#persecutionofhindus

A Hindu Temple situated at Regents Park in Sydney Australia has been set on fire and all statues and icons of Indian Godheads have been smashed and left in ruin. They do not know who has done it but it has caused lot of pain and anguish to devotees celebrating the festival NavRatri or nine nights dedicated to worship of God in female form. Popularity of the NavRatri period for Hindus can be compared to popularity of Christmas to Christians but it continues for a period of nine days to worship nine different form of female Shakti or source of power or God manifest as and in this world.

The temple has been there for about twenty years and but for an incident of stone throwing ten years ago, the Fiji Hindu community has not had any problems until now. During the period of nine days, Hindu hold regular Prayer sessions in the evening. When devotees came at 6pm to open the temple on Sunday evening 14th October 2018, they found smoke coming from inside their temple. Upon investigation, they found some people inside and when challenged, the miscreants jumped out of the window and vanished.

The head priest of the temple Pandit Paras Ram Maharaj was in tears on seeing his Gods broken and strewn all over the floor. The Vandals had not only desecrated the God statues and icons but had also shamelessly thrown prayer material around. They had even set the alter on fire. Luckily the fire was quickly brought under control before it could do any further damage to the temple and the building. The temple is visited regularly by about 250 devotees who come from all over Sydney including from places as fas away as Penrith.

After serial coup in Fiji, a large number of Fijians of Indian descent had migrated to Australia. About twenty years ago, some of them collected funds while others put their homes on mortgage to raise funds and purchased an old Anglican church building. The devotees were all Hindus and brought their own Hindu icons to install in their new temple. Being an old church building, the building has a typical church architecture with lead glass color tinted windows and a wooden cross which is almost a part of the wall.

God is one. People worship HIM in different forms Although as owners of the building, they could have removed previous faith symbols, the temple committee decided not to remove or dismantle old christian symbols. They placed their Gods beside these symbols and started their worship in their new temple. There is only one God and different people worship HIM in different forms believe Hindus. So, how could these Hindus show any disrespect for the symbols of God worshiped by HIS earlier and different devotees.

Hindu Temple in Reagents Park The young girl broke in tears and asked me, when we respect their symbols of God so much, why have they desecrated our forms of God. This sobbing young girl had spent countless hours in decorating the temple which has now become a crime scene with broken glass strewn all over. Her mother who had come to the temple with her other friends ready to do the prayer of the fifth day of nine days was in a state of shock. Nav Ratri prayers are done together communally and now there is no place left to conduct prayers. Quickly, the kitchen building next door was vacated and converted into a make shift temple to continue the most important rituals of the day. The police came and did their forensic work and left at 2am next morning.

The big worry we have now, said the temple president is to restore the temple building back to its earlier glory. We will rebuild the temple he said with a determination, we are not going to go away, this is our home too. Australia is a very fair society. Australians have given us shelter and freedom to practice our religion. A few miscreants among them can not scare us away. Other committee members had more pressing thoughts and were discussing practical matters like how shall we raise funds to restore our place of worship.  Donations to reestablish the previous glory of the temple can be made at https://bhartiyemandirsydney.org/donations/ It is time that Australians of all walks of life show their solidarity with these new Australians. It is time for leaders of all faiths to come in their support and condemn this criminal act by a few vandals who do not represent fair dinkum Australia. It is time for elected local, state and federal representatives to come and wipe the tears of that young girl and assure her that you are also a valuable part of our society and are free to practice your faith. It is time that state and federal Parliaments pass a resolution condemning this disgraceful act. If it has happened to one temple today, it may happen to other places of worship tomorrow. Lets make sure it never happens again. Lets keep Australia fair.

This beautiful Hindu temple in Kahuta Pakistan hides a secret

This fascinating Hindu temple in Kahuta Pakistan has a dark story to tell…

In 1947, Kahuta had a population of 3500, with half of them Muslims, all living along the main junction of the ring road that went into Kashmir and looped back at the same spot. The Hindus were of the Mahajan caste (patwari, tehsildar, merchants etc.); Muslims were of the Rajput clan and Sikh were in the administration.

Sikhs also lived around an adjacent town called the Thoa Khalsa, christened by ‘Bana’ a close confidante of Baba Guru Nanak. Kahuta has vast fruit orchids (mangoes too), watering ponds, water falls, a vibrant town with Hindu temples, a guru dwara and a Jamia mosque.

Incidentally, Ajit Doval of India has mentioned in his book that he spent quite some time around Kahuta and met some closet hindu who recognized his pierced earlobes and nearly blew his cover. The Hindu, he said had a white flowing beard like a Muslim holy man and had deities (moortis’) hidden in his closet.

At the end of March 1947, all that was left standing in the shouldering wreckage was the minaret and the obelisk of the Hindu temples — nothing else survived. Sikhs’ were the magnanimous ruling class, building administrative centers, schools all around Kahuta. The British ended Sikh rule on Kahuta which was then part of Kashmir and handed it over to Rawalpindi district. As Rawalpindi was also directly administered by the British, Hindus gains ascendancy in Kahuta.

The same power structure was duplicated in other mixed communities with temples around Rawalpindi like Kurri Shehr, Lal Kurti, Kohati Bazar & Saddar Kabari Bazar & Purana Qila.   Muslims stayed the same, poorly educated, politically weak and living in the surrounding mountains. In March 1947, rumors of Muslim lynching in India reached Kahuta and enraged mobs from the surrounding mountains, especially Narh, came clambering down for revenge. The sacred Sikh town of Thoa Khasa was burned to the ground with 50 Sikh killed in one day.

The mob then besieged Kahuta main town, dowsed the place in petrol and set it on fire. The Hindus, Sikh and Muslims living in the town Centre were all burned to death. Several were reportedly raped. The remaining stunned people fled. One eye witness of the horror in Kahuta told me “upward of 1000 died in the fire and nothing was left except the minaret & temple spire” — but no one to worship inside.

Mountbatten personally came to visit after the killings. These violent deaths were the result of colonial divide and rule policies, sowing religious divide. I mean, how can you gift Kashmir – a Muslim majority state – to a hindu Dogra? Is it your Phuphi’s walima feast? Now this temple is the prettiest of all the Hindu worship places I’ve visited around Pakistan. All its religious symbols are still intact. I wish someone would interpret them for me.

I guess the town folks had had enough of violence for the next hundred years — they left the temples alone. Hate begets hate; there can be no peace till the healing takes place. If you are in Kahuta to see this temple, don’t forget to see the other hindu temple, which is now home to a lovely Kashmiri family.