepare herself for undertaking the responsibility for her own defence and I am working for it. I have already started an organisation of my own, conceived independently with similar objectives. I shall have no hesitation to raise my voice from the public platform both in India and England when occasion may arise in praise of your Balilla and Fascist organisations. I wish them good luck and every success. Signor Mussolini - who appeared very pleased - said - Thanks but yours is an uphill task. However I wish you every success in return. Saying this he got up and I also got up to take his leave.

The description of the Italian journey includes information regarding fascism, its history, the fascist 'revolution', etc, and continues for two more pages. One can wonder at the association between B S Moonje and the RSS, but if we think that Moonje had been Hedgewar' s mentor, the association will be much clearer.^7 The intimate friendship between Moonje and Hedgewar and the former's declared intention to strengthen the RSS and to extend it as a nationwide organisation prove a strict connection between Moonje and the RSS. Moreover, it makes sense to think that the entire circle of militant Hinduism must have been influenced by Moonje's Italian experience.

II Moonje’s Plans for Militarising Hindus

III Eve of Second World War

IV Savarkar and Nazism

V Waiting for the Right Enemy

VI Conclusions

Notes

[bfpnola]

definitely a longer piece so these excerpts are far from showcasing everything this piece has to offer! read the whole thing on your own time, and in general, just check out jewish currents, an educational, leftist, anti-zionist jewish magazine!

Every August, the township of Edison, New Jersey—where one in five residents is of Indian origin—holds a parade to celebrate India’s Independence Day. In 2022, a long line of floats rolled through the streets, decked out in images of Hindu deities and colorful advertisements for local businesses. People cheered from the sidelines or joined the cavalcade, dancing to pulsing Bollywood music. In the middle of the procession came another kind of vehicle: A wheel loader, which looks like a small bulldozer, rumbled along the route bearing an image of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi aloft in its bucket. For South Asian Muslims, the meaning of the addition was hard to miss. A few months earlier, during the month of Ramadan, Indian government officials had sent bulldozers into Delhi’s Muslim neighborhoods, where they damaged a mosque and leveled homes and storefronts. The Washington Post called the bulldozer “a polarizing symbol of state power under Narendra Modi,” whose ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is increasingly enacting a program of Hindu supremacy and Muslim subjugation. In the weeks after the parade, one Muslim resident of Edison, who is of Indian origin, told The New York Times that he understood the bulldozer much as Jews would a swastika or Black Americans would a Klansman’s hood. Its inclusion underscored the parade’s other nods to the ideology known as Hindutva, which seeks to transform India into an ethnonationalist Hindu state. The event’s grand marshal was the BJP’s national spokesperson, Sambit Patra, who flew in from India. Other invitees were affiliated with the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), the international arm of the Hindu nationalist paramilitary force Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), of which Modi is a longtime member.

...

On December 6th, 1992, a mob of 150,000 Hindus, many of whom were affiliated with the paramilitary group the RSS, gathered at the Babri Masjid, a centuries-old mosque that is one of the most contested sacred sites in the world. Over the preceding century, far-right Hindus had claimed that the mosque, located in the North Indian city of Ayodhya, was built not only upon the site where the Hindu deity Ram was born but atop the foundations of a demolished Hindu temple. The RSS and its affiliates had been campaigning to, in the words of a BJP minister, correct the “historical mistake” of the mosque’s existence, a task the mob completed that December afternoon. “They climbed on top of the domes and tombs,” one witness told NPR. “They were carrying hammers and these three-pronged spears from Hindu scripture. They started hacking at the mosque. By night, it was destroyed.” The demolition sparked riots that lasted months and killed an estimated 2,000 people across the country.

The destruction of the Babri Masjid was arguably Hindu nationalism’s greatest triumph to date. Since its establishment in 1925, the RSS—whose founders sought what one of them called a “military regeneration of the Hindus,” inspired by Mussolini’s Black Shirts and Nazi “race pride”—had been a marginal presence in India: Its members held no elected office, and it was temporarily designated a terrorist organization after one of its affiliates shot and killed Mohandas Gandhi in 1948. But the leveling of the Babri Masjid activated a virulently ethnonationalist base and paved the way for three decades of Hindutva ascendance. In 1998, the BJP formed a government for the first time; in 2014, it returned to power, winning a staggering 282 out of 543 seats in parliament and propelling Modi into India’s highest office. Since then, journalist Samanth Subramanian notes, all of the country’s governmental and civil society institutions “have been pressured to fall in line” with a Hindutva agenda—a phenomenon on full display in 2019, when the Supreme Court of India awarded the land where the Babri Masjid once stood to a government run by the very Hindu nationalists who illegally destroyed it. (Modi has since laid a foundation stone for a new Ram temple in Ayodhya, an event that a prominent RSS activist celebrated with a billboard in Times Square.) The Ayodhya verdict came in the same year that Modi stripped constitutional protections from residents of the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir and passed a law that creates a fast track to citizenship for non-Muslim immigrants, laying the groundwork for a religious test for Indian nationality. Under Modi, “the Hinduization of India is almost complete,” as journalist Yasmeen Serhan has written in The Atlantic.

To achieve its goals, the RSS has worked via a dense network of organizations that call themselves the “Sangh Parivar” (“joint family”) of Hindu nationalism. The BJP, which holds more seats in the Indian parliament than every other party combined, is the Sangh’s electoral face. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) is the movement’s cultural wing, responsible for “Hinduizing” Indian society at the grassroots level. The Bajrang Dal is the project’s militant arm, which enforces Hindu supremacy through violence. Dozens of other organizations contribute money and platforms to the Sangh. The sheer number of groups affords the Sangh what human rights activist Pranay Somayajula has referred to as a “tactical politics of plausible deniability,” in which the many degrees of separation between the governing elements and their vigilante partners shields the former from backlash. This explains how, until 2018, the CIA could describe the VHP and Bajrang Dal as “militant religious organizations”—a designation that applies to non-electoral groups exerting political pressure—even as successive US governments have maintained a warm relationship with their parliamentary counterpart, the BJP.

...

The most extreme figures in the Hindu nationalist and Zionist movements were especially frank about the nature of their partnership: “Whether you call them Palestinians, Afghans, or Pakistanis, the root of the problem for Hindus and Jews is Islam,” Bajrang Dal affiliate Rohit Vyasmaan told The New York Times of his friendly relationship with Mike Guzofsky, a member of a violent militant group connected to the infamous Jewish supremacist Meir Kahane’s Kach Party.

...

In 2003, Gary Ackerman—a Jewish former congressman who was awarded India’s third-highest civilian honor for helping to found the Congressional Caucus on India—told a gathering of AJC and AIPAC representatives and their Indian counterparts that “Israel [is] surrounded by 120 million Muslims,” while “India has 120 million [within].” Tom Lantos, another Jewish member of the caucus, likewise enjoined the two communities to collaborate: “We are drawn together by mindless, vicious, fanatic, Islamic terrorism.”

[timetravellingkitty]

hi!! I just found out about tumblr having an anti-hindutva tag and I shall be making myself comfortable here! just found your account like a few mins ago and if it’s ok, i wanted to ask some questions (you absolutely don't have to answer if you don't like any of them or even if you don't feel like answering :) ) (edit added, this ask got way too long lol. feel free to skip it! also, you're kinda super cool lol)

I'm Indian, currently outside India, and I've only started learning about the shitshow going on in my 'mahaan bharat' since November (specifically since finding out that we are Irahell's biggest weapons buyer). and the more I find out the more shocked and heartbroken I feel...

like this week i learnt about the immigration ban in US against Chinese women that existed a few decades ago, and the ongoing discrimination against Palestinians in Canadian immigration services... and both the times I was so disgusted and there was this subconscious feeling that India should never be like that. but then an hour ago I learnt about the 2019 CAA and wtf!?

another example being that currently we're seeing israhell's continuous bombing of heritage sites of great cultural and religious significance, that also held so many centuries old records and histories... and learning about how they are bulldozing over graveyards and exhuming them...

and then today I learnt about Akhonji Masjid and Gyanvapi Masjid and of course have known about Babri Masjid for a few weeks now...

and only learnt about Kashmir in november...

and I feel like my whole worldview has shifted from a previous foundation, except it's so drastic and I still don't have a new foundation...

I try to talk to members of my family about this but they're the Indian equivalent of the U.S. liberals, and every single time they'll tell me "whatever news you're hearing is propaganda written by Pakistan/China/U.S./Russia. trust me I have Muslim friends and they're very happy. you just don't know the situation cause you're not in India" and like it sometimes make me think maybe I'm the one losing my mind...

I even read some places about free Punjab and that confused the fuck out of me cause I'm Punjabi (who does not live in Punjab) and I don't have any clue what it's about... I asked my fam, but they just gave me a weird look and told me to stay away from anyone that mentions Khalistan😭💀

(this got way longer than I expected, so sorry) but would you have any recommendations for any blogs/articles/books/podcast resources or any personal recommendations for news publications that are reliable (finding God would probably be easier than finding such publications lmao) like I thought Al-Jazeera is super credible, but then read that they're super credible when it comes to Palestine, not when it's global...

like where tf do I go from here lol

hello nonnie! some news sites I'd recommend are newslaundry (they have a youtube channel too), the wire, scroll.in and newsclick. maktoob media is mostly focused on minority rights in india. hindutvawatch.org is about hindu fascist violence committed against minorities. I still think you should stick to al-jazeera at least when it comes to palestine (they have journalists on the ground there, shireen abu akleh was one of them)

this is a good introduction to anyone wanting to learn about hindutva, this and this are about how india is becoming increasingly unsafe for minorites and is undergoing a democratic backsliding. this and this are about the rss link to nazism

hostile homelands by azad essa is about india's historical relationship with israel and the parallels between hindutva and zionism. the brown history podcast has an episode about how india went from the first non-arab state to recognise palestine to its largest buyer of weapons, featuring azad essa (x). you can also read colonising kashmir by hafsa kanjwal about how india came to militarily occupy kashmir. if you want to learn more about kashmir there are the blogs kashmiraction.org and standwithkashmir (which is um. blocked in india. i wonder why)

i have not read khaki shorts and saffron flags yet but this one is about the history of the rss. i also suggest watching the documentaries ram ke naam and jai bhim, comrade which are about the hindutva mobilisation in the 1980s

for me free punjab is very ?? the indian government is beyond evil as they continue to spy on sikhs abroad (and ofc, the 1984 sikh genocide) but i don't think liberation will be achieved through a religious ethnostate. any state formed on the basis of religion will inevitably turn out to be a disaster. i do encourage you to read lost in history: 1984 reconstructed by gunisha kaur, which is about the human rights violations committed against sikhs during this time and why operation bluestar was in fact not about freeing sri harmandir sahib from "terrorists." all i can say is to stand with sikhs unapologetically as our shitass government continues to commit more and more human rights violations against them

in general, i'd tell you to observe the language used by different news outlets and question it (eg. american news referring to israelis below the age of 18 as children but the same courtesy is not extended to palestinians) and check their sources. if it's from whatsapp university don't even bother

[yato-dharmastato-jayah]

Dr. K. K. Muhammed, the Indian archaeologist who served as the Regional Director of the Archaeological Survey of India. He was heavily involved in the excavations done at the site of Babri masjid, and he was the first to ask Muslims to hand over the Babri Masjid area to Hindus after finding evidence that the mosque was built on the remains of a Hindu temple.

Please listen to what he has to say about Hindus.

[mahoutoons]

i'm sure my non indian followers are confused about why i'm suddenly reblogging stuff about a temple. so let me explain.

on 22nd january, 2024, the ram mandir in ayodhya was inaugrated. it was believed to be built on the birthplace of the lord ram, a hindu god. celebrations were everywhere. not just in india, but abroad, the indian hindu diaspora also celebrated the opening of the temple. saffron flags and chants of "jai shri ram" were everywhere.

so, what's the problem?

the first is that this temple was built on the side of a 500 year old mosque, which was demolished by hindu extremists in 1992. you're probably going to hear that this mosque was built on the site of a demolished temple originally, and they're just reclaiming it. but that is a lie. in fact, the supreme court claims that there was no evidence of a temple under the babri masjid. in fact, that is one of the longest run s@nghi misinformation campaigns. once upon a time, the demolition of the babri masjid was seen as a national shame, the actions of a few fringe hindu nationalists. but now, its a celebrated almost mainstream event, which does not hold promise for where this country is headed.

oh, but hindus are just celebrating a place of worship being opened on what they believe to be a holy site, right? wrong. its not just about the celebrations, but how the treatment of religious minorities in india would get worse. it was already pretty bad, especially under our current fascist government, but now we're seeing churches and mosques being vandalized with saffron flags and chants of "jai shri ram", muslim owned shops being burned, crowds calling for the demilition of more mosques, muslim owned properties being subject to more violence than ever, and honestly many more that could be happening as we speak.

india has always been a hellhole for religious minorities and it has been more so ever since m0di gained power. but the building of this temple is just going to make things so much worse, especially for indian muslims. remember that when you see someone celebrating the ram mandir, this is what they're celebrating. this is what they're turning a blind eye to and even encouraging.

with all this in mind, i encourage non indians to steer clear of anyone celebrating the ram mandir. i don't care if its their religion, i don't care if they're "just celebrating", what they're celebrating is a temple built on the site of a demolished mosque and with the blood of many. don't buy their "500 years of struggle" bs, its a lie.

[tasmiq]

Jumu'ah Sohbet: 13 September 2024

This Sohbet will take you on a proverbial flying carpet through the past, present, and future. With Allah, we go, Bismillah!

#1. We are living such turbulent times in our modern era!:

However, intellectuals Mehdi Hassan and Rob Delayney advised those of us deflated by man's state of affairs: "Don't be pessimistic about the future because this is your moment to relive history." Implying that at some point in our history, this sense of apocalyptic demise has been experienced before. Look, despite COVID, Climate change and War, they are continuing to make my accident old news 😅

Spiritually, Hazrat Jalaluddeen Rumi (RA) says: "Lovers find secret places inside this violent world where they make transactions with beauty." I couldn't agree more because what keeps us grounded, apart from the maddening crowds, is our spiritual connection through our Tariqa (spiritual school) that keeps us conscious of the truth and reality of La ilaha illalah (There is no god but God / Allah)! We are therefore programmed to see the positivity and beauty of Allah, no matter how much human ugliness is projected around us. Shukran Ya Allah (Divine gratitude)!

#2. We just passed the 6th of Rabi ul-Awwal which marks the Wisaal (Divine meeting) or Urs (Divine wedding) of the spirtual monarch of our country, Hazrat Shaykh Sayed Ahmed Badsha Peer (RA). His resting place was round the corner from where I worked pre-accident, and at a particularly sad time in my life, his spiritual solace carried me through it! In the middle of Durban's humble inner-city within a multiracial cemetry during a racist passage of South African history itself. Subhana'Allah (Divine glory)!:

Hazrat Badsha Peer (RA) arrived in Durban from South India as an indentured labourer in 1860 and was recognised by the British authorities as a spiritual personality and discharged of his duties. I remember telling visitors that his legacy as an indentured labourer was that his plot of sugarcane was always harvested at the end of the work day, without him having to sweat, were some of his mystical abilities. He passed away in 1894 in the precinct of the Grey Street Juma Masjid and buried in the Brook Street Muslim Cemetery. He was from amongst the Majzoob category of Sufis, who are totally drowned in the love of Allah, making them unaware of their own physical conditions. Due to this, people never recognised his spiritual position! It was in 1895 upon the arrival of Hazrat Soofie Saheb (RA) that in pure Sufi ethic, he first went to pay homage to the great Awliya (Friend of Allah) of this country. And, in doing so, located the grave of Hazrat Badsha Peer (RA), making it known for the first time that here lies "BADSHA PEER" (A King amongst Spirtual Guides)! [Chishty Sabiree Jahangiri Khanqa and Research Centre]

This was at a time when I was not even a Sufi murid (follower). As the Sufi adage goes, when the student is ready, the teacher appears. Shukran Ya Allah that he did, in the form of Shaykh Taner Ansari of Allahistan! It is also where your Mimi's Ummi is laid to rest with Allah in this world. Allah blessed your Mama and me with Mimi's blessed presence in our lives where she sought me out at the nearby offices and spiritually enlivened my consciousness of the blessing round my corner. Allah, if Hazrat Badsha Peer (RA) was involved in the spiritual mechanics of keeping me alive after a 2-month coma as it was while I still worked there, please convey Your love and eternal gratitude on my behalf:

Ya Shakur Ya Wadud!

#3. Anne (our spiritual mother) asked us to contemplate on the English translated version of Sura 89 of the Chronological Edition of the Qur'an as renewed by our Tariqa, Al-e Imran (The Family of Imran). I couldn't stop the outpouring of insights and awe within me towards Allah's words in those 200 verses. For example, I will just share 3:

- V4: Allah as the mighty establisher of consequences. (Yes, us human beings with free will must be made to feel the consequences of our choices!)

- V7: Some messages of the Qur'an are clear, but others are allegorical. Allegorical means containing a moral or hidden meaning. (As a past Qur'anic Arabic student herself, I had felt that the Qur'an is either too simplistic or too deep which drove me to keep trying to connect to it or altogether evade it! Until, unexpectedly and gloriously, did our Tariqa delve into it as richly as it did, where at virtually every other verse I am compelled to contemplate!)

- V86: The community of disbelievers who reject truth after it has come to them! (Like extremist Jews and extremist Christians that firmly hold onto their forefathers' practices! But, Islam was the most recent of Abrahamic religions, which affirmed their paths and with reasoned caveats. Another reason the community of the middle path [ummatan wasatan] makes more sense, if you ask me):

In conclusion, we enter Yuwm un-Nabi, which is an annual celebration of the birth of Rahmatul lil 'Alameen (Mercy of the worlds), our beloved Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)! Insha'Allah, it is a well-executed success as planned, which unites us deeper:

Ya Ghalib Ya Azim (Yearning Allah's ability to succeed)

Ya Wadud Ya Salaam Ya Jami Ya Nafi (and Allah's love, peace and unity in goodness)

[incorrectmahabharatquotes]

hey. i rarely go political in here because it's a space for me to truly chill, hence i am going on here as anon.

the work you're doing is phenomenal. it's affecting a small part of the majority, but it's good work nonetheless. it's tiring to continuously see people hype up the current govt. and not criticise them and their actions — our democracy is falling at a rapid place and all indians are on about is hindu muslim mandir masjid.

no one talks about manipur, no one talks about how almost half the opposition was suspended, no one talks about continous ED summons to anyone who raises a voice. the media channels are puppets, nothing else.

it's tiring to see criticisms of the current govt. actions been met with "what congress did" and no actual replies, only deflections. they are in charge of our nation today, it's important to talk about the present and the future— it's our job as citizens of a democracy to keep the government in check, be aware of their actions and question them when necessary.

unfortunately, people have failed to understand this.

i am a hindu too, and seeing the state of india truly dissapoints me to no end. we are beyond a party, a leader. being a critic of the current govt. doesn't make us anti-hindu. it's so stupid. istfg.

anyways, will forever be a supporter of you guys.

jai hind.

We usually don't post about politics on this blog either. We typically do it on our own personal blogs. That's not to say that we kept any and all opinions away from the page either. People that have been following us for a while know that we have occasionally posted something if we felt it pertinent at the time.

I posted something this time because I saw posts circling around with some objectionable content in them and it surprised me because I recognised the usernames. It's a little silly but I typically do remember the usernames of our followers, it's pretty hard not to. You have to imagine the shock and hurt I felt that these were the same people engaging with our posts and enjoying them. Did these people felt like we shared their opinions? Had we somehow fucked up and cultivated that sort of a community? My first instinct was to delete this entire blog, I will not lie to you. The thought that something I was involved in making and curating was somehow fueling followers of Hindutva? I honestly couldn't stand it. After it calmed down, I made a post and a clarification reblog. I expected those users to just unfollow us, maybe send us a curse or two over anon and that would be it.

I'm glad I didn't delete the blog after so many people have confirmed that the community here isn't all like that.

The state of India's politics honestly leaves a lot, A LOT, to be desired. It was exhausting seeing all the fuss about an unfinished mandir when we have so many other important things to talk about. Any sort of criticism or opposition has been completely wiped off the board by the current government and they expect me to care about the mandir? The leader of the nation won't even do an open interview, let alone a press conference. Falling prey to the religious angle of their politics is a folly. People are being coddled and distracted as their own houses burn down. How much longer will this go on? How much worse will this get? These questions haunt me.

Having a silly meme blog was supposed to be a fun activity to break the monotony and mundanity of existence. Turns out, now I have to make sure that this silly thing doesn't get infected by the horrors too.

Life is transiently long and fighting the horrors is a herculean task. I'm grateful for every voice of support because it makes me feel like I'm not alone out here.

-Mod S

[jobaaj]

The 500-year wait is over! Lord Ram is home!! Check out the full timeline:🔽🔽 - 1528: According to the history books, Babur's general Mir Baq was in charge of constructing the Babri masjid at the place where Lord Ram was born. The old temple was destroyed to construct the mosque.

- 1530-65: Unverified reports suggest communal violence over the Mandir-Masjid debate and Akbar, the then Mughal ruler, set up a common platform for worship. - 1853-85: After almost 330 years, communal violence erupts again. The British Empire sets up partitions and Mahant Das’s plea to build a canopy above the platform is denied. - 1949: The turning point comes when the idol of Lord Ram appears from inside the mosque. According to Muslims, the idol was placed inside the mosque by a radical Hindu outfit. As both parties file multiple lawsuits, the situation gets more complicated.

- 1950-61: Multiple lawsuits are filed and other parties join the fray with both sides claiming the land as theirs. - 1983-1989: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) starts a nationwide move to build a temple and legal tensions flare up. Muslims set up the Babri Masjid Committee and the former VP of the VHP files a suit on behalf of Lord Ram to get possession and the first stone for the temple is laid. - 1990: BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani’s Rath Yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya saw thousands of volunteers march as they partially damaged the mosque in a scuffle that left scores dead. - 1992: The bloodiest event in the Mandir-Masjid dispute as Hindu volunteers demolish the mosque and a bloody battle erupts throughout the nation. Over 2,000 were reported dead. A small tent is set up where the idol is placed for worship. - 2002: PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee sets up an Ayodhya cell and the Allahabad HC judges begin determining ownership of the site. - 2003: The Archaeological Survey of India begins surveying the area and a survey reveals the existence of a temple’s remains beneath the mosque. Muslims challenge the findings as tensions continue. - 2010: The disputed land is split into 3 parts where one went to the Hindus, another to the Muslims, and the final one to the Nirmohi Akhara. - 2011: All 3 parties approach the Supreme Court to challenge the Allahabad HC’s judgment and the SC issues a stay on the order. - 2015-18: The SC removes all irrelevant parties from the lawsuit as the matter gets more sensitive during that time. - 2019: After a failed mediation attempt, a five-judge bench announces a judgment in favor of the Hindus, and the Muslims are allotted 5 acres for the construction of another mosque. - 2020: PM Narendra Modi lays the foundation stone for the construction alongside a commemorative plaque and a special postage stamp. - 22nd January 2024: The temple is officially consecrated and Lord Ram, who has been in a tent since 1992, is unveiled for worship in a state-of-the-art temple. Follow Jobaaj Stories (the Media arm of Jobaaj.com Group) for more.

[beardedmrbean]

A tourist has been missing for five days after being swallowed by a sinkhole in the centre of Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia.

Rescue workers are continuing their attempts to find Vijaya Lakshmi, who was visiting from India, after she fell 26ft beneath a shopping street and disappeared.

Chilling CCTV footage shows the 48-year-old walking along the pavement when the ground suddenly collapses under her feet and she falls through a square-shaped hole.

Men sitting on a bench nearby narrowly avoid being dragged in with her, struggling to get their balance.

An initial search recovered Ms Lakshmi’s shoes, but rescue operations have so far found no other sign of her despite using ground-penetrating radar.

Local media reported that the search area had been expanded to include tunnels leading to a sewage plant around 7km away after a portion of a concrete pipe beneath the sinkhole was found to be broken, suggesting that she could have been pulled in by fast-flowing water.

Datuk G Parameswaran, the president of the Malaysian Water and Wastewater Quality Safety Association, told the Straits Times: “Sewage water is also very harsh, and the current has a minimum flow speed of one metre per second. Theoretically, she could have travelled up to 86.4km within 24 hours.”

High-powered water jets have been deployed to try to dislodge debris at a manhole about 70 metres from where Ms Lakshmi fell. The authorities have warned that the presence of toxic gases in the sewage system would have diminished her chances of survival.

Ms Lakshmi and her family had been in Malaysia for about two months, and were due to fly home on Sunday. The authorities have provided a counsellor for relatives including her husband and son.

The shopping area, known for goldsmiths and jewellers, is about a 10-minute drive from the city’s Petronas Towers.

City authorities have sought to quell alarm among Kuala Lumpur’s residents, but fears were stoked further on Wednesday when another sinkhole on the same Jalan Masjid India road opened up 50 metres from the first one after a heavy overnight downpour.

It happened at around 2.30am on Wednesday when the street was quiet. No one was injured.

At a press conference, Fadillah Yusof, the deputy prime minister, said the government planned to launch an investigation into the reason behind the sinkholes.

“For now, it is safe,” he said. “We need to find out the source of the sinkholes. The public should be safe as long as they follow city officials’ instructions.”

Sinkholes generally form when underground water dissolves the rock on the surface, causing a hole to form.

Prof Jeffrey Chiang Choong Luin, the president of the Institution of Engineers, Malaysia, said the close proximity of the first and second sinkholes suggested a link between the incidents.

“There could be a service pipe that has been compromised running underground,” he told The Straits Times. “If it has been compromised, this would affect the soil’s integrity, and the water seepage would erode the soil.”

Maimunah Mohd Sharif, the mayor, sought to counter viral social media allegations about lax development standards on a Sunday, telling a news conference that the city “remains safe unless proven otherwise by studies”.

[anixknowsnothin]

is there some kind of a celebration in india rn? what's happening?

hi Edith!! India is a secular country but a majority of us are Hindus (those who believe in Hinduism which is a very old religion)

We have holy texts, one of them being the Ramayana, which is about our deity Ram. There are many temples built after him, especially in Ayodhya, the city he was born in.

When Babur, the first Mughal emperor of India, arrived, he constructed Babri Masjid, a mosque that many believe was constructed on top of Ram Janmabhoomi, the exact site where Ram Ji was born. In 1992, it was demolished by a Hindu nationalist group and in 2019, the Supreme Court gave the ruling that a Hindu temple would be made on this land and a mosque will be constructed on another site. Now, the temple has been constructed and today was the inauguration of the Ram Mandir (translates to Ram Temple) and the entire country is celebrating!

[mariacallous]

Much of India came to a standstill on Jan. 22, when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi consecrated a temple in the northern city of Ayodhya commemorating Rama, a warrior-king worshipped by Hindus as a god. Schools, colleges, and offices closed and central government offices gave a half-day off to all employees. Some expectant parents even cajoled obstetricians to schedule cesarean sections on the day so that their children are born at the auspicious moment coinciding with the temple’s opening.

Such a public display of religiosity by the Indian government and its leadership may seem peculiar, particularly to those who cherish secularism. But India moved away from the state’s traditional interpretation of secularism a decade ago, when Modi led the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power. With the next national elections only a few months away, Modi has choreographed the Ram temple consecration to consolidate his Hindu vote (about 80 percent of the country’s population is Hindu). The political intent is clear: Cutouts of Modi grace lampposts on the airport road in Ayodhya, with similar images of Rama added almost as an afterthought. In an audio message on social media this month, Modi said, “God has made me an instrument to represent all the people of India.”

The ongoing construction of Ram Mandir is very controversial in India. From the early 16th century until 1992, a mosque known as Babri Masjid stood on the site—built during the time of the emperor Babur, the first Mughal to rule India. Many Hindus say that Babur destroyed a temple honoring Rama that previously stood on the land, which they believe is Rama’s birthplace. In the 1980s, Hindu activists began a movement to reclaim the site and build a temple there. In December 1992, they razed the mosque, an act that shocked the nation.

But in the past two decades, India has changed, and Hindus clamored for the land to be restored to them. In 2019, the Indian Supreme Court ruled that although the initial act of demolition was illegal, it would offer the site to a Hindu trust to build a temple and grant land elsewhere to a Muslim trust to rebuild a mosque. Although the construction of the Ram Mandir is not yet complete, Modi needs the imagery for his election campaign, and so the consecration will go ahead. Some opposition parties, including the Indian National Congress and the Communist Party of India, did not send their top leadership to the ceremony; however, some Congress leaders were divided over the boycott and at least two attended.

Rama, for many Hindus, is maryada purushottam—the ideal human being who sacrifices himself for others. His is the kind of life to which lesser mortals should aspire; his heroism is based not simply on battlecraft, but upon his ability to put others’ interests before his own. In the Sanskrit epic Ramayana, Rama is the prince of Ayodhya who is about to become king when one of his father’s wives demands that Rama go into exile, and the succession passes to her son instead. Rama leaves with his wife, Sita, and brother Lakshmana. The king of Lanka, Ravana, abducts Sita, and Rama mobilizes an army of monkeys to invade the island fortress, defeating Ravana and rescuing Sita. After 14 years, Rama finally rules Ayodhya, leading to a golden age.

The BJP sees the construction of the Ram Mandir temple as evidence of its single-minded determination, no matter how long it takes. Formed in 1980 by some members of the former Janata Party, the BJP initially struggled electorally. It briefly held power in the 1990s and led a coalition government between 1999 and 2004. In 2014, Modi projected himself as committed to development and boosted the BJP’s vote share to win a majority of seats in parliament with 31 percent of the national vote; five years later, the party increased its tally to 303 seats out of 542, winning 37 percent of the vote. The temple project follows other promises kept by Modi’s government: revoking the special autonomous status of Indian-administered Kashmir and introducing a citizenship act that created a pathway to Indian citizenship for asylum-seekers from neighboring countries but excluded Muslims. Modi has shown that he is the man who gets things done.

The BJP capitalized on three major changes that occurred in India in the 1980s to build its identity and increase its vote share. First, many Indians bristled at how India practiced secularism, perceiving the government as granting special favors to religious communities, such as subsidies for Muslims to perform the Hajj and curriculum exemptions for faith-based schools. Second, Indians were tired of living in an economy beset by sluggish growth and shoddy products due to socialist policies that restricted foreign investment and trade. (That changed in 1991, when the Congress government deregulated the economy.)

Finally, India was a leader in the Non-Aligned Movement, but the appeal of nonalignment was fading with the decline of Soviet influence and the eventual disintegration of the Soviet Union. The Congress party ruled India for most of its first 49 years post-independence, and it was instrumental in developing India’s secularism, socialism, and nonalignment. The BJP took advantage of public disenchantment and stepped into the void, promising “equality for all, appeasement to none,” to promote a market-based economy, and to reset its foreign policy, often aligning with Western interests. (Still, the BJP pursues strategic autonomy in many respects, such as its continuing trade ties with Russia despite Western sanctions.)

Most politicians have the next election on their mind; Modi and the BJP leadership have the next generation in mind. After all, more than 40 percent of Indians have no living memory of the Babri Masjid mosque. Even in the early years, the party began influencing India’s younger generations in the states where it came to power first, changing textbooks and rewriting history to downplay the roles of Mahatma Gandhi and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (and his family members who later came to power) and project alternative heroes who were more militant and outwardly Hindu. By promoting Rama as the warrior-king who ruled over an ideal state, the BJP aims to create a constituency of voters who see their identity primarily in religious terms and equate the Hindu faith with the nation of India.

To the BJP’s core voters—the hardwired Hindu nationalists—the party has promised to restore Hindu glories, embodied by the Ram Mandir temple. The events in Ayodhya have set a precedent: Some party activists want to transform more mosques (and, in some instances, churches), claiming they were also built where Hindu temples once stood. The triumphalism around the temple construction is so vicious that not only is it the opposition leaders boycotting the event who are facing criticism, but also four seers of the Hindu faith who have raised a range of objections—including the choice of Modi to perform the ceremony, which they say should be presided over by a priest.

The Hindu nationalist movement’s elevation of Rama over other Hindu deities is also strange. Hinduism is polytheistic, and its literature does not rest on one book. Many interpretations are liberal, and some contradict each other: Skepticism and atheism are also part of certain strands of Hinduism. In the late 1980s, I interviewed Morarji Desai, who had served as India’s prime minister representing the Janata Party. I asked him what he thought of the movement to build the Ram temple on the site of Babri Masjid, and he suggested that the BJP’s ultimate goal was to undermine Hinduism’s pluralism and turn it into a faith with one book (the Ramayana), one place of worship (Ayodhya), and one god (Rama). The slogan now reverberating through Ayodhya and much of India is Jai Shri Ram, or “Victory to Lord Rama.”

Rama is an exceptionally interesting and nuanced literary figure and well-loved outside of India, especially in Southeast Asia. But many Indians do not take kindly to works that present Rama in a different light, such as the late poet A.K. Ramanujan’s celebrated essay, “Three Hundred Ramayanas,” which shows how the epic’s characters appear in different forms and offer different interpretations in India and beyond. Nina Paley’s charming 2008 animated film that draws on the Ramayana, Sita Sings the Blues, was also controversial. The latest victim of this outrage is a Tamil film released on Netflix last month, Annapoorani, about the daughter of a Hindu priest who wants to be a chef; her Muslim friend encourages her to pursue her dream, correctly citing a verse from the Ramayana that shows that Rama ate meat. Some Hindus who practice vegetarianism for religious reasons were offended; Netflix withdrew the film, and the actor who played the protagonist issued a public apology on a “Jai Shri Ram” letterhead.

India is no longer a land of nuances. A significant part of its population wants an assertive government and a black-and-white narrative where subjugated Hindus are reclaiming their identity, and the foreigners who colonized the country in the past—the British and, before them, Muslims—are cast as villains. Such an approach risks turning a multidimensional country into a cardboard caricature of itself. The Ram temple consecration marked another milestone on that path—which Modi walks in the hope of getting elected once again.

[queer-red-panda]

Rant 1 of ??

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Every country has it's own greeting, right? Spain has 'hola', Italy has 'caio', france has 'bonjour', and HISTORICALLY.

HISTORICALLY.

India. has. NAMASTE.

'Namaste' or 'Namaskar' is a Sanskrit word which means 'may our minds meet'. This word is spoken while joining the palms in front of your chest, symbolising the union or two minds and/or people. Keep that in mind.

Now.

As you know.

The Ram Mandir built on the rubble of Babri Masjid which has stood there for 500 years in Ayodhya, which is known to be the fabled city of the Maryada Purushottam Ram, who is an avtar of Vishnu, the (technical) god of gods, has been a source of joy (and a political distraction) throughout India since its inauguration on January 22nd, 2024.

The people who are pretty much Ramji's fans (or devotees for the less psycho ones) have been known to chant 'Jai Shree Ram' whilst carrying out acts of violence, such as demolishing the Babri Masjid, which stood where the mandir stands today. They are also commonly known as bhakts.

(i personally think when you use it in that context, it sounds the same way 'allahu akbar' sounds when the Taliban says it.)

So there we have the first part of context.

*ahem*

Now, namaste.

WHEN THE ACTUAL FUCK DID IT BECOME 'JAI SHREE RAM'?!

Like look, yes aunty, I appreciate your devotion. But do I really need a lecture about it when I said 'namaste' aunty rather than 'jai shree ram', aunty?!

why are we using sacred words to greet people.

for all you know i could be christian! or hell, even muslim!

namaste is considered a universal greeting in Indian mythology because not only does it mean 'may our minds meet', but it also doesn't center around something like RELIGION.

Religion is the opium of the masses.

That is a fact.

India is a socialist, SECULAR, and democratic REPUBLIC. I do not see India having HINUDTVA (not even Hinduism) as its official religion at all in any context. I can understand such a religious greeting in places like the Jewish state of Israel (example purposes only, we do not consider the Zionists nor do I support the actions of Israel), or the Muslim state of Pakistan.

BUT INDIA?!

like excuse me, hinduism is just a slight majority amongst the several others among us. Like in one society building you can straight up have 3 different religions' families!

my question is this: why do we bringin the ever-subtle but ever-prominent aspect of religion even in daily conversation!?

[godofglitter]

In a spontaneous (and probably highly illegal) decision, I decided to enter a half-renovated palace looking building in Mubarak Mandi Complex, Jammu. No one stopped me, precisely because there was no one around- the entire enclosed polygon of tall buildings of maharajas who'd probably thought they'd be ruling forever had a neglected, forgotten look about it. Even the locals didn't seem to know of the existence of the small museum, or the British style fountains on four corners of a Mughal and Dravidian style garden, enclosed by the Rajputana looking palace buildings. So many religions, ruling families, races- all blending together homogeneously, without the added colour of communalism that often (unfortunately) divides other significant melting pots such as Delhi, where I have grown up seeing firsthand the segregation of Mughalai versus Rajputana, each distinct and prideful in a lack of confluence with the opposite party. Here in Jammu for the first time I saw a masjid down the road from a temple, jhatka and halal shops standing shoulder to shoulder with a pure vegetarian vaishno dhaba, people living in seemingly true fraternity- and above all, harmony.

I am sure this is a gross romanticisation of the political atmosphere of one of India's most controversial and warred upon regions. And yet this picture- of a roof panel at that palace I very illegally entered- sparks these bittersweet emotions in me that awaken the inner idealist. This panel is a glimpse into Dogra history, and all the diverse factors that form it- and yet even as we speak, vital parts are being slowly replaced by fresh, bright, unmarked wood. The glass half empty side of my brain cries at the loss of history, cries for the beautiful and intricate artwork on the inner walls of the palace that are being covered by sterile white paint, for the erasure of an entire culture by controversy such that even the descendants of the kings themselves don't know who they are. And yet, unbidden as hope, the glass half full side of my brain sees this blank wood with rosy eyes, perhaps reminiscent of the perspective of the artisans who first set out to paint this beauty in the first place- seeing these empty spots as fresh slates onto which we can paint our own stories of love and peace.

[divinum-pacis]

March 2023: Thousands of people gather in the compound of the historic Jama Masjid to offer Friday prayers, on the first day of Ramadan in India. Jama Masjid is in old Delhi, which was constructed by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan between 1650 and 1656. [Afzal Sofi/Al Jazeera]

[bookgoldentriangletours]

Golden Triangle Tour: The Golden Triangle of India is a tourist circuit in India.

The tourism footprint in India is growing, and it's no surprise that the densest concentrations of these footprints are in Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur. If you calculated the shortest distance between these three points, you'd get an imaginary triangle in the middle of the country. As a result, it's known as the Golden Triangle. Are you visiting India for the first time? Most tour operators, including Travelogy India, recommend the Golden Triangle for an India 101 experience. The following are the top recommended Golden Triangle Tour packages

Golden triangle tour 3 Days Golden triangle tour 4 Days Golden triangle tour 6 Days

What is Golden Triangle Tour?

It is one among modern India's well-trodden and well-explored paths. The schedule for the Golden Triangle includes trips in Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur. The journey includes famous Indian architectural wonders, Rajasthan sites, and natural wonders. Begin your tour by exploring Delhi. Visit the Jama Masjid, Red Fort, Humayun Tomb, Lodi Garden, and other Mughal-era structures built of red sandstone and marble. Later, go to Agra to witness the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Fatehpur Sikri, and other sights. Later, go to the Rajasthan desert region to visit the imperial city of Jaipur, which features palaces, forts, the Jantar Mantar, markets, and much more.

What to do in the Golden Triangle?

So, what's so great about three random locations that form an imagined triangle? On the map, it is simple to select four locations and form a square. Would that make the square more interesting? Not always. Furthermore, the Golden Triangle is not just three random sites that are famous for the form their locations make on a map. What's inside those destinations is what makes the Golden Triangle spectacular.

Delhi - Infusing exquisiteness into Islamic life

Walk through the streets of Old Delhi to enter a virtual time machine and travel back several centuries. The old havelis, market squares, and cobblestone alleys live up to the title "Old." What else can Delhi offer you besides some ancient monuments? Because Delhi is the country's capital, it is connected to nearly all of the country's locations. Within Delhi, you may experience the culture of the entire country, whether it's through performance arts, cuisine, festivals, or shopping.

Agra - The Mughal, Marble, and Marvel Capital

The Taj Mahal, a polished marble mausoleum known for its carvings, structural beauty, and use of semi-precious stones in construction, is the crown gem of all Indian architecture. Once you've finished photographing the Taj Mahal and have filled your memory disc, it's time to move on to other elite Mughal landmarks such as Agra Fort, Baby Taj, Akbar's Tomb, and many more. Fatehpur Sikhri, the abandoned capital city of the Mughal Empire, is another reminder of the Mughal Empire.

Jaipur is a fortified city with hidden temples.

This is a fortified city. Starting at City Palace, you can go on a history walking tour of palaces and forts. The craggy terrain of Aravalli hills with a hint of desert view provides this place a majestic appearance. Immerse yourself in Jaipur's attractions such as Amber Fort, Nahargarh Fort, Shri Jagatshironmani Temple, City Palace, Jantar Mantar, Hawa Mahal, and many more.