If Jinnah was secular, why did Advani come to India: Thackeray

Flaying BJP leaders for heaping praise on Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Tuesday said calling the Pakistan founder secular was an insult to all those who shed their blood for India's independence.

"(L K) Advani created an ideological confusion by lauding Jinnah. Jaswant Singh has added to it," Thackeray said in an editorial in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana.'

"It is due to this ideological confusion that the Hindus became frustrated and directionless and the impact was seen in Lok Sabha elections," he said.

"How can a person who demanded a separate state for Muslims be termed secular?" the Sena chief asked and added that "calling Jinnah secular is an insult of all those who shed their blood for India's independence".

"If Jinnah was secular, then why did Advani leave Sindh Province in Pakistan and come to India?" he asked.

What Muslim Leaders have said

Rashtriya Chetna

Abul Kalam Azad : Abul Kalam Azad, while addressing his students, said “A country like India, which has once been under Mohammedan rule, must never be given up, and it was incumbent on them to strive to regain their lost contol.”

On another occassion, Maulana Azad, who held the responsible position of the president of All India Congress, burst out venomously in an irresponsible manner: “Against the non-Muslim Government, Islam prescribes only sword, protracted battle and the cutting of throats.”



Liaqat Ali Khan : Liaqat Ali Khan was the secretary of the Muslim League. He was the right hand of Jinnah. It was Liaqat Ali, who, during the election campaign in 1946, boasted in Delhi. “The Muslim is a born fighter. He may hesitate to cast a vote for Pakistan, but he would not hesitate to shed his blood.” After the partition, he became the first prime minister of Pakistan. Nature is too strict and stern to spare anybody. Liaqat Ali, who got Pakistan through artifical riots, did not die a natural death. He was assassinated.



H.S. Suhrawardy : Hassan Shahid Suhrawardy was political disciple of Jinnah. He is notoriously known in history as the great killer of Hindus in the Calcutta massacre. While addressing the Muslim League Legislators’ Convention held in Delhi on April 9, 1946, Suhrawardy declared like Hitler that Pakistan was the Muslims’ latest, but not the last demand, and that if the British rulers entrusted the destiny of India to the Congress, the Muslim League would not allow the Central Government to function even for a day. On another occasion he, in his capacity as chief minister of Bengal, threatened: “If the Congress was entrusted with power at the Centre, I would declare Bengal independent.”



Feroz Khan Noon : Feroz Khan Noon, a fanatic leader of the Muslim League, while addressing the Muslim League legislators’ meeting, said: “The havoc, that the Muslims would play, would put to shame what Changez Khan and Halaku did.”



Ghaznafar Ali Khan : Ghaznafar Ali Khan, who was the health minister in the Viceroy’s Interim Government, headed by Pandit Nehru, spoke at Lahore: “If Mohammed-Bin-Kasim and Mahmood Ghaznavi could invade India with armies composed of a few thousands, and yet were able to overpower lakhs of Hindus, God willing a few lakhs of Muslims will yet overwhelm crores of Hindus.” It was he, who openly advised Hindus to embrace Islam to save themselves from the holocaust.



Dr. Ali Mohammed Naqvi : Dr. Ali Mohammed Naqvi was a follower of the Deoband School of Islamic ideology, which totally thwarted the concept of nationalism and democracy. He authored a book, Islam and Nationalism, in which he unequivocally stated: “Nationalism is incompatible with Islam... The concept of a ‘nationalist Muslim’ is as absurd as that of a ‘religious Communist’ or ‘capitalist Marxist’. ..... When the ideology of Islam expands, nationalism is destroyed, and when nationalism grows, Islam is annihilated.”



Hamid Dalwai : Hamid Dalwai, a nationlist Muslim and true son of Hindusthan, rightly reveals the attitude of fanatic Muslims in his book, Muslim Politics in India. He unambiguously states: “In sum, Muslims cannot reconcile themselves with the nationalism of any country, where they are in a minority.”



F.K. Khan Durrani : In the preface to his book. The Meaning of Pakistan, Mr. Durrani boastfully brags: “There is not an inch of the soil of India which our forefathers did not once purchase with their blood. We cannot be false to the blood of our fathers. India, the whole of it, is therefore our heritage, and it must be reconquered for Islam.... Our ultimate ideal should be the unification of India, spiritually as well as politically under the banner of Islam. The final political salvation of India is not otherwise possible.”



Attaullah Suhrawardy : Attaullah Suhrawardy, a senior leader of the National Conference of Kashmir, and former minister and deputy speaker of Kashmir, unquivocally asserted in his speech in the state legislative council: ‘I am first a Muslim and then an Indian. Islam does not need the support of anyone for its spread. It is spreading on its own. At the time of partition, there were only four and a half crore Muslims in the country. However, in spite of the bloody communal riots in Bhiwandi, Moradabad, Aligarh and other areas, killing thousands of Muslims, the population of Muslims has increased to 14 crores, .....As for the question of conversion of all to Islam, it is the fundamental duty of a Muslim to strive for conversion and any Muslim who does not remember this duty, does not deserve to be called a Muslim.”

Syed Ali Shah Geelani: Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a leader of Jama’at-i-islami categorically expresses his political ideology: “The politics of socialism and secularism is totally unsound. I do not like any Muslim to adopt socialsim and secularism as his political ideal.”



Dr. Mushir-ul-Haq : Dr. Mushir-ul-Haq honestly unfolds the inner psyche of the Muslims of India in his book, Islam in Secular India. He candidly states: “The Muslim community of India also welcomed the idea of a secular state, because they feared the alternative would be a Hindu State. Many of them seem to believe that the state must remain secular, but the Muslims should be saved from secularism.”



Syed Ahmad Hussain : Syed Ahmad Hussain, another leader of Jama’at-i-Islami addressed the Muslims in a mosque in Aurangabad on February 7, 1961: “Shall the Muslims with all their ideology merge into sweeping current of secularism or change the current itself and establish the sovreignty of Islam? That is the serious question which confronts the Mussalmans of India today. Islam has been born to turn the whole world into Islamic. We have to change this secular rule in Bharat and establish Islamic rule in its place. The idea of secular rule is itself a contradiction of Islam. We have, therefore, to slowly work for the establishment of the sovereignty of Islam here.”



Syed Shahabuddin : Syed Shahabuddin, MP, the leader of Samata Party, once expressed his venomous views: “Muslims should have ruled India after the departure of the British, and not the Hindus. Population growth helped Muslims to annex a large part of India for creating a separate Islamic State of Pakistan. Such efforts on the part of the Muslims should be continued to gradually convert the rest of India into Dar-ul-Islam (land of the Muslims).”



Syed Abdullah Bukhari : Syed Abdullah Bukahri, the Imam of Jama Masjid Delhi, poured out a poisonous statement in December 1986: “Secularism has no place in Islam. Propagation of Islam is the first duty of Muslim. Muslim youths will propagate Islam with swords in their hands.”

On another occasion in 1987, he openly uttered: “I consider Islam greater than the country. I am first a Muslim, then everything else.... For me there is no meaning to Independence Day (of India)..... I have told Muslims thousands of time and telling them again to burn down bungalows of Muslim ministers of the Congress Party, cut off their legs and throw them away. Islam is first, nation afterwards.”



Azam Khan : Azam Khan, the then MLA of UP Legislative Assembly burst into vile words against the motherland, Bharat Mata, at a public meeting in Kanpur on March 23, 1987: “Is this our motherland? This is a blood-thirsty mother. This is not mother, this is a witch.”



Salahuddin Oweisi : Salahuddin Oweisi, a member of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, publicly suggested: “There should be a separate Muslim state within each state of India.”



In sharp contrast to all this, Jagadguru Shankaracharya of Sringeri, in his interview , said that Muslims are our brothers as our forefathers were common. Hence I wish them prosperity and happiness.

Now if Muslims want to prove that Jehad means peace and terrorism is against Islam, then they will have to show it in their thought and action, instead of mere statements and slogans. This will bring them world wide respect.

The Choices For Hindus

Dr Babu Suseelan

Recently I had a conversation with one of my friends on coercive religious conversion, Jihad terrorism, bogus secularism, and political corruption, "What is the point of it all?", the Friend asked. "Why should we struggle with all these issues, our life. In the end, isn't life just a sick joke." But our Santhan Dharma is eternal. It is spiritual and ever lasting. Nobody can destroy it. It will survive. I knew how he felt. He reminded me the death of our common friend. I remember watching the friend dying. For decades he was a great physician, at the heart of the family, the next he was a gray emasculated shape in bed suffering from amnesia, Alzheimer's disease, hardly able to smile, speak or remember. . After that nothing____a pile of ashes in an urn. Could this be all there was to it?

For some there is no point. We are all accidents in the evolutionary chain. We can lie back and enjoy it, or we can occupy ourselves as creative men do, in trying to understand more about what is going on. There is nothing we can do to alter it, even when we understand it. We can only play with it. Man is the smallest piece of dust in the universe.

It is God in our human soul. God is the architect of the universe, who makes sense who we are. How do we know that? Because of the moral force within us. Even if scientists explore man and the world, there will be some life questions will remain unanswered. The problem of life remain untouched. Our life has meaning, even if we were not able to describe it or define it. Even if it is a conceit, we feel that we know that we have a soul, that we matter, and that we are in some small way unique. Even if our life is short and unpredictable, we must keep on living. If we don't believe in our purpose, there is no reason to do anything, believe anything, change anything. The world would be at the mercy of those who threaten us with their bad deeds. It is a risk we cannot take.

To find our purpose for doing and our being, it helps to build on our sense of continuity, a sense of connection and a sense of direction. Without our Hindu identity, connection and continuity, we may feel disoriented and rudderless.If we are not active, assertive with self-esteem, the world around us is going to be a dangerous place for Hindus.We need to understand and recognize our Dharma and our role in preserving, practicing, protecting and promoting it. We must not only preserve the gains of our Sanathan Dharma, and maintain intact those just institutions that may have been established by our great Rishies for the benefit of all those who are living and those who are to be born.
We have an obligation and responsibility as part of those who think, care about, or are in any way influenced by Hindutva, to promote it. We were not meant to stand alone. We need to belong to the larger world Hindu community. Only where there is a mutual commitment will we find people prepared to work themselves for the preservation for the good of fellow Hindus.

It is a special privilege to be born a Hindu: Francois Gautier

New York: Noted French journalist and writer Francois Gautier who has made India his home and propagation of Hinduism his cause and mission for over three decades, is currently traveling across the US to raise funds through his foundation, FACT-India, for the setting up of an Indian history museum in Pune, India.

Gautier, perhaps one of the very few Westerners to have unconditionally adopted a Hindu way of life, feels the widely prevalent distorted image of Indian history as propagated by the British, Christian missionaries, communists and the western world in general for over two centuries, has necessitated the museum to portray Hindu civilization in the right light.

In an interview with India Post during his visit to New York last week, Gautier spoke about his ambitious museum project, the many threats to Hinduism in today's world and how Hindus can gain the respect of the world.

IP: Can you tell us about the Museum of Indian History?
Gautier: I have been donated some land in Pune by a private trust where I want to build the museum to be called the Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Museum of Indian History.

I see in India there are no museums of Indian history worth the name. So the idea is to start from the Vedas, go on to talk about the greatness of the whole of India and the entire drama of the invasions through history, the Hindu holocaust, and then portray India of today and tomorrow.

IP: What kind of funds do you need and how long will it take to complete the museum?
Gautier: It's a huge project but definitely it will happen. It's about $40m dollars, and I don't know how long it will take -- perhaps 10-20 years, because I don't have the money right away. But I am ready to start, once I start, the donations will come and people will understand the importance of this museum.

IP: Why is it important to have such a museum?
Gautier: As a journalist and writer, when I started documenting for my book, I realized that most history books on India are based upon very old theories considered defunct or debatable such as the Aryan invasion theory, which evidence shows has never taken place.

Both British historians and later Nehruvian historians have toned down the considerable impact on Indian culture of the invasions starting from Alexander the Great to the Arabs, the Muslim invaders and the British -- that entire part of the history has been swept under the carpet. And even later, the history of India's Independence is very unfairly portrayed.
The need of the museum is very important so we can look at India's history in a very scientific manner, which is what my organization FACT India is doing.

IP: Will the museum focus only on the Hindu history of India?
Gautier: The museum will also broach upon many of India's dark periods in its history like the inquisition in Goa by the Portuguese, the Sufi persecution, the Ahmedi Muslim persecution in Bangladesh, how the Buddhist history was wiped out and how some of the early Syrian Christians of Kerala were persecuted. And of course the Hindu holocaust right from Hindu Kush (massacre of Hindus) to the current terrorist activities against them.

I want school children to come to the museum and learn of their own culture and be proud. Kids in Indian schools are learning about Shakespeare and Milton, not about their Hindu or Indian culture. In my country we are taught about great French people like our poets, social reformers, artists etc… so I grew up proud of my culture, but Indian kids do not grow up learning about or feeling proud of their culture.

IP: Do you see any kind of opposition to your project from either the government or any section of the Indian society?
Gautier: Of course there's bound to be some opposition, you can't make everybody happy. But one has to go by the truth. Whatever one's limitations, if backed by truth, even if it is opposed, there will be some kind of direction and protection.

In fact, there are three reasons for setting up the museum in Pune: One-- of course the land donated is in Pune; second-- since I work in Pune, I found that people of Pune, irrespective of their political affiliations, are quite nationalistic in nature. I feel my museum will be more protected in Pune than anywhere else in India; thirdly-- Pune is Shivaji's birth place. There is no museum of Shivaji anywhere in Maharashtra though he is a true hero. So naming it after Shivaji will be a protection for this museum.

IP: Over the many years of your career, how successful have you been in changing western perceptions of Hinduism?
Gautier: It's a very difficult task, because unfortunately the image of Hinduism is not that good. But, there is more ignorance than hostility. Westerners do not know that it is a monotheistic religion. Secondly, Hindus, especially Brahmins have been at the receiving end of many like the British, the missionaries, the Islamic invaders all of who created a very negative image of Hinduism -- particularly the missionaries emphasized only the negative sides of Hinduism and amplified them a thousand times. Today we still find that even after 200 years, these negative images have survived even in the minds of Hindus in India.

Unfortunately it is a great handicap for journalists like me who like Hinduism and want to defend it. I can't say I have been very successful, but at least now westerners are open to going to India and understanding Hindus.

There are so many good things to be said for Hinduism, but unfortunately there is no will among Hindus to try to explain to westerners. Hindus are just content to come to the West and melt into local cultures or at best keep their spirituality and religion to themselves.

IP: What do you think of the role of the Indian intellectual elite and media in projecting the image of Hindus?
Gautier: The British have left such a mark on the minds of much of Indian intelligentsia and elite, right from the erstwhile Maharajas who have copied the British way of life that it has left a deep impression on generations after that. Today Indians think that everything that comes from the West is good. It's very stupid, because many things in the West have failed like family values etc.

This generation of Indian intelligentsia is aping Marxism so brilliantly, which is dead even in Russia, and is probably only left in Cuba, but I don't see why Indians should copy Cuba (laughs).

Look at the Chinese, they are so proud of their culture; nobody dares to fiddle with them, even America will not dare to interfere with their affairs.

IP: Many Hindus fear the very survival of Hinduism in the face of Islamic fundamentalism. How real are their fears?
Gautier: The fear is very real. I see there are five or six enemies that may be covertly or overtly attacking Hinduism. In the past there was any one threat at a time like the Greek, British or Muslim invasions. But today, there are the threats of Muslim fundamentalism, Christian conversions, Marxist onslaught, Westernization and so on which are eroding the Indian culture all at the same time. However, there are many great gurus today like Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and others who are repackaging the Hindu tenets like spirituality. pranayama, yoga, ayurveda etc for everyone's easy consumption while not associating them with Hinduism. Though I do not agree with that, it's an important movement today and helping to preserve that culture.

It's true that Hinduism is under attack and it looks frightening at times. That's why the museum is so important.


IP: Have you ever felt conflicted about the culture you were born into and the one you adopted?
Gautier: Personally I have never felt conflicted, but people of my country often do not understand why I defend the Hindus-- that has been a bit of a problem. Though my country is sympathetic to India, when you touch the intellectual layer - people who are fed on the Nehruvian history and the downgrading of Hindu culture, I have come into conflict sometimes with these people. But for me living in India is a protection; people often appreciate the work I do. Some of my friends do not understand why I poke the dangerous Islamic fundamentalism by defending Hindus. I started speaking about it (Islamic fundamentalism) 20-25 years ago when it was not at all politically correct to speak about it. Even those friends who like me sometimes do not really understand me. I have faced a lot of hostility also.

IP: What can Hindus living in America do to preserve their culture?
Gautier: For Hindus living in the US, whether fist or second generation, it is important that they carry their Hinduness. It is a special privilege to be born a Hindu, because you inherit the knowledge which is very ancient and very practical. Also the many Hindu groups which are scattered should unite to become a lobby like the Jews. They should teach their children to be proud of being Hindu while being faithful to their Americanness. They should create a lobby in the US to be able to influence South Asia policy at the administration level and see that it does not cap India's nuclear policy.

IP: Is there something that really frustrates you?
Gautier: Hindus don't think big. Most Hindu movements in the US have mostly people without a vision, they don't unite; it's very frustrating. When I last visited the US in 2002, the Hindu community was more vibrant, today I find many of the Hindu leaders of that time burnt out or taken a back seat or gone back into mainstream life; that is saddening. If only Hindus knew their own power -- there are one billion in the world -- Islam is conscious of its might and its numbers; Christianity though on the decline, is conscious of its greatness in terms of technology and power. Hindus, who are not all that small in number, have to use more muscle. Meekness and submissiveness will not take them far, they have to show muscle power. That's the way to get respect in the world.

Hindus' fateful hour : Act before it is too late

Dr. Babu Suseelan


Hindus in India, especially in Kerala, Kashmir, Assam, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh are heading for disaster. Jihadi terrorism, coercive religious conversion, economic deprivation, cultural pollution, phony secularism and powerlessness and a feeling of hopelessness—these are only few in the complex web of problems confronting Hindus. In Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal the anti Hindu governments are extorting billions of rupees-worth of Hindu wealth. Because its total onslaught on Hindus, these anti-Hindu governments wrought complete havoc on Hindu culture and halted/or retrogressed the onward march of Hindu civilization.


For several years, western intelligence agencies and missionaries have been financing, directing and managing the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu. Their goal is to destroy Hindu culture and the Indian political-economic-social-spiritual and educational values and to erase the memory of Hindu culture from the annals of Indian history. Western subversive agents in the guise of academicians and religious leaders as well as psychological warfare experts use planned communication techniques to influence Tamil people’s attitude and behavior-to create target groups behavior, emotions and attitudes that support the attainment of devious objective-the creation of a separate Tamil Elam. The form of communication they use to spread disinformation covertly and overtly by word of mouth or through any means of multimedia is against Hindus and to balkanize India.


In Tamil Nadu, under the anti Hindu DMK government, missionaries with foreign support disseminate anti-Hindu information by face-to-face communication, audio-visual means (TV) audio-media (Radio), visual media (leaflets) and/or posters. The weapon is not how it is sent, but the message it carries and how the message affects the minds of Tamil Hindus. The ultimate objective is to convert Hindus and force them to take actions against Hindu value system and to establish a separate Tamil nation favorable to Christians.


In Andhra Pradesh, the Seventh Day Adventist Missionary leader Samuel R. Reddy, the Chief Minister is heading A-team for intellectual/political/cultural subversion in the state. Their hidden and ulterior goal is to reduce the moral efficiency within Hindu organizations, promote confusion, chaos and create social crisis among Hindus. The Seventh Day Adventist movement is closely associated with foreign intelligence agencies to destabilize India and to convert Hindus. The Seventh Day Adventist leader and Chief Minister Samuel R. Reddy is promoting mass dissension and defections in Hindu Temple society and intimidate its leaders in order to loot temple wealth including precious jewelry worth billions of rupees from the Thirumala Thirupathy Sri Venkateswara Temple, the richest in the world.


What is going on? We know converted Muslims and Christians, the Marxist party, and the bogus secular anti Hindu Congress party headed by the Italian Catholic Sonia is betraying Hindus and India. They behave like a social virus in the body of Hindus. They infect collective consciousness and mutate producing complex illnessess and social decay. When measured by the standard of present political realities, general Hindu attitude and amused indifference seems suicidal.


Hindus are paying heavily for the failure to perceive and deal with these life threatening problems. The severity and interrelatedness of these problems that singly and in combination threaten Hindu existence, culture, spiritual tradition and the future. Compounding the difficulty is that certain problems are such magnitude and that they are no longer solvable unless Hindus are united, become politically active and assertive using all available means including positive violence. Indeed, the Hindu tendency towards indifference and apathy-a propensity most clearly in evidence in their refusal to react vehemently against Jihadi terrorism, deceptive religious conversion, Hajj subsidy for Muslims to visit Saudi Arabia and to participate in animal slaughter and the takeover of Hindu temples. This deadly indifference is due to obsequious sycophancy.


Hindus have defined themselves as pacifists and secularists. How we interpret our history of brutal Islamic invasion, Christian colonialism, oppression, subjugation, Jihadi terrorism, Christian conversion and political exploitation by the bogus secularists-deeply affects how we understand modern conflicts and social crisis created by the dark hands. If we accept passivism, and practice tolerance of intolerance, when there is no reason to be believed it is beneficial, it is just credulous. And if Hindus will not reject something when there is no reason to believe in it, we are escaping from freedom to slavery. This way of thinking is completely deadly, or put it another way, don’t be so open-minded that we may fall into a deep it. A quote from Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s (noble prize winner for literature) acceptance speech in 1970 amplifies the deadly danger of passivity. “There are many people in today’s world elect passivity and retreat, just so as their accustomed life might drag on a bit longer, just so as not to step over the threshold of hardship today and tomorrow, you ‘all see, it will be all right. (But it will never be alright). The price of cowardice will only be evil; we shall reap courage and victory only when we dare to make sacrifices”.



Hindus are unaware of the ulterior motives of missionaries and the workings of Muslim and Christian politics as well as the evil designs and criminal thinking of phony secular politicians. They simply do not know that in the national and international arena, decisions are influenced by the forcefulness with which demands are made. For Hindus, weakness is psychological. What is needed is strengthen the will, free them from submissiveness and march ahead with a fighting spirit. Inspiring slogans must be impressed on the national consciousness so as to rouse the people to the bold deeds that would make history.


The best hope for Hindus for the future is a radical social revolution from which Hindus can gain a fresh understanding of our past, present and future and their role in the scheme of things. If Hindus can free themselves from the psychological and political chain created by bogus secularists, Muslim mafia and the missionary mischief mongers—and unite, they can contribute-no matter, to the good of Hindus and for our motherland in these troubled times.


Adequate Hindu response to the threats and challenges at this decisive turn in our history must not be delayed much longer. The danger that current crisis may become much graver is very real. It is absolutely unjustifiable to neglect any longer the immense opportunities Hindus have as a consequence of Hindu awareness created by organizations such as RSS, VHP and Bjarang Dal. Hindu leaders and laymen must prompt that awakening to do more before it is too late.


Hindus need a bold will. A bold will can shatter the fetters of circumstances and overcome all obstacles. The strength of collective will can overcome all obstacles. Proud Hindus with self-esteem can rebel against current crisis and determine their own destiny. We need to act before it is too late.

People from one entire village returned to Sanatana Dharma

People From OneEntireVillage Has Back To Their Parent (HINDU) Religion After 100 Years, At Kodaikannal.





Kodaikanal : 207 members from 57 families of “BALIYAR” Tribes of Tamarakkulam of Kodaikannal of Dindigul District has back to their parent religion(HINDU RELIGION) here on Sunday.


Mr.Philip now become Karuppu swamy told that his grand father was converted to Christianity many years ago, Mr: Karuppu Swamy has now 75 years age,also he is now the poojari of the Temple which constructed on the day.


The “HOME COMING CEREMONY” was organized by VISHWA HINDU PARISHAD (Dharma Prasar) of Tamil Nadu. The function started early morning with “Ganapathy Homam” and ended with “Annadhanam”.

Nearly 1000 of villagers from different places attended the “HOME COMING CEREMONY”

Poojaneeya Swamy Tadevananda Saraswathy Of Arsha Vidya Peedam gave blessings to all the villagers.


The function was preside by Maanya S.Vedantham (International Working President VHP),


Also Sri. G.Sathyan (All India Joint Secretary VHP), Sri. Rishi Palpu (Co-ordinator, International Coordination of VHP ), Sri.Gopal Ratnam (General Secretary VHP Tamil Nadu), Sri.P.M Nagarajan (Organizing Secretary VHP Tamil Nadu), Sri.Kumaran.B.K (Joint General Secretary VHP Tamil Nadu) were present for the “HOME COMING CEREMONY”.

10,000 Africans embrace Hindu Dharma in Ghana

Smruthi Gargi Eswar









AS AN Indian in Ghana, I soon became aware of the country’s Indian community. It was while working on a photo-essay about crosscultural interactions, especially interracial marriages, that I learnt of the African Hindu Monastery. Now, Ghana is by no means homogenous when it comes to religion. Though predominantly Christian, with Islam being prominent in the north, most Ghanaians still maintain their connections to older traditions of ancestor worship and belief in the spirit world. Hinduism, though, is a foreign and recent entrant, associated with the Sindhi business families who dominate the immigrant Indian population. The presence of an African Hindu community, therefore, came as a surprise. I decided to go and see the place for myself.

The African Hindu Monastery (AHM) is a simple white structure in Odorkor, a suburb of the Ghanaian capital city of Accra. Started in 1975, it is headed by Swami Ghanananda Saraswati. The gentle-voiced Saraswati was born into the traditional African faith. Although he converted to Christianity when both his parents became Christian priests, he continued his search for truth. Attracted by Hindu beliefs and the practice of yoga, he travelled to India. While staying at Swami Sivananda’s ashram in Rishikesh, he decided to embrace Hinduism. At 35, he returned to Ghana and acquired his first disciples, holding lectures to educate Ghanaians about this ancient and foreign religion. Initially, his teachings attracted the literate and the academic – university lecturers and lawyers. Soon, some Indian families started to come. Later, a meeting with one Swami Krish- nananda (who was visiting from India) inspired him to set up a monastery “where he could tell people about all that he had learnt in India”.

TODAY, GHANA’S population of 23 million includes 12,500 Hindus, of which 10,000, like their Swami Ghanananda Saraswati, are indigenous Africans. While an older Sindhi temple still exists in Accra (and the Sathya Sais, the Ananda Margis, ISKCON and the Brahma Kumaris are also active), the African Hindu Monastery (AHM) is now Ghana’s largest centre of Hindu worship.
Ghana now has a Hindu population of 12,500, of which as many as 10,000 are indigenous Africans

The AHM’s iconography and practices provide clues to its hybrid origins. Its nonexclusionist attitude is apparent from the picture of Jesus alongside the Hindu gods on the main mantelpiece, as well as images of spiritual leaders from other religions. There are even images of secular leaders from India. The monastery’s members also believe that the Supreme God is known by other names, such as Yahweh and Allah.

While it identifies itself with Vedic philosophy, with Vishnu as the primary deity, there is an adjoining temple for Shiva. In fact, the day starts with a Shiva Abhishek, followed by an aarti, conducted by the Swami or one of his disciples. This is followed by a havan (fire sacrifice) and the reciting of the Hanuman Chalisa. In contrast to the specially commissioned havans in most Indian temples, all those present can pour a spoonful of oil into the sacred fire. Bhajans in Hindi — sung exquisitely in a Ghanaian accent — might follow. Later, a Vedic text might be discussed, either in English or in a Ghanaian dialect.

The AHM is not just accommodating of multiple religious traditions but also open to people of all races, classes and communities. Indian worshippers are not only members of the dominant Sindhi community, but also recent immigrants: managers and contract labour alike. But most worshippers are Africans, again from different professions and backgrounds. When I asked a disciple about the group’s opinion of the caste system, he pointed out that there is no society in the world that does not break its people up into the privileged and the unprivileged, be it through profession, ancestry or race. Ghanaian Hindus like him, however, are clear that people have an equal right to education, the means to a good life and most importantly, religion.
Some have given their children Hindu names like Rama or Krishna after a naming ceremony

CONTRARY TO its name, the monastery has only one monk. Saraswati explains, “Hinduism is a new thing [in West Africa], and I do not want to make somebody a monk who later on abandons monkhood. It would bring a bad name to me and to Hinduism.” Believers who want to become disciples enroll in a six-week residential course, after which they are initiated. The transition to Hinduism is a gradual one. For instance, an African Hindu would continue to have a Christian or Muslim first name and a traditional African last name – for example, Daniele Otchere. But there are disciples who have given their children Hindu first names like Rama or Krishna after a Hindu naming ceremony. Hindu rituals at marriage and cremation (rather than burial) at death are also beginning to be adopted, though not obligatory.

The monastery likes disciples to pray and perform pujas at home. In fact, the performance of rituals is seen as essential to being Hindu. Sometimes, new believers’ desire to perform Hindu-ness is so great that it feels like they are play-acting – like the time when several people fell at the feet of a visiting dignitary to show respect ‘in the traditional Hindu manner’. But then, ritual is often the embodied route to faith.

(As told to Trisha Gupta)