Promod Puri's Blog: Hinduism:beyond rituals,customs and traditions, page 102
July 6, 2017
Politics And Religion
“Politics and religion must be kept separate” is an acknowledged doctrine in secular and democratic-socialist systems. But there are elements in most religions which are liberal, secular, and democratic. For these reasons, politics can incorporate religion in its order, whereas religion can keep its sanctity if the “dirty politics” stay out of it. Read more: “Religion Has Guiding Role In Politics“ in promodpuri.com
MODI Vs TRUMP
June 30, 2017
Perception Of God
God is more than our mindset imagination of being a super human governing this universe.
A simple and brief, but still far from complete, portrayal of God can be: the sum total of everything and every process in this universe and beyond is God. Everything, known or unknown that exist is what a universe is all about.
(Excerpt from Hinduism Beyond Rituals, Customs And Traditions, Chapter 10: Rationalism And Sciences)
June 28, 2017
Behind Modi: The Growing Influence Of Indian Lobby
By Ashok Sharma
Ashok Sharma, University of New South Wales, Canberra at Australian Defence Force Academy
One has 32.9 million Twitter followers; the other has 31 million.
When U.S. President Donald Trump met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House on June 26, Trump chose to draw attention to something the leaders have in common by saying “We are world leaders on social media.”
Prior to the June 26 meeting, news analysts focused on how the U.S.-India relationship was strained over possible changes to the U.S. H1B visa program. Approximately 70 percent of these visas were issued to Indians in 2014. Another source of friction: Trump’s remarks railing against India and China while withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement.
But Modi’s meeting with Trump showed these events would cause little loss of momentum in U.S.-India relations. In fact, as a scholar of U.S.-India relations, I’d argue that the ties between the two countries are so intertwined that derailment is almost impossible.
From logjam to strategic partnership
The economic relationship between the two countries has seen a tenfold increase in the past 15 years – from US$5.6 billion in 1990 to $103 billion in 2015.
The U.S. has displaced Russia as the biggest supplier of arms to India. It is also the country with which India conducts the most military exercises.
These stronger economic and military ties are two signs of ways the U.S. and India have drawn closer since the end of the Cold War. Other common interests including securing the Indo-Pacific region as China increasingly asserts itself there and fighting Islamic extremism.
A lesser-known catalyst pushing the U.S. and India together – lobbying by Indian-Americans – is the subject of my new book. In my view, this relatively new political force has played a pivotal role in transforming U.S. foreign policy toward India.
The emergence of Indian lobbying
Although Indian-Americans make up just about 1 percent of the total American population, they are an influential group.
Measured by per-capita income, Indian-Americans are the wealthiest ethnic group in the U.S. Beginning in the 1990s, their professional success gave the community confidence to play a more active role in the American social and political life. Backed by their own financial resources and growing population, Indian-Americans took to lobbying through a network of professional and political organizations such as the Indian American Forum for Political Education, Indian American Committee for Political Awareness and U.S.-India Political Action Committee.
The bipartisan Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans was formed in 1993. The caucus expanded from its original membership of eight to 50 within 12 months of its founding. Its membership peaked at approximately 200 members a decade later. Although it is somewhat smaller now, it continues to be the largest caucus dedicated to a single country.
In 2004, a bipartisan India Caucus was formed in the U.S. Senate which was headed by Hillary Clinton, Democratic senator of New York, and John Cornyn, Republican senator of Texas. This was the first time a Senate caucus was formed dedicated to a single country.
An evolving strategy
In the beginning of the 1990s, the Indian lobby focused on countering the Pakistani lobby groups, which had a strong presence during the Cold War period.
The first major test came in defending India’s nuclear test in 1998, an act by which India essentially declared itself as a nuclear power in defiance of international norms. Another early test was exposing exposing Pakistan’s military adventurism in Kargil War in 1999 and creating a more objective view of the Kashmir issue.
However, it was during the passage of the U.S.-India Civilian Nuclear Agreement Bill in the U.S. Congress in 2008 that the real clout of Indian lobbying was confirmed. The India lobby emphasized the positive aspects of the civilian atomic agreement, ensuring its safe passage at every stage in the U.S. Congress.
The caucus members were responsible for turning around the negative impression of India that dominated the Cold War period. They highlighted India’s credentials as a democracy, the value of its market economically and its growing strategic importance.
The growing support for India in the U.S. Congress was reflected when 40 congressional representatives attended an address given by Modi in Manhattan in September 2014 and by the applause Modi received during his address to a joint session of Congress two years later.
Visits from Modi
Modi’s frequent visits have reinvigorated both the India-U.S. ties and the Indian lobbying.
During his second visit to the U.S. in 2014, Modi met with a 50-member delegation of the Oversea Friends of BJP, India’s center-right ruling party, and listened to their concerns and issues.
The first-ever U.S. convention to mobilize the diaspora , organized by the same group, helped Modi connect with the Indian community.
The Indian lobby is paying close attention to the issue of H1B visa as the IT industry is one of the major success stories in the India-U.S. relationship. But Indo-U.S. ties go way beyond any single issue.
The Trump administration seems to realize this. Welcoming Modi’s visit to the U.S., White House spokesperson Sean Spicer listed “fighting terrorism, promoting economic growth and reforms and expanding security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region” as common priorities for the two countries. The Indian side was looking for “a new direction for deeper bilateral engagement.”
Modi and Trump each have a corporate style of administration. This may help the India-U.S. economic cooperation accelerate and achieve their target of $500 billion in trade in the coming years.
A challenge for both leaders will be how to reconcile Trump’s “America First” policy with Modi’s “Make in India” campaign. However, I believe the synergies between the two economies are strong enough to overcome this challenge, especially with the help of the India lobby.
(The article was originally published by the Conversation)
June 24, 2017
Silence Is Deadly For Indian Democracy
By Promod Puri
India is increasingly becoming a democracy of silent middle class, silent opposition, and silenced press. Under the ruling political domain, there is unscrupulous practice of silence as well.
The environment of quietness encourages increased prejudice, hatred, violence, hardships and sufferings for the Dalits, the minorities, and the poor. Also, it can be the cause of their separation from the social, economic and political aspirations promised in a democratic system.
Silence is not golden when it is strategically used to carry an evil political and religious agenda with dictatorial objectives. Silence of the ruling leadership can be interpreted as a green light for those who commit violence in the name of religion or fanatical nationalism.
Silence is deadly for democracy in India.
June 23, 2017
Wonder Woman Too Western & Too White
[image error]Blockbuster movie Wonder Woman is too western and too white. With its sexualized image and unrealistic beauty, WW does not connect with millions of women around the world. It has commercial value only. It does not represent feminist symbol of strong and liberated woman. With multiple identities, women in contemporary society face multiple challenges. The Wonder Women can’t be a role wonder for young women as it does not capture that diversity.
June 15, 2017
Dharma, Karma & Moksha
An outstanding feature of Hinduism is the doctrine of “purusarthas”, advocating four complementary engagements in an individual’s life. These are dharma, artha, kama and moksha.
Dharma seeks conscious conduct of life on moral values of honesty, compassion, truthfulness, and purity of body and mind. It is a behavior toward ethical living. Dharma involves austerity, saintliness, absence of anger and non-violence. Dharma-based actions, duties and responsibilities are the commitments toward a righteous living.
Artha means one should be working to earn enough wealth in order to achieve economic liberty or independence. Kama emphasizes on the need of pleasures and enjoyments in life as well.
Moksha or mukti denoting freedom, is a much hyped Hindu traditional thought. In essence it represents spirited purity to seek oneness with the Supreme-being.
Moksha covers two allied but distinct schools under the faculty of moksha-shastra.
One is based on the concept of eternal salvation from the repeated cycle of birth, death and rebirth. This rotation of advents is a popular notion among Hindus with the support of reincarnation ideology.
The birth-rebirth cycle to achieve moksha or salvation is referred as soteriology. In Sanskrit it is called Samsara.
Life is an entanglement of sufferings. Moksha is considered as the ultimate goal to be relieved from those miseries and afflictions. The blissful emancipation is achieved thru dharma-inspired righteous actions along with conscious detachment from worldly affairs. Accumulation of wisdom is an imperative of moksha along with the dispossession of worldly desires or cravings in its pursuits.
It is a stage of Braham-anubhav, a vibe of Supreme within. In this state of capping perfection with a feeling of Oneness that one gets into moksha, and the person is eternally liberated from the fettered cycle of birth, growth and death.
The postmortem of one or several cycles of birth and rebirth determines the qualifying criteria as how well one treads on the path of dharma before achieving moksha. And once there, it is a point of no return as one is let off from the bondage of samsara.
TRANSCENDENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS
The second and alternative school of thought in the moksha shastra lies in its evolutionary interpretation. Referred to as jivanmukti, it is that state of transcendental consciousness which one receives within the present life. In that respect moksha does not have to be liberation from samsara or life-rebirth wheel of suffering.
Dharma provides the route or ‘marg’ to get to the destination of moksha. In this journey a major emphasis is on discriminatory or critical studies to gain knowledge. Ignorance is dispelled and illusion is cleared.
The accentuation on critical study involves evaluation in order to accumulate true education. And when true education is being pursued the rationality factor in Hinduism is once again underlined.
Detachment from the outer world, lack of craving or desires for material possessions, self restraint, calmness of mind, dispassion, endurance and patience, faith and commitment are the other essentials to make a journey on the moksha marg.
The maneuvers in the pursuit of moksha transform the nature, attributes and behavior of an individual where peace and bliss are the ultimate rewards along with a feeling that the whole universe resides in the self.
Whereas dharma is both a vehicle and route map to reach the goal of moksha, the latter is subjected to its practicality and worthy of its achievability. Sometimes, it is the travel which is more challenging, captivating and compensating than the destination.
Dharma involves actions, while moksha does not. Dharma means karma, moksha is contrary to that. The latter is only a state of thought and consciousness. The scriptures in Geeta emphasize on karma or action in its simplistic and literal meaning. Non-karma means the dead end.
Is moksha stage the dead end of life? According to Osho (Rajneesh), yes it is. He questions the worthiness of moksha. Seeking moksha is against the law of existence, Osho argues.
Excerpts From Hinduism Beyond Rituals, Customs And Traditions, Chapter 11
June 14, 2017
Progressive Hindu Dialogue
Progressive Hindu Dialogue is an initiative to explore, recognize and advance the rational, liberal and progressive nature of Hinduism. It is also a forum to debate the symbolic aspects of Hinduism’s rituals, customs, traditions and thoughts in an intelligent and prudent environment. In this dynamics the overall objective is to invigorate the continuity of Hinduism’s evolution with changing times. Read more https://progressivehindudialogue.com/2016/09/07/welcome/
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