Source: Star TV, December 13, 2000 NEW DELHI, INDIA: In a nationwide broadcast, UP Chief Minister Raj Nath Singh, declared, “We will not allow holding of beauty contests in the state of Uttar Pradesh as they are indecent. Showing bare bodies is not a part of our culture and tradition. Beauty is something which is given by nature and there…
GO TO SOURCE BOMBAY, INDIA: To most North Americans, the golden arches of McDonalds restaurants means beef burgers. Not so in India, where the fast food chain has infiltrated the country since 1996 by using a clever marketing program that avoids offending both the culture of the land and the Indian pocket book. The company sells no beef or pork…
Source: India Today, December 9, 2000 BANARAS, INDIA: It was the early morning of December 6 when journalist Priya Solomon tried to photograph the ancient 16th century Gyanvapi Masjid, standing in the premises of the Baba Vishwanath Mandir in Banaras, a policeman prevented her from doing so. Her initial irritation vanished when realization dawned that the restrictions were meant to…
GO TO SOURCE PERAMBALUR, INDIA, December 12, 2000: Tension prevailed for over three hours this morning in Alagapuram village, 25 km from Jayamkondam, when over 2,000 upper caste Vanniyars blocked the streets leading to the Alageeswarar temple, to prevent the proposed march to the temple by “untouchable” Dalits who had been denied entry to the temple for the past several…
Source: Hinduism Today, Anil Mahabir, PORT-OF-SPAIN, TRINIDAD, December 11, 2000: The United National Congress (UNC) secured another term in office when it won the general election. The UNC with its Hindu leader Basdeo Panday got 19 seats as opposed to 16 which was won by the Christian party, the Peoples’ National Movement (PNM). The thrust of the UNC campaign was…
Source: Star TV, December 10, 2000 KANPUR, INDIA: Mrs. Asha Rani Rai of Vidya Mandir Women’s College, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, has started training girls as purohits, Hindu priests, based on the curriculum of University Grant Commission [UGC]’s Sanskrit course. Everyday for seven hours these would-be female pundits learn about Vedic rituals. In an interview to Star, Asha Rani Rai said…
GO TO SOURCE CHENNAI, INDIA, December 8, 2000: Normal activity in more than 36,000 temples in Tamil Nadu, India’s southern-most state, was interrupted as temple employees went on a day’s stay-in strike in support of their 15-point charter of demands. They are asking for pay parity with other temple staff, pension and other benefits. According to official sources, the strike…
GO TO SOURCE NEW YORK, NEW YORK: Imagine travelling thousands of miles away from home to marry a man in a country where the language and culture are foreign, only to find out that your husband, supported by your in-laws, is a wife-beater. Isolated and terrified, many of these Asian women from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan are battered, beaten…
Source: Frontier Post, December 4,2000 LAHORE, PAKISTAN: The government of Punjab, Pakistan’s second largest state, joined other countries in eliminating hitting of children in school. The Frontier Post states,”Directives have been issued to all private and public sector educational institutes strictly banning teachers from awarding corporal punishment to students.” If non-compliance persists, disciplinary action will be brought against the teachers…
GO TO SOURCE USA: Time Magazine has named a black Pentecostal megachurch leader in Dallas and the founder of the Internet’s hottest religion-based Web site among its six “innovators” in the world of religion and spirituality. Cable network CNN is preparing a televised companion to the 18-month series, which Time launched in June. Spiritual leaders cited by the magazine and…