Hinduism Today - I

With the increasing threat from international terrorism, the anti-islamist is increasing by the day. India has taken off lately as a potential economic superpower and that has apparently not gone down well with her neighbours. Rajinder Puri in a chilling article published in Outlook quotes Yossef Bodansky, the Director of the Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare of the U.S. Congress. Bodansky, in the mid-1990s prepared a carefully researched and meticulously detailed 20,000-word official note entitled China's Surge in the Malacca Straits. It dealt with the strategy of China's Peoples' Liberation Army (PLA) to destabilize Southeast Asian countries. The PLA sought leverage over their governments to secure for China control of the strategic Straits of Malacca. All shipments for the Far East from West Asia, including oil, must pass through Malacca. In Bodansky's background paper, the references to India are incidental. But the following excerpts from it merit consideration. Bodansky wrote:

"Beijing urged Islamabad to escalate the subversion of eastern India. The ISI
did not need too much prodding. With support from Beijing, the ISI expanded
operations from vastly expanded camps in both Burma and Bangladesh as of the
fall of 1993. The ISI terrorism support infrastructure in Bangladesh not only
supplies and trains on China-made weapons and explosives, but the Bangladeshi
military officers, acting as instructors had received special commando and
mountain warfare training in China. The deployment of these assets has increased
markedly since the fall of 1994. It is not by accident that the first action in
the long awaited escalation of terrorism in eastern India was the bombing of an
Indian troops' train in India's northeastern state of Assam in late February
1995. The bombs were attributed to the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland
(NSCN) on the basis of use of RDX and other bomb-technology details. Since the
fall of 1993, there has been an expansion of the ISI support for all forms of
terrorism in north east India, especially Manipur. At least five senior ISI
operatives cooperate closely with the NSCN, providing instructions and guidance.
As of mid-1994, the ISI provided the NSCN with huge quantities of weapons,
ranging from small arms, to rocket launchers, to anti-aircraft missiles
(including a few Stingers). The Chinese preparations for a regional escalation
and major crisis under conditions short of a major war are thorough. For the
conduct of covert operations inside India, Bangladesh and China run their own
training program at Kalapara and Munakata on Bay of Bengal and especially at the
25 Bangladesh Rifles at Khulna and Teknaf Island in Chittagong. There, Chinese
instructors are directly involved in training Tamils and other Indians for
terrorist, sabotage, and espionage operations."

Chirstanity in India has its own share of problems, what with the conversions to christanity. So does it make everything un-hindu unacceptable? That leaves us with the question, What is un-hindu? In Millie Graham Polak’s book on Gandhi, the man mentions that many Christians who heard him thought that he had converted to Christianity. Henry Polak and his wife Millie Graham Polak were quite close to Gandhiji during his years in South Africa. ‘‘Is Mr Gandhi a Christian?’’, a visitor once asked Millie. Millie sought clarification: ‘‘You mean one who converted to Christianity or one who believes in the teachings of Christ?’’ The visitor meant the former. Since Gandhi knew Christian scriptures so well, and would quote Jesus so frequently, she and her friends thought he must be a Christian. The visitor’s logic sounded convincing to Millie. Gandhi’s reverence for Jesus was transparent. Christ’s ‘‘Sermon on the Mount’’ was a source of guidance and inspiration to him. A beautiful picture of Jesus adorned the wall over his desk. Yet, when Millie asked him why he did not embrace Christianity, Gandhi’s reply was revealing. He said that although he had studied Christian scriptures and was tremendously attracted, he concluded that ‘‘to be a good Hindu also meant that I would be a good Christian. There was no need for me to join your creed to be a believer in the beauty of the teachings of Jesus or try to follow His example’’. One particular hindu guru, Paramhansa Yogananda founder of Yogada Satsang Society, even invokes jesus as a siddha Yogi (one who attained spritual enlightenment). The followers of his kriya yoga invoke Jesus as part of their daily prayer.