User:Firefly322/Hindu fanatics

In a lecture given in Madras, India on November 10, 2001, Noam Chomsky concluded that Hindu fundamentalism, extremism, and nationalism are all equal to Hindu terrorism

Newspaper block quotes on Hindu Fanatics (i.e., Hindu Terrorists)
The Guardian (London) - Final Edition

November 9, 2007 Friday

The archive: 31.01.1948: Gandhi killed while walking to prayer by Hindu fanatic: India

SECTION: GUARDIAN NEWSPRINT SUPPLEMENT; Pg. 19

LENGTH: 128 words

Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by a young Hindu extremist while walking to his prayer meeting in the lawn of Birla House, New Delhi, yesterday. He was 78. In India, a state of mourning will be observed for 13 days. Messages of sympathy have been sent by the King and the president of the United States and by many premiers. Gandhi was shot by a Hindu fanatic. An infuriated crowd fell upon the man and beat him with sticks, but he was apprehended by the police and taken to a police station. Questioned by reporters, the man, who speaks English, said he was not sorry he had killed Gandhi but would explain his reasons in court. Repercussions of the crime are certain to be widespread and may produce that change of heart for which Gandhi laboured and gave his life.

The Toronto Star

January 30, 1998, Friday, METRO EDITION

World could use a dose of Gandhi's teachings

BYLINE: By Amitabh Pal

SECTION: OPINION; Pg. A20

LENGTH: 499 words

One of the giants of history died 50 years ago today - the Mahatma Gandhi, apostle of nonviolence and the leader of India's freedom struggle. Half a century after his death, the world needs to rededicate itself to his ideals.

Gandhi was killed on Jan. 30, 1948, by a Hindu fanatic who felt that Gandhi was too accommodating toward India's minority Muslims. Fortunately for humanity, his legacy did not die with him. Instead, he inspired two generations of leaders, ranging from Martin Luther King Jr. to Nelson Mandela, to follow his path in their struggles for justice and freedom.

Gandhi introduced to the world the concepts of ahimsa (nonviolence) and satyagraha (peaceful civil disobedience). Within the framework of these concepts, Gandhi employed varied tactics, such as peaceful non-cooperation with the authorities and mass boycotts of goods and services.

What gave all of this moral legitimacy was Gandhi's unwillingness to stray from his ideals. For him, the means were inseparable from the ends. When his non-cooperation movement to get the British out of India degenerated into violence in 1922, Gandhi suspended the entire campaign and asked Indians to adhere more firmly to nonviolence....

Amitabh Pal is the editor of the Wisconsin-based Progressive Media Project.

Agence France Presse -- English

September 23, 2003 Tuesday

Hindu fanatic who killed Australians wanted to 'bury' Christianity: judge

BYLINE: PRATAP MOHANTY

SECTION: International News

LENGTH: 579 words

DATELINE: BHUBANESWAR, India, Sept 23

A Hindu fanatic sentenced to die for killing Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons hoped to "bury" the spread of Christianity, the judge said.

In his written judgement released overnight following his sentencing Monday, Judge Mahendra Nath Pattnaik said he ordered Dara Singh to the gallows because the murder in the eastern Indian state of Orissa was the "rarest of the rare".

"He formed a militant group of local tribals to physically liquidate Staines on the belief that with Staines the spread of Christianity will be buried in the area," Pattnaik said.

He said he sentenced 12 others to life in prison but spared them the gallows because they were manipulated by Singh.

"The rest of the convicts who are gullible tribals blindly followed him (Singh)," the judge said.

Singh, an anti-conversion activist and radical vegetarian, was convicted of leading a mob which surrounded Staines' station wagon on January 23, 1999 as the missionary and his children slept in the remote village of Manoharpur.

The crowd chanted anti-Christian slogans and blocked the Australians' escape by brandishing axes before torching the car, burning to death Staines and his sons Philip, eight, and Timothy, 10.

"A crime has no religion. What sin (had) the two small boys committed?" the judge said.

The Toronto Star

December 11, 1992, Friday, FINAL EDITION

Refuse entry visas to those spreading hate

SECTION: LETTER; Pg. A26

LENGTH: 143 words

I am shocked, sad and disgusted at the shameful act of the mob lead by Hindu fanatics who attacked and demolished a 500- year-old place of worship, Babri Mosque, in the state of Utter Pardesh, India. I strongly condemn this cowardly desecration and demolition of this ancient house of God.

The leaders of Hindu fanatics such as L. K. Advani and Bal Thakre should be censored for spreading hatred against Muslims in India and abroad. It is ironic that not too long ago Advani was here in Toronto arousing hate feelings against Muslims and their places of worship among otherwise peaceful Hindus of Canada.

The Department of External Affairs should take notice and refuse entry visas to such Bhartiya Janata Party and Vishv Hindu Parishad (World Hindu League) leaders who frequently visit Canada for this purpose.

NASIM PERVEZ

Toronto

The Economist

September 10, 1994

India; Birth of a monster

SECTION: World politics and current affairs; ASIA; Pg. 36

LENGTH: 562 words

DATELINE: BELHI

THE FOUR most august sages in Hinduism are the shankaracharya who head famous monasteries. India's prime minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, has persuaded the four to preside over a new religious trust to build a temple to the warrior god Ram at Ayodhya, at the site of the disputed mosque that was demolished by Hindu fanatics in December 1992.

By doing so he aims to outdo the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which campaigned for years for the demolition of the mosque, saying it was built on the birth-place of Ram. The BJP has its own trust to build the temple, and is furious about the new trust. But it dare not criticise the shankaracharya.

The Statesman (India)

April 24, 2002

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

LENGTH: 901 words

Leaders never want to learn Sir, - The details of communal barbarism mentioned in your Caveat "Remember this lesson!" (21-22 April) are shocking and shattering, especially the cruelty meted out to Kauserbanoo whose stomach was slit, baby extracted and both mother and the child burnt by Hindu fanatics. Even more shocking is the fourth paragraph where you say educated Hindus say "... what is happening to Muslims is deserved". You can call those Hindus educated barbarians! Muslim as well as Hindu leaders who never actually participate in communal carnage, but keep making provocative statements that instigate rowdies and criminals into unleashing inhuman acts, are unquestionably the chief culprits. They are patronised by many political leaders of the country. Deploying only 80 soldiers out of the available 10,000 evidently shows that Narendra Modi was interested in allowing Hindu fanatics to kill as many Muslims as they could. Atal Behari Vajpayee and his party have exposed their shamelessness by not removing Modi immediately. Your call to remember the lesson is a warning to the political and religious leaders of the country but the irony is that these unscrupulous leaders never want to learn.

- Yours, etc., OTHELLO MAZOOMDAAR. Barasat, 21 April. Promote tourism Sir, - I note from your columns today that there is another conference on tourism. During my visits here I often read of conferences, publicity drives and marketing ploys, but I do not see many tourists in this part of West Bengal.

The Economist

August 4, 2007 U.S. Edition

Take Dutt; Bollywood baddies

SECTION: ASIA

LENGTH: 558 words

DATELINE: delhi

HIGHLIGHT: Bollywood goes to jail

A film star gets six years in the clink

AFTER receiving a six-year prison sentence on July 31st, Sanjay Dutt, an Indian film star, begged for bail while he appealed against it. "Sir, I made a mistake," he said. But the judge said no. Mr Dutt's crime--to have procured two guns from Muslim mobsters who were responsible for bomb attacks in Mumbai in 1993--was serious. Yet he urged Mr Dutt, 48, to return to the silver screen after serving his sentence. "Don't get perturbed," he said. "You have many years to go and work, like the 'Mackenna's Gold' actor Gregory Peck."

Thus ended one of the longest song-and-dances in India's criminal legal history. Mr Dutt was convicted last year, having already spent 16 months in jail. He was acquitted of direct involvement in the bombings, which killed 257 people. They were carried out in 1993 in revenge for the demolition of an ancient mosque in the Hindu holy city of Ayodhya by Hindu fanatics, and subsequent Hindu-Muslim rioting. Some 100 people have been found guilty of the bombing. They have all been sentenced in the past three months, including a dozen to death and 20 to life- imprisonment. But the alleged masterminds of the attacks are still at large. One of them, a Mumbai gangster called Dawood Ibrahim, is alleged by Indian officials to be linked to al-Qaeda and to be hiding in Pakistan.

Despite the bleak immediate outlook, Mr Dutt, who made his name playing tough-guy anti-heroes, is unlikely to find his career much damaged. The son of two of Bollywood's biggest stars, a Hindu-Muslim couple, he has garnered enormous sympathy for his suffering. Many Indians believe his claim that he wanted the guns to protect his family during the riots. Other Bollywood stars express support for Mr Dutt as passionately as their Hollywood peers worry about global warming.

Then again, Bollywood is rather shady. Gangsters and crooked politicians have long laundered ill-gotten money through film productions. Indeed Mr Dutt was investigated over money-laundering allegations in 2001. Other recent Bollywood stars to grace the courts include Monica Bedi, an actress convicted of dealing in fake passports. Her accomplice was another Mumbai gangster, Abu Salem, who delivered the guns to Mr Dutt, and is currently awaiting trial for his alleged part in the 1993 bombings.

An even bigger Bollywood star, Salman Khan, is appealing against two prison sentences of five years and one year for poaching respectively an endangered antelope and two gazelles. A Bollywood film about the case has been scheduled. Mr Khan has also had to battle a four-year-old charge that he recklessly drove his car over five people sleeping on a pavement in Mumbai, killing one of them.

Bollywood's biggest star, Amitabh Bachchan, also known as "the Big B", is, in contrast, venerated. Where Mr Khan is vain and brash, he has a reputation for humility and Hindu piety. But even this has been imperilled of late by revelations that Mr Bachchan and his film-star son, Abhishek, bought valuable plots of land reserved for farmers. They registered themselves thus after being allotted farmland by a former government of the state of Uttar Pradesh, led by the Samajwadi party. Mr Bachchan is close to one of the party's leading lights, Amar Singh, a famed socialite. Mr Bachchan's wife, Jaya, an actress, is now also a Samajwadi politician.

BBC Monitoring International Reports

April 15, 2002

PAKISTAN SAYS INDIAN PREMIER'S REMARK SHOWS ANTI-MUSLIM BIAS

LENGTH: 109 words

Pakistan has deplored the remarks made by the Indian prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, at a public meeting in Goa in which he described Muslims as intolerant.

Foreign Office spokesman Aziz Ahmad Khan, recording The remarks reveal Mr Vajpayee's anti-Muslim bias. They are a pathetic attempt to divert attention from the recent massacres of hundreds of Muslims by Hindu fanatics in the Gujarat State of India. Mr Vajpayee's justification, in his speech, of the killings of Muslims in Gujarat as a reaction to the Godhra incident is equally unfortunate and heartless.

Source: Pakistan TV, Islamabad, in English 1200 gmt 15 Apr 02

BBC Monitoring/ ) BBC

The Independent

April 17, 2003

HINDU NATIONALIST LINKED TO POGROM DEATHS IS ARRESTED

BYLINE: Peter Popham

LENGTH: 323 words

A FIERY Hindu nationalist leader linked to the pogrom in the western state of Gujarat two years ago that killed hundreds of Muslims has been charged with sedition. If found guilty he could face life imprisonment.

Praveen Togadia was arrested in Ajmer, Rajasthan, the state bordering Gujarat to the north that is ruled by a Congress Party-led coalition. The Congress Party is the secularist adversary of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which governs both in Gujarat and at the centre in Delhi.

Mr Togadia is the demagogic spearhead of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) or World Hindu Council, one of the hardline militant branches of the Hindu nationalist movement of which the BJP is the political arm. The movement's main symbolic goal is the building of a temple to the Hindu god Ram in Ayodhya, on the ruins of a mosque torn down by Hindu fanatics 10 years ago. But its grand political aim is the creation of a "Hindu rashtra" in India, a state in which Hindus will rule unimpeded and the rest, notably Muslims and Christians, will be expected to bend the knee.

Mr Togadia was arrested after handing out short, sharpened tridents, a symbol of the god Shiva, at a rally on Sunday. He was charged with handling illegal weapons. But now the Rajasthan government has raised the charge to the far more serious one of sedition or "waging war or attempting anti-national activity". Another senior VHP leader, Giriraj Kishore, claimed that the more serious charge was brought merely to deny Mr Togadia bail.

Rajasthan's government fears that Mr Togadia and his colleagues intend to whip up the same sort of communal hatred in Rajasthan that served them so well in Gujarat. Though widely condemned, the pogrom in Gujarat served the the Hindu nationalist chief minister, Narendra Modi, very well, uniting an election-winning majority of the state's Hindus behind his communalist banner and securing him a second term in office.