Mukti: Free to be Born Again - Hinduism, Islam and Leftism in Bengal, by Prof Dastidar

Professor Sachi Ghosh Dastidar is a unique man in the Hindu community, he is one of the few truth speaking Hindu intellectuals who has respect among both Hindus and the secular intellectual community. Hindu academics all too often find themselves pushed out of an occupation and polite society when they shed light on the fact that it was Hindus who suffered disproportionately during the genocides which followed the partition of India along Muslim-“Secular” lines, a condition which was agitated for by such outfits as India's Muslim League. Prof. Dastidar is one of the few who boldly speaks the truth on this issue, yet he has been able to maintain his position as a distinguished professor at the State University of New York. His rare position as a “friend of Hindu” academic has allowed Dastidar to gift the Hindu cause with several books covering the 1947 and 1971 partitions: "Empire’s Last Casualty", "Indian Subcontinent’s Vanishing Hindu and other Minorities", "Living among the Believers", "This Bengal, that Bengal" (in Bengali), and "This Is My Home" (in Bengali). He has authored over seventy-five articles on these issues and has twice testified in Washington about the plight of non-Muslim minorities in  Muslim-majority Bangladesh. But Dastidar’s latest book “Mukti: Free To Be Born Again” is sure to cause quite a stir since it also implicates “upper caste Hindus” turned Leftists/Marxists as witting accomplices in the suffering of the Hindu people.

Mukti: Free to be Born Again – Partitions of Indian Subcontinent, Islamism, Hinduism, Leftism and Liberation of the Faithful, has just been released in the U.S. by Author House. It is a 684 page book available in hard cover, soft cover and as eBook. In the US it is available in bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Author House, ISPaD: Partition Center Office in Jamaica, Queens, NYC and more. Here is a bit from the book’s Preface, “Mukti is a product of love and pain of at least three decades. It is a byproduct of over three decades of field work, social work and travel in the 1947 Partition-affected Bengal –Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan), West Bengal State of India – as well in the neighboring states…….During my travel in Muslim-majority Bangladesh I have come across the term ‘mukti’ from many, especially indigenous pre-Islamic Hindu, and lately Buddhist, families as they pray for liberation from their suffering….The book is directed towards Western readers many of whom may have heard of India, yet very little is known about post-partition Muslim-majority Bangladesh and Hindu-majority West Bengal, the effects of Indian Partition on the people of the Bengali-speaking region, the former mixed Hindu-Muslim Bengal Province of Colonial British India……Yet the privileged-caste Hindu-refugee elites quickly rose to power in two Hindu Bengali-majority states in India: West Bengal and Tripura. They would champion liberal, left and Marxist ideologies but refused to show solidarity with the oppressed, mostly belonging to Hindu oppressed castes [whom they left behind]… Seeds of Mukti was first sown in early 1990s when many of my friends and associates asked for translation of my Ai Bangla, Oi Bangla (This Bengal, That Bengal.)…..The Bengal of British India was known to be a relatively-tolerant mixed Hindu-Muslim society where both Hindu and Muslim nationalism played significant role. In a surprise twist of history after Partition of Bengal and India in 1947 both Bengals took stride towards intolerant politics, one…Islamism, the other….Leftism, led by Bangladeshi (East Pakistani) Muslims and Bangladeshi (East Pakistani) Hindu, albeit refugee. The book delves into that ethos and contradiction, although politically incorrect and, at times, impolite…..I have no power to protect individuals and families who have shared their deepest feelings to my family. I have no power to protect their villages either. As a result I have not used the real names of individuals, villages and neighborhoods….”

Dr. Dastidar himself comes from a family that was cleansed from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) during the 1947 partition due to their Hindu heritage. This led him on a lifelong journey of documenting the atrocities committed against Hindus during this monumental time in history and flushing out the root cause for their suffering. Besides helping run several schools and orphanages in Bangladesh, the Dastidars currently run the ISPaD (Indian Subcontinent Documentation Project, http://www.ispad1947.org) Center in Queens NY, a project which aims to preserve the unknown history of the Partition of the Indian Subcontinent using a wide variety of mediums and methods. It is often a taboo to discuss the plight of minorities and research the whereabouts of the missing population of minorities in Muslim nations in South Asia. The ISPaD Project is making an effort to break that taboo and provide widely accessible and reliable records for archiving/documenting the Indian Subcontinent and it essentially being infused with hatred and bloodshed through partition. So many personal stories have been lost and all too often overlooked when looking at "the big picture". ISPaD utilizes a combination of both small scale and large scale research in conceptualizing the scores of people that have gone missing in The Indian Subcontinent during and since Partition, AND to answer the all too frequently asked unasked question: "Where have my people gone?" You can learn more about Dr. Dastidar and his projects by viewing him on Episode 86 of "Eye on South Asia" below or emailing him at DastidarS@oldwestbury.edu.

Touring Samskrita Bharati USA

Back in 2015 I took a tour of USA/Indian Sanskrit School, Samskrita Bharati.  Our bus arrived at 267-09 Hillside Ave in Queens New York, right in front of the building’s sign advertising the institutes Sanskrit training.  It’s a little ironic that while in India there is debate whether or not students should be learning the language of the gods, on the other side of the world the sacred language of Hinduism is making inroads in American urban centers.  Entering the building, I was given a tour of the institute’s facilities and learned a little about their program and philosophy.

Outside view of Samskrita Bharati, Qeens NY

Once inside the facility I met with directer Srinivas Mahankali and his associate Madhu Pillai.  Mr. Mahankali and Pillai took some time to speak to us about Samskrita Bharati and their vision.  The organization’s goal is to make the Sanskrit language an integral part of our daily lives.  Being the chosen language of the oldest religion on earth, Sanskirt provides a unique opportunity to understand the rich and diverse cultural heritage of Hinduism and allows us to grow spiritually and intellectually.  2015 marks a special year for Samskrita Bharati as the group will be celebrating 20 years in the United States.  The “Spoken Samskritam Movement” was first initiated in the United States in 1995, when Shri Chamu Krishna Shastry, a founding member of the organization from India, toured and conducted Spoken Sanskrit Workshops in various US cities. Since then, Samkrita Bharati has grown steadily and has introduced several programs including residential retreats, annual youth camps, Sanskrit As A Foreign Language (SAFL) for high school students, weekly classes for children, lecture series by scholars, formation of Sanskrit groups on college campuses, distance learning programs, Masters programs in collaboration with an India University and the publication of Sanskrit books.

Mr. Mahankali and Pillai explained to me how their program works. At Samskrita Bharati , Sanskrit is taught as its own language, meaning no intermediary language is used.  So when you take classes at the facility you are spoken to and speak in Sanskrit only.  Samskrita Bharati  works on the “known to unknown” principle, instructors give you a simple phrase or word that you come to know, and then slowly add unknown words or phrases which eventually become known through conversational context.  For example, our first lesson in Sanskrit started as such:

Mr. Pillai [pointing to himself]: “mama nama Madhu Pillai”

Mr. Pillai [pointing to Mr. Srinivas Mahankali]: “Bhavataha nama kim?” 

Mr. Mahankali [pointing to himself]: “mama nama Srinivas Mahankali”

Mr. Mahankali [pointing to Vincent]: “Bhavataha nama kim?” 

Vincent: mama nama Vincent.

Vincent [pointing at Sucheta (female)]: “Bhavathyaaha nama kim?”

Sucheta [pointing to herself]: “mama nama Sucheta”

Do you understand what was being said?  Mr. Pillai started the conversation by stating “my name is”, he then asked “what is your name?”.  By the context of the conversation we were able to quickly pick up the meaning of his words and could respond and ask questions on our own.  This is how the Samskrita Bharati method works, its called the “Natural Progression Method”.

Goddess Saraswati (Goddess of Knowledge) patrons the institute

Mr. Mahankali and Pillai explained the “Natural Progression Method” like this, as children we learn our native language in four stages, these are the stages which Samkrita Bharti mimics in their curriculum:

Stage 1, Mananam (thinking/digesting): Intake into the mind through the environment (listening)

Stage 2, Vadanam (speaking): Speaking one to two words at a time followed by short sentences; doesn’t need to be grammatically correct, but understandable.

Stage 3, Pathanam (reading/study) : This stage correlates to the age of around 5-6 years old.  During this phase one learns structured sentences, grammar, and alphabets.

Stage 4, Lekhanam (writing): Writing essay and stories

We were brought over to the onsite workshop area where many of the institute’s programs are delivered in house and online.  Mr. Mahankali and Pallai briefly described some of their workshops and how they function.  The first workshop is a basic crash course on Sanskrit called “Shibriam” which means “theory”. The 16-20 hour course can be completed in one weekend for a nominal fee (approx $30.00).  It is a Mananam (listening) and Vadaman (beginning speaking) workshop where one will learn basic conversational Sanskrit [classes start January].  This course can then be supplemented by a 36 week course which elaborates on conversational Sanskrit.   Samskrita Bharati also offers a course in Sanskrit which can be used to fulfill some high school foreign language requirements and finally the institute has agreements with both American and Indian universities to offer BA/MA certificates in the Sanskrit language. But most interesting of all, Samskrit Bharati offers a free weekly Gita Class in Sanskrit every Wednesday from 7:30pm-9:30pm  which can be attended in person or online.

After seeing the classroom where they hold worskhops, Mr. Mahankali and Pillai took us into their bookstore/conference room where the conversation about their institute and its workshops continued. Samskrita Bharati publishes its own books.  Some are entry and higher level sanskrit learning texts, but they also have several books they have published dealing with the science and other advanced knowledge which was published in ancient Sanskrit.

 I was very excited to learn about this great organization and will consult them as a resource on the general agenda to bring Hindi and Sanskrit classes to college campuses and high schools internationally.  Maybe one day I hope to attend their weekly Sanskrit Gita class and encourage others to take advantage of their programs.  To learn more about Samskrita Bharati, please visithttp://www.samskritabharatiusa.org/.

Lokmanya Tilak: remembering the man who gave us Ganesh Chaturthi

Ganesh Chaturthi is the Hindu festival which celebrates the birth of Lord Ganesh, Hinduism's most well known and widely adored figure, the supreme personification of that force we call "obstacles". The commemoration of his birth will start on September 5th, 2016. Traditional Hindu homes will create a colorful clay representation of the elephant headed god, and after many ceremonies and feasts he will be dunked into a body of water and dissolve just like the obstacles he removes. While Ganesh has become one of the most popular deities of the Hindu pantheon, most Hindus know that Ganesha is a relatively new addition to the family of Hinduism, and so his public festivities must have appeared relatively recently. It should come as no surprise to the faithful that the remover of obstacles was brought to the forefront by one of Hinduism's most heroic, inventive and vigilant freedom fighters, Lokmanya Tilak. 

It is not known exactly when Ganesh Chaturthi began as a public festival, be we do know that this celebration was limited only to certain regions of India. Shivaji Raj who fought off the Mughals and established the Martha Empire in the 1600s claimed Ganesh as his household deity and so Ganesh Chaturthi was a public event during his reign. With the passage of this aristocracy and the arrival of the British in the 1800s, Ganesh's public festivals faded and he returned to his place as a home and family deity. But Ganesh's power has alway attracted vibrant, truthful and courageous characters and soon his mantle was taken up by one of Hinduism's most ardent warriors, Lokmany Tilak. 

Bal Gangadhar Tilak was something of a Renaissance Man; a mathematician, teacher, and journalist, but above all else an independence activist. Tilak was born in 1856, his father was a Sanskrit scholar and following in his father's scholarly steps, Tilak graduated from Deccan College with a Bachelors in Mathematics. He became a math instructor at a private school but soon fell out with the administration over ideological differences;. Tilak wanted to see an India free and independent from British rule, and to him that meant instilling nationalism and an appreciation for Indian culture at a young age. Tilak organized the Deccan Education Society and later the Fergusson College where his independence ambitions were infused into the curriculum for the students. 

In 1890 Tilak joined the Indian National Congress and soon became one of its most outspoken and adroit members, preaching a message of self rule and freedom from the British. When the British began playing partition politics with Bengal, redrawing lines which would create Hindu minority areas in the North East, Tilak quickly supported the Swadeshi (self-rule) movement and also encouraged boycotts of foreign goods, the goal was a strong and independent India. Such politics eventually led to a rift in the Indian National Congress between the "radicals" and the "moderates", with Tilak heading the radical element of the party himself. 

In 1908 two Bengali youth accidentally killed two British women in an attempt to assassinate the usurper puppet Chief Presidency Magistrate Douglas Kingsford of Calcutta. Tilak immediately defended the two youth in the newspaper Kesari and advocated revolutionary action to obtain independence. For this Tilak was imprisoned for nearly 6 years on charges of sedition. While in prison he wrote extensively on independence politics, including his book "Gita Rahasya" which sold many copies and helped to fund other Indian independence movements. After his imprisonment Tilak softened a bit on his rhetoric but still officially opposed the doctrine of "total non-violence" (complete ahimsa). 

At the end of his life Tilak committed himself to propagating the ideal of self-rule in India, traveling from village to village enlisting farmers and peasants to the cause. Talik believed in a modern federal system to govern India where every human being could be free. He also promoted Devangari Hindi as the official language of India. His Deccan Education Society runs to this day in Pune India and his Fergusson College was part of the independence movement until its final victory in 1947. The Indian government released a commemorative coin to celebrate Talik's 150th birthday in 2007.

After reading such a biography it is of little wonder that the Lord who removes our obstacle (or puts them in our way if needed) chose this man to be the one who would return him to his seat of public veneration. It was Tilak who in 1893 restored the public festival of Ganesh and made it a universal practice across Hindudom. It was his hope to use the festival to bridge the gap between all sects and "castes" of Hinduism and create a stronger feeling of grassroots unity and nationalism. It was he who prompted our modern ceremony of dropping Ganesha into the river as one community, dissolving away our petty differences like clay in a river. Under Tilak's encouragement, the festival facilitated community participation and involvement in the form of intellectual discourses, poetry recitals, performances of plays, musical concerts, and folk dances.

Of course, Ganesh Chaturthi has a deeper meaning than the life of one man, but it was this one man, Tilak, who brought us one of our most beloved festivals today. No matter the struggle, Tilak continued and like Ganesh he removed obstacles for all Hindus everywhere. This August when we participate in the exciting festival surrounding the birth of Ganesh, take a moment to think about how only a little more than 100 years ago, this festival didn't even exist and the nation of India was under the yoke of British Christian imperialism. Today, this one festival is celebrated across the globe by Hindus of every race and nationality. Under Ganesh's auspices, we truly unite into one people, a spiritual nation, undivided and unanimous in our joy. If Tilak were alive today I am sure he would be proud and he would thank Lord Ganesh for removing just one more obstacle for the human race.

NYC Hindus unite for Diwali at 20th Hindu Unity Day

20th Annual Hindu Unity Day

Sunday 20 Aug 2015 - NYC Hindu Coalition attends 20th Annual "Hindu Unity Day" put on by the Indian American Intellectuals Forum (IAIF). IAIF is one of the groups supporting the Hindu Holidays Campaign, a project designed to introduce more community influence on Hindu matters as they relate to education and city administration .

Location: 

Auditorium of Hindu Temple Society of North America

143-09 Holy Avenue, Flushing, NY 11355.

Pride In Hindu Heritage
The NYC Hindu Coalition joined in commemorating the coronation of Shivaji Maharaj, the Hindu warrior king who after demolishing foreign domination established a Hindu kingdom in India in 1674. IAIF's aim in organizing this celebration was to create a feeling of pride about our Hindu identity and heritage in our community.

Noted Hindu Speakers

The Chief guests and renowned speakers at the event included members of Indian State and highly respected and prolific intellectuals such as: Rajiv Malhotra,?Founder and President of Infinity Foundation, author, philanthropist and community leader; Suresh Chavanke, Chairman and CEO of Sudarshan TV and Aditii Banerjee, Corporate Council at a leading Global Financial Services firm

United For A Cause

The NYC Hindu Coalition had the opportunity to set up a table at the event for the HINDU HOLIDAYS CAMPAIGN, a campaign started by the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC). The Hindu Holiday Campaign is seeking to get at better community cooperation with NYC officials in implementing better education methods on Hindu Holiday in both schools and among civic leaders.

NYC Hindus 4 Diwali demonstrate at City Hall

Friday 10 April 2015 - The NYC Hindu Coalition joined with more than two dozen other organizations and nearly 200 Hindus to demonstrate outside City Hall for the inclusion of Hindu holidays in NYC public schools or further substantial representation of Hinduism on these days in public school and civic offices. There are nearly .5 Million Hindus in the NYC area, but unlike Christians, Jews and now Muslims (who recently received the Eid holiday), Hindus have no time off for Diwali, Holi or other major festivals, nor do they perceive to be proportionately represented in the classroom or city legislature. With the population of Hindus rapidly growing in America, and with so many new converts to the eternal religion, the time has come for Hindus to assert our identity. Big thanks to Sitangshu Guha and the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC) for organizing the event. The demonstration was covered by the Times of Guyana and NY1.

SEE GUYANA TIMES WRITE UP:

http://www.guyanatimesgy.com/2015/04/20/hsai-divali-protest/

SEE NY1 COVERAGE:

http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2015/04/11/community-leaders-urge-mayor-to-add-three-hindu-holidays-to-school-calendar.html

PICTURES

Participating Organizations