[Assam] Wonderful globalization: traffic jams; Assamese elections

[umesh sharma]

Hi,
 
Yesterday I went with my ex-roommate (21 years in the US) to a temple 14 miles from my current home. We sometimes go there - not just for religious reasons but for free food. This time I was curious to get more info about how Indians are blocking traffic to worship at the local temple. Ofcourse, in most of India make-ship temples, mosques, churches etc spring right in the middle of the road. However, it seems that wont work in the US. The temple would be closed down soon by the local government. 
 
 

http://www.bepress.com/bejeap/vol7/iss1/art62/
 
A paper I found about reaction of locals to immigrants (even legal ones) depending on 3 factors: work related, welfare benefits related and xenophobia(xeno=stranger, phobia=fear). Thus, people from alien cultures might create distrust. A saree clad women going to the nearby church might attract same suspicion as a similar woman going to a temple in the same neighborhood - maybe slightly less so. I looked around in the neighborhood and found that the two houses closest to the temple were up for sale.
 
Maybe property prices are related to who you mingle with. Traffic violaters should be prosecuted but should their religion be struck down? By that token the ultra-famous Holy Amarnath shrine in Kashmir Himalayas should be shut down since its devotees jammed traffic for weeks due to some land deal there.
<http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=pleasant+valley+drive+chantilly+va&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=38.896419,-77.479727&spn=0.002054,0.003433&z=18&iwloc=addr>
The first two houses on Club Run Rd are up for sale -I checked- they are closest to the temple.
 
The temple wants to buy the 33 acre plot (160,000 sq yards plot across the road, which is earmarked for schools, place of worship etc) and build more parking on a one acre plot on its campus - but some locals perhaps simply don't like saree clad women roaming in their neighborhood -like this guy David Miller [an orthodox Jew I believe - by his last name]- see article on Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/14/AR2008091402294.html?hpid=sec-religion

Temple Traffic a Mixed Blessing
Congregation's Growth Causes Parking Crisis And Threatens Closure
 
http://www.bepress.com/bejeap/vol7/iss1/art62/
 
(Two years back I went for a condolence service for a Christian missionary lady in India - very close to this temple - in a Baptist church - all saree clad women and south Indian food - the overseer [not an Indian] became very questioning when he found that my hosts [ and who were also guests] ran an IT consultancy company saying that Indian IT cos had run over his company (Unisys) and then my friends had to say that yes, they are bad for our business too)
 --------------------
 
However, this is the other extreme:
 
Foreigners & Assam
http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=sep2208/letter3

 Sir, – It is said that everything is fair in love and politics. In politics anything can happen anywhere and everywhere. A Pakistani citizen contested the last general election as a candidate for Assembly seat from Jamunamukh constituency of Nagaon district. Fortunately he was discarded by the people of the constituency.

Tezpur is regarded as the cultural centre or capital of Assam and people of this part of the State are said to be more conscious. But the people had voted a doubtful citizen (a Nepali citizen) to win the Parliamentary Constituency of Tezpur consecutively for three times, even when the question of his citizenship controversy was pending in the court of law. Now-a-days, money and muscle power play vital roles in elections. – Yours etc., HASIM AHMED, Guwahati.



Umesh Sharma

Washington D.C. 

1-202-215-4328 [Cell]

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

http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info)

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info)




www.gse.harvard.edu/iep (where the above 2 are used )
http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/



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