Unemployed youths to sterilize monkey gods in India

By GAVIN RABINOWITZ –NEW DELHI (AP) — A northern Indian state said Thursday it planned to use unemployed youths to sterilize monkeys to try to combat aggressive primates who have been raiding farms. The idea drew immediate condemnation from conservationists, who said the plan was unscientific and would likely worsen the problem.Indian authorities have struggled in recent years to deal with the tens of thousands of monkeys that live in and around cities. They are drawn to public places such as temples and office buildings, where devout Hindus feed them, believing them to be manifestations of the god Hanuman.

In recent months, the deputy mayor of New Delhi was killed when he fell from his balcony during an attack by wild monkeys, and 25 others were injured when a monkey went on a rampage in the city.

The mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh is infested with rhesus macaque monkeys, who have been driven to farms and cities after losing their natural forest habitat.

Prem Kumar Dhumal, the state’s chief minister, said Himachal Pradesh would go on a “war footing” to fight the thousands of monkeys who have been turning farms into wastelands and attacking people, according to a statement from his office.

“Affected districts would be identified and local youth involved in the process, who would be provided training in capturing and sterilization by the experts,” the statement quoted Dhumal as saying, adding that they would use “laser sterilization.”

The capacity of zoos in the area would be expanded to accommodate captured monkeys, and camps may be set up for them in order to protect crops and other farmland from being encroached upon, the statement said.

Conservationists condemned the proposal to let inexperienced youths sterilize monkeys, saying it was cruel and would not solve the problem.

Sujoy Chaudhuri, an ecologist who co-authored a report by prominent primatologists and conservationists that was submitted recently to the federal and state governments, said the plan would make the monkey problem worse.

“It is a ridiculous idea and what is worse, it will do nothing to contain the problem and probably make it worse,” Chaudhuri said. “Can you imagine what having badly sterilized monkeys running around will do to the levels of aggression?”

Belinda Wright, the director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, added: “The government chooses not to act on recommendations from experts and instead comes out with these absurd proposals.”

 

Hindu boy sells girl friend for Rs 40k

Delhi lover sells woman for Rs 40K

NEW DELHI: In a shocking incident, the ‘lover’ of a 21-year-old woman sold her to a couple from Haryana for Rs 40,000. The victim, who was rescued by the Delhi Police crime branch from Jind on Monday, was raped repeatedly by three men before being forced into prostitution.

The woman, who is from Jharkhand, had come to Delhi a few weeks ago to meet her pregnant sister. She was staying in the house of her brother-in-law at Shahdara in east Delhi.

The two men who have been arrested for abducting and selling her were identified as Jai Shankar, who lives in Adarsh Nagar in north Delhi, and Pervez, from Sultanpuri in west Delhi. Both are unemployed. According to the police, Shankar met the woman in Shahdara and they “fell in love”. On December 12, Shankar took her to Pervez’s house saying he wanted to marry her in a temple.

The woman told the police that at Pervez’s house, they were approached by a man named Jagbir and his wife Rajbala. These two have also been arrested. “The couple has admitted they paid Rs 40,000 to Jai Shankar and Pervez for the woman. Jagbir and Rajbala are pimps who forced women into prostitution. The two forcibly took her to Jind and kept her illegally confined there,” said a senior police officer.

19 Dec 2007, 0420 hrs IST,TNN

 

Thieves cut off Hindu sadhu’s ‘holy leg’

By Omer Farooq
BBC News, Hyderabad

Police in southern India are hunting for two men who attacked a Hindu holy man, cut off his right leg and then made off with it.

The 80-year-old holy man, Yanadi Kondaiah, claimed to have healing powers in the leg.

He is now recovering from his ordeal in hospital in the city of Tirupati in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

Local people believed they could be healed of spiritual and physical problems if they touched his leg.

They also believed in Mr Kondaiah’s predictions of the future.

Police say the incident happened 550 km north of the state capital, Hyderabad.

‘Brutal manner’

Police say that the self-styled ‘Godman’ – who lives in a village near the city of Tirupati – was approached a few days ago by two strangers who came to seek his advice over a medical problem.

They say that the pair returned to the old man on Tuesday ostensibly to thank him for his help.

“As the old man had the weakness of drinking, he accepted their invitation to have drinks with them,” said local police Sub-Inspector Pendakanti Dastgiri.

“They took him to a deserted spot in the outskirts of the village.

“After the old man had passed out under the influence of liquor, they cut off his right leg from the knee,” he said.

Mr Dastgiri said that the amputation was carried out in a very “brutal manner” and that police are still looking for the leg and the men who so cruelly took it.

He said that the assailants used a sharp hunting knife, and left the old man alone and bleeding slowly to death.

Local people who found him unconscious alerted the police, who rushed him to hospital in Tirupati.

After regaining consciousness Mr Kondaiah said that he had no idea why he was targeted in such a manner, and did not understand the motive of the miscreants in taking away his leg.

“I have always been good to others and helped who ever came to me. Then why has this been done to me?” he asked amid his tears.

Police say the reason for the attack could be because Mr Kondaiah told too many people of the alleged magical powers of his right leg.

“This might have motivated some people to take away his leg hoping to benefit from it,” a police spokesman said.

“But it is difficult to say that this was the only motive. It could also be a case of a revenge attack.”

Story from BBC NEWS:

 

Hindu gods get summons from court

By Amarnath Tewary,Patna

A judge in India has summoned two Hindu gods, Ram and Hanuman, to help resolve a property dispute.

Judge Sunil Kumar Singh in the eastern state of Jharkhand has issued adverts in newspapers asking the gods to “appear before the court personally”.

The gods have been asked to appear before the court on Tuesday, after the judge said that letters addressed to them had gone unanswered.

Ram and Hanuman are among the most popular Indian Hindu gods.

Judge Singh presides in a “fast track” court – designed to resolve disputes quickly – in the city of Dhanbad.

The dispute is now 20 years old and revolves around the ownership of a 1.4 acre plot of land housing two temples.

You failed to appear in the court despite notices sent by a peon and post

Judge Sunil Kumar Singh in letter to Lord Ram and Hanuman

The deities of Ram and Hanuman, the monkey god, are worshipped at the two temples on the land.

Temple priest Manmohan Pathak claims the land belongs to him. Locals say it belongs to the two deities.

The two sides first went to court in 1987.

A few years ago, the dispute was settled in favour of the locals. Then Mr Pathak challenged the verdict in a fast track court.

Gift

Judge Singh sent out two notices to the deities, but they were returned as the addresses were found to be “incomplete”.

This prompted him to put out adverts in local newspapers summoning the gods.

“You failed to appear in court despite notices sent by a peon and later through registered post. You are herby directed to appear before the court personally”, Judge Singh’s notice said.

The two Hindu gods have been summoned as the defence claimed that they were owners of the disputed land.

“Since the land has been donated to the gods, it is necessary to make them a party to the case,” local lawyer Bijan Rawani said.

Mr Pathak said the land was given to his grandfather by a former local king.

Story from BBC NEWS:

Published: 2007/12/07 09:08:32 GMT

 

Tamil Indian man attempts to break curse by marrying dog

14 November 2007,  CHENNAI, India (AFP) — An Indian farmer has married his dog in a bid to overcome what he believes is a curse caused by him having stoned to death two mating dogs in his rice field, press reports said.

The 34-year-old farmer, identified as Selvakumar from Sivaganga district in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, fell on bad fortune 15 years ago after killing the dogs and hanging their carcasses from a tree.

A few days later, his hearing and speech were impaired and he was unable to walk.

Doctors were clueless, but an astrologer finally told him he was cursed by the spirits of the dogs he had killed. He could undo the curse only if he married a dog and live with it, the soothsayer said.

After a long search for a ’suitable bride’, Selvakumar managed to get a four-year-old mongrel bitch from a friend and had a fully-fledged Hindu wedding in front of villagers and elders on Sunday, eyewitnesses said.

The canine bride, named Selvi, was adorned in a sari and flowers and brought to the temple by village women. A Hindu priest conducted the ceremony.

The reports, however, said Selvi the dog attempted to make a run for it — apparently due to the large crowds — but was eventually tracked down and returned to her new ‘husband’.

“The dog is only for lifting the curse and after that, he plans to get a real bride,” a friend of the groom said.

 

Intersex baby worshipped as Hindu God in India

Unusual baby draws crowds, worshipped as divine

Hundreds are flocking to a house in Orissa’s Balasore district to glimpse and even worship a baby born with both male and female genitalia, being described as an incarnation of Hindu gods Shiva and Parvati.

The baby, now five-and-a-half months old, was born to Baijayanti Singh in Ayodhya Nagar Patana village in Balasore district, around 200 km from state capital Bhubaneswar.

‘When the child was born (Feb 11) we thought it is a boy. But two days later we found that it had both male and female sex organs,’ she said.

‘We feel the baby is part of both Shiva and Parvati as it was born just four days before Maha Shivratri,’ added Guru Gobinda Singh, the child’s father.

Baijayanti had a normal delivery and the baby is healthy.

Describing the phenomenon, senior gynaecologist S.N. Sahu told IANS: ‘It is called an intersex (congenital anomaly of the reproductive and sexual system) baby and such incidents may happen.’

Though such a condition does not lead to ill health or cause physical pain, it is a serious health issue that needs to be treated medically, he said.

‘Surgically correcting the appearance of intersex genitals will not change the underlying medical needs,’ Sahu said.

The couple has a son and was expecting a daughter this time.

After news of the newborn spread in the locality, hundreds started flocking to their house to see it and offer prayers to the baby.

‘We have never seen such a baby before, not even heard of one,’ said Bishnu Prasad Mohapatra, a resident of nearby Remuna village.

‘We heard that Shiva-Parvati have arrived in this village, so we came here to offer prayers to the baby,’ added Katimani Singh, a local resident.

Meanwhile, doctors in the district headquarter hospital say the baby needs proper medical examination.

‘We have to verify whether the baby has testis or uterus and ovary and which organ is fully operational. It can be a normal baby after its inactive sex organ is removed,’ Sahu said.

‘I will discuss about the baby with the chief district medical officer. If possible we will carry out medical tests and keep the baby under observation,’ he said.

Social activists working in the health sector say no one knows how many such babies are born because of the secrecy shrouding such cases.

‘It is estimated that about one in 2,000 children, or five children per day, are born in the United States as visibly intersex. This figure is yet to be calculated in India,’ according to Dilip Kumar Parida, secretary of a local non government organisation.
July 26, 2007, INDIAENEWS

 

Rapist Hindu priest from Trinidad has a Nagpur past

‘Rapist’ Trinidad swami has a Nagpur past

By Shyam Pandharipande. Maharashtra, India, 11:30 AM IST

Every saint has a past; every sinner, a future, goes a maxim. Kripalu Maharaj, an 85-year-old Hindu spiritual guru, charged with raping a 22-year old Guyanese woman in south Trinidad Sunday, has a similar case pending against him in the high court here.

Setting up an ashram near this city in central India in 1984, Kripalu Maharaj, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, attracted considerable following in the region. All was hunky dory for the swami until an elderly man filed a complaint against him in 1991 that Maharaj had kidnapped his two major daughters.

Following the complaint, the police came to know of at least two earlier cases of rape in which complaints were not registered, public prosecutor Prashant Sathiyanathan recalls.

The police filed a common first information report (FIR) against the swami putting together all four cases of kidnapping and rape allegedly committed over a period from 1985-91, Sathiyanathan told IANS.

The swami contested the charges, first in the high court and then in the Supreme Court, which asked the police to file a separate FIR for each case in the lower court.

The two major sisters, meanwhile, stated in the court that they stayed and had sex with the swami regularly of their own volition, that he was the incarnation of Lord Krishna and that they were his disciples.

Even as another case of rape on a minor girl was filed against the swami, the two disciple sisters quietly retreated from the ashram and, it was reported subsequently that they were happily married.

The 12-year old girl, whose father had complained of unnatural sex and rape on his daughter, too testified in the court that the swami had sex with her every time her parents took her to him. The court wondered how a minor girl could go to a man again and again if he had sex with her and how come it didn’t hurt. The medical reports too went in favour of the swami, who was acquitted of all the charges.

The high court, before which the prosecution has preferred an appeal against the acquittal in 2005, had the swami deposit his passport, restraining him from leaving the country.

Later however, the court allowed the swami’s application seeking permission to go abroad citing ill-health. The case awaits final hearing for which the date is yet to be fixed, Sathiyanathan said.

(Shyam Pandharipande can be contacted at shyam.pandharipande@gmail.com)

May 25, 2007. IndiaEnews

 

Indian teachers ‘purify’ low caste students with cow urine

Mumbai, April 22, 2007 ,

Indian teachers have been sprinkling cow urine on low-caste students to purify them and drive away evil.

In India, millions of people formerly known as “untouchables” remain oppressed at the bottom of the ancient Hindu caste system.

The Times of India reported yesterday that upper-caste headteacher Sharad Kaithade ordered the ritual after taking over from a lower-caste predecessor at a school in a remote village in the western state of Maharashtra earlier this month.

He told an upper-caste colleague to spray cow urine in a cleansing ceremony as the students were taking an examination, wetting their faces and their answer sheets, the newspaper said.

“She said you’ll study well after getting purified,” student Rajat Washnik was quoted as saying by the CNN-IBN news channel. Students said they felt humiliated.

Hinduism reveres the cow, and its dung is used in the countryside as both a disinfectant and as fuel.

In 2001, Hindu nationalists promoted cow’s urine as a cure for ailments ranging from liver disease to obesity and even cancer.

The newspaper said the two teachers were arrested after angry parents complained to police. They have been released on bail.

India’s secular constitution bans caste discrimination, but Dalits – those at the bottom of the caste system – are still commonly beaten or killed for using a well or worshipping at a temple reserved for upper castes, especially in rural areas.

Dalits, once known as untouchables, make up around 160 million of India’s billion-plus population.

In February, the New York-based Human Rights Watch group said India was failing to protect its lower-caste citizens, who were condemned to a lifetime of abuse because of their social status.

Reuters

 

46 per cent Indians believe ghosts exists, 24 percent consult a palmist

93 per cent Indians believe in God

New Delhi, January 24, 2007

Here are some common beliefs about religion — Indians used to be very religious but no longer are, religion is the domain of women and the elderly, and educated and urbane India has no time for religion.

If you also thought so, it is time you took a look at the findings of the HT-CNN IBN State of the Nation Survey conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS). Every alternate respondent in this survey — 7,670 to be precise — was asked a series of questions about their religious beliefs, attitudes and practices. The findings are bound to surprise you.

The survey found that urban, educated Indians are more religious than their rural and illiterate counterparts. Yes, women are more religious, but metropolitan women are far more religious than rural women. Predictably, the youth are a little less enthusiastic about religion. But the point is: religion in the country is on the rise.

If there is one social group that is least enthusiastic about religious practices, it is the adivasis. And if there is one group that is more religious than any other, it is upper caste Hindus who have been exposed to modern life more than others.

Consider these facts:

1) 93 per cent believe in god; education makes no difference
2) 64 per cent visit a temple, mosque or gurudwara regularly
3) 53 per cent pray daily; the educated pray more regularly
4) 46 per cent believe ghosts exist
5)  24 per cent consult a palmist
6)  68 per cent participate or take interest in religious functions of other religions

Do you think these figures reflect the rise of the BJP? Not quite. The party gets a little more than average support from among the very religious, but so does the Congress.

So what drives people to religion? Sociologists tell us that the stress of urban living pushes people to search for anchors in their lives. Since they cannot go back to their villages, they recreate a community through religion. That explains the religiosity among those who live in big cities.

In the process, religion changes from a personal experience to something that is more public and congregational. Hence, the proliferation of jalsas, satsangs and ratjagas. Market and the media play a greater role in defining religion.

Religious programmes on television are the latest vehicle for religious communication.

(Kumar and Yadav are social scientists working with the CSDS, Delhi)

Sanjay Kumar and Yogendra Yadav, Hindustan Times

 

80 percent of Indians questioned “God had a human form”

India sees God as creator, not controller – report

Sun Nov 26, 2006

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Most Indians perceive God as a macro-manager responsible for controlling things like the earth’s rotation, rather than being in charge of the actions of humans on a day-to-day basis, a survey said on Saturday.

According to a poll conducted for the Times of India newspaper across 10 cities with 1,007 respondents — which included people of Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Sikh faiths — Indians were not convinced that God controlled our daily lives.

“(God) is seen as the Creator — 91 percent feel God controls macro-affairs like the rotation of the earth or the cycle of life and death,” the newspaper reported.

“A significant 46 percent said (God) was an observer, not a controller.”

Predominately Hindu India is seen as being a deeply religious country where idol worship and superstitious beliefs are widely adhered to, but the poll found that only one third of Indians sensed the presence of God in idols.

While 80 percent of Indians questioned thought God had a human form, 23 percent felt God was male and 11 percent believed God was female. Forty-nine percent thought God took both a female and male form.

The poll, conducted by market research firm TNS for the daily newspaper, also found 54 percent of Indians believed God answered their prayers and 56 percent thought God was never unjust.

The newspaper said that while India is often perceived as a land of God-fearing people, God is seen by many as more a source of energy than someone to be feared.