[Assam] India's Government Strikes Mention of Beef Eaters From New History Books on Ancient India
Barua25
barua25 at hotmail.com
Sun Jun 18 00:56:50 PDT 2006
The Ramayana, The Mahabharata, like The Iliad and The Odyssey, are epics. We donot take things from the epics literally. Like we cannot believe everything about Hercules similarly we cannot believe everything about Hanuman. Do you believe, Sita really went inside the earth? Do you really believe Hanuman actually lifted the mountain and flew? Was he an monkey who could speak? And then the question of historicity of the events. Any idea when these events took place? So on this basis, one cannot take Ram and Krishna to be historical facts. But I believe that there must be something from which the imaginative potes wrote the epics. To justify historicity of the events, one will have to work on hard evidence (outside the epics) and proceed inch by inch and one piece at a time. I don't know what is being done on this by the Hindus outside the stories on the Ramayana dnthe Mahabharata. Any idea?
RB
----- Original Message -----
From: umesh sharma
To: Barua25 ; assam at assamnet.org
Sent: Saturday, June 17, 2006 10:24 PM
Subject: Re: [Assam] India's Government Strikes Mention of Beef Eaters >From New History Books on Ancient India
Do you believe that it is a historical fact that Ram and Krishna (and their anscestors as mentioned in Ramayan and Mahabharat)and other incarnations of Vishnu existed historically and that Mahabharat War took place -as mentioned in Hindu scriptures (just the way it is mentioned somewhere that some ancient Hindus ate beef -but the text were meant to admonish the reader)?
Should the above be stated in all history books throughout the world --just as the write that Moses, Buddha, Jesus, Muhhamad, Hitler etc are historical figures?
Umesh
Barua25 <barua25 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>If something good is mentioned in Hindu texts --then it is a myth --like existence of Ram and Krishna. But if >something distasteful to Hindus is mentioned in their texts --then it is Gospel truth--and undeniable historical fact!!
Who says that? Not me.
RB
----- Original Message -----
From: umesh sharma
To: Rajen & Ajanta Barua ; assam at assamnet.org
Sent: Saturday, June 17, 2006 12:10 PM
Subject: Re: [Assam] India's Government Strikes Mention of Beef Eaters From New History Books on Ancient India
Rajen-da,
You want to haver it both ways - to get at Hindus.
If something good is mentioned in Hindu texts --then it is a myth --like existence of Ram and Krishna. But if something distasteful to Hindus is mentioned in their texts --then it is Gospel truth--and undeniable historical fact!!
Romilla Thapar would surely agree with you -- since her arguments go like that as do for Western professors who taught her or wrote books that she reads.
Umesh
Rajen & Ajanta Barua <barua25 at hotmail.com> wrote:
Umesh:
It seems that the facts are very clear. The Vedas recorded that the ancient Hindus used to eat Beef. Now why the Hindus should have any problem in believing this to be true, and why the Hindus try to hide this fact by distorting the record. Is that what Hindusim teach: To compromise with the truth if found not to one'e liking?
RB
----- Original Message -----
From: umesh sharma
To: Rajen & Ajanta Barua ; assam at assamnet.org
Sent: Friday, June 16, 2006 7:50 PM
Subject: Re: [Assam] India's Government Strikes Mention of Beef Eaters From New History Books on Ancient India
If Hindus do not believe the Vedas then who does --but lets not mix religious beliefs with historical facts and reasoning --as many of the Net say:))
Od do you want the history txtbooks to write as follows:
"Hindus believe that the ancient Hindus used to eat Holy cow - who is their mother -as per their belief," --that makes no sense.
What do you propose?
Umesh
Rajen & Ajanta Barua <barua25 at hotmail.com> wrote:
The question is do the Hindus believe the Vedas? Why you have to rely on what others believe?
RB
----- Original Message -----
From: umesh sharma
To: Rajen & Ajanta Barua ; assam at assamnet.org
Sent: Friday, June 16, 2006 10:26 AM
Subject: Re: [Assam] India's Government Strikes Mention of Beef Eaters From New History Books on Ancient India
I wonder what proof we have (besides mention in Vedas [Rig Veda]) about Indians eating beef? As you know most Western historians would not believe Hindu scriptures are historiucally true -then why quote from them for beef eating?
Umesh
Rajen & Ajanta Barua <barua25 at hotmail.com> wrote:
1. India's Government Strikes Mention of Beef Eaters >From New History Books on Ancient India
epaper.timesofindia.com
NEW DELHI, INDIA, June 12, 2006: (HPI note: The irony of this NCERT action is that the previous BJP government met with vigorous opposition from the now ruling Congress party and allies when it attempted to make the same change, considered an affront to Hinduism, in the text books.)
References to ancient India's beef-eaters have been done away with in NCERT's newly-introduced history textbooks. NCERT, National Council of Educational Research and Training, is the national commission responsible for the textbooks in India's schools. NCERT changed the syllabus for Classes I, III, VI, IX and XI from this year in accordance with the national curriculum framework (NCF) 2005, to prescribe broad guidelines for an ideal course curriculum. Till last year, Class VI and XI textbooks had references to beef-eating habits. "These references were there in ancient Indian history books for Classes VI and IX till last year. Those textbooks have been replaced and the new ones have no mention of beef-eating," NCERT spokesman Ashish Bahad said. The reference had raised objections from several quarters last year and a Public Interest Litigation was filed in the Supreme Court. NCERT had also formed a three-member expert committee to look into the matter. "Following the NCF 2005, NCERT developed new history textbooks that attempt to arouse the curiosity of schoolchildren. The books encourage students to find out historical facts on their own," Bahad added.
_______________________________________________
assam mailing list
assam at assamnet.org
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College Park, MD 20740
1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
------------------------------------------------------------------
Security's tight. Get leading Spam and virus protection with the new Yahoo! Mail.
Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College Park, MD 20740
1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Now you can scan emails quickly with a reading pane. Get the new Yahoo! Mail.
_______________________________________________
assam mailing list
assam at assamnet.org
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College Park, MD 20740
1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
All New Yahoo! Mail - Tired of Vi at gr@! come-ons? Let our SpamGuard protect you.
_______________________________________________
assam mailing list
assam at assamnet.org
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College Park, MD 20740
1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All New Yahoo! Mail - Tired of Vi at gr@! come-ons? Let our SpamGuard protect you.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.assamnet.org/pipermail/assam-assamnet.org/attachments/20060618/b7e97b28/attachment.htm>
More information about the Assam
mailing list