Sex, lies and money in the church

By: Shevlin Sebastian

It was midnight. Fr Jose George could not sleep because there was no fan in his room. Jose knocked on Anna Jacob’s door. When she opened it, he told her he could not sleep. She invited him inside, because there was a fan.

Jose had met Anna while conducting a retreat at Kottayam. “Why don’t you come home, have dinner, and stay the night?” Anna said. She lived with her mother-in-law, while her husband worked in Dubai. Jose accepted the offer.


When Jose entered the bedroom, Anna’s mother-in-law noticed. “She prayed till morning,” says Fr K P Shibu Kalamparambil. “She cannot speak about this incident to her son, because that will destroy the marriage.

Then society will ask questions about why it happened. That would affect the family’s social standing.” So she kept quiet. But the secret came out when she told Shibu at the confessional.

(Every Sunday, Catholics can confess their sins to the priest before Mass. They communicate through a grid or lattice).


The advantage priests have is that when they go to the house of a woman, society does not look askance, according to Shibu. “He has the social sanction. And priests take advantage of that.”


Shibu was a priest with the Vincentian order till March this year. Like Sr Jesme, he quit the priesthood and has written a 160-page book, Here is the Heart of a Priest, in which he talks about his experiences during his 24 years in the congregation. The most stunning revelations are the incidents of sexual misconduct.

“If a woman has financial problems and is desperate, she will approach the priest,” says Shibu. “He will help her, but ask for sex in exchange. She gives in because she has no option.” Similarly, priests take advantage of widows, troubled women, and nuns.

“Most nuns are sexually frustrated,” says Shibu. “To lead a celibate life is unnatural.” Initially, they try to leave. But the older nuns persuade them that it’s not necessary, because things will get better in the future.

“Since the elder nuns are trapped, they want to ensure that others also remain like them,” says Shibu. “Nobody is allowed to escape.”


So the young nuns look for safe ways to have sex. “It is either through priests, servants, drivers, or the milkman,” says Shibu. “There are cases of nuns caught red-handed, but the matter is quickly hushed up. And the nun is transferred immediately.”


In the priestly life, sexual misconduct starts early. “Sexual abuse is rampant in the seminaries,” says Shibu. Since it is a dormitory system, it is easy for a boy to manipulate or exploit another boy for sex.

“They have no other forms of entertainment, like watching films,” he says. “Neither do they have any contact with the opposite sex.”

Shibu, who was a prefect in a seminary, has caught students in the act many times. “They are immediately sent away,” he says. “Sometimes, a few boys escape being caught and carry on their activities long after they have become priests.”

Apart from sex, money is a big attraction. “Nobody knows how much donation a priest receives in the name of helping the poor,” says Shibu. “The priest also gets cash gifts from parishioners after he blesses a new car or a home. The money can range from Rs 500 to Rs 1 lakh.”

He remembers the case of a businessman who gave Rs 1 lakh to a priest because he had conducted the baptism ceremony of his son. “The priest kept the money instead of giving it to the congregation,” says Shibu. Usually, they buy electronic goods, a car, insurance policies, or invest in shares and real estate.

“Priests are so busy making money, that being a priest has become a secondary role,” he says. “But I heard allegations that the same thing is happening among pujaris and maulvis. I feel disheartened.”

But there were other reasons why Fr Shibu decided to quit. He had an MA in Sociology from the University of Pune, MEd from the Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, but was not given jobs commensurate with his qualifications. “The authorities wanted loyalists. They will not promote the meritorious, because they are afraid their positions could get shaky.”

So he had to face the humiliation of seeing juniors appointed principals, while he was given a job as a teacher.

The priests in his congregation are aware of what is happening, but are afraid to speak out. “I thought to myself, ‘Why should I remain silent’?” he says.

“I joined the priesthood because I wanted to serve God and serve humanity. But I was unable to do so. If I wanted I could have made a lot of money and led a very comfortable life. But I know that these compromises will prick at my conscience. So I thought it was better to quit.”

Shibu also admits that there are blessings in the priestly life. “The vocation gives peace of mind, provided one is working in a spiritual environment,” he says.

“Then a person is inspired to work for the betterment of society. Priests in many congregations lead dedicated lives, but there is a certain section, very large in number, which is spoiling the name of the priesthood.”

Asked whether celibacy should be abolished, he nods. “In order to serve God, there is no need to remain unmarried,” he says. “The disciples of Jesus Christ, except John, were married.

The first Pope was married and had three children. My suggestion is that the Pope and priests should marry. Celibacy forces priests to succumb to temptations.”

He said Christian sects like the Mar Thomites and Jacobites allow priests to marry. “They are respected by society,” he says. “So why can’t the Catholic church do the same thing?”

But this insistence on celibacy by the Catholic church could be based on economic considerations. “If there is a married priest, the church would need to give higher salaries and better accommodation,” says Shibu. “The senior clergy will not have the money for the lush lifestyles they have now.”

Not surprisingly, there are those that do not agree with Shibu. Fr Paul Puthuva, one of the Provincial Superiors of the Vincentian Congregation, says, “The book is full of baseless allegations. Any person who leaves the congregation can level all sorts of unfounded charges. So we prefer not to respond to what Shibu has said or written.”

In person, Shibu comes across as straight-forward and intense, but under mental strain. A person close to him, but who does not wish to be identified, says he is under a lot of pressure from the Vincentians and also his own family, who are devout Catholics. They are displeased with him for writing the book and talking to the media. So, Shibu left.

He now works as a teacher of social science in an Indian school at Doha, Qatar. Shibu himself admits that the road ahead is tough. “But I have courage, determination, and the will to succeed,” he says.

His future plans include marriage and setting up a short-stay home for priests who want to leave the priesthood. “Initially, when they leave, they are not accepted by family or society,” says Shibu.

“They go through a tough time. I will provide a room, with an attached bath, as well as a kitchen. A job will also be arranged.”

Asked whether Sr Jesme served as an inspiration, Shibu says, “Yes, her example was an impetus. What Jesme said is the truth, but it has not been accepted by the church. But there is one thing I can say with certainty: truth cannot be concealed forever. One day it will come out.”

Source: Haindavakeralam

Francis Xavier : A Saint or Ruthless Father of Bloodiest Inquisition in Goa

On 3rd December, there is a fair of the so-called Saint Francis Xavier at Old Goa. Hindus also go to this fair and pray for curing of physical ailments. Lack of ‘Dharmashikshan’ among Hindus is the reason that they fall prey to such so-called miracles of so-called saints. We give below how this Xavier and under his order, the Portuguese oppressed Hindus.






By Mr. V. Sundaram :

St. Francis Xavier landed in Goa on 6 May 1542, with a resolve of ‘uprooting paganism’ from the soil of India and planting Christianity in its place. And so all plans of persecution and oppression of the Hindus came along with him. All religious policies and procedures of forcible and fraudulent conversions and demolitions of the Hindu Temples and idols were undertaken under his guidance and missionary zeal. Thus it was St.Francis Xavier who laid the foundation for the ‘compassionate’ (barbarous!) for an organised system of Holy Inquisition against the Hindus in Goa.

St.Francis Xavier was a pioneer of anti-Brahmanism, which was adopted later as a major plan in the missionary propaganda during British Rule as evident below. Lord Minto, the Governor General of India from 1807 to 1812, sent some propaganda material used by the English missionaries in India to British Parliament and in particular referred to one Christian Tract about which he said ‘the remainder of this Tract seems to aim principally at a general massacre and extermination of the Brahmins’.




Inquisition of Hindus in Goa by Christians

We can see what was St. Francis Xavier’s first priority in India through his own words ‘I want to free the poor Hindus from the stranglehold of the Brahmins and destroy the places where evil spirits are worshipped. The Brahmins are the most perverse people in the world…. They never tell the truth, but think of nothing but how to tell subtle lies and to receive the simple and ignorant people… They are as perverse and wicked a set as can anywhere be found, and to whom applies the Psalm, which says: ‘From an unholy race, and wicked and crafty men, deliver me, Lord’. The poor people do exactly what the Brahmins tell them…. If there were no Brahmins in the area, all Hindus would accept conversion to our faith’.

St. Francis Xavier wrote a letter to the Society of Jesus in which he said, ‘Following the Baptisms, the new Christians return to their homes and come back with their wives and families to be in their turn also prepared for Baptism. After all have been baptised, I order that everywhere the temples of the false Gods be pulled down and idols broken. I KNOW NOT HOW TO DESCRIBE IN WORDS THE JOY THAT I FEEL BEFORE THE SPECTACLE OF PULLING DOWN AND DESTROYING THE IDOLS BY THE VERY PEOPLE WHO FORMERLY WORSHIPPED THEM’.

St. Francis Xavier did this in Quilon after the Hindu Raja of Quilon had given him a munificently large grant of land and other resources to build Churches in his territory. After taking this grant, St. Xavier converted Hindus into Christianity. After doing that he said that he was in a state of ecstatic joy! The same kind of savage joy was expressed by another equally savage temple destroyer Mughal Emperor called Aurangazeb who ruled from 1658 to 1707. So much for terrorist Christianity and terrorist Islam! So much for peace-loving and compassionate Christianity and Islam! So much for Christian Brotherhood and Islamic Brotherhood!




Benevolent Christian Wheel of Compassion

No wonder the great German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche [1844 –1900], not belonging to the VHP or RSS or Sangh Pariwar(!) paid this legitimate tribute to ever-compassionate Christianity: ‘I call Christianity the one great curse of enormous and innermost perversion, the one great instinct of revenge, for which no means are venomous, too underhand, too underground and too petty—I call it the one immortal blemish of mankind’. I am sure the Pope in Rome will take immediate action to ex-communicate Nietzsche, posthumously, for his above Paganish and Heathenish indiscretion, taking the ever-obliging Sonia-directed Pro-Catholic UPA Government into private confidence! Our Prime Minister has prepared the ground for this drama by his recent statement on the mass Hindu Rebellion in Orissa.

In these columns yesterday (30-8-08) I had written about the atrocities committed by St. Francis Xavier and his disciples against the Hindus of Goa in the 16th century. Aided by guided and frenzied mobs, he and his missionaries did not lag behind the Islamic iconoclastic zeal of Mohammad of Ghazni in the 11th century, Malik-a-fur and Timur in the 14th century. They destroyed thousands of Hindu temples and non-Christian places of worship in South India in general and Goa in particular.

Even before the arrival of St. Francis Xavier in Goa in 1542, two Portuguese Governors called Minguet Vaz and Diago Borba, inaugurated the State-sponsored movement for the demolition of the Hindu temples and other vestiges of Hindu religion. Most of the temples of Goa, Divar, Chorada and Jua region were destroyed in 1540. In 1541 a policy of ‘Regour of Mercy’ was announced as the main plank of anti-Hindu policy to be followed by the government in Goa.

In this year, after the demolition of temples, various leaders of the Hindu community were terrorised into submission and made to agree of, ‘Their free volition that the income of the lands belonging to the ancient Hindu temples which had been destroyed might be applied to the upkeep of Christian Churches and Christian Missionaries…. It was also resolved that the income should, in future, be applied towards and donated to the Chapels built in this island and also to defray the expenses of the confraternity of the converts to the faith. As a result of this declared ‘Anti-Hindu and Hindu Extermination Policy’ (like that of the Catholic Sonia-directed UPA surrogate government of India today!!), the St. Paul’s College was established and maintained out of the income of the Hindu temples which had been destroyed’.

After the arrival of St. Francis Xavier in 1542, the movement for temple demolition in Goa was further accelerated, as he was an instigator and a role model for the demolition of the Hindu temples. From then on, the Jesuits did their worst under his cruel leadership, using every form of bribery, threat and torture against the Hindus to effect a conversion! He noticed that though some Hindus, baptised earlier through force and fraud, were still secretly worshipping these ‘evil spirits’.




Atrocities consisted in Inquisition - 1

Enraged by this ‘paganish and heathenish barbarism’, St. Francis Xavier reacted strongly with Christian compassion and understanding marked by unsurpassed nobility. According to the ‘History of Christianity in India’, his reaction was: ‘When the boys informed him that some had made an idol, he went with them and had it broken into a thousand pieces. If in spite of all his Divine advice someone persisted in making idols, he would have them punished by the Patingatis (Heads of Parava Village) are banished to another village. One day when he heard that idols had been worshipped in the house of a Christian, he ordered the hut to be burnt down as a warning to others (Source-Silva Rego Vol.I Page 158)’.

Regarding St.Francis Xavier’s way of ‘violent evangelism’, Hector has written: ‘In the matter of conversion, Xavier held exceedingly crude ideas. His great aim was to get hold of the younger portion of the population… Xavier is said to have baptised seven hundred thousand natives, whom he left as ignorant as he found them. His motto seems to have been quantity and not quality’.

P.B.Cunha, a Goan freedom fighter and eminent writer has been very critical of Xavier’s method of evangelism. To quote his words: ‘That Saint (Xavier) came as a missionary with the patronage and protection of the Portuguese King and used his power of proselytisation to further the Portuguese Imperial designs’.




Atrocities consisted in Inquisition - 2

In order to promote conversions and create an atmosphere of mental terror, St. Francis Xavier and his missionaries saw to it that the Hindus were tortured by all possible means, particularly where the evidence against the accused (foisted cases for Inquisition and Conversion through fraud, force and inducement!) was incomplete, defective or conflicting. I have presented above the pictures/photographs of the tools, implements and other appliances carefully designed by St. Francis Xavier and his missionaries for the human and humane conversion of the Hindus of Goa through organized torture, fully backed by the might of the Portuguese State in the 16th century.

We can see that there were specially designed sharp instruments with spikes for cutting the ears of Hindus, for breaking their legs and shin, for disembowelling them over the rack, for breaking their jaws, for tearing their tongues and finally there was a specially designed Christian equipment (designed with Christian compassion of rigorous mercy!) for tearing apart the female breasts! I acknowledge my debt to Shri Maanoj Rakhit, a great Hindutva scholar from Bombay for helping me with the above rare photographs of the implements and tools of Christian torture in Goa during the days of the Holy Inquisition!

Very unfortunately thousands of Hindus who were tortured and killed by St. Francis Xavier and his missionaries have not left behind contemporary records relating to their sufferings, trials and tribulations. One of the most authentic records relating to the Holy Inquisition in Goa was left behind by a French Jewish Doctor called Dellon. About him, the savant Ferdinand Denis wrote: ‘Many voyagers painted with great energy the torments which the inquisition of Goa inflicted on its prisoners, but the most minute report, without contradiction and the most moderate in all respects was that of a French doctor called Dellon, who wrote a special treatise on this tribunal, of which he was one of the victims’.

Indeed a young French Doctor by the name of Dellon, ten years after he escaped from his punishment in the galleys in Lisbon in 1677, wrote the famous book ‘RELATION DE L’INQUISITION DE GOA’, printed in Holland in 1687. The acquisition of Dellon’s book was most difficult for more than two hundred years, because not only it was antique but prohibited. Only Mr.Cunha Rivara, in the late 19th century, on the way to serve as Secretary to the Governor in Goa, was able to get a copy from the curator of the Public Library in Lisbon, Joƒo Jos, Barbosa.

From Dr.Dellon’s classic book referred to above, we get the following details relating to the Holy Inquisition in Goa. The House of Inquisition (Divine Torments!) of Hindus was a subterranean grotto, so that others might not hear the cries of the wretched. Many a time, the Hindu victims died under torture; their bodies were interred within the compound, and the bones were exhumed for the auto da fe, and burnt in public. Those Hindus who were branded as convicts, and persisted in denying the facts of which they were accused, or who were relapsed, were obliged to wear another scapulary which was called Samarra, a brown cloth, on which the portrait of the victim was painted above flames, and surrounded by demons. Below this portrait were written down the name of the condemned and the crimes. But for those who accused themselves, after the sentence was pronounced, and who were not relapsed, a different Samarra was given: in these brown vests the flames were facing downwards, which was called ‘fogo revolto’.

After the distribution of the Sambenitos, five pointed bonnets or mitres of cardboard, all painted with demons and flames, and the word ‘feiticeiro’ (sorcerer) were brought and placed on the heads of the persons accused of necromancy. Standing up all night, at last at 5.30 a.m. the sun rose, and the bell of the cathedral started tolling. This was the signal for the population of Goa to wake up, and come to witness the august ceremony of the auto da fe, which was considered as a triumph of the Holy Office.

By daylight, each convict was ordered to march alongside a godfather, one of the officials assigned to each victim. It was a great honour to be appointed godfather for these ceremonies. Finally, covered with shame and confusion, tired of the long march, the condemned reached the church of St. Francis, which was decked with great pomp and circumstance. The altar was covered with black cloth on which stood six silver candleholders. On both sides of the altar there were two kinds of thrones: the right side for the inquisitor and his councillors, and the left side for the viceroy and his court. The convicts and godfathers were seated on benches. Once the sermon was concluded, two officials went up to the pulpit, to read publicly the proceedings of all the guilty, and to declare the sentences upon them. Generally all the Hindu victims were either put to death in all kinds of barbarous ways.

Mr. Alfred Demersay, French commissioner in Portugal and Spain in 1862, on examining the archives of Lisbon where past processes of inquisition were kept, wrote: ‘Only the Inquisition has furnished 40,000 proceedings of lawsuits, which are the most precious elements to write the history of this nefarious institution, and an inexhaustible mine for the novelists and authors of melodramas. The inquisition was the greatest terror of our ancestors in Goa because of its incredible tyranny; it was an independent terrorist Republic, which did not recognise even the Viceroys as their superiors’.

How immoral and barbarous were the Holy Inquisitors in Goa (who took hourly instructions from St. Francis Xavier from 1542 to 1551) in the 16th century can be seen by the oration given by Archbishop of Evora at the Cathedral Church of Lisbon in June 1897: ‘The Inquisition was an infamous TRIBUNAL at all places. But the infamy never reached greater depths, nor was more vile, more black, and more completely determined by mundane interests than at the TRIBUNAL OF GOA, by irony called the HOLY OFFICE. Here the Inquisitors went to the length of imprisoning in its jails women who resisted their advances, and after having satisfied their bestial instincts there, ordering that they be burnt as heretics’. (Source The Hindus and the Portuguese Republic, Priolkar Page 174 – 175).

‘When I think of all the harm the Bible has done, I despair of ever writing anything to equal it’

— Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Irish author:

In order to accelerate the process of Christianising of the Hindus and the demolition of Hindu temples, one of the associates of St. Francis Xavier, Minguel Vaz, the then Vicar General of India appointed by the Pope in Rome, requested the King of Portugal as part of his 41 Point Programme to destroy all Hindu Temples in October 1546 as follows: ‘Since idolatry is so great and offence against God, as is manifest to all, it is just that Your Majesty should not permit it within your territories, and an order should be promulgated in Goa to the effect that in the whole island there should not be any temple public or secret. Contravention thereof should entail grave penalties that no Hindu should make idols in any form, neither of stone, nor of wood, nor of copper, nor of any other metal…. and that persons who are in charge of St. Paul’s should have the power to search the houses of the Brahmins and other Hindus, in case there exists a presumption or suspicion of the idols there’.

Consequently on March 8, 1547, the King of Portugal ordered his Viceroy at Goa that all the Hindu temples should be destroyed forthwith. Minguel Vaz even before the receipt of this formal order had commenced the operation of destruction of Hindu temples. Consequently there was a Hindu uprising and the Hindus succeeded in poisoning him to death. Following the example of Minguel Vaz, similar orders for destruction of Hindu temples were issued by Viceroy D. Antao de Noronha on 29 August 1556.

In March 1569, an order was promulgated by which, the income of the Hindu temples of Bardez and Salsete, which had been destroyed by the Jesuits, was transferred to Christian Churches. The Hindu inhabitants of that region were called and asked to disclose under Oath ‘information’ about the properties attached to the temples and upon their due compliance with this order, the entire temple properties were transferred to the Churches (Source: A K Priolkar – The Goa Inquisition, page no.85). At many places the temples were destroyed and the Churches were built in those places. Thus we can see that the Jesuit Inquisitors in Goa were only following the path of Muslim marauders like Mohammed of Ghori, Allaudin Khilji, Babur and Aurangazeb. Babur built his Babri Masjid at the site that became available after his planned destruction of the Sri Ram Temple at Ayodhya in 1528.

Likewise, the Jesuits of Goa also erected Churches on destroyed temple sites in hundreds of places throughout Goa from 1560 to 1812. For example according to the Imperial Gazetteer of British India ‘The Church of Cortalim is erected on the same site where formerly the idol of Mangesh was worshipped by the Hindus. Some missionary records refer to many famous Hindu temples being converted into Churches at these places’. According to Sitaram Goel ‘A magnificent Hindu temple in the Elephanta Caves was turned into a Chapel’.

Throughout Portuguese Rule in Goa, various Viceregal and Church Council decrees banished the Hindu priests from the Portuguese territories. The public practice of Hindu rites including marriage rites was banned. Only Christians were preferred in public employment. The Government ensured that the Hindus would not harass those who became Christians; yet at the same time and to the contrary, the Hindus were forced to assemble periodically in Churches to listen to Christian preaching or to the refutation of the Hindu religion. Perhaps because of all these anti-Hindu acts, Mahatma Gandhi wrote very clearly in his autobiography ‘The Story of My Experiments with Truth’: ‘I had started disliking Christianity. This was not without any reason. Those days Christian missionaries used to stand in a corner near the High School in Rajkot and used disgraceful words against Hindus and their Gods/Goddesses. I could not bear this’. In fact not only Gandhiji, no self-respecting Hindu can bear this.

Immediately after the establishment of Portuguese Rule in Goa, a number of ANTI-HINDU LAWS were enacted, and most of them, during the period of Holy Inquisition in Goa from 1560 to 1812. What is worse, all of them were strictly and often ruthlessly implemented to punish the Hindus and more particularly the Brahmins.

'Jana Gan Man...' : Praise for Bharatmata or Glorification of British King ?

By Brahmarshi Dr. P. V. Vartak

Preface

Our National Anthem was first sung at the Calcutta Session of the Indian National Congress on 27th December 1911. ‘Jana Gan Man…’ is composed by late Ravindranath Tagore precisely at the time of the visit of the British King George V. Many are not reconciled to accept this truth. They question, ‘How will Ravindranath ever do so ?’ Their mind has already taken a side in the controversy. They have already prepared an opinion. If our mind is calm and steady, we do not create an opinion in advance. Let us examine some evidences to indicate that the song was composed to welcome the King George V.




Brahmarshi Dr. P. V. Vartak

The national anthem we sing today is not complete. For the convenience of the readers we are reproducing the entire text of the national anthem at the end of the article.

1. The song was composed precisely at the time of the visit of British King George V in December 1911 to Hindusthan.

2. In this song, the ‘Adhinayak’ (‘The Lord of the masses of India’) has been hailed. In 1911, when Hindustan was in slavery, there was no lord of the masses. ‘Adhinayak’ means the most superior hero. In those days, the British emperor was considered as the ‘Adhinayak’.

3. ‘Bharat Bhagya Vidhata’ means he who decides the destiny of Bharat. The destiny of the Bharat which was languishing in slavery was then decided by the British emperor alone. Thus the King George V can only be considered eligible to be hailed as ‘Bharat Bhagya Vidhata’ and no other Indian leader.

4. Some people argue that ‘perhaps the Congress president may have been referred to as Adhinayak and Bharat Bhagya Vidhata’. However, the stanzas 2 and 3 are in complete variance of this stance. The second stanza says, ‘Purab Paschim Aase Tava Sinhasan Pase’. When the song was composed, there was no throne for any Indian leader and no Indian had ruled the East or West direction. There was only one emperor in the world with a throne who ruled the East and West at that time and it was the British King George V.

5. With the words ‘Tava Charane Nata Matha …. Rajeshwar Bharat Bhagya Vidhata’, Tagore was bowing his head in reverence in front of an emperor. It is but natural to conclude that he was bowing his head in front of the King George V. As per Indian tradition, ‘Rajeshwar’ means the God of Kings. That time, not a single Indian king was independent. King George V was the only independent king of Hindusthan. The local kings of princely states were ruled by the British emperor and were at his mercy.

6.‘Gahe tava jaya gatha’. Who was victorious in 1911 A.D. in Hindustan ? None. Hence it can safely be inferred that Tagore was praising the victory of King George. In those days, the British emperor was hailed throughout the world. Tagore also lent his voice in the chorus by singing this song.

Ravindranath imitated British style and changed his name to Tagore !By 1911 A.D., the Indians were greatly influenced by the British. Ravindranath Thakur (Tagore) also was equally influenced. In keeping with the British style, he discarded his original surname ‘Thakur’ and adopted a new name ‘Tagore’. It was a sheer psychological slavery. Everyone in the country bowed his head in front of the British. No wonder, Ravindra also could not have resisted the heavy pressure of British education.

Pak province in India’s anthem – a rank denigration !
No doubt, the Congress government selected this song as a national anthem in 1947; but it is against the truth. India was partitioned in 1947. The entire Sindh, half of Punjab and half of Bengal had gone to Pakistan. How did they get a place in India’s national anthem ? Had I been the prime minister or president of Pakistan, I would taken strong objection to this and would have compelled India to remove these lines. But no one realised the bitter truth.

Savarkar’s vision that Gandhi would reject ‘Vande Mataram’ !
‘Vande Mataram’ was accepted by all as a national anthem; but when a few Muslims took objection to it, Gandhiji promptly discarded ‘Vande Mataram’. Surprisingly, Swatatryaveer Savarkar had already said in 1938 that Gandhi would reject it.

Bengali men - proud to be mental slave to the British as against Bengali women – proud to preserve Indian culture !
British rule on Bengal dated back to 18th century. It was the Bengal state which the British won first in India. From then onward, the Bengali people were in awe of the British. History never recorded that the Bengalis rebelled against the British any time. More than any other state in India, the British had great hold on the Bengali people. This was evident from the fact that many Bengali men changed their names and adopted the British style of names.

For example, the Chattopadhyay surname was transformed into Chatterji. Mukhopadhyay became Mukherjee. Bandopadhyay became Banerjee. The sole reason for this was that there was no self-esteem left in Bengal ! The influence of the British was so great on the Bengalis that they started behaving like the British. However, one cannot find such a change in the Bengali women. They preserved Hindu culture. They never adopted British clothes. The Bengali men grossly lacked self-esteem ! Naturally, Ravindrababu happened to be one of them !

Employee of Shantiniketan tell proudly - ‘Ravindranath was drinking alcohol’Let me narrate to you my experience during my visit to Shantiniketan for a conference. During leisure time, I, along with friends, went to see the house of Ravindrababu in Shantiniketan. We were told to remove shoes at the gate. Shoes were prohibited inside the room. After removing the shoes we entered the room. In the first room, we were shown the place where Ravindrababu used to sit.

There was a table in the centre of the room flanked by four chairs. A bottle of alcohol and a few glasses were kept on the table. The employees proudly narrated to us that Ravindrababu used to drink alcohol. We wondered whether he had told us to remove shoes merely to show the arrangement of bar.

Anglicised Ravindranath from head to toe !
The other contemporary veteran Maharashtrian leaders such as Vishnushastri Chiplunkar, Lokmanya Tilak, Agarkar, Swatatryaveer Savarkar etc. never had such a bar in their house; because these great men never touched alcohol. It was in the British rule that it was a matter of pride to drink alcohol ! Ravindranath Tagore willingly fell prey to it ! No wonder, such a poet who is devoid of self-esteem had raised slogans of hail for the British emperor. There is no doubt that a poet who changed his name on British style would glorify the British king.

God alone got this article done from me !I have narrated the entire truth to the readers because my mind is fond of truth. I perform the spiritual practice of Yoga. So my mind is always connected to God. I think nobody has realised so far this truth. God alone has presented it before me and got this article written from me. I end this article by paying obeisance to God and submitting my mind at His Holy feet.

Source: Daily Sanatan Prabhat

Think before you say

When Rahul Gandhi said that : "I feel ashamed to call myself an INDIAN after seeing what has happened here in UP".Dr. SUBRAMANIYAM SWAMI SAID : YOU REALLY WANT TO FEEL ASHAMED…I would give you ample reasons to feel ashamed what has happened here in our country...
Ask Pranab Mukherjee, Why isn't he giving the details of the account holders in the Swiss Banks

Ask Sonia Gandhi, Who is impeding the Investigation against Hasan Ali?

Ask Sonia Gandhi, Who got 60% Kickbacks in the 2G Scam ?

Kalmadi is accused of a Few hundred Crores, Who Pocketed the Rest in the Common Wealth Games?

Ask Praful Patel what he did to the Indian Airlines? Why did Air India let go of the Profitable Routes and bought aircraft worth 20 k Crores?

Are Kalmadi and A Raja Scapegoats to save Big Names like Harshad Mehta was in the 1992 Stock Market Scandal ?

Who let the BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY Accused go Scot Free? ( 20,000 People died in that Tragedy)

Who ordered the State Sponsored Massacre of SIKHS in 84?

Why Indira Gandhi pushed the Nation Under Emergency in 76-77, after the HC declared her election to Lok Sabha Void!

Dear Rahul, to refresh your memory, you were arrested/detained by the FBI the BOSTON Airport in September 2001.You were carrying with you $ 1,60,000 in Cash ( Similar to the Arrest of Rahet Fateh Ali Khan recently, because you hadn't decared that Amount) . US allowed $ 10,000 cash at Immigration….9 HOURS you was kept at the Airport…. Later freed on the intervention of the then Prime Minister Mr.Vajpayee.. FBI filed an equivalent of an FIR in US and released you.
YOUR MOTHER HIGHLIGHTED AND GAINED SYMPATHY FOR SO CALLED SACRIFICE OF GIVING UP PRIME MINISTER SHIP in 2004. Just to update you…According to a Provision in the Citizenship Act….A Foreign National who becomes a Citizen of India, is bounded by the same restrictions, which an Indian would face, If he/she were to become a Citizen of Italy…..(Condition based on principle of reciprocity) [READ ANNEXURE- 1&2] ….Now Since you can't become a PM in Italy, Unless you are born there…..Likewise an Italian Citizen can't become Indian PM, unless He/She is not born here!


PRESIDENT OF INDIA sent a letter to Sonia Gandhi to this effect, the day she was about to get sworn in 2004. Manmohan Singh was brought in the Picture at the last moment to Save Face!!.........Rest of the SACRIFICE DRAMA which she choreographed was an EYE WASH!!!
RAHUL..THINK ABOUT YOURSELF….You go to Harvard on Donation Quota. ( Hindujas Gave HARVARD 11 million dollars the same year, when Rajiv Gandhi was in Power)…Then you are expelled in 3 Months/ You Dropped out in 3 Months.... (Sadly Manmohan Singh wasn't the Dean of Harvard that time, else you might have had a chance... Too Bad, there is only one Manmohan Singh!)
RAHUL TO REMIND YOU….At St. Stephens.. You Fail the Hindi Exam………..Hindi Exam!!!....And you are representing the Biggest Hindi Speaking State of the Country?
SONIA GANDHI's EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS…..Sonia gave a sworn affidavit as a Candidate that She Studied English at University of Cambridge…………..According to Cambridge University, there is no such Student EVER!!!!!!! She subsequently dropped the CAMBRIDGE CREDENTIAL from her Affidavit.
RAHUL…..We all know that Sonia Gandhi didn't even pass High School !!!!!.
You Fake your Educational Degree, Your Mother Fakes her Educational Degree. And then you go out saying, " We want Educated Youth into Politics!"
Shakespeare said, What's in a Name?.....Little did he knew, It's all in the Name, Especially the Surname!...Speaking of Sir Name………………………….. DO YOU REALLY RESPECT GANDHI, OR IS IT JUST TO CASH IN ON THE GOODWILL OF MAHATMA?


Because the Name on your Passport is RAUL VINCI. Not RAHUL GANDHI..May be if you wrote your Surname as Gandhi, you would have experienced, what Gandhi feels like, LITERALLY ( Pun Intended)But you don't seem to use Gandhi except when you are fighting Elections. ( There it makes complete sense).Imagine fighting by the Name Raul Vinci...Even Leonardo Da Vinci couldn't win an Election in India with that Name!! It feels sadly Ironic, Gandhi Ji, who inspired Icons like Nelson Mandela ,Martin Luther King Jr.and John Lennon, across the world, Couldn't inspire members of his party/ Nehru's Family, who only seem to use his Surname for the purposes of FIGHTING ELECTIONS and conveniently use a different name on their PASSPORT.You could feel ashamed for your Double Standards.
Now you want Youth to Join Politics………….I say First you Join Politics………Because you haven't Joined Politics. You have joined a Family Business (A Money Laundering Enterprise).


But we have to Work. Not just for ourselves. But also for you. So that we can pay 30% of our Income to the Govt. which can then be channelized to the Swiss Banks and your Personal Accounts under some Pseudo Names. The reason today 2G SCAM is being Investigated!!!






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IF YOU THINK YOU ARE STANDING TALL--
BE CAREFUL YOU DO NOT FALL

The choices That can change your life

Life is full of choices and opportunities. However, some choices will have a greater impact on your life than others. There are a few choices that will dramatically impact the quality of your life no matter when you make that choice.
So one must know them and the best of them!
Friendships: If there is any area in life where you should choose wisely, it would be your friendships. Numerous studies have shown that you become a byproduct of the people you surround yourself with. If you surround yourself with losers, then you’re well on your way to becoming one. If you surround yourself with winners, then you’re on your way to becoming one. Another thing that you want to do is chose friends who reinforce your positive self image. There’s a big difference between friends who joke about you endearingly versus those who seem to get their rocks off by putting you down. If you have some toxic friends, it’s time to detox!


Careers: Making the choice between passion and practicality is something you really should take seriously in your career. I didn’t do it in my younger years and as a result my life was miserable in numerous ways. My health deteriorated, I was depressed, and I was always angry or anxiety ridden. A career takes up a significant part of your life, up to 65% of your day in many cases. If you hate what you do, then think about what kind of things you are going to attract into your life. The majority of your time, energy, and thoughts are being directed to your misery. It’s a simple application of the law of attraction at work.
Relationships: Your choice in relationships not only alters the quality of your life, but the quality of someone else’s. So, if you make a bad choice you run the risk of making two people’s lives miserable. Of course the opposite is true as well. If you make the right choice then you double the joy that goes out into the world and bring more of it back to you. Have you ever noticed how at the beginning of a relationship when you start dating somebody, everything seems too be perfect. You have a great time together and everything goes smoothly and you seem to be on a roll of attracting positive experiences into your life. Then, you stop getting along, and everything else goes to hell too. So, make sure you choose wisely.


Reactions: This is the most overlooked choice that one has! It has been said over and over that life is not about what happens to you, but how you react to what happens to you. Once we learn how to control our reactions to everything that happens we manage to achieve complete control over our lives. We are no longer impacted by circumstances and events because we are choosing our reactions.








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A General retired after 35 years and realised his life-long dream of buying a bird-hunting estate in South Dakota. He invited an old friend to visit for a week of pheasant-shooting.

The friend was in awe of the General's bird dog, "Sarge".

The dog could point, flush and retrieve with the very best, and the friend offered to buy the dog. The General declined,saying that Sarge was the best bird dog he had ever owned and that he wouldn't part with him at any price.A year later the same friend returned for another week of hunting, and was surprised to find the General breaking in a new dog.

"What happened to old' "Sarge?" he asked. "Had to shoot him," grumbled the General. "A friend came to hunt with me and couldn't remember the dog's name. He kept calling him Colonel.

After that, all the dog would do was sit on his ass and bark."

Who is SONIA GANDHI? ( Every Indian Should Know This )

Who is Sonia Gandhi:
There is officially no Sonia Gandhi.Her real name in passport is neither Gandhi nor Sonia. Its Edvige Antonia Albina Maino. Sonia is a Russian name and not italian. However, Antonia is an italian name and her passport is italian. Though she has married Rajiv Gandhi* she never accepted change of title officially. ( recall the time of turmoil in indian politics when Sonia Gandhi was trying to be the prime minister, but ultimately ManMohan Singh became her toy)

Rajiv Gandhi: Actually Rajiv Khan being the son of Firoz Khan and Indira Priyadarshani. Gandhi is an assumed title to sentimentally lure indians for their political benefit. They are muslims by religion.

Father:Stefano Eugene Maino is socially the father of Sonia. Her father was a German(hitlers army). When Hitlers army went to russia they were captured and imprisoned. He was captured near St. Petersburgh and was imprisoned for 20 years. But he became a member of KGB and his imprisonment was limited to 4 years. When he came back from prison he gave russian name to his daughters. Social father because when she was born her father was in jail for 4 years. Biological father is unconfirmed.
Mother:Paula Maino.Family:She had 2 sisters in Orbassano,italy Birthplace

Sonia claims she was born in Besano, near Turin in italy. However, as per her birth certificate, She is actually born is Luciana, in the borders of Switzerland. A resort town for German soldiers during war.
Education:
She initially put forward to Indian Govt. that she studied in Cambridge University which proved to be fake. She submitted an affidavit that she studied english in Bell Education trust at Cambridge. Even this was proven to be fake and was found she never got any education after class five. She was a young girl with no formal education living five years in england. How did she support her livelihood for 5 years? Any wild guesses?
Citizenship:
She has not given off her italian citizenship. Indira Gandhi used her power to issue her an Indian Citizenship so that she can join Indian politics. She is holding an illegal citizenship in India. No action is being taken by Home Minister.
Religion:
Cristianity.
Bank Balance:
Rajiv Gandhi and his family owned 2 billion USD in Swiss Bank as of November,1991. Benefitiary of death of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi was Sonia Gandhi.
Family:
Sonia's sister Alexandria(or Anuska) has 2 shops in Italy selling antiques stolen from India. Sonia used her power to smuggle indian artifacts through Air India flights uninspected.
Sonia's son Rahul Gandhi, whose real name is Raul Vinci. He got admitted to Harvard in quota but was thrown off soon because he was incompetant. He has italian citizenship since his mother never gave up her citizenship. He cannot officially become the citizen of india or any politician in india as long as he doesnt give up his italian citizenship. Arrested in Boston airport for carrying 160,000 dollars cash, accompanied by Veronique (spanish). veronique is the daughter of Drug mafia leader. Rahul has also been accused for gang raping Sukanya Devi, whose petition to all courts in India have been rejected due to their political hold and the whereabouts of the family is unknown. However, the information is widely available online.

Space jump record

This story gives the term Test Pilot a whole new meaning.

Joe Kittinger is not a household aviation name like Neil Armstrong or Chuck Yeager. But what he did for the U. S. space program is comparable. On Aug. 16, 1960, as research for the then-fledgling U. S. space program, Air Force Captain Joseph Kittinger rode a helium balloon to the edge of space,
102,800 feet above the earth, a feat in itself.

Then, wearing just a thin pressure suit and breathing supplemental oxygen, he leaned over the cramped confines of his gondola and jumped--into the 110-degree-below-zero, near-vacuum of space. Within seconds his body accelerated to 714mph in the thin air, breaking the sound barrier.


After free-falling for more than four and a half minutes, slowed finally by friction from the heavier air below, he felt his parachute open at 14,000 feet, and he coasted gently down to the New Mexicodesert floor.
Kittinger's feat showed scientists that astronauts could survive the harshness of space with just a pressure suit and that man could eject from aircraft at extreme altitudes and survive.

Upon Kittinger's return to base, a congratulatory telegram was waiting from the Mercury seven astronauts--including Alan Shepard and John Glenn. More than four decades later Kittinger's two world records--the highest parachute jump, and the only man to break the sound barrier without an aircraft and live--still stand. We decided to visit the retired colonel and Aviation Hall of Famer, now 75, at his home in Altamonte Springs, Florida, to recall his historic jump.

FORBES GLOBAL: Take us back to New Mexico and Aug. 16, 1960.

Joe Kittinger: We got up at 2 a. m. to start filling the helium balloon. At sea level, it was 35 to 40 feet wide and 200 feet high; at altitude, due to the low air pressure, it expanded to 25 stories in width, and still was 20 stories high!

At 4 a. m. I began breathing pure oxygen for two hours. That's how long it takes to remove all the nitrogen from your blood so you don't get the bends going so high so fast. Then it was a lengthy dress procedure layering warm clothing under my pressure suit. They kept me in air-conditioning until it was time to launch because we were in the desert and I wasn't supposed to sweat. If I did, my clothes would freeze on the way up.

How was your ascent?

It took an hour and a half to get to altitude. It was cold. At 40,000 feet, the glove on my right hand hadn't inflated. I knew that if I radioed my doctor, he would abort the flight. If that happened, I knew I might never get another chance because there were lots of people who didn¹t want this test to happen.

I took a calculated risk, that I might lose use of my right hand. It quickly swelled up, and I did lose use for the duration of the flight. But the rest of the pressure suit worked. When I reached 102,800 feet, maximum altitude, I wasn't quite over the target.

So I drifted for 11 minutes. The winds were out of the east. What's it look like from so high up? You can see about 400 miles in every direction. The formula is 1.25 x the sq. root of the altitude in thousands of feet. (The square root of 102,000 ft is 319 X 1.25 = 399 miles)
The most fascinating thing is that it's just black overhead--the transition from normal blue to black is very stark. You can't see stars because there's a lot of glare from the sun, so your pupils are too small. I was struck with the beauty of it. But I was also struck by how hostile it is: more than 100 degrees below zero, no air. If my protection suit failed, I would be dead in a few seconds. Blood actually boils above 62, 000 feet.

I went through my 46-step checklist, disconnected from the balloon¹s power supply and lost all communication with the ground. I was totally under power from the kit on my back. When everything was done, I stood up, turned around to the door, took one final look out and said a silent prayer: "Lord, take care of me now." Then I just jumped over the side.

What were you thinking as you took that step?

It's the beginning of a test. I had gone through simulations many times--more than 100. I rolled over and looked up, and there was the balloon just roaring into space. I realized that the balloon wasn't roaring into space; I was going down at a fantastic rate! At about 90,000 feet, I reached 714mph.

The altimeter on my wrist was unwinding very rapidly. But there was no sense of speed. Where you determine speed is visual--if you see something go flashing by. But nothing flashes by 20 miles up--there are no signposts there, and you are way above any clouds. When the chute opened, the rest of the jump was anticlimactic because everything had worked perfectly. I landed 12 or 13 minutes later, and there was my crew waiting. We were elated.

How about your right hand?

It hurt--there was quite a bit of swelling and the blood pressure in my arm was high. But that went away in a few days, and I regained full use of my hand. What about attempts to break your record? We did it for air crews and astronauts--for the learning, not to set a record.

They will be going up as skydivers. Somebody will beat it someday. Records are made to be broken. And I'll be elated. But I'll also be concerned that they¹re properly trained. If they're not, they're taking a heck of a risk.

OPEN CAREFULLY *****VERY HOT*********

..........Careful. It's really HOT!!!



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Ten Amazing Coincidences

What's in a Name?


A computer error gave two women in America called Patricia the same social security number. When the two women were brought together in an office to rectify the blunder they discovered that
They had both been born with the names Patricia Ann Campbell
Both of their fathers were called Robert Campbell
Their birthdays were on 13th March 1941
They had both married military men in the year 1959 (within eleven days of each other)
They each had two children aged 19 and 21
They both had an interest in oil painting
Both had studied cosmetics
Both had worked as book-keepers

Bullet With Your Name on It

In 1893, Henry Ziegland ended a relationship with his girlfriend.
Tragically, his girlfriend took the news very badly, became distraught and took her own life.
Her distressed brother blamed his sister's death upon Henry, he went round to Henry's house, saw him out in the garden and tried to shoot him.
Luckily, the bullet only grazed Henry's face and embedded itself in a nearby tree.
In 1913, twenty years after this incident, Henry decided to use dynamite to uproot a tree in his garden. The explosion propelled the embedded bullet from the tree straight into Henry Ziegland's head - killing him immediately.

Lucky Hughs?

On December 5th 1660, a ship sank in the straights of Dover - the only survivor was noted to be Hugh Williams.
On 5th December 1767, another ship sank in the same waters - 127 lost their lives, the only survivor was noted to be Hugh Williams
On 8th August 1820, a picnic boat capsized on the Thames - there was one survivor - Hugh Williams.
On 10th July 1940, a British trawler was destroyed by a German mine - only two men survived, one man and his nephew - they were both called Hugh Williams.

With a Quack Quack Here

Mr McDonald was a farmer who lived in Canada - nothing extra-ordinary in that - until you learn that his postcode contained the letter sequence EIEIO.

'Til Death Did Them Part

In 1996, Paris police set out to investigate a late night, high speed car crash, both drivers had been killed instantly.
Investigations revealed that the deceased were in fact man and wife.
Police initially suspected some kind of murder or suicide pact but it became apparent that the pair had been separated for several months - neither could have known that the other would have been out driving that night - it was just a terrible coincidence.

She's Behind You!

Michael Dick had been travelling around the UK with his family to track down his daughter, Lisa - who he had lost contact with ten years earlier.
After a long fruitless search, he approached the Suffolk Free Press, who agreed to help him by putting an appeal in their newspaper.
Fortunately, his long lost daughter saw the appeal and the pair were reunited. The odd thing was, his daughter had been right behind him when the free paper took the photograph - shown in the photograph above. What are the chances of that!

Licensed To Thrill


A fifteen year old pupil at Argoed High School in North Wales was to sit his GCSE examinations in 1990.
His name was James Bond - his examination paper reference was 007.

What Goes Around….

In 1965, at the age of four, Roger Lausier was swimming off a beach in Salem - he got into difficulties and was saved from drowning by a woman called Alice Blaise.
In 1974, on the same beach, Roger was out on a raft when he pulled a drowning man from the water - amazingly, the man he saved was Alice Blaise's husband.

Lightning Never Strikes Twice?

British cavalry officer Major Summerford was fighting in the fields of Flanders in the last year of WW1, a flash of lightning knocked him off his horse and paralysed him from his waist down.
He moved to Vancouver, Canada, six years later, whilst out fishing, Major Summerfield was struck by lightning again and the right side of his body became paralysed.
After two years of recovery, it was a summers day and he was out in a local park, a summer storm blew up and Major Summerfield was struck by lightning again - permanently paralysing him.
He died two years after this incident.
However, four years after his death, his stone tomb was destroyed - it was struck by lightning!

Practice What You Preach

Businessman Danie de Toit made a speech to an audience in South Africa - the topic of his speech was - watch out because death can strike you down at any time.
At the end of his speech, he put a peppermint in his mouth, and choked to death on it!

In Manipur, Women Take the Lead

By LYDIA POLGREEN


Manpreet Romana for The New York TimesA Manipuri woman arguing with an Indian army official in Gamgiphai village of Manipur, in this file photo from August 31, 2011.

India is the land of a million mutinies, in V. S. Naipaul’s indelible phrase, but almost all the mutinies I have witnessed have been led and populated by men. When the farmers of Uttar Pradesh demonstrate against a new highway, they leave their wives at home. When the Jats agitate for caste-based job and education preferences by sitting on railway tracks, their daughters remain in the village, their faces, in all likelihood, covered by dupattas.

Even the massive marches against corruption in New Delhi during Anna Hazare’s hunger strike had an overwhelmingly male cast. When the barricades go up in India, it seems they are almost always manned by men.

But when I rolled up to an agitation in the village of Gamgiphai in Manipur earlier this fall, the ramparts were lined almost exclusively with women. The road connecting the village, which sat nestled in the hills outside the state capital, had been torn up. The protesters had blocked the roads into Manipur, as so often happens in this remote region. They hoped that strangling commerce would force officials here to grant their request: a separate administrative district for their ethnic group, the Kukis. I used my cellphone to record a video that captured just how unafraid Manipuri women are to confront soldiers.



“Women take the lead in these protests,” explained Lamshi Haokip, one of the women at the barricades. “If the men did it the army would kill them.”

Perhaps, but the involvement of women in the struggle for human rights and self-determination in Manipur has a long history. In 1939, Manipuri women launched what was called Nupi Lan, or the women’s war, against the maharaja that ruled the kingdom over what they called his oppressive policies.

The state’s most famous activist, Irom Sharmila, is a woman who has been on a hunger strike for more than a decade, seeking the removal of draconian laws that shield the armed forces from prosecution for crimes committed here. She is force-fed through a feeding tube in her nose.

In 2004, a group of middle-aged Manipuri women protested against the same law by stripping naked in front of an army barracks in Imphal and unfurling a banner that read: “Indian Army: Rape Us.” Their protest was prompted by the killing of an activist named Thangjam Manorama, who was taken into custody by the Assam Rifles — a paramilitary force in India — and later found dead, her body riddled with bullets and showing signs of sexual assault and torture.

Statistics from the most recent census show that women in Manipur fare better than other Indian women on several counts. The ratio of boys to girls is closer to even here, a crucial marker in a country where female fetuses are aborted and female babies killed or neglected by parents who prefer sons. Its female literacy rate here is 73 percent — higher than the national rate for women of 65 percent.

One afternoon during my visit to Manipur, I went to a meeting of a group of activists working on Ms. Sharmila’s case and broader human rights issues in the state. It was the first meeting that I had ever been to in India on a topic not exclusively female-oriented (like women’s rights or gender violence) where the majority of participants were women: nine women and six men attended.

“It is a patriarchal society, but women take very strong roles,” said Basantakumar Wareppa, a lawyer who works at Human Rights Alert, one of the groups working on Ms. Sharmila’s cause. “They are not afraid to fight for their rights.”

Indian women have come a long way. The country has had a female prime minister and president, and women occupy top leadership roles at major companies and institutions. But when it comes to hitting the streets and making their voices heard, Manipuri women seem to be leading the pack.

REMEMBERING A WAR
(Prisoner of War in Tibet)
by Maj Gen (retd) K K Tewari, PVSM, AVSM
(Source: Rediff.com)
As a result of the Chinese threat on our northern borders, some time in 1959 the headquarters of the Eastern Command at Lucknow was given the operational responsibility for the defence of the borders in Sikkim and NEFA.
I was at that time on the staff at HQ Eastern Command. The 4th (Red Eagle) Infantry Division was located at Ambala. Soon after it was ordered to move to Tezpur in Assam towards the end of 1959, I was posted as its Commander, Signals.
This division, trained and equipped for fighting in the plains, had suddenly been deployed to guard the borders in this high mountainous region. While a normal division is expected to defend a 30-40km front in the plains, we were assigned a front spanning more than 1800km of mountainous terrain.
Worse was to come. Even before the division could take over its operational responsibilities to defend the border with Tibet, orders for the execution of Operation Amar 2, for construction of accommodation for ourselves, were received from Army HQ.
This was the brainchild of Lt Gen B M Kaul, then Quartermaster General at Army HQ. We were supposed to build temporary basha accommodation. Besides the fact that my regiment had to provide communications for the division in an entirely new and undeveloped area, we had now to become engineers and labourers!
My first four months in command were a real nightmare. We would certainly have preferred to rough it out in tents and spend the time developing a reasonable communications set-up, getting our equipment properly checked and maintained, and getting the men used to working with the available equipment, which was antiquated and unsuitable for mountainous terrain and the excessive ranges.
Even at that time, there were hardly any roads in any of the five frontier divisions (FD) of Arunachal Pradesh. The road into Kameng FD, the most vulnerable, finished at the foothills just beyond Misamari.
We were faced with shortages of every kind. It was during these early days in NEFA that one of the commanding officers of an infantry battalion sent an official reply written on a chapati. When asked for an explanation, he gave a classic reply:
"Regret unorthodox stationary but atta [wheat flour] is the only commodity available for fighting, for feeding, and for futile correspondence."
Sometime in 1962, orders came from Army HQ for Operation Onkar (the famous "Forward Policy"), which directed all Assam Rifles posts to move forward, right up to the border.
Of course, we in the army were to back them. The idea was to establish the right of possession on our territory and to deter the Chinese from moving forward and occupying the territories claimed by them. But this order was certainly not backed up with resources.
At that time, our division had done almost three years non-family station service, and some of the units were already on their way out on turnover. Suddenly all moves out of the area were cancelled and orders reversed.
Brig John Dalvi, commander of the 7th Infantry Brigade in Tawang, was ordered to move his HQ on a man/mule pack basis to Namka Chu River area. An ad-hoc brigade HQ was created for the Tawang sector overnight with hardly any signal resources.
At that time, I was the only field officer of lieutenant colonel or higher rank who had the longest tenure not only at the divisional HQ but among all the divisional troops. I should have been posted out after a two-year tenure in a non-family station.
But I had also a sort of premonition, and I recorded it in my diary, that a severe test was in the offing for me to assess my faith in the Divine. I certainly had no idea that I would be taken a prisoner of war.
On September 8, 1962, the Dhola post manned by the Assam Rifles on the McMahon Line was encircled by the Chinese. After this incident, a new corps HQ was created to take charge of operations in NEFA. Lt Gen B M Kaul was appointed corps commander. He arrived from Army HQ in a special aircraft at Tezpur in the late afternoon of October 4. He went straight into a conference and at about 10pm, announced in his typical flamboyant style that he had taken over command of all troops in NEFA. It was all so dramatic!
Here was a new situation. Normally, in those days, a corps HQ would be served by a corps signal regiment and another communication zone signal regiment to back it. But these had yet to be raised and my regiment had to take on the load of not only our own division, but the new corps HQ also.
To add to these difficulties, Lt Gen Kaul had his own way of sending messages. Normally, a signal message is supposed to be written in an abbreviated telegraphic language. But all messages from the new corps commander ran into a couple of typed sheets in prose and were all marked Top Secret and Flash.
They were not addressed to the next higher HQ, but directly to Army HQ. You should understand that normally Signals are required to stop all other traffic to clear FLASH messages and these messages also have to be enciphered first.
In September 1962, the higher authorities had obviously assumed that it would be easy to beat the Chinese. Otherwise, one cannot imagine how such an order to engage the enemy could have been issued by Delhi to the ill-equipped, ill-clothed, ill-prepared, fatigued, disillusioned troops.
When Dalvi's brigade arrived near the Namka Chu River after forced marches, he was ordered to throw the Chinese out of the Thagla ridge.
Arriving at the destination after an exhausting journey, my brigade signal officer discovered that the generating engine to charge the wireless batteries was missing. A porter had dropped it in a deep khud on the way, and it could not be retrieved.
I think it was dropped deliberately, because I knew some of these civilian porters were in the pay of the Chinese.
But I was in for a bigger shock when it was discovered that almost all the secondary batteries had arrived without any acid. I presume that what had happened was that the porters must have found it lighter without liquid and they probably decided to lighten their loads by emptying out the acid from all the batteries.
How to establish communications when the batteries were dead and could not be recharged without an engine? Despite our good relations with them, the air force helicopter boys refused to carry acid. There was no question, of course, of dropping sulphuric acid by air. What was I to do?
Finally, we filled up a jar of acid and marked it prominently: `Rum for Troops'. On October 18, I flew from Tezpur to Zimithang where I met the GOC, Maj Gen Niranjan Prasad. Later, I went to Tsang Dhar near the Namka Chu River in a two-seater Bell helicopter with just the pilot and with the 'Rum' jar strapped onto my lap.
I landed there in the late afternoon and marched down to Brig Dalvi's brigade HQ. As I arrived, I could quite clearly see the massing of the Chinese troops on the forward slopes of Thagla ridge.
But when I discovered that every unit on the front had numerous Signals problems, I decided to extend my stay by a day. Not knowing that the fates had other things planned for me.
On the 19th, Brig Dalvi talked on the telephone with the GOC at Zimithang. He pleaded with his boss to let him move out of the `death trap', up to a tactically sound defensive position.
Brig Dalvi was told not to flap, but to obey orders and stay put. He was extremely upset and passed the telephone to me saying, "You won't believe me, Sir, but talk to your 'bloody' commander Signals and he will tell you what all he can see with his naked eyes in front."
I spoke to the GOC equally strongly saying that one could see the Chinese moving down the Thagla ridge like ants with at least half a dozen mortars, which were not even camouflaged. I added that the Chinese could not have been there for a picnic.
But I was also told to concentrate on my work and not to worry.
I stayed on with the Gorkhas during the night of 19th October. Early on the 20th morning, I was woken up from deep sleep by the noise of intense bombardment. There was utter confusion in the pre-dawn darkness, with people shouting and yelling and running around in the midst of these exploding shells.
I came out of the bunker and somehow found my way to the Signals bunker with two of my signalmen. But when I looked out of the bunker, I was mystified to see no visible movement outside. There was no one in sight. But I could hear short bursts of gunfire.
When I peeped out of the bunker again, I saw a line of khaki-clad soldiers with a prominent red star on their uniforms advancing towards our bunker. I had never seen a Chinese soldier till then at such close range.
I used to carry a 9mm Browning automatic pistol in those days with one loaded clip. The thought immediately was that one's body should not be found with an unfired pistol; it must be used, however hopeless our situation. So, when a couple of Chinese soldiers approached our bunker, I let go the full clip at them.
This provoked a lot of yelling and firing and a number of the soldiers converged onto our bunker. My two assistants were killed, but I was still alive, though a PoW now.
The same day we were marched along a narrow track across the Namka Chu River and later we went up to the Thagla Pass (about 15,000 feet). On our way, we passed huge stocks of unfired mortar shells by the sides of all the mortar positions, while on the northern side, we saw Chinese parties bringing up 120mm m0rtars on a man pack basis.
After three days' walk, we reached a place called Marmang in Tibet. From there we were taken in covered vehicles at night. During the journey, the Chinese tried to demoralize us; they would make fun of our army: "You do not even have cutting tools for felling trees. You use shovels to cut down trees."
It was true; they had seen our troops preparing their defensive positions near the Namka Chu River. There were other remarks, such as, "You people have strange tactics. You sit right at the bottom of the valley to defend your territory instead of sitting on high ground."
We arrived at the PoW camp located at Chen Ye [Chongye in central Tibet] on October 26 and were accommodated in lama houses, which were all deserted, although we could see some activity in the monastery above these houses on the side of a hill.
We were to spend over five months in this camp, located southwest of Tsetang, off the main highway to Lhasa. The prisoners were segregated into four companies: No 1 company was all officers, JCOs and NCOs. Majors and lieutenant colonels were also separated from the JCOs and men. No 2 and 3 companies were jawans of various units. No 4 company consisted only of Gorkhas and was given special privileges, for obvious political reasons. Each company had its own cookhouse where the Indian soldiers selected by the Chinese were made to cook.
In our house, we were four lt colonels (M S Rikh of the Rajputs, Balwant Singh Ahluwalia of the Gorkhas, Rattan Singh of 5 Assam Rifles and myself), while John Dalvi was kept in confinement in Tsetang, a few kilometres away from Chongye.
When we made representations to the Chinese that under the Geneva Convention on PoWs, officers had the right to be with their men, we were told quite bluntly that all these were nothing but imperialist conventions.
I shivered through the first couple of nights, but then had a brain wave. I had noticed a pile of husk outside. We asked the Chinese if we could use it. Luckily, they accepted, and we could use the stuff as a mattress as well as a quilt to keep warm.
For almost a month after our arrival, we were not let out of the room. Each of these lama houses had its own latrine in one corner with an open but very effective system of soil disposal. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, the 'disposal squad' of pigs had itself been disposed of by the Chinese.
There was an English-speaking Chinese officer, Lt Tong, who was with us almost throughout our stay in the PoW camp. He would come daily and talk to us individually or together.
The theme of his talk with the PoWs was monotonously the same: the Chinese wanted to be friends and it was only the reactionary government of Nehru, who was a lackey of American imperialism, which wanted to break this friendship. "Then why did you attack us on October 20?" was our reaction. They would try to explain that India attacked first and the Chinese attacked only in self-defence.
On December 5, we were given for the first time some books and magazines to read. This consisted of Mao's Red Book, some literature on the India-China boundary question, and a few Red Army journals. But whatever they were, they were most welcome for me at least. There was something to do at last to occupy the mind. I took notes from the Red Book.
It is a pity that our government had not taken note of some of the Mao's thoughts. I noted down a few at that time: "Fight no battle unprepared, fight no battle you are not sure of winning", or "The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy halts, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue."

Towards the end of December 1962, the Indian Red Cross sent us some parcels, each with two packets in it. One packet had warm clothes, a German battle dress, a pair of long johns, warm vest, muffler, cap, jersey, warm shirt, boots and a towel. The second packet contained foodstuff, including a bar of Sathe chocolate, tins of milk, jam, butter, fish, sugar, atta (wheat flour), dal (pulses), dried peas, salt, tea, biscuits, condiments, cigarettes, and vitamin pills. It certainly was a very well thought-out list of items.
Perhaps to demoralize us, the Chinese would often play Indian music on the public address system in the camp. One of the songs which was played repeatedly was Lata Mangeshkar's "Aa ja re main to kab se khari is paar... (come, I have been waiting for so long...)" This would make us feel homesick.
With my habit of writing a diary, I kept notes as a PoW also. The only available paper to write on in the first week or so were some sheets of toilet paper in my para jacket pocket. The question was how to keep these papers from being discovered by the Chinese. What I had done was to open the stitching on the `belt' part of the trousers and slide the folded papers inside. This was how my diary notes on toilet paper could be brought out to India.
One day, towards the end of our stay, at our request we were taken to see the palace and the monastery. It was a shock to see the palace with all the beautiful Buddha statues of all sizes and fabulous painted scrolls [thankas] lying broken, defiled, and torn and trampled on the ground.
On December 25, we, the seven field officers, were taken in one of the captured Indian Nissan trucks to spend the Christmas morning with Brig John Dalvi at Tsetang. He was kept all alone and was comfortably accommodated. We had breakfast and lunch with him and were shown a movie. But the solitary confinement had left its scars on him.
The first letters we received from home came only in the third week of February 1963. Some of us also received parcels of sweets.
On March 26, we were informed that we would soon be released and taken for a conducted tour of mainland China. Suddenly we became VIPs, though still held prisoner. We were given various comforts and new clothes and shoes.
Before leaving the PoW camp, we asked the Chinese to take us to the graves of our soldiers who had died in our camp. There were seven of them, including Subedar Joginder Singh, who had been awarded a PVC.
The Chinese told us that he had refused to have his toes, which were affected by frostbite, amputated. According to the Chinese, he had told them that his chances of promotion to Subedar Major would be adversely affected if his toes were amputated. We were told that he died of gangrene.
On March 28, we left the camp, ironically in a captured Indian vehicle, and were driven to Tsetang to pick up Brig John Dalvi and three other lieutenant colonels and five majors.
On March 29, we were all driven in a bus to Lhasa. On April 5, we were flown in two Il-14 aircrafts to Sinning. After a long tour of China, during which we were shown China's so-called progress after the Communist revolution, we were informed on April 27 that we would be handed over to India at Kunming on 4 May.
At the handing-over ceremony, we witnessed a last surprise performance by the Chinese. Throughout our tour of China, an immaculately dressed Chinese had accompanied us. He was not dressed in cotton-padded clothes like all the others. He commanded a lot of respect from the other Chinese. We used to refer to him as the 'general'.
He had a chap trailing behind him always, helping him with things, offering a chair, a cup of tea, etc. We used to refer to him as the 'orderly to the general'. At the handing-over ceremony, however, the person who sat down and signed on behalf of China was the 'orderly' and the one who stood behind to pass him the pen to sign was the 'general'! Such are the ways of the Chinese!
On May 5, we took off at 9.10am from Kunming and were scheduled to land at Calcutta at 1.20pm. Before reaching Calcutta, the pilot announced that there was some problem with the undercarriage, which was not opening, and that we might have to crash land. But we somehow landed safely at 2.30pm at Dum Dum with the fire tenders all lined up. It would have been such an irony of fate if we had been killed in a crash landing in India!
We were back on Indian soil after six and a half months in Mao's land.
In conclusion, I would like to say something that still hurts me 40 years later. Some authors have written that the Chinese attack came as a response to India's 'forward policy'. This is utter nonsense. The Chinese had prepared this attack for at least two or three years before.
We saw ample evidence of this on our road to the camp. How ammunition had been stocked, how they were prepared in every field. The PoWs from the Ladakh front confirmed that they too had observed the same state of meticulous preparation.
I can give you a few other examples: one day, much to our delight, a Chinese woman came and recited some of Bahadur Shah Zafar's poems to us. The Chinese had certainly prepared for this war most diligently because they had interpreters for every Indian language right in the front lines.
This Urdu-speaking woman must have lived in Lucknow for a long time. Same thing for one of our guards; though he had not said a single word for five months (we used to call him Poker Face), we discovered that he could speak perfect Punjabi when he left us in Kunming.
In Kameng FD itself, they had many local people on their payroll. They had detailed maps and knowledge of the area. How otherwise could you explain that they were able to build 30km of road between Bumla and Tawang in less than two weeks?
But their constant brainwashing was to make us accept that we had attacked them.
One day, Lt Tong took us out and we were allowed to sit against a wall to sun ourselves. Though we could not see over it, we heard voices in Hindi from the other side. It was a Hindi-speaking Chinese talking to some jawans. The talk was going in the usual way about how India had attacked first.
A jawan told the Chinese that his company was sleeping when the Chinese attack came, so how could India have started the war? The Chinese tried to explain that the jawan was only thinking of his own unit, but India had attacked elsewhere and China had to take action in self-defence.
The jawan was fearless and outspoken. He answered: "I do not know what you are talking about, but the whole of my 'burgerade' (Punjabi for 'brigade') was sleeping when you attacked first."
It is sad that this nonsense of India attacking China is still prevailing today in some quarters.
A last anecdote. One or two years after the war, I once saw Gen Kaul at the Grindlay's Bank in Delhi. By that time, he had retired. I went up to him and wished him. Kaul looked bewildered and had tears in his eyes. I was surprised, thinking I'd upset him somehow. "Do you recognize me, sir?" I said. "I was your Commander Signals."
Moved, he hugged me and said: "Of course, Krishen! I recognize you. But do you know that you are the first officer to greet me? Usually when my officers see me they turn their heads and pretend not to recognize me!"
Like Nehru, he was a broken man.
A highly decorated officer who joined the British Indian Army in early 1942, K K Tewari was taken prisoner during the Chinese attack on India on October 20, 1962, when he was visiting the forward troops. He spoke to Claude Arpi.

SHAME ON YOU GOVT

Kabaddi World Cup champions go home by auto rickshaw




Ludhiana: Hours after they won the World Cup with a thumping victory over England, Indian women Kabaddi players were seen on the streets waiting for auto rickshaw to reach home. The players who made the country proud on Sunday were badly treated by their team management. The players were not provided conveyance to reach their home.

Moreover, the game officials didn’t even pay the hotel bills on time leading to the embarrassment of the players. While checking out, the players were stopped by the hotel staff for non payment of their food bills.

The arrangements for the stay of players were made in Park Plaza hotel. According to the hotel officials, food bill worth Rs 22,000 was due on the players which the game officials hadn’t paid. The players were made to wait at the hotel reception for two hours and were allowed to check out only after their bills were paid.

Punjab Sports Director Pargat Singh said the arrangements for the kabaddi players were made by the organising committee. “We fulfilled all the demands made by the team management. If the players faced an inconvenient it’s the responsibility of the team management,” said Singh.

After checking out, the players, with prize in their hand, were seen standing on the streets waiting for public transport. Most of them went their home walking.

Players told that they had to spend the entire week in one pair of clothes as their luggage got burnt in the bus accident ahead of the semi0final clash. The team management didn’t arrange for fresh pair of clothes for the players.

JAI HIND

Does the PM of an Independent Nation report to the Queen of England? If yes, then what is our independence? What a letter, check this!?

Hastinapur, the city of wisdom, in Argentina

Hastinapur has a total area of twelve acres. Its population consists of a dozen Indian gods and an equal number of Argentine human beings. Some of the Indian gods reside in authentic temples filled with the scent of Indian agarbatties while others stay outdoor enjoying the fragrance of the flowers from the garden. Some are sitting or standing on the pedestals and others hang on the sides of walls and pillars. The gods who have their own temples include Ganesh, Krishna, Surya, Narayana and Siva. Since it is Hastinapur there is a temple for Pandavas too. Hastinapur is clearly a place fit for the gods ...who should be pleased with the cleanliness of the place, the serene surroundings and the green garden with Rosewood trees. The only noise comes from the hundreds of birds nesting in the trees. Then there is the soft music of the devotees who sing Bhajans. It is indeed a divine place which inspires sacred thoughts and holy spirit.




Ganesh is standing out in white against the greenery of the garden in the picture below.



The dozen Argentines who live there look after the gods and the place. During weekend, the human population increases to over one hundred. The Argentines do not go there seeking favours as many Indians do in Tirupathi. They go there for wisdom. This is why Hastinapur is called as the City of Wisdom (ciudad de la sabiduria). Saraswati, the Goddess of Learning blesses the students through the sculptures all around the compound. The Argentines learn philosophy, read in the library, practise yoga and meditation and sing Bhajans.
On the other side of the fence, there are cows grazing and occasionally staring at the Indian gods. The cows are relaxed and free from fear because they know that they will not become food at the dining table in Hastinapur, which is a vegetarian place. The inmates cook vegetarian food and share it with the children from poor families in the neighbourhood.
Hastinapur does not have any godmen seeking fame and fortune and flaunting wealthy followers. It is an instituition to pursue pure wisdom, peace and divinity. Neither in the city nor in the website names of those who run the place are given. The founders and directors of the Hastinapura Foundation do not seek publicity. They are humble but devoted people. They have their professions as company managers, engineers or professors. They volunteer their time and talents for the foundation.
Nor is Hastinapur the work of some overenthusiastic drum-beating Hare Krishna types or faith-lead Saibaba followers. Hastinapur respects all the religions and beliefs. Their ten temples include one for Buddha, one for Virgin Mary, one for the Greek god Demeter and another one called as the the Temple of All Faiths. Their library has books of all religions and schools of thought. Hastinapur seeks true wisdom, going beyond the boundaries of established religions. The City of Wisdom is not the ultimate destination. It does not prescribe wisdom doses. It simply helps people to seek, find and pursue their own path to wisdom. They give classes in yoga, meditation, philosophy, devotional singing and sacred drama. They organise workshops, seminars and retreats. They also provide community service. They celebrate festivals such as Ganesh Chathurthi and Baishaki. Their next project is to broadcast through radio.
Hastinapur temples do not have priests or other middlemen between the gods and worshippers. There is no money collection, like in Tirupathi. Worshippers pray, recite mantras and sing devotional songs individually or in groups.


Meditation Hall



Hastinapur has a post graduate course in yoga which takes three years to complete. The classes are held in the weekends only. There are 2500 students studying yoga and philosophy in the Hastinapur centres. The students are being taught by 100 teachers on philosophy and 120 teachers on yoga.

Many Argentines go to Hastinapur as a retreat from the hectic city of Buenos Aires which is just fifty kilometres away. They practise meditation in the quiet natural environment. They do yoga, read books from the library, discuss philosophy and join the singing of bhajans. Hastinapur is an authentic Ashram.

Hastinapur Foundation has published a number of books on Indian philosophy and translated Bhagwat Gita, Bhakti Sutras, Upanishads,Srimad Bhagwatam and Yoga Sutras. Their latest publication is Mahabharatha in Spanish. They have so far published three volumes and plan to do a total of twelve volumes in the coming years. Each volume is over 500 pages. The founder Alda Albrecht and other members of the Foundation have also written a number of books.





main entrance to the Hastinapur city


Hastinapura Foundation was established by Ada Albrecht in 1981. She introduced Indian philosophy and became a Guru for the Argentines seeking wisdom. She wrote a number of books such as ¨The Saints and teachings of India¨ and ¨The teachings of the monks from Himalayas¨.
Gustavo Canzobre was one of her students, who is now the Director of the Hastinapur college of professors. He was seventeen years old when he became interested in Indian wisdom. During the Third Festival of India organised by the embassy in Buenos Aires in November 2010, he gave a talk on the templearchitecture of South India. He has agreed to give a talk on Indian philosophy in the forthcoming Fourth Festival of India in December 2011. He is a manager in a local company for living and dedicates rest of his time to Hastinapura Foundation. He is knowledgeable about Indian vedas and upanishads and is going to India on his second visit in August this year.




Gustavo Canzobre in the picture


The architectural and scuplting work of the Hastinapur complex has been done entirely by Argentines. The architects and sculptors have studied Indian temples and have done their work professionally and aesthetically. Even now they are constructing some more buildings with Indian sculptures and statues.
Pillars of the entrance to Ganesh temple below:


The pond in front of the temple has fresh water and fish:

A small outdoor Ganesh temple in the garden

Hastinapura Foundation has sixteen centres in Buenos Aires and three more in the rest of Argentina. They have also established centres in Uruguay, Bolivia and Colombia. Information on the Foundation and its activities can be seen at their website
http://en.hastinapura.org.ar/

Lord Siva is sitting majestically in the large garden guarded by Ganesh on the four sides:

Latin Americans are, of course, known for fun and fiesta. At the same time, there are thousands of Latin Americans who take Mahabharatha and Meditation more seriously than many Indians....