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In an attempt to deflect guilt from Muslim madmen, President Obama said, "Unless we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ." Obama's ignorance is astounding and his comparison is pernicious.

Massacre of hundreds of children in Peshawar by Pakistani Taliban, the atrocities: murders-kidnappings by Boko Haram, an Islamist group and the attack on Paris cartoon magazine Charlie Hadbo killing 16, have occurred in a short span of few months.

Times are a changing; and changing fast. During last many decades most Hindu nationalists have kept the appreciation of their hero, Nathuram Godse under wraps. The programs appreciating his politics did use to make small news here and there some time; but as such it was a muted act not much publicized and generally kept as a low key affair. During last few years Pradeep Dalvi’s play in Marathi, Mee Nathuram Boltoy (I, Nathuram speaking), attacking Gandhi and upholding Godse, drew packed houses in various places in Maharashtra. Many people had also protested against staging of this play off and on.

. On regular basis around Christmas time one saw the anti Christian violence in Adivasi areas a decade ago, and in that context rather than focusing on the violence against religious minorities, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee called for a National debate on Conversions.

WHEN around 200 Dalit families of Meenakshipuram village near Tenkasi in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, unable to bear the practice of untouchability by caste Hindus, embraced Islam on February 19, 1981, the nation stood in disbelief that such an act could take place in a State known for its socially radical movements.

Propaganda around conversions has been one of the major political tools during last few decades. It was Niyogi Commission report which investigated the conversions in Adivasi areas in 1950s, then the Meenaxipuram conversions of Dalits into Islam, the and then the gruesome murder of Pastor Graham Stewart Stains on the charges that he was doing the conversion; are few amongst the big spectrum related to the phenomenon of conversions. As such the regular propaganda by communal forces that Muslim Kings converted people into Islam by sword has been made the part of ‘social common sense’ by now. On regular basis around Christmas time one saw the anti Christian violence in Adivasi areas a decade ago, and in that context rather than focusing on the violence against religious minorities, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee called for a National debate on Conversions.

RSS sahkaryavah (joint general secretary) Dattatreya Hosabale, VHP international working president Dr Pravin Togadia and senior leader Ashok Singhal, Kanchi mutt pontiff Jayendra Saraswathi, Narendra Maharaj of Nanij and Buddhist and Jain religious leaders were present.

The Sangh Parivar’s food prescriptions perpetuate an uncomplicated upper-caste notion of Hinduism and alienate Muslims, Christians, Dalits and other large sections of Hindus who have a tradition of non-vegetarian food being part of their diets.

During the anti colonial movement, Mahatma Gandhi emerged as the tallest of leaders and was called, ‘Father of the nation’ Rashtrapita. This term was first used by Subhash Chandra Bose in a Radio address in 1944 and later approved, accepted and upheld by majority of Indians. Of course he was not accepted as Father of the Nation by Muslim and Hindu communalists.

The new objection comes a few days after the radical group forced Catholic schools in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh to use the Sanskrit term “acharaya” instead of “Father” to address their priest principals.

We are not supposed to say that we are a Christian nation, but everyone knows we are. In 1892, the U.S. Supreme Court explicitly said we were. Atheist Sam Harris knows we are as well, which is why he titled his anti-Christian book, Letter to a Christian Nation. Indeed, 8 in 10 Americans are Christian, and 95 percent of Americans who practice a religion are Christian. Moreover, the people who founded America were not Hindu or Muslim—they were Christians, men who drew on the Judeo-Christian ethos to establish the freest nation in the world.

Those resorting to communal politics have not only perfected their techniques of polarizing the communities along religious lines, but have been constantly resorting to new methods for dividing the society. On the backdrop of Muzzafar nagar, where ‘Love Jihad’ propaganda was used to enhance the divisive agenda, now in Aligarh an icon of matchless virtues, Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh is being employed for the similar purposes (Nov 2014).

It's unsettling, if not astounding, the speed with which new scientific discoveries, or rather ancient scientific discoveries, are coming to light. Some months ago, thanks to one Dina Nath Batra, we learnt that Rama was the first to fly in an aeroplane.

A recent remark made by Lalitha Kumaramangalam, chairperson of the National Commission for Women in India about the need for legalization of sex work invited a huge controversy. Currently a special panel appointed by the Supreme Court of India is preparing potential amendments in the existing Indian laws to make sex work safe.

അന്യ മത വിദ്വേഷവും അസഹിഷ്ണുതയും പഠിപ്പിക്കുകയും പരിശീലിപ്പിക്കുകയും ചെയ്യുന്ന വിശ്വ ഹിന്ദു പരിഷത്തിനു കീഴിലെ വനിതാ ക്യാമ്പിന്‍െറ നേര്‍ക്കാഴ്ചയുമായി ഡോക്യുമെന്‍ററി. അധികമാരുമറിയത്ത വി.എച്ച്. പിയുടെ ദുര്‍ഗ്ഗ വാഹിനിയെന്ന വനിത സായുധ വിഭാഗത്തിന്‍്റെ പ്രവര്‍ത്തനം പുറം ലോകത്ത് എത്തിക്കുന്നത് ഇന്ത്യന്‍ വംശജയായ കനേഡിയന്‍ സംവിധായക നിഷ പഹുജയാണ്. രണ്ട് വര്‍ഷം നീണ്ട നിരന്തര ശ്രമങ്ങള്‍ക്കൊടുവില്‍ ദുര്‍ഗ്ഗ വാഹിനിയുടെ ക്യാമ്പിലേക്ക് പ്രവേശനം ലഭിച്ച നിഷ അവിടെ നടക്കുന്ന പഠന, പരിശീലന രീതി ബി.ബി.സിയിലൂടെ വിവരിക്കുന്നുണ്ട്.

The use of wine in Mass has become part of a political discussion in Kerala after some groups wanted a ban on wine in the backdrop of the state’s move to implement total alcohol prohibition.

Sanskrit must be taken back from the clutches of Hindu supremacists, bigots, believers in brahmin exclusivity, misogynists, Islamophobes and a variety of other wrong-headed characters on the right, whose colossal ambition to control India’s vast intellectual legacy is only matched by their abysmal ignorance of what it means and how it works

After months of carnage committed by Muslim extremists, there is finally some blowback. The decision by President Obama to provide military and humanitarian aid comes late, but it is never too late to save innocent lives. Children are being beheaded, entire villages are being ransacked, Christian shrines are being destroyed—all of this and more by those who claim to have God on their side.

There are only 14 million Jews in the world; seven million in the Americas, five million in Asia, two million in Europe and 100,000 in Africa. For every single Jew in the world there are 100 Muslims.

കമ്മ്യൂണിറ്റി ബൈബിളുമായി കത്തോലിക്കാസഭയിലെ കപട അപ്പസ്‌തോലന്മാര്‍!

"We, their heirs (of Hindu ancestors) are now Christians. We can be surely called 'Indian Christians'. When one does not know what one is talking about, then it is better to remain silent. In this way we can at least conceal our ignorance," the association's spokesperson Brig. (retired) Ian da Costa said in a statement here.

While apologizing for his "India is already a Hindu Nation" and "I am a Christian-Hindu" comments, Goa Deputy Chief Minister Francis D'Souza did not necessarily admit to any wrongdoing.

After getting American scholar Wendy Doniger's book on Hinduism pulped, retired 85-year-old teacher and educationist Dinanath Batra, an admirer of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has a new mission: preparing a “blueprint” for “Indianising” the country's education system and liberating it from the clutches of western education.

The phenomenon of God is probably the most complex one in the World. For believers there is a range of belief system about the supernatural powers. For agnostics it is ‘I don’t know’ and for atheists there is no supernatural power. The systems of thought relevant to the topic range from Animists (nature worshippers), polytheists (multiple gods/goddesses), tri-theists (Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesh or Father, Son and the Holy spirit), Monotheists (single Universal God) to Atheists.

I do not expect there to be any outrage, comment or protest over the most recent rantings of Ashok Singhal, senior RSS leader and patron of the Viswa Hindu Parishad (VHP), an RSS offshoot in an interview published in the July 17,2014 of The Hindustan Times daily. We have as a nation and a polity become sinisterly and compliantly accustomed and accepting of aggressive hatred spilt by the majority and hypocritically touchy and outraged by similar rantings by so-called leaders of the minority.

Remember, the RSS had been banned four days after Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination on Jan 30, 1948. But S. Gurumurthy of the RSS, in the course of establishing his rebuttal, wanders into the attitudes of senior Congress leaders towards the RSS. The Congress Working Committee, as is well known, was divided on this issue as it was on the country’s partition. The Congress has historically fudged these issues.

Yes, there were rogue popes, none more disgraceful than Rodrigo Borgia, Alexander VI. But if the goal was to promote skepticism of all matters Catholic, then the savants who worked on this program should have stopped there. To say they put their foot in it when they invented a female pope would be a gross understatement.

After the murder of Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948, the RSS was banned on February 4, 1948. It was banned for anti-national activities and the government communiqué banning the RSS was self-explanatory:

ബഹുമാന്യ കര്‍ദിനാള്‍ മാര്‍ ആലഞ്ചേരി, അഭിവന്ദ്യ മെത്രാന്മാരായ മാര്‍ എടയന്ത്രത്ത്‌, മാര്‍ പുത്തൂര്‍, മാര്‍ പുതിയവീട്ടില്‍,

For hundreds of years, western Christian colonialists and imperialists have plundered the wealth of India and other third world countries. Now these forces are back again in the name of Free Trade and Globalization. Multinational Corporations and Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCO’s) supported by western Christian nations are facilitating their activities in India, Latin America and Africa.

Those gripped by religious nationalism are unable to understand the regional-ethnic aspirations of the people. Many an ultra-nationalists of different hues also fall into this trap many a times. With formation of Indian nation the integration of regions like Himachal Pradesh, North Eastern States and Jammu& Kashmir created some challenging situations.

In national elections due in the next few months, observers warn that if a Hindutva government comes to power attacks on Christians in India will increase.

In a historic development in Washington DC, 15 US Congressmen, led by Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) introduced resolution H. Res. 417, calls the US administration to have “religious freedom and related human rights to be included in the United States-India Strategic Dialogue” going forward.

Indian Catholic Church officials joined farmers and other local residents in protesting against planned conservation efforts in Kerala’s foothills that opponents said would displace thousands of families who have resided in the region for generations.

The politics of Modi’s parent organization RSS is based on distortion of history, medieval history in particular. To begin with the projection of kings through the prism of religion, to demonize Muslim kings based on distortions and falsehoods of History, and then in turn spreading hatred against Muslims of today has been the foundation on which RSS built it up. Taking the same method to further lower levels currently Narendra Modi is trampling, distorting the facts of history to project his ideology. In the last week, October 2013, he addressed two meetings and gave one interview which showed the levels to which he can fall to score the political mileage.

Maulana Arshad Madni, the patriarch of one faction of the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind and a cleric with wide following, has urged Muslims to vote for the Congress in 2014 because they had “no alternative”, while a top Church leader, Cardinal Oswald Gracias, met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and praised her policies, signs that minorities still view the grand old party favourably.

At the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) headquarters in Mahal, the second floor is home to a museum. Images of past Sarsanghchalaks, photos of pracharaks who set up Sangh units in various States, and the various gifts and citations received by the organisation in its 88-year history adorn the walls.

In the interest of Muslims, there is an urgent need to reform or shut down Darul Uloom Deoband, the internationally known Islamic seminary engendering obscurantism, sectarianism and religious orthodoxies harmful to Muslims. In a recent fatwa, it ruled that Shias, mainly Bohra Muslims, are non-Muslims, violating the egalitarian tenets of the Indian republic. Fatwas are Islamic legal opinions given in response to a query and, while not many Muslims follow them, they do influence the devout ones. The accepted view that no clergy exists in Islam is untrue, as a large number of clerics in Indian villages act as doorkeepers to Muslim minds.

The meaning of “government of the people, by the people, for the people” will be true only when our leaders stand with the common man of the country. Otherwise we have to rewrite it as “Government of corporate, by the corporate, for the corporate”.