The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #30199 Message #882217
Posted By: GUEST
04-Feb-03 - 10:09 AM
Thread Name: BS: Dalai Lama shows his true stripes?
Subject: RE: BS: Dalai Lama shows his true stripes?
Mooman, I understand how disturbing the suggestion is to American Buddhists loyal to the Dalai Lama, that his actions in Ahmedabad were in January 2001 were wrong, and played right into the hands of fundamentalist Hindu nationalists. But people around the world need to know about the situation in India--especially Americans who innocently send money to support organizations like the India Development and Relief Fund, the World Hindu Council, and others of their ilk. They need to know the money is being used in ways they never dreamed of--to serve the cause of Hindu fundamentalists engaging in gross human rights violations in the state of Gujarat India, particularly. It is an extremely serious situation, one every bit as serious as the rise of Christian, Jewish, and Islamic fundamentalism in other parts of the world.
My intention for posting to this thread was to educate people about the alarming rise of Hindu fundamentalism in the areas where the Dalai Lama lives and works in exile in India and Kashmir, and to give some much needed context for the articles which came out at the time that the Dalai Lama made his appearance and publicly came out in support of one of the most controversial aims of a notorious Hindu nationalist organization. There is a reason why the world media carried this story, the unfortunate aspect of them reporting it was that it wasn't given it's proper Indian contexts.
You can deny all you want that the Dalai Lama has any links to fundamentalist Hindus, but there is no denying the fact of what he did, and what he said, when he chose to appear with World Hindu Council leaders for Kumbh Mela in 2001.
People can also read about it at World Tibet Network News here:
To deny the fundamentalist Hindu nationalist contexts of this condemnation in India is pure head in the sand denial of reality. Especially in the on the ground contexts in Gujurat regarding the World Hindu Council and the BJP.
The alarming and disturbing results of the elections in Gujurat in December has human rights organizations around the world very concerned, and they have named the World Hindu Council as organizers and perpetrators of the anti-Muslim violence.
Now, the Dalai Lama could have just gone to Ahmedabad to attend Kumbh Mela in January 2001, prayed for peace and harmony, and left. That is NOT what he chose to do, and there are people in the human rights field on the ground in South Asia who believe his reasons for taking such a visible public stand on Hindu conversions was for reasons of political exediency for his own cause of Tibetan nationalism. He needs the support of the Indian government in this region of India, and the government in that region is in the hands of fundamentalist Hindu nationalists, many of whom are prominent in the World Hindu Council.