Voice of India Features Newsletter - 09 May 2010

may 13th, 2010

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From: VOI Features <voi.features@vhs-net.com>
Date: Wed, May 12, 2010 at 5:21 PM
Subject: Voice of India Features Newsletter - 09 May 2010
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Editorial: Kasab Verdict A Litmus Test for Government The Editorial Team The court verdict sentencing the 26/11 Mumbai attack's lone terror survivor Kasab has put the Congress-led UPA government's honesty and sincerity to test in fighting terrorism, particularly the cross-border one.  Will the matter of Kasab hanging go the Afzal way? That is the question hovering the mind of every Indian today. UPA has given no indication that it will not. The fact that the UPA has failed to take a final decision on Afzal's mercy petition for the last over four years is a live tribute to the efficiency and sensitivity of the present government on this vital issue. Read more... Discussion on Operation Red Lotus held in JNU by INACS From VOIF Correspondent Indian National Academy of Civilizational Studies (INACS) organized a discussion on the book "Tatya Tope's Operation Red Lotus" in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India on 8th May 2010. The book has been written by Tatya Tope's fourth generation descendant Parag Tope and published by Rupa Publications. In this book Parag Topé and the Topé family have presented the story of Tatya and the Anglo-Indian War of 1857 after spending more than two years in and out of various archives and libraries, poring over volumes of source material, translating original letters, picking-up the threads of a scattered Tatya Topé family and piecing together a complex puzzle of 1857. The students of JNU show their interest in the book by participating in the discussion held in SIS Committee room. Initiating the discussion Parag Tope said that the important words "Azadi to chand dino ki baat hai" were pronounced by Sardar Vallabhai Patel on 20 February 1946, two days after the events that forced England to withdraw from India. Read more... What Directions for India Dr. Babu Suseelan I care deeply about our Hindu Dharma and the progress and development of India. So it seemed obvious for me to visit India and take a closer look at India. I had the chance to visit Katmandu, Kanyakumari, Calcutta, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kerala, Chennai, Hyderabad, Goa, and attend several Hindu conferences, and temple festivals. I met several Hindu organizational leaders, intellectuals, journalists, and laymen. I had the opportunity to meet several leaders of RSS, VHP, Hindu Samhati, Hindu Voice, Sri Ram Sena, and Bhrathiya Vichar Kendra. They have displayed a deep pride in Hindu culture and in their successful efforts in protecting, preserving and promoting our universal Dharmic philosophy. India is being radically transformed by the most divisive leader in our nation's history.  But what may be less apparent and even more damaging than this political assault is the cultural breakdown that accompanies this all-out attack on Hindu culture and institutions. Despite recent economic reform and foreign inflow of investment, India is under siege. India is cornered by the enemy within and without. Read more... A Fearless Intellectual Ram Swarup V Sundaram Sri Ram Swarup (1920-1998) is perhaps the greatest Hindu intellectual of post-independent India. His most outstanding disciple was Sita Ram Goel, an 'Intellectual Kshatriya'. The intellectual and emotional relationship that existed between them for more than five decades is a glorious chapter in the history of Hindu revival after 1947. The intellectual relationship between these two great men was similar to the spiritual relationship between Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Swami Vivekananda in the latter half of the 19th century and the Hindutva relationship between Dr Hedgewar and Sri Guruji Golwalkar in the 2nd quarter of the 20th century. Sita Ram Goel often used to acknowledge the fact that he came back to the fold of Hinduism from the concentration camp of communism only on account of the spiritual influence of Sri Ram Swarup. Sri Ram Swarup was firmly of the view that the foremost task of an intellectual lay in his effort to break down the stereo-types and reductive categories which have a limiting and choking impact upon human thought and communication. As early as in 1949, in his book 'LET US FIGHT THE COMMUNIST MENACE', he challenged the orthodox communist party view that every intellectual must be a man or woman of the Left. Read more... The 27 Year War, Part VI Kedar It was not Shivaji's personality but his vision and his values was what Deccan fought for. They imbibed that vision and made it their own. After that, they were not fighting for their hero, they were fighting for themselves. The secret of why people simply refused to surrender to Mughal power can be found not in Shivaji's heroics, but somewhere else. The secret lies in the reforms he brought. During the short span of his governance, Shivaji brought a manifold of reforms. For the purpose of discussion, I will divide them into four categories. Governance reforms, political reforms, defense reforms and social reforms. Governance reforms deserve first attention. After the coronation, Shivaji put in place fully functioning governance consisting of Ashta-Pradhan (eight ministers). These eight men were noted statesmen in their era. They laid foundation of formal economic policy, foreign policy and other functions of government Read more...