---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: S. Kalyanaraman
From: S. Kalyanaraman
Dharmo rakshati rakshitah. Kudos to USHA. Their dharma mission shall succeed.
kalyanaraman
HINDU PROTEST MARCH IN NEW YORK CITY
Purpose: To protest the decision of National Book Critics Circle to Honor Dr. Wendy
Doniger's latest book titled "Hindus – An Alternative History"
Date: March 10, 2010 (Wednesday)
Time: 5.30 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.
Venue: In front of New School University Building
66 West 12th Street, New York, NY 10011
Brief Information
Dr. Wendy Doniger is the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago Divinity School. She is the author of several books on Hindu Scriptures. Her focus has been on translating, interpreting and comparing elements of Hindu Dharma through modern contexts of gender, sexuality and identity.
Almost all of her books contain factual errors, mischaracterizations and is loaded with hatred for Hindus. Since most of her books are interpretations of Ancient Hindu Scriptures, which is written in Ancient Sanskrit, at the minimum, she must possess a working knowledge of Sanskrit. Dr. Doniger's Sanskrit credentials are as good as the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's scholarship on the Hebrew Language and the Jewish Scriptures. Renowned Scholars of Sanskrit, from the West and India, have rejected Dr. Doniger's deceptive claims of being a Sanskrit Scholar. But, due to the support she receives from the University of Chicago Divinity School, a private Christian Institution, and major American Publishers, many have endorsed her books without considering her qualifications and overlooking Hindu Sentiments. Since Hindus are deeply hurt by her writings, we are requesting the National Book Critic Circle to respect the sentiments of a billion Hindus worldwide and withdraw the name of Dr. Wendy Doniger being considered for its prestigious award in the non-fiction category. Her book titled "Hindus – An Alternative History" is a work that promotes bigotry, racism and intolerance. No civilized or decent human being, organization or society will ever support such a book given Dr. Doniger's persistent verbal violence against the Hindus. We request all Concerned Hindus to join us in the Protest March.
USHA (United States Hindu Alliance), is a national organization of Hindus dedicated to protecting the interests of Hindus Worldwide. We do not believe in any form of violence. We, as Hindus, believe that hurting anyone, whether through speech, the written word or physical action are all forms of violence. USHA will always protest against acts of racism, bigotry and intolerance. The protest march is only a beginning. USHA is garnering worldwide support for further actions against the writer and all those who willingly and deliberately support her Anti-Hindu Agenda, including its publisher – Penguin Books.
IMPORTANT INSTRUCTIONS: In order to ensure the success of this peaceful protest march, please register by sending an e-mail confirmation to hinduamericans@gmail.com. Vegetarian Samosas will be served after the March to registered participants. Placards for use during the March will be provided by USHA volunteers at the venue. All participants must adhere to the high standards of USHA and Hindu Scriptures. Even though the book is highly provocative and insensitive to the sentiments of Hindus, the use of any profane, indecent or uncharitable language is strictly prohibited, and for the record, inconsistent with Hindu Belief and Practice. Only pre-authorized Speakers will be allowed to address the participants.
For more information on USHA, please visit our website at www.ushaonline.org
HAF Urges NBCC Not Honor Doniger's Latest Book
New York, NY (February 5, 2009) - The Hindu American Foundation sent the following letter to the President of the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC), Jane Ciabattari, expressing its disappointment of the short-listing of Professor Wendy Doniger's The Hindus: An Alternative History and urging NBCC not bestow the 2009 nonfiction award to it.
Dear Ms. Ciabattari,
The Hindu American Foundation (HAF), a non-profit advocacy organization for the two million strong Hindu American community, strongly objects to NBCC's short-listing of Professor Wendy Doniger's The Hindus: An Alternative History as a finalist in the "nonfiction" category. Prof. Doniger is known for seeking and presenting provocative and idiosyncratic sexually explicit and Freudian analyses of Hinduism's holiest books. In The Hindus: An Alternative History she hues to the same, now tiring interpretation of the acts, deeds and words attributed to Hindu deities and included in Hindu scripture and sacred books. This has naturally stirred up strong emotions in the Hindu community in India and in the Hindu Diaspora. Far from encouraging thoughtful, careful and disciplined inquiry into others' histories and belief systems, any award from NBCC for this book would merely fuel negative sentiments among Hindus, and do a disservice to serious academic inquiry.
The Hindus: An Alternative History does not represent nor provide insight into the contemporary practices and interpretations of Hinduism and its scriptures. In the end, rather than offering the reader a depiction of a family of vibrant religious traditions practiced by a billion Hindus globally, Prof. Doniger offers an offensive, shocking, and gratuitous deconstruction of some of the most important epics and episodes in Hindu thought and belief. The pornographic depictions of Hindu Gods and Goddesses in Prof. Doniger's books already grace the websites of some banefully anti-Hindu hate sites with their own varied agendas.
Prof. Doniger denigrates the Gods and Goddesses that Hindus worship. Parallelisms are proffered in this book comparing the sacred stone icon representing Lord Shiva to a leather strap-on sex toy, and Lord Rama, one of the most popular deities of Hindus, is accused of acting out of fear that he was becoming a sex-addict like his father. A Danish cartoonist would be hard pressed to match the disturbing parodies of a believer's faith that Prof. Doniger offers here.
Unfortunately, instead of answering her many Hindu critics, Prof. Doniger sweepingly labels her Hindu critics as Hindu fundamentalists, never bothering to analyze the legitimacy of arguments stemming from adherents of the faith in which she claims scholarship. In her well-received piece, "Oh, But You Do Get It Wrong", Aditi Banerjee, Esq., points out that "Doniger ignores the prolific response to her work by the American Hindu community, including dozens of published articles, countless public conferences, and repeated calls for debate and dialogue between the academy and the Hindu-American community." To add to Ms. Banerjee's last point, Prof. Doniger represents what many believe to be a fundamental flaw in the academic study of Hinduism: that Hindu studies is too often the last refuge of biased non-Hindu academics presenting themselves as "experts" on a faith that they study without the insight, recognition or reverence that a practicing Hindu or non-Hindu striving to study Hinduism from the insider's perspective would offer. While the Foundation believes in the freedom of expression, it takes issue with Prof. Doniger's skewed and superficial analyses and the value, or lack thereof, they bring to the study of Hinduism. A Freudian true-believer, Prof. Doniger may believe that sex, desire and repressed urges animate the human condition, but modern/humanistic psychology has challenged this school of thought as limited and limiting. Using Freudian analysis, then, to retrospectively find psychosexual motivations of Hindu deities seems egregiously inappropriate and deliberately provocative.
HAF urges NBCC not bestow such a distinguished honor upon a piece of work that is not just degrading and insulting to one billion Hindus worldwide but, frankly a distortion of the history of the Hindu faith. Finally, the Foundation and its membership hopes NBCC takes into account the numerous protests from the Hindu community by reexamining its decision to short-list Prof. Doniger's book.
The Hindu American Foundation Board of Directors and staff members are available for an in-depth discussion with you and/or any NBCC Board member at your convenience.
Thank you,
Hindu American Foundation
For Immediate Release
March 1, 2010
USHA Urges NBCC Not to Honor Dr. Wendy Doniger
March 1, 2010 – Atlanta - The United States Hindu Alliance sent the following letter to the Board of New York based National Book Critics Circle urging the literary body to withdraw the nomination of Dr. Wendy Doniger for its National Award in the Non Fiction Category for her latest book titled "Hindus – An Alternative History".
TEXT OF THE LETTER TO NBCC PRESIDENT JANE CIABATTARI:
Dear Ms. Ciabattari,
The United States Hindu Alliance is shocked to learn that a literary organization of the stature of NBCC is considering bestowing one of its prestigious Awards on Dr. Wendy Doniger for her latest work, Hindus – An Alternative History.
Dr. Doniger who claims to be a Scholar of India's ancient Sanskrit Language may fool those who do not know the Sanskrit Language. But renowned Western as well as Indian Sanskrit Scholars have repudiated her knowledge of Sanskrit. Dr. Doniger has attempted to interpret Hindu Scriptures with her primitive and superficial knowledge of the Sanskrit Language. It may be safe to say that her knowledge of Sanskrit and the religious traditions of Hindus are comparable to the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's knowledge of the Hebrew Language and the Jewish Scriptures.
Moreover, Dr. Doniger has always attempted to analyze and interpret Hindu Scriptures through modern contexts of gender, sexuality and identity. Such an attempt is not only a farce but has no value in understanding the complex and profound philosophical underpinnings and symbolism of one of the most ancient religious traditions of the world. In her effort to impose her perverted views on Hindu Scriptures, she has employed the most indecent, distasteful and provocative language known to writers of any language.
Hindus believe in freedom of thought, expression and worship for all. In the market place of ideas, we as humans are bound to encounter works that go beyond human decency and civility. The world cannot stop writers from expressing, even if they appear abhorrent and repulsive to an entire population. However, a prestigious body like NBCC can insulate itself from the worldwide negative publicity that is bound to be generated if your Board moves forward on the decision to honor a first rate bigot and racist. We hope you and your fellow Board Members will see the pain and anguish this Author of Hate has caused for a billion Hindus. Hence, there are a billion compelling reasons to reconsider your decision and we hope you do so in the interest of mutual respect, mutual understanding and mutual love.
Thank you for your kind consideration.
Yours respectfully,
Gokul Kunnath
President
2 comments:
I am really shocked and surprised to see the Talibanization of our Hindu values by USHA and others who are protesting this book. I have read the book and it is a good telling of how our scriptures have evolved. Rajesh Menon, Gurcharan Das and Shashi Tharoor's books are much more provocative and full of sexuality - yet I see no Fatwa against them. When did my beautiful Hinduism become so intolerant and xenophobic - please stop this ignorant behaviour immediately. We are not Talibans or Whaabis - we are Hindus - the most tolerant religion in the world.
I fully comprehend the feelings of my Hindu brothers, but the same brothers were rejoicing when Salman Rushdie was discrediting, ridiculing, mocking, fabricating stories, vilifying and insulting the tender feelings of 1500 million Muslims by his filthy and factually and historically erroneous book and the Hindu Fundamentalist parties such as Rashtra Sevak Sang and Bharatiya Janata Party secretly produced Hindi Translation of Salman Rushdie’s book in India even though India had banned the book. No one has any right to insult any religion Hinduism or Islam for that matter. I would agree with many views expressed by Dr Doniger but still I feel that the book should not be allowed in India because it is an insult to Sanatana Dharma of Hinduism the philosophy that my forefathers followed before converting to monotheistic Islam in India, after all my ancestors were Hindus too.
Change in ideology does not make me not to love my nation India
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