Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from 2016

Sunday Special: Islamophobia and Hinduphobia

POSTED ON  DECEMBER 18, 2016   BY  DRLAMBA Islamophobia as a word that has gained currency now and is attracting global attention. Rightly, so. But what about other phobias about other religions. The Judeophobia and Hinduphobia have been evident since long, while Judeophobia did come in for some criticism, Hinduphobia has escaped all attention. The comparison has been made recently between Islamophobia and Hinduphobia. It’s an interesting one, After the election of Donald Trump, there is a certain fear in the United States of an increased Islamophobia. Certainly, this fear is justified – and certainly the majority of American Muslims are peaceful. This is why, no doubt, the American media particularly CNN and the New York Times, have been going all guns blazing out against Islamophobia and more generally, against ethnic intolerance. We need however to look at the broader question, which is whether there is some justification in Islamophobia. From a statistical point of view, it is

Mughals Rulers & Public: Predators and Prey

POSTED ON  DECEMBER 9, 2016   BY  DRLAMBA I am annoyed. People have a nasty habit of repeating ad nausem concocted stories. They d not study the facts, do not analyze, but accept things touted by interested parties as gospel truth. There is a recurring theme running through Muslim mythology in the subcontinent that places the Mughal era at the pinnacle of India’s rich and varied past. Travellers to India in the 16th and 17th centuries returned with tales of dazzling riches. Indeed, compared to the display of wealth by the Mughal aristocracy, European monarchs and princes paled into insignificance. But the reality was very different, unless you were one of the favoured few at the top of the Mughal hierarchy. To illustrate this, consider the fact that under Shah Jehan, 36.5 p% of the assessed revenue of the country was assigned to 68 princes and ‘amirs’. The next 25 % went to another 587 officers. It is another matter that the rulers’ attitude towards ordinary people hasn

History Distorted by United Nations to Promote Islamist Imperialism

POSTED ON  DECEMBER 4, 2016   BY  DRLAMBA One never could imagine that UNESCO would not only be engaged in rewriting partisan history, but also distort the same. It has joined the ranks of pro-Islamist bodies in providing Islamists with a weapon- resolutions passed by international bodies. UNESCO last August planned to vote on the historical status of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount and its associated Western Wall. UNESCO’s plan was to deny any Jewish link to this most central of all Jewish holy sites, to trash a history going back thousands of years, and to claim the Mount and the Wall as Islamic sites. Islam believes that it is eternal and had therefore preceded the other two great monotheisms, Judaism and Christianity, even though it was only to become visible to the world through Mohammad in the seventh century AD, but entitled to elbow out the two older religions. Lies by UNESCO to rewrite history, erasing all traces of Judaism and Christianity to favour a jihadist Islamic fan

Harappa-like site surfaces in Tamil Nadu

Arockiaraj Johnbosco | TNN |  May 29, 2016, 11.52 PM IST MADURAI: With structure after structure surfacing from under the soil, the massive scale of an ancient urban centre that lies buried at Pallisanthai Thidal in Sivaganga district of Tamil Nadu is emerging. The second phase of the work undertaken by excavation branch VI, Bangalore, of the Archaeological Survey of India suggests that the settlement at Keeladi village could be as large as the ones in Harappa and Mohenjo Daro. The excavations reveal a well-built urban centre with many amenities. After exploration works on the Vaigai riverbed in 2013-14, the office of the superintending archaeologist, excavation branch VI in Bangalore, shortlisted Keeladi village for excavation. The first phase of the study carried out in 2015 unearthed various antiquities, iron implements and earthenware, both foreign and locally made. The pot shreds of Arretine dating back to 3 BC proved foreign trade existed in the region during the pe

Indus era 8,000 years old, not 5,500; ended because of weaker monsoon

Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey | TNN |  May 29, 2016, 01.37 AM IST KOLKATA: It may be time to rewrite history textbooks. Scientists from IIT-Kharagpur and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) have uncovered evidence that the Indus Valley Civilization is at least 8,000 years old, and not 5,500 years old, taking root well before the Egyptian (7000BC to 3000BC) and Mesopotamian (6500BC to 3100BC) civilizations. What's more, the researchers have found evidence of a pre-Harappan civilization that existed for at least 1,000 years before this. The discovery, published in the prestigious 'Nature' journal on May 25, may force a global rethink on the timelines of the so-called 'cradles of civilization'. The scientists believe they also know why the civilization ended about 3,000 years ago — climate change. "We have recovered perhaps the oldest pottery from the civilization. We used a technique called 'optically stimulated luminescence' to date pottery sha