Re: [Assam] Identity and Violence--- by Dr. Amartya Sen

Sat, 22 Apr 2006 15:50:11 -0700

Lets not bandy words but focus on the issue that some things are discouraged in some communities more than others. For instance my colleague at Indian Express , Bhopal - Rizwan Khan Khilji - was of Middle Eastern descent -and said that his people did not consider the converted Indian muslims to be "true muslims" - becos they worshiped graves of saints (Dargahs) , sang Qawwalis and believed in Sufism.
However, majority of South Asian muslims and upto Iraq believe in these things.
 
DO not generalize about a group . Get more info.
 
Akbar's new faith Din E' Ilahi was similar to Bahai faith believing in equality of all faiths. However, his progeny remained muslims. I went to his palace in Fatehpur Sikri and saw the mosque of his new faith . Later I saw his grave at Sikandra , Agra.
 
All religions give permission to their adherents to marry -- ofcourse without that no faith would survive. Thats a basic thing. Similarly music , travel are basic things of human life -as is eating food and going to the toilet.
 
Who says that Islam prohibits music and dance -- just see the Turkish belly dancing - popular all over Middle East or Lebanese Arabic music - popular even in US.
 
Umesh
 
PS: At one time believing that Earth is round was heresy in Christianity - but that did not prevent travel across the Earth. Religions are built around human needs and not the other way round - or else the faith would have an untimely demise.
 
Hinduism has survived despite globalization . Its anti-sea travel proponents died their natural deaths and their own children are traveling overseas. See communists for that matter -- their own kids are the biggest capitalists in China or West Bengal 
 


Himendra Thakur <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Dear Rajen,
 
An analysis becomes weak when it takes help of a simile, because a simile is by definition different from the original. On the top of that, many people use a simile which is not based on fact.
 
Your contention “telling that if a Hindu crosses the sea, he would loose his caste”  is not based on fact because a Hindu crossing the sea was NOT banned in Hinduism. The Hindus crossed the sea and took their ideology of “love and understanding” across the seas --- Bali is a wonderful Hindu country even today.
 
The original discussion in my letter was an effort to understand Islam, particularly after some of the assertions of Dr. Amartya Sen which are based on wrong information.
 
All that you have done here is to divert the topic. Diversion of topic appears to be an intrinsic malady in the assam-net. In the past, when I tried to discuss about hereditary caste system, the original topic was drowned in the discussion about everything other than the hereditary caste system.
 
Let us base our discussion on facts/information, not on assumptions & similes.
 
With the best,
Himendra
----- Original Message -----
From: Barua25
Sent: Saturday, April 22, 2006 2:12 AM
Subject: Re: Identity and Violence--- by Dr. Amartya Sen

>IF Music is banned in Islam.
 
Looks like the above is your pre-conceived idea. Have you cared to find out if that is true.
It is like some Hindus telling that if a Hindu crosses the sea, he would loose his caste.
Would you then ask the question, how all these Hindus who came to America still remain Hindus?
Please make your own judgement for the rest of your questions. You will find your own answers.
Thanks
Rajen
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Umesh Sharma
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1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]

Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005

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