From: pjoseph@ucselx.sdsu.edu (Paul Joseph)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: TIME FOR CHANGE ....
Date: 25 Jan 93 22:23:28 GMT
Organization: SDSU Computing Services

In article <1993Jan21.231919.25043@ennews.eas.asu.edu> pinto@enuxva.eas.asu.edu (Kevin A. Pinto) writes:
>In article <1993Jan21.203039.8068@cbfsb.cb.att.com>, mohans@cbnewsg.cb.att.com (mohan.sekhar) writes:
>> 
>	--- Khaki version of history deleted ---
>> 
>> THE TIME TO CHANGE HAS COME, ITS NOT UNREALISTIC to expect a "NEW INDIA" 
>> For the HINDUs, By the HINDUs, Of the HINDUs.
>>  
>> A country where Hindus can be proud of their religion and a 
>> government/constitution which protects their needs first.
>> Like an ITALY where a non-christian can live, A SAUDI ARABIA where a non-muslim
>> can live, India can continue to be a home for non-hindus.
>> 
>> IT SHOULD ALWAYS BE A COUNTRY WHERE HINDUs COME FIRST ......
>> 
>
>I, for one can assure you that I would not like to go back to an India
>where non-Hindus are treated in the same way that non-Muslims are treated
>in Saudi Arabia.
>
>Is this really what you are suggesting?  That all mosques, churches,
>gurdwaras be torn down?  That all non-Hindu forms of religious worship be
>banned?  That people be arrested for praying to their own God?  That
>people be forced to observe all Hindu ceremonies and holidays?  That the
>consumption of meat be forbidden?
>
>To diverge slightly, it is a recurrent theme that Hindus are second-class
>citizens in their own country.  This is a ridiculous claim; Hindus are
>82% of the population and control the government, business, commerce
>and virtually every aspect of civilized life.  While there are several parties
>which seek Muslim votes (which are not the monolithic block that they are
>made out to be), the same parties also run after the votes of the backwards,
>Brahmins, Harijans, Jats and virtually every caste and community the
>country has produced.  The BJP is not immune to this - it derives a great
>deal of strength from trader communities.
>
>The Muslims on the other hand are poor, uneducated and ignorant.  They
>incidentally are by far the victims in communal riots - these are leaked
>GOI statistics.  To say that the Muslims are pampered is to imply that
>they control the government, business, commerce and everything worth
>controlling.  Look around you and see if that is the case.
>
>One piece of "evidence" used in favour of this claim is the Muslim Personal
>Law.  I am strongly in favour of a common civil code as it is my belief
>that the individual citizens of the Republic should not be denied justice
>because of their religion.  I must however point out that to say that
>the Hindus are the losers is again silly.  It implies that all Hindu
>men are being denied the right to have 4 wives and to divorce their
>wives by uttering a mantra 3 times.  The only losers in this Personal
>Law Business are the Muslims.
>
>While on the subject of Personal Laws, let me talk about the Christian
>Personal Law, to which a relative of mine had to take recourse.  The law
>dates back to Victorian times and was used to enforce Victorian standards
>of morality on British women.  It now enforces Victorian standards of
>morality on Indian Christian women.  Among other things, a man may claim
>adultery and brutality as a ground for divorce, while the wife, believe
>it or not, may not.  There is, by and large a consensus, in the Catholic
>Church at least, that this law is medieval and deserves to be amended.
>Despite several representations to the government, nothing has been done
>because Christians, politically, are insignificant and there is no
>political mileage to be gained.  The BJP and the rest of the "true
>secularism" brigade is well aware of this but hasn't bothered to do
>anything about it.  So much for their concern for a common civil code.
>
>Wake up - Hindus aren't likely to vanish from India in a thousand years.
>
>
>--
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Kevin Pinto			agkap@acvax.inre.asu.edu
>Chem Engg, ASU, Tempe, AZ
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Well said Kevin! I hope people see light in the fact that Muslims are 
 not actually controlling anything - and they are the ones, Muslim 
 men and women, who have to loose by not conforming to one law. Do Hindus
 actually want to have more than one wife or be able to divorce on the
 count of three - I dont think so.
 So there is no reason to cry and lament that Hindus have been 
 forgotten.
 
Paul
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian