HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: mece1e3@Jane.UH.EDU
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian,soc.culture.pakistan
Subject: Re: Idols RE: Why did Muhammad Break Temples
Date: 21 Dec 92 03:34:36 GMT
Reply-To: mece1e3@Jane.UH.EDU
Organization: University of Houston
NNTP-Posting-Host: jane.uh.edu

>     Arindam, you are not answering my question. You are trying to puke
>     your Bahai faith - against which I have no disagreement. I am *NOT*
>     going to let some rascals takeover a country - simply because they
>     want to create some war-zones in the name of some charming religious
>     practices. In reality, these are the Jammat-i-Islam - a party that is
>     getting funded by Pakistan. (Please read my response to Adil Sheikh).
>
>      In this aspect, Raj Bhatnagar, Samit Banerjee, Raja R.Roy, Girish
>      Bonde are not hypocrites like yourself. 
>
>     - stay alive,
>
>         deb chatterjee
>       (a good samaritan)
>
Well what's there to answer? I am conviced that nothing short of a federated
world government can tackle the problems of the world today. To most of the
people it seems farfetched and utopia; they are free to choose whatever way
they want. I would like to fight for my ideology. So there is no question of
hypocrisy involved. Love
Arindam
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
From: narayana@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu (Kuram T Narayana)
Subject: Re: Idol worship and Hinduism
Organization: Penn State Computer Science
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 04:18:17 GMT

In article <1992Dec21.033255.18106@gn.ecn.purdue.edu> prasanth@gn.ecn.purdue.edu (Ravi K. Prasanth) writes:
>In article <BzL0Dp.AsE@cs.psu.edu>, narayana@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu (Kuram T Narayana) writes:
>> 
>
>Who is EVR ?
>
>> ...kt
>
>RKP

If you don't know him, you are the blessed person. No sin shall
acrue to you if you do not know him! 
...kt

Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian,soc.culture.indian.telugu,soc.culture.tamil,soc.culture.pakistan,soc.culture.sri-lanka,soc.culture.nepal,soc.culture.asian.american
From: fb78@sol.acs.unt.edu (Ganesh Gopalakrishnan)
Subject: Re: Double standards of Islamic countries
Organization: University of North Texas
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 20:46:19 GMT

hyder@cs.utexas.edu (Syed Irfan Hyder) writes:
>Indeed the only DEEN in front of Allah is Islam!
            ^^^^^^^^^             ^^^^^          
I have no problem with that so long as you keep your beliefs to
yourself and others who believe likewise. I do not agree
with you and hope you will respect my difference in opinion.

- ganesh 
Xref: sparky soc.culture.indian:40460 soc.culture.pakistan:18009
From: fafat@aludra.usc.edu (Vijay Fafat)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian,soc.culture.pakistan
Subject: Re: Narrow Hindu Beliefs- was- Ram (Was he Fact or Fiction)??
Date: 11 Dec 1992 19:31:55 -0800
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: aludra.usc.edu

Kuram narayan writes:
>If you can believe darwin's theory of evolution (which is only a theory)
>you can as well believe all the scriptures. 

	Nope. Scriptures don't expound "theories". They're just philosophies.
	Darwin's theory is'nt an idle flight of fancy. 


>but blind belief and believing
>as a learned person are different; where as the former is ignorance,
>the later is knowledge. the same the person weho condemns  scriptures
>and scriptural knowledge as irreevant is also ignorant, even more so.

	The scriptural "knowledge" is irrelevant to the extent that it
	does'nt say anything useful in concrete terms. Of course, it has
	a lot of spiritual value for a lot of people but that's a subjective
	attribute.

>
>> Rajat Kapoor
>
>..kt

	FFT

Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
From: vtg1714@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Vishwanath Tirupattur  )
Subject: Re: Read before criticizing sati
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 21:49:23 GMT

What's the point here?  Just because, there have been many instances in the   
western civilization of cruelty and murder, Sati becomes okay? Sati is a   
despicable custom and should be condemned, regardless of other despicable (sp!)
acts committed else where.  

Vishwanath

Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
From: aluru@IASTATE.EDU (Srinivas Aluru)
Subject: Re: Mandir/Maszid/Girza/Gurudwara
Reply-To: aluru@IASTATE.EDU (Srinivas Aluru)
Organization: Iowa State University
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1992 20:22:52 GMT

In article <1gar4cINN2am@alhena.usc.edu>, sadhal@alhena.usc.edu (Sati Sadhal)
writes:
> In article <11DEC199212381450@vx.cis.umn.edu> secular@love.and.respect.for.all
writes:
> 
> 
> [...... deleted.....]
> 
> >that one religion is better than the other.  Let's build the 
> >world's first *multireligious shrine* at the site.  Let's make the
> >BIGGEST and the most BEAUTIFUL Hindu temple, Moslem Mosque, 
> >Sikh Gurudwara, and Christian Church side by side as four 
> >corners of a square.  That would be a perfect salute to 
> >secularism and (hopefully) also satisfy the Hindu fundamentalists
> >and BabriMaszid faithfuls alike.
> >
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .     ABSOLUTELY GREAT IDEA!!!!!!!!!
> .
> .
> 	As a Sikh I Support it 100%
> .
> .
>     
> .
> .
> . 	Let the Secular Forces Rise!!!!
> 
> 
> 			------ Satwindar Singh Sadhal
> 
> *********************  E N D *************************
> 

How about a pentagon with a fifth corner devoted to atheists like me ...
We need to be represented too.  We need a place where we can meet and discuss
the stupidity of the people who follow `religious books' rather than think...

-aluru
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
From: kailath@prema.aix.kingston.ibm.com ()
Subject: Re: 3 BJP ruled state govts. dismissed
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 03:28:48 GMT
Expires: References: <1glic5INN5de@menudo.uh.edu> <BzD0My.882.1@cs.cmu.edu>
Reply_to: kailath@prema.aix.kingston.ibm.com ()
Organization: IBM Corporation, Kingston NY

In article <BzD0My.882.1@cs.cmu.edu> mst+@cs.cmu.edu (Milind Tambe) writes:
>We should be focusing on our economy; BJP should be pointing
>out problems in Manmohan Singh's economic program, and  forming
>a solid  opposition party (given that VP Singh turned out to be
>a disappointment).  Instead, we find these politicians just continuing as 
>usual. We probably will sink from the third world to the "fourth world" at 
>this rate. Of course, we people are at fault too: we continue to elect 
>these leaders. 
>
>Milind Tambe
>
 You got this all wrong. If BJP is allowed to continue the way
they were, we will not be part of any world. We will be in the
same state as Somalia and the former Ygoslavia begging for
some super power intervention.

DK


-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dominic Kailath                         kailath@donald.aix.kingston.ibm.com
IBM KINGSTON                            uunet!ibmps2!aix!kgnaix11!kailath
914 385 5539                            Tie line 695 - 5539
From: dante@sytex.com (Vikram David)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: calcutta                 
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 92 22:41:14 EST
X-Maildoor: WaflineMail 1.00r

PB>Path: sytex!uunet!olivea!spool.mu.edu!news.nd.edu!lazy!patb
  >From: patb@lazy.helios.nd.edu (Pathikrit Bandyopadhyay)
  >Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
  >Subject: calcutta
  >Message-ID: <1992Dec10.035449.22014@news.nd.edu>
  >Date: 10 Dec 92 03:54:49 GMT
  >Sender: news@news.nd.edu (USENET News System)
  >Organization: OUC, University of Notre Dame
  >Lines: 6

PB>since i have not seen anything on calcutta before, i am posting what
  >i got from phone conversation: right now calcutta is under indefinite
  >curfew. it was under curfew before, which was lifted for ten hours (except
  >for garden reach and metiaburuj) trouble started immediately, and an
  >indefinite curfew was imposed. apparently there have been deaths and
  >attacks on mandir and masjids. sorry i do not have any more details.

Hello.  Yes, I know it is a real shame what's happening in India.  I'm
new here, and would like to get a conversation started with someone.
So, where do you stand on this issue?  Do you support the muslims, or
hindus?

I am a christian, and don't like `taking sides', but I wouldn't mind
hearing what other's feel is the right thing.

 - Vikram David
---
 * OLX 2.2 * Ever stop to think and forget to start again?
                                                        
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
From: sjayanth@ringer.cs.utsa.edu (Satyanand V. Jayanthi)
Subject: Re: Sati's history
Organization: University of Texas at San Antonio
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 06:38:35 GMT

In article <1gh6mtINNr58@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> khan@ces.cwru.edu (Mansoor Khan) writes:
>>Muslim invaders after winning a battle sexually assaulted the women of the
>	Since this battle gave rise to such a disgusting practice among
>	hindu women in India, would you care to put down for our
>	information that which battle are you talking about.
> 	As far as what I got from this posting is this. There was no
>	sati in India before Muslim barbarians :-) came to India.
>	Is this true?
>	Was there no Sati before Islam's arrival in India?
>        
      Thats right. There are very few instances of sati before the arrival
   of muslim invaders in india. But i doubt if the idea was totally new and
   that some great thinker in rajput court thought of it, the idea existed 
   previously, and rajputs thought that was the only way they could save 
   the honor of their clans and their women folk. In fact, there is i think
   (some one can correct me), there is only one instance of a woman burning
   herself on her husband's pyre  mentioned in the pre-muslim period and
   that was of MAdri in mahabharata...but anyone will agree that it is not
   sati.

  Hope your doubt is cleared in this respect. By the way, what were you taught
 about the prevelance of sati n the pakistani history books? Just curious..

Thanks..

Narain (from a friends account....)
narain@bass.bu.edu         
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian,soc.culture.indian.telugu
From: budaraju@cae.wisc.edu (Srinivas Budaraju)
Subject: Re: Alienation of Hindus: Part 1
Organization: U of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering
Date: 20 Dec 92 16:47:55 CST
Keywords: secularism, secular humanism, freedom of religion, babari masjid

In article <1h2braINNb79@function.mps.ohio-state.edu> vidynath@function.mps.ohio-state.edu (Vidhyarath K Rao) writes:
>
>But now let us turn to one incontrovertible fact: In US, which is much less
>religious than India, Reagan made "secular humanism" into a dirty phrase.
>This is in spite of the fact that US constitution is secular. Understanding
>how this could happen, IMHO, holds lessons for Indian secularists as well.

I would like to know how came up this incontrovertible fact. "[USA is]
like India in terms of how many people go to the services, give money 
to religious institutions, elect to be ministers, et cetera. But the
cultural elite are very different. It is the most secularized portion
of the population. It's a Sweden superimposed on an India. No wonder 
these two don't get along very well." [1]. So Reagan's beef is with the
so-called cultural elite. Perhaps, this point is not of much significance
to whatever argument you are making here.
				
>Vidhyanath Rao			It is the man, not the method, that solves

-Srinivas 				budaraju@cae.wisc.edu

[1]. Peter Berger, Professor of Religion and Social History, Boston University,
     in an interview with Bill Moyers, in Bill Moyers A World of Ideas,
     Doubleday, NY, 1989, P 488.

Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
From: godura@hercules.cis.udel.edu (Ruchir Godura)
Subject: Re: Washington Ready to Brand Pakistan a Terrorist State
Organization: University of Delaware, Newark
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 03:06:52 GMT

In article <1992Dec18.211102.21342@porthos.cc.bellcore.com> swami1@troy.cc.bellcore.com (swaminathan,kashi r) writes:
>In article <1992Dec18.201049.10383@udel.edu> godura@oin.cis.udel.edu (Ruchir Godura) writes:
>>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>>_____________________FARTWA          FARTWA        FARTWA___________________
>                      ^^^^            ^^^^          ^^^^
>Is that how it is spelt, or is it freudian?

Don't really remember how Khomeni and his merry mullahs wrote it. They
probably used those quiggly characters that run from right to left.
I translated it the way I heard it :-) :-)
I agree, however, it stinks.
Ruchir.
>>
>>Repent, sinner .. your time has come !
>>Under the powers bestowed on me by the supreme council of the Khomeni,
>>I hereby issue a holy fartwa and demand that all brethren of our
>                       ^^^^
>>glorious cult hereby make it their goal in life to have your head for
>>the issuance of a blasphemous report against this noble and pure land of
>>Pakistan.
>>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>>__________________________________________________________________________
>>-- 
>>Ruchir Godura | godura@cis.udel.edu | (302) 292-0668 (H) (302) 831-1949 (W)

-- 
Ruchir Godura | godura@cis.udel.edu | (302) 292-0668 (H) (302) 831-1949 (W)
Xref: sparky soc.culture.indian:40725 misc.wanted:10245
Organization: Penn State University
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 13:09:47 EST
From: Jayshree Desai <JKD102@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian,psu.general,misc.wanted,psu.market.wanted
Subject: Roundtrip tkt forsale -State College/Pitt - San Francisco

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  Email addr. :  jkd102@psuvm.psu.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
From: crick@tsp.med.umn.edu (Ed Crick (CD))
Subject: Re: Do we need a religion?
Organization: University of Minnesota
Distribution: usa
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 18:18:12 GMT

In article <1992Dec18.190159.28877@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> akash@sol.berkeley.edu (Akash R. Deshpande) writes:
>
>I am still waiting for "proof" that there's light when the sun's up.
>Since I am rather certain that there can be no such proof, I am justified
>in assuming that hardened amateur philosophers are blind to the
>light of the inner sun.
>
>-Akash

How would you explain a solar eclipse?  Is Agni's golden chariot swallowed
temporarily by some demon? (Pardon me if I mix mythologies here)     How do you explain the cycle of light and dark, and how it fluctuates with the seasons.
  And is the dark side of the moon merely a Pink Floyd album. 
Use caution in casting your lot with VV as his ground is very unstable, to 
say nothing of his mind.

Ed

Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian,soc.culture.indian.telugu,soc.culture.tamil,soc.culture.pakistan,soc.culture.sri-lanka,soc.culture.nepal,soc.culture.asian.american
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Organization: AT&T
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Xref: sparky soc.culture.indian:40906 soc.culture.pakistan:18230
From: rkrithiv@pima.intel.com (Ramamurthy Krithivas)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: Narrow Hindu Beliefs: Tipu Sultan & proof
Date: 15 Dec 1992 19:06:28 GMT
Organization: --------------
NNTP-Posting-Host: pima.intel.com

From: fafat@aludra.usc.edu (Vijay Fafat)
NNTP-Posting-Host: aludra.usc.edu

|> Tipu Sultan, Rocket Science. 
> duh?? pliss to give specific reference???

Though the tone of your enquiry suggests cynicism and an already made
up "mind-set". Here's the proof ..... 

The book is  "Rockets,  Misslies and  Spacecrafts". Where the author 
mentions that Tipu Sultan was one of those earliest users of rockets 
in  battle field. That definitely makes him a  pioneer of the rocket 
science. Most of them, in  their crudest  forms, used to be launched 
into the tents of the British  during the nights. The rockets caused 
a lot of damage to the British. 

The author is not an Indian.This might give many, some strong reason 
to trust. Sadly it is a commonly observed phenomena.

Also: 
There is a temple town in TN : TiruVannamalai. The reigning diety of 
the  famous  TiruVannamalai kovil/temple, is  ArunaChaleeswarar. The 
very name as Aruna + Achchala symbolizes  matter-energy equivalence. 
[Soure: Tattva-Darsana]. It is a  great achievement to have realized 
this fundamental relation. 

Krithi. 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
From: f43703a@nucc.cc.nagoya-u.ac.jp (SUPRATIC GUPTA)
Subject: News from Hindu International
Organization: Nagoya University Computation Center, Nagoya, Japan.
Distribution: World
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 02:00:47 GMT


1) The central Goverment is to enact a comprehensive legislation
to ban smoking in public places and ads of tabaco related products.

2) Aids Situation in India : 11000 tested positive HIV, with 220 cases
of full blown cases of AIDS

3) V P Shing may quit politics

4) A beautiful picture of two Australian man standing in a seweage water
in Madras on Dec 4 in an attempt to create awareness among people on the
need to use toilets and not open places for defecation.


-- 
With regards

SUPRATIC GUPTA

Xref: sparky soc.culture.indian:41481 soc.culture.pakistan:18535
From: vidynath@function.mps.ohio-state.edu (Vidhyarath K Rao)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian,soc.culture.pakistan
Subject: Sati
Followup-To: soc.culture.indian
Date: 20 Dec 1992 15:53:21 -0500
Organization: Me? Organized?
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: function.mps.ohio-state.edu

[I am posting this in soc.culture.pakistan because the article I am
following up was posted there as well. The follow-ups, however, have been
redirected to soc.culture.indian only.]

In article <1992Dec17.155320.28989@cs.nott.ac.uk>
  cczaziz@mips.nott.ac.uk (Zahid Aziz) writes:
[deleted reference to a work of A. C.Clayton on RV 10.18.7]
>(quoting Clayton) "By the most awful crime in the history of literature
>this phrase was altered in later times. It then read: 'a rohantu yonim
>agneh' [...] There may have been instances of widow burning in early Aryan
>times but it was during a much later period (A.D. 650-1200) that the
>custom of burning a widow with her husband's body came generally into
>force."

From the notes that Charles Lanman supplies in his "Sanskrit reader":
From [F. Max] Mueller's 'Essay on Comparative Mythology' [in]
"Chips from a German Workshop", vol 2, p34f [or] "Selected Essays"
(1881 ed) vol 1, p333f, it would appear that [RV10.18.7] had played a
great role in Hindu history. At any rate this idea is current and seems
tracable to the Essay. Here it is stated that the stanza was purposely
falsified by an unscrupulous priesthood, and that a garbled version of it,
reading 'agneh' for 'agre' was directly responsible for the sacrifice of
thousands of innocent lives. That the author is in error on these points
                                  --------------------------------------
is argued with great detail by Fitzedward Hall J. Royal Asicatic Soc.
NS vol 3, pp183--192. He shows that the misreading can be traced to
Raghunandana, ca 1500 AD and no further.

By the way when was this book by Clayton published ORIGINALLY? OSU library
as book by an Albert C Clayton , titled "Rig Veda and Vedic Religion".
It is liste as published in 1980 at Varanasi. But it is a reprint of
a 1913 book! [Not all Indian publishers are scruplous enough to give
the original publication date] One has to be careful in using such books.

Continuing on the suject of Sati itself: There are parallels among people
who bury their dead as well. This should not be lost sight of. The most
extreme example is from Egypt (although people supposedly buried in the
pyramids tended to escape; but they were supposed to have gone to heaven
and so were non-persons). Similar customs are also known among some of
the Central Asian tribes. It is sometimes assumed that the (re)emergence
of widow-burning in Medevial India is due to the influence of the
Central Asian tribes (Sakas or Scythians, Huns etc.) that invaded India
from the fourth centrury to the seventh.

-- 
Vidhyanath Rao			It is the man, not the method, that solves
nathrao+@osu.edu		the problem. - Henri Poincare
(614)-366-9341			[as paraphrased by E. T. Bell]