From: Mohan Gupta <mgupta@rogers.com>
Date: Fri, Dec 7, 2012 at 5:11 AM
Subject: What happened to Hindu Temples – Recent Demolition of The Hindu Temple angers Pak Hindus
To: S.Poshakwala51@yahoo.com
Karachi, Dec 2, 2012, PTI:
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/295936/demolition-temple-angers-pak-hindus.html
A century-old temple here was hurriedly demolished by a builder despite a Pakistani court hearing a petition seeking a stay on such a move, triggering protests by the minority Hindu community on Sunday.
Besides razing the pre-Partition Shri Rama Pir Mandir in Karachi's Soldier Bazar, the builder demolished several houses near it on Saturday.
Nearly 40 people, a majority of them Hindus, became homeless as a result, The Express
Tribune reported.
Following the demolition, the Pakistan Hindu Council organised a protest outside the Karachi Press Club. The Sindh High Court is hearing a petition seeking a stay on any move to demolish Shri Rama Pir Mandir. "They destroyed our 'mandir' and humiliated our gods," an angry man named Prakash was quoted as saying.
The demolition team placed the statues of four Hindu deities to one side, but local residents accused them of taking away gold jewellery and crowns that had adorned the statues.
Pointing to bruises on his arms, another man identified as Lakshman said: "They hit me with their guns when I tried to stop them. I told them to kill me instead of destroying our holy place."
A woman named Banwri said the demolition team arrived at around 11 am while she was preparing breakfast. She rushed outside when she heard the sound of a bulldozer and was given instructions to move her bed, cupboard and other essential items outside her home. "I watched my house go down in just minutes and I couldn't do anything," she said.
The area was cordoned off by police and Pakistan Rangers during the demolition.
From: KatariaN@aol.com
SHRI RAM TEMLE, ALONG WITH 40 HINDU HOUSES, RAZED TO GROUND IN PAKISTAN -
VISHWA HINDU PARISHAD (VHP) URGES GOVERNMENT OF INDIA TO SEVER ALL RELATIONS WITH PAKISTAN - DR. PRAVIN TOGADIA,
VHP INTERNATIONAL WORKING PRESIDENT
Narain Kataria
(718) 478-5735
Hindus in Bharat will not Tolerate 'Babur' Styled atrocities in Pakistan
Karnavati (Ahmedabad), December 3, 2012
Over 100 years old Bhagwan Shriram Temple in Pakistan was razed to ground along with over 40 houses of Hindus around it. In Sindh province of Pakistan, Hindus had approached the court against the builder's efforts to demolish the Shriram Temple & the court had granted stay. Yet the builder in connivance of Govt officials demolished the temple & Hindu houses looting precious ancient jewelry of the temple. Hindus have protested in front of Karachi Press Club.
VHP International Working President Dr Pravin Togadia reacted, "It is the same Babur mentality which gets them demolish Hindu temples. It was Ayodhya then where Babur demolished Bhagwan Shriram's birth place temple & now it is Pakistan. This is not the first time that Pakistan has encouraged such an act against Hindus. Thousands of ancient temples have already been razed to ground in Pakistan & Kashmir since past many decades & Hindus are being victimized brutally. Recently thousands of Hindus were hoarded out of Pakistan. After reaching Bharat at Wagha border & in Rajasthan as well, Govt of India has not helped them in anyways. VHP has been running relief camps for them along with other Hindu organizations. Now razing Bhagwan Shriram temple in Pakistan again is a blatant slap on the face of Indian Govt who in the name of peace & love is holing Cricket matches with Pakistan issuing 3000 visas to Pakistanis. Indian Govt is turning purposeful blind eye to temple demolitions, rapes of Hindu girls. Forcible conversions, abductions coupled with extortions & forcing Hindus to run away to Bharat."
Dr Togadia demanded:
1. Indian Govt should immediately sever all relations with Pakistan – be it Trade, sports or any other.
2. Atrocities on Hindus in Pakistan is an international issue of Human Rights violation. Govt of India as well as Human Rights groups should immediately take this up with the International Courts & with the UN. VHP has already taken it up & plans to intensify democratic protests.
3. Govt of India should prevail on Pakistan to rebuild all demolished temples & get an international treaty signed by Pakistan not to touch any other temple anymore.
Dr Togadia further said, "Injustice to Hindus in Pakistan has reached to its utmost levels now. Hindus in Pakistan are vulnerable whereas Muslims in Bharat are being wooed & helped by Indian govt for votes. Only hanging Kasab is not enough; the terror that Pakistan has been forcing on to Hindus there should also be strictly handled by the Indian Govt. Hindus in Bharat & in the world have been extremely upset about these atrocities. Peace & good relations are not the responsibility only of Hindus in Bharat when fellow Hindus are being brutalized in Pakistan & both Govts need to understand it. The judiciaries that take suo motto notes of complaints of Muslims in Bharat should also need to open their eyes to such blatant terror to Hindus in Pakistan. VHP will protest against Bhagwan Shriram temple demolition in Pakistan & if the Govt of India does not get it rebuilt in a fortnight, then there could be nation-wide democratic demonstrations."
__________
Contact: drtogadia@gmail.com
What a sad state of affairs when our Govt will not even raise an eyebrow, but feel all the time sorry for Baabri Masjid.
What happened to Hindu Temples
You might have heard about a book published 21 years back, Hindu Temples, What Happened To Them?
Volume 1 was by Arun Shourie, Harsh Narain, Jay Dubhashi, Ram Swarup and Sita Ram Goel: http://www.voiceofdharma.org/books/htemples1/
Volume 2 was by Sita Ram Goel: http://www.voiceofdharma.org/books/htemples2/
There was a systematic study of what happened to thousands of Hindu temples across India which don't exist as they did centuries back. Elaborate evidence was accumulated, studied and presented in these two volumes. Except the Ayodhya, almost all of these cases of temples are not in public memory or media debate today. People have just 'moved on' as you hear in intellectual circles.
But how does the matter come up in political and media circles, even if a tiny (just a few square feet) temple is attached to a structure that is remotely Islamic? Yes, we are talking about the Bhagyalakshmi Temple in Hyderabad, attached to the famous heritage icon, Charminar. It's a tiny structure, held very high on the devotion scale by lakhs of local Hindus and happens to be adjacent to Charminar, but not inside its premises.
Encroachment!!
Temple did not exist before!!
These are the screams you will hear periodically, whenever political heat is turned up in old city Hyderabad. Let's examine the issue using the details from credible authors and important local politicians about the current episode of Bhagyalakshmi Temple.
Two key basics of Hindu worship
Firstly, we must understand one basic heritage of Hindu dharma. Hindus regard almost all things as sacred in this world. Bhagawan or Bhagawati exists everywhere. Go to any village in India and you can find numerous statues or images of Devas and Devis under trees, at the village centre, next to houses, inside houses, next to schools, in front of hospitals/clinics, in shops, in vehicles, in parks and pretty much everywhere. All it takes is a stone to form a temple once people develop enough devotion to that structure. Formal temples built at once using Agama Shastras and Prana Pratishatapana surely help, but you don't need a formal building for worshiping. In many cases, temples evolve once devotees increase, from the smaller structure before.
So if anyone says the temple did not exist, they must understand that a temple or structure in the current form might not have existed. But that does not mean people did not regard that spot as sacred.
Secondly, one also needs to understand that Hindu dharma is an ever evolving dharma (loosely translated as religion, but not exactly a religion). You might have worshiped a Devi (goddess) in one name today, but a few generations later she might be worshiped with a more contemporary name. My great grandfather worshiped 'Vinayak' but I worship 'Ganapati', for example. So today's Bhagyalakshmi might have been worshiped with another name before, as Devis have thousands of names literally (refer to Lalita Sahasra Nama for instance). Bhagyalakshmi may have been worshiped as Maisamma or another name. It is very common in the Telangana area which has Hyderabad in it to have Yellamma, Mahankali and Durgamma as names for devis. But at the core, Hindu dharma scholars will clearly show you the link of all devi worship to the one female power of the almighty.
Why now?
So, why this hullabaloo about Bhagyalakshmi temple now? Politics! Nothing more, nothing less. One section of Hyderabad politics is against this temple (not just today, but before also), while the other section is fighting for Hindu rights aggressively. Supporting the former section of politicians, some papers produce 'evidences'. It's usually the same people who doubt even the narration of even the Telangana native Hindu girl Bhagmati becoming Hyder Begum after religious conversion, on whose name Hyder-a-bad has been setup.
Let's examine the issue from various angles.
From Books:
Read the current Government of India Minister, and former Under-Secretary-General of United Nations, Shashi Tharoor's book Elephant, Tiger & Cellphone. On page 42 he describes Bhagyalakshmi Temple at Charminar clearly. The key takeaway from this very learned man's book is this: "But at the foot of the city's most famous monument, the four-turreted Charminar, sits a Hindu temple to the goddess Mahalakshmi, the priests chanting their mantras for centuries under the celebrated Islamic minarets."
The book's online link is here -> http://books.google.co.in/books?id=uqvpZutXN7cC&lpg=PA42&pg=PA42#v=onepage&q&f=false
ReadSrikanta Ghosh's Indian Democracy Derailed: Politics and Politicians, published in 1997. On pages 73-74 he gives some key information. Srikanta Ghosh was with the Law Research Institute of Calcutta.
The book's online link is here: http://books.google.co.in/books?id=RGyO0E86X1oC&lpg=PA74&pg=PA74#v=onepage&q&f=false
- 
- The Charminar temple was in her memory.
- Even now (in 1997 when the book was written), a Harijan woman is the trustee of the temple.
- Bhagyalakshmi temple's desecration on November 23, 1979, has no parallel. See this clipping from the book, for more details of why the temple was attacked in 1979.
Read Roshen Dalal's book (page 220) where it is described as to why Goddess Lakshmi is linked to Charminar's guard. This is more from the local stories. -> http://books.google.co.in/books?id=DH0vmD8ghdMC&lpg=PA220&pg=PA220#v=onepage&q&f=false
Hindus in Bharat will not Tolerate 'Babur' Styled atrocities in Pakistanhttp://rsschennai.blogspot.in/2012/12/hindus-in-bharat-will-not-tolerate.html
Bhagyalakshmi at Charminar is a legal temple
http://rsschennai.blogspot.in/2012/11/bhagyalakshmi-at-charminar-is-legal.html
From the local politicians' claims:
Let us present three local politicians, who are supporting the temple.
First, Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee's General Secretary, G Niranjan, claims the following, as reported by Siasat –
http://www.siasat.com/english/news/pcc-leader-disputes-old-pictures-charminar
1. Till 1979, it was just a two-three feet idol and after it got damaged after being hit by a RTC bus, the then Chief Minister Marri Chenna Reddy ordered the construction of a temple through the Endowments Department.
2. Mir Mahboob Ali Pasha, the 6th Nizam, had sent puja articles to Bhagyalakshmi temple during the Musi floods of 1908. Yes, the Congress leader is mentioning a 104-year-old event involving this small temple.
3. Senior citizens with G Niranjan, Dharamchand Tayal (76), Naga Hanumantha Rao (76), Mallesh Goud (69) and Raj Ratnam (63) claimed that they have been performing puja at the temple since their childhood.
4. Niranjan said he was now 61-year-old and he has been visiting the temple and also the Chilla abutting the Charminar since he was five. That means puja is being performed by the Congress's general secretary, who is a local in the area, for 56 years!
Second, Andhra Pradesh's BJP MLA and party chief, G Kishan Reddy, has confidently tweeted that the State Government endowment records clearly prove the existence of Bhagyalakshmi temple statue for last 200 years. Can anyone deny? http://twitter.com/kishanreddybjp/status/272010439209132033
According to Islamic scholar, Anwar Shaikh (1928 – 2006), Islam is essentially a military doctrine wrapped in a religious garb for world domination. This fact should never be forgotten. Muslims want to fly Islamic flags at white House (USA), White Hall (UK) and the Red Fort (Bhaarat) – their unfinished agenda. The Bhaaratiya secularists maintain a stony silence not only on the demolition of temples but also due to the Muslim atrocities on non-Muslims i.e. Hindus in Pakistan , Bangladesh, Kashmir which now extends to many states such as Assam, West Bengal. Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala – wherever Muslims have sizeable presence.
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