A book of 'Indian' holidays without Christmas or Id

[email protected] (CD Network)
July 19, 2012

book_copy

Mangalore, July 19: A reference book on festivals observed by 'Indians', prescribed by the State government for school libraries across the State, carries in it only those observed by Hindus.

While 30 pages of 'Bharatiyara Habba Haridinagalu' (or Festivals of Indians) are dedicated to explaining Upakarma, there is not a single word on Ramzan, Good Friday, Buddha Purnima, or any non-Hindu festival celebrated in the country.

A December 2011 circular sent by the Directorate of State Educational Research and Training (DSERT) directs primary and high schools to buy at least one copy of the book for their library.

At a voluminous 640 pages, the Kannada book written by Sri Sri Rangapriya, Sanskrit scholar and head of the Ashtangayoga Vijnana Mandiram, Hanumanthnagar, Bangalore, is priced at Rs. 500.

While the cover of the book primarily features Hindu iconography — the sage and the holy cow, 'kalash' (offerings given during a Hindu ritual), a temple gopura and devotees with hands joined in prayer — the rest of the book doesn't deviate from the Hinduism theme.

'Reflecting culture'

The DSERT, in its circular, describes the contents of the book as “reflecting Indian culture”.

Though the title says these are festivals celebrated by Indians, the book manages to cover only the major Hindu religious dates, 23 of them, besides mentioning birthdays of Hindu religious sages.

From festivals such as Ugadi, Ramanavami, Ganesh Chaturthi, Deepavali, Mahashivaratri and Akshaya Tritiya to lesser-known ones such as Subbraya Shrasthi and Rathasaptami, and even religious days observed primarily by the upper castes, such as Chathurmasa, Upakarma, Ananthapadmanabha Vrath and Narasimha Jayanti, are given detailed descriptions in the book.

Why is it that Ramzan, Id-ul-Fitr, Christmas, Good Friday, Buddha Purnima, Mahaveer Jayanti and Guru Nanak Jayanti find no place in the book, asks Nooruddin Salmar of the Dakshina Kannada Congress Minority Committee.

A trend

Talking to The Hindu , Mr. Salmar said the manner in which the order was quietly circulated, pointed to an increasing trend of saffronisation of education and emphasis on the Hindutva agenda seen under the Bharatiya Janata Party government.

“Aren't Muslims, Christians, Jains, Parsis and animist tribes also Indians? Is it right to teach schoolchildren that only Hindus are Indians,” he asked.

Denying a 'saffron tint' to the book, DSERT Director Rama Rao said the book was chosen after the directorate deemed it “educationally suitable” for students.

“All the festivals mentioned in the book are celebrated pan-India. I don't see why anyone has a problem with the title. One has to look at it with an open mind, and we believe the book to have adequate information for students to learn,” Mr. Rao said.

Other festivals

Claiming that the author, perhaps, did not have information on other religious festivals, Mr. Rao said the DSERT would recommend books written by scholars from other religions if they were submitted to the directorate.

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coastaldigest.com news network
February 5,2020

Mangaluru, Feb 5: ‘Forum for the justice of December 19 Mangaluru firing victims’ has demanded that the policemen who are responsible for the death of two innocent men in Mangaluru one-and-a-half months ago should be booked for homicide. 

49-year-old Abdul Jaleel Kandak, a father of two, and 23-year-old Nausheen Kudroli, were killed in an arbitrary and unwarranted police firing during a disturbance occurred due to police baton charge in the city on December 2019. 

Addressing a press conference, Forum’s convenor Abdul Jaleel Krishnapur said that a judicial inquiry commission should be set up to probe into the police firing which claimed two lives and injured many other innocent civilians.  

“Already a murder case should have been filed against the policemen who opened fire on the people.  Instead, false cases have been booked against many innocent people including the victims. This is a blot on the society,” he said. 

He urged the government to direct the police department to drop false charges registered against the victims and take necessary action against the culprits in khaki. 

He said that the Form demands Rs 25 lakh each compensation for the kin of the two men murdered by the police and Rs 15 lakh compensation for those who injured in police firing on December 19.

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Charan Kumar | coastaldigest.com
June 24,2020

Bengaluru, June 24: City-based I Monetary Advisory (IMA), which duped thousands of families, mostly Muslims, in the name of halal investment, has become a bitter reality of "we were robbed by our own people". All the accused except its CEO Mohammad Mansoor Khan have been released on bail in this ponzi scam worth thousands of crores of rupees.

The scam has not only been investigated by SIT and CBI, but it has reverberated many times in the Assembly, corridors of power, and in the courts.

Around 80,000 investors are in trouble after the Monetary Advisory (IMA) scam came to light. Many investors have left this world, many families have split, many marriages have broken down and many have become unemployed, homeless, helpless and hapless. One of the senior IAS office, who had faced arrest in the scam, reportedly killed himself just a day ago.

It has been more than a year since this multi-billion scam came to light. But the affected families still do not see any ray of hope. The government, led by senior IAS officer Harsh Gupta, has set up a special competent authority to address investor grievances in the matter.

According to information provided by Harsh Gupta, investors have to be paid Rs 2,900 crore. But the value of the company's assets seized so far could be around Rs 450 crore. The process of auctioning the assets has not started yet. The authority has developed an online portal for submission of claim forms from investors. But the process of taking applications has not started yet. Syed Gulab, a social worker overseeing the case, says that after all the claim forms have been submitted, we will get a clear picture about the exact number of investors and the total amount of arrears. But this process may take a few more months to complete.

Senior journalist Maqbool Ahmed Siraj says that IMA has systematically deceived people in the name of halal investment through capital scheme. In 2006, Muhammad Mansoor Khan, a one-time small businessman, set up a company. He began to attract large number of investors by creating the greed for more profit among middle class and poor people.

By 2015, the company had received money from more than 12,000 investors and continued to pay monthly profits. By the time the company closed in 2019, 80,000 people had invested their hard-earned money here. In Bengaluru, the company expanded its reach by investing in two major gold showrooms, hospitals, schools, several medical stores, a publishing center, a supermarket, and real estate firm.

Mr Siraj says that Mansoor Khan and his team not only lured the poor and middle class to pursue their own interests but also created a favourable atmosphere for their so called business by winning the hearts of politicians, government officials, clerics, religious institutions and media.

Unsuspecting people invested their money in a bid to make more profit in less time. When the company stopped making profits and Mansoor Khan suddenly fled on June 9, 2019, the investors woke up the to the reality.

Apart from residents of Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka, people from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra other states also have invested their money.

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News Network
January 2,2020

Kalaburgi, Jan 2: At least 10 students sustained injuries when a private bus carrying students of a school on an educational tour rammed into a tree today morning.

The mishap occurred when the students of Ayyappa School located in Chennaveera Nagar were going around the city in a bus during their tour.

The bus crashed into a tree near Venkatagiri Hotel on New Jewargi Road in the city.

A case has been registered at a traffic police station.

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