Horrible ethnic violence was witnessed earlier this month in Mumbai, as activists of theMaharashtra Navnirman Sena, a Marathi supremacist group led by Raj Thackeray (right), went terrorizing migrants to Mumbai from other parts of India, particularly from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, resulting in at least one death and many injuries. The miscreants also vandalized Amitabh Bachchan’s home.
A Hindu temple project, planned to be the biggest in the country, is emerging as the focal point of a bitter feud involving missing funds, allegations of fraud, and ever longer delays in estimated completion dates.
Work has been underway on the Shri Sanatan Mandir for many years. The temple is being built in Ealing Road in Wembley, and planning permission was first granted by the London Borough of Brent two decades ago in 1987. The original completion deadline was December 1999, and the estimated budget was £7.5million, due to be funded entirely by the British Hindu public.
The opening of Britain’s first state funded Hindu school has once again been embroiled in controversy after the I-Foundation announced its definition of who they would consider to be a Hindu for their school’s selection procedure. Although the I-Foundation later retracted its position due to negative publicity amongst British Hindus, the disctinct impression has been given that the school represents a rigid viewpoint of a particular sect and is not truly representative of the Hindu community.
Hindus in Malaysia staged an unprecedented show of resentment against their government by staging a huge rally in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. The protest, which was banned in advance by the Malaysian authorities, is variously estimated to have had up a 100,000 turnout.
The election results for Gujarat, the land of origin for over half of Britain’s Hindus, have been announced today, with the outcome of a very one-sided victory for the Bhratiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Although it was expected for the Narendra Modi (who has been the Chief Minister for the last 7 years) to hang on to power for his third term, the extent of the victory was not predicted by both opinion surveys and exit polls.
Earlier this month, a Hindu became the richest man in the world for the first time in modern history. Mukesh Ambani, whose fortune was estimated at $20.1 billion at the beginning of the year, has prospered immensely in 2007 due to an excellent run in the Indian stock market, which saw the benchmark Sensex gain more than 4,000 points to break new records.
Being a major shareholder in Reliance Industries, one of India’s largest companies, as well as the rupee gaining considerably on the dollar has propelled Mukesh Ambani’s fortune to approximately $63.2 Billion by the year end, ahead of Bill Gates’ $56 million.
In a victory for commonsense, Amrit Lalji, the lady who was sacked from her airport job for refusing to remove a nose stud that she wore as part of a Hindu marriage ritual has been reinstated (click here to see previous coverage).
Mrs Lalji wore the nose stud to her interview, and was not told that it would be any problem. It was only several months later that one of her bosses at British Airways started to make an issue about it.
In a terrible month for Pakistan, the country has seen both devastating terrorist attacks as well as the imposition of ‘emergency rule’ by its army chief turned dictator turned president, General Pervez Musharraf (right).
The number of terrorist attacks on Pakistani soil has greatly increased in the past year, in a country deeply divided by violence and hostility between different ethic and ideological factions: Sunni versus Shia, Baluchi separatism, Sindhi nationalism, militant Islamist versus westernized modernists, democrats versus supporters of military rule. All the conflicts appear to be coming to a head at once…
Many of you will have heard a catchy song with the chant ‘Hare Krishna Hare Rama’ being aired extensively on the radio in the past few weeks. It is in fact the lead track of the recently released Indian thriller-comedy ‘Bhul Bhulaiya’, and the popularity of the song is credited with helping the film register very impressive box office figures in the first fortnight since its release.
Although well received by most, the song has ignited the wrath of a section of Hindus, who claim that the lyrics and especially the video that accompany the song are too explicit and sexual to be placed alongside the holy names of Krishna and Rama. Some Buddhists have also complained, as a statue of Buddha features prominently in the video (click here to see video and song).
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For many years, the Sanaton Association (a group that promotes Bengali and Hindu culture in East London) has organized Durga Pujas at the Toynbee Hall in Aldgate.
Durga Puja is the name for Navratri in the East of India, particularly in Bengal and neighbouring states.
Unfortunately this year the peaceful celebrations were disrupted twice, by Muslim youths, who attacked an elderly devotee on one occasion and then tried to smash the Murti of Mother Durga as it was being led out at the end of the festival. The elderly people present there were frightened and some of the children were in tears as they witnessed this harassment, whilst the younger worshippers confronted the attackers and a fight broke out between them and the attackers which only dissipated when the police arrived.
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