View allAll Photos Tagged DECADES
Another special dress event this year asked each class to dress as a different decade, with the upperclassmen representing "the future"
Tamsyn Devilliers and Sam Gordon dancing to 60's Folk with Simon & Garfunkle's "Bridge Over Troubled Water.
.
Expose The Fascist Terror Brigades 'Debate' On Conversion! .
In Orissa, the Bajrang Dal Is terrorizing Christians, engaging In wholesale arson, rape and murder, and forcing Christians to convert back to Hinduism The pretext for this violence has been the murder of Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati, a VHP leader who spent decades fomenting communal hatred in the region. But the Sangh Parivar has sown the seeds of hatred and terror for long, working to make Orissa another laboratory for its pogrom of genocide. In thls situation, the ABVP yesterday bought out a pamphlet taking a high moral ground against conversion. .
As Orissa burns, and the ABVP wishes to "talk" a!Jout conversion, let us remember the life of Graham Staines. In Orissa In 1999, Graham Staines, an Australian missionary and his two small sons were burnt to death. The crowd that surrounded them shouted 'Jai Bajrang Bali'! The leader of the mob, Dara Singh, was linked with the RSS and Bajrang Dal. Responding to this brutal murder, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee called for a 'national debate' on conversions. The response of the ABVP in campus Is much the same -seeking to invert the status of Chris-tian victims into that of criminals! .
The ABVP and the Sangh Parlvar brand Christians as 'conversion terrorists'. Yet in Kandhamal today, we see that conversions through force and terror by Hlndutva groups are the order of the day. Not only have Christian families suffered the loss of their homes, possessions and places of worship by marauding Hindutva mobs from August 24, they now cannot return to their villages unless they convert to Hinduism. The events in Orissa have a parallel in Gujarat-in 1997, the VHP leader Swami Asimananda began a 'reconversion' crusade among Christian tribals in Gujarat, which went alongside attacks on churches and schools and against those who refused to participate in thts conversion drive. .
So much for the Sangh Parivar's claim that Hinduism does not convert In fact, these fascist forces use every terror tactic possible to erase minority groups -either through murder or through forced conversion -from the fabric of the nation. In Orissa, in particular. the Sangh Parivar has undertaken large-scale conversion of tribals to Htnduism Branding adivasis as 'vanavasis' and treating their forced conversion to Hindusim as a return' to Hindu society Is a distor-tion of history to serve the scheme of the Sangh Parivar. .
For the ideologues of the fascist forces, any 'debate' on conversion means either there should be a ban on conversions or else that conversions should be legally restricted. This is no debate at all. Banning or restricting conversions only serves to Imprison and restrict people within the religion and the caste they are born in. In doing so, it goes against the basics of democracy. Article 25 [I] of the Fundamental Rights chapter of the Indian Constitution which guarantees the freedom of religion and states: "all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion". Surely, this tncludes the right to profess, practice and propagate religion allows for the possibility of conversion to other religions .
The fascist forces cannot call for a democratic debate, when through violence, rape and murder thetr silence all possi-bilities of democracy. The fact is that the Sangh Parivar upholds a casteist paradigm of the Hindu religion and has sought to implement it in the form of a fascist politics. When oppressed castes have sought to rid themselves of the Hindu caste hierarchy through conversion, the Sangh brigade understands this not In terms of oppression and social dynam-ics, but as an external conspiracy. Let us also remember that many of the outfits of the Sangh Parivar receive much of their funding from external sources: from NRI groups livmg outside the country! .
The ABVP's leaflet yesterday states, "Tragically, the poor, who are the most devout and committed to their gods and faith, are left unprotected when missionaries corner and pressurize them to convert in lieu of small favours: Such an approach reflects the discriminatory attitude of the Sangh Parivar towards the poor, adlvasis, and dallts: It presumes that they are gullible, Ignorant and Incapable of making their own decisions. Throughout Indian history, the caste-ridden brahmanical society has been highly oppressive and discriminatory for the lower castes. Each time they have asserted their independence from the Hindu Sanatan Dharma, they have been met with tremendous violence from the fundamentalist forces who seek to ensure that they remain within the fold. ABVP's violent opposition to conversions from Hinduism is nothing but an expression of their agenda to maintain and benefit from the oppressions of the caste system. .
Fundamentalists exist in all religiouG cultures. But in a democracy, we cannot allow fundamentalists to dictate the terms of debate. The ABVP and its allies in the Sangh Parivar cannot debata conversions when they are engaged in terrorJ rape, and murder against minorities across the country and spreading a campaign of hate with the intention to rip apart the foundations of society. What the Sangh fasc1sts are engaged in today was stated in no uncertain terms by the ideologue and SarsG~nghchalak of the RSS, M S Golwakar who said: .
" ... the foreign races in Hlndusthan must either adopt the Hindu culture and langua9e, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture, i.e., of the Hindu nation and must lose their separate existence to merge in the Hindu race, or may stay In the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges. far less any preferential treatment not even citizen's rights: .
M. S. Golwalkar, We or Our Nationhood Defined, 1939, p. 47-48 .
This is the true of notion of 'Hindu rashtra' and ·nationalism that they aspire for. In that nation, following Golwalkar's teachings, they would rather implement the Manusmriti than the Constitution. It sided with the British imperialists and betrayed the freedom struggle of the people of India In their orthodox vision of the Hindu social order, they suppress women and dalits. This is the sort of nation, democracy and culture which the ABVP upholds and proclaims. AISA calls upon the student community to resist these fascist forces, their venomous propaganda and communal agendas whether within this campus or in every sphere of the national life. .
.
Jum r..-u-.:e~ !L'emu agaiQst ongoing~rape and vjolence against .. Christians in Orissa on 13 Oct. Jantar Mantar-at 11.30am .
.
Awadhesh, President, AISA, JNU Sucheta De, Gen. Secy AISA, JNU .
.
paut vt ~~~ uyy1t::: 1u1 ut:::IIJU(;t attLIIIY t11e campus alia ensunng sLuoems ngms and tacllltles' .
.
.
Awadhesh, President, AISA, JNU .
.
.
Governor Moore Testifies on the DECADE & HOME Act in the House Ways and Means Committee by Pat Siebert at 6 Bladen St, Annapolis, MD 21401