From: mvishnu@bcr3.uwaterloo.ca (Meenan Vishnu)
Subject: Re: NEWS : Distortion in history textbooks opposed
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 02:35:24 GMT

In article <1992Oct1.175035.25323@engage.pko.dec.com> thiyagarajan@mims.enet.dec.com (RT) writes:
>
>
>In article <BvGC41.5HM@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca>, mvishnu@bcr3.uwaterloo.ca (Meenan Vishnu) writes...
>>it with a Rama temple, why can't the Dravidians destroy all that is Aryan
>>and replace it with Dravidian to "correct the historical injustice" of 
>>the Aryans.  (Remember, Most scholars still hold the view that there was 
>
>Ya, why can't all sinhalese from sri-lanka kick the ass of all sri-lankan
>tamils out to correct their history?

You are right.  They cannot.  ie.  You seem to be agreeing with my point
one should not "correct historical injustice" by punishing the present
generation.  One can only act the best he/she can now to defend his/her
religion/culture/lanuage/etc.

>
>>nature everyday.  (There are so many such temples in TN for example).
>> 
>>Meenan Vishnu
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>(originally posted in SCI)
>>==========================================================================
>> 
>>I have typed the follwing interesting paragraphs from the book
>> 
>>"Gita As it Was: Rediscovering the Original Bhagavadgita"
>> by Phulgenda Sinha.
>
>I do not know why you want to propagate hate against a particular community
>again and again? May be you have some problems after living in South Africa.
>
>Anyway here is another book (posted recently in sci) which tells about how
>brahmins protected culture during invasion.
>
>Remember this was written by a foreigner! Unlike Sinha he is a historian

Do not take the book I quoted as Bramin-bashing.  Phulgenda Sinha is himself a
Bramin and has devoted his entire life for the upliftment of India,
(unlike others who remain in US fulfilling their selfish interests). 
His point is to attract the attention
of Indians, which at the moment is entirely focused on Vedanta (complete
with Maya-vadam), and to turn them to more tradional non-theistic philosophies
such as Samkhya and Yoga (which he believes as the central teaching of the
Gita) 
  
>
>
>Von Pochhammer, now dead, was a distinguished diplomate-historian who can hard-
>ly be called a Hindu communalist. He devoted one whole chapter (Chap XXVII) to
>Hindus under Islamic rule. Among other things he wrote:

Would you please be kind enough to give more details about this book ?
(TITLE, AUTHOR, ISBN, PUBLISHER, YEAR, and PAGE NUMBER).  Also please
write more about Von Pochhammer.  I have never heard of him.


>NEVER BEEN FELT BY INDIANS BEFORE. THE HATRED WAS INCREASED BY THE SHAMELESS
>WAY IN WHICH THE FOREIGNERS DESTROYED HOLY PLACES HAVING FIRST DEFILED THEM...

If all the (Hindu) Indians were allowed  into the temple, probably, we could 
have saved the temples from foreign horrors.  From India to Sri-Lanka, the 
story is the same: Foreighners would bring in an army and start destroying
the temple, the poor temple priest would hide the idol in a well and 
ran for his life.  The Hindu villagers who are soaked in the fatalistic
philosophy of Brahminism, would simply watch the temple being razed to the
ground (thinking that all these are pre-determined by Ishwara and that they
cannot do anything about it).  In Sri Lanka, ALL major temples (except
Kathirgama, which is in Sinhala area) were razed to the ground by the
Portuguese.  (Compared to this, the Sinhalese
(the Kandiyan) who were not soaked in the fatalistic philosophy of
Brahmanism, (and instead more rationalistic Buddhist philosophy)
successfully resisted foreign aggression until the late 19th century.
None of the Buddhist temples were touched by the foreigners (as far as I know).

The current generation of Tamils are trying to get rid of this fatalistic
philosophy and are (slowly) realizing the potency of self-effort.
(eg. During LTTE's rule, let a foreign force try touching a temple in TE
and see what happens.)

>in preserving Hindu culture in the hell of the first Islamic centuries, the
>credit goes undoubtedly to the brahmins..."

If you replace "Hindu" with "Brahmanical" then the above line is perfectly 
true.  I do not know what the author means by "Hindu culture".  Does he
mean the Vedic culture ? 

There are evidence that SOME Bramin priests destroyed Indian scriptures
that were not in agreement with their views (eg Jain, Buddhist, Carvaka,
Tamil Siddha, etc). 

>RT

Meenan Vishnu