A letter to Prinita Thevarajah on casteism and yoga - Part 1

A Facebook friend alerted his friends to Prinita Thevarajah's article How Casteism Manifests in Yoga and Why It's a Problem, https://www.byrdie.com/casteism-in-yoga-5119378 published on Byrdie, a website about health and beauty.

Prinita Thevarajah

In addition to maintaining The Bahu of Bengal blog, I maintain the Cold Cream 'n' Roses blog about fashion and beauty: see https://thestylepagep2.wordpress.com/.  It is disheartening to see a beauty site like Byrdie promote anti-Hindu bias.  Byrdie appears to be falling prey to "woke" politics that other beauty media have fallen prey to.

As usual, I had to write a letter to Ms. Thevarajah, with a copy to Byrdie:

From: thebahuofbengal@gmail.com

to: prinita@fariharoisin.com

cc: contact@byrdie.com

Dear Ms. Thevarajah,

... I promised to write a thorough-going letter to you concerning the content of your article How Casteism Manifests in Yoga and Why It's a Problem, https://www.byrdie.com/casteism-in-yoga-5119378.   Below are my comments, which I have grouped according to section:

Understanding the Caste System

Your article contained the usual nonsense about the Brahmin-Dalit binary – Dalit being the current term for those who were considered “untouchable.” There are two castes that are "ranked" below Brahmins and above Shudras: the Kshatriyas (warriors and rulers) and Vaishyas (merchants). Not all atrocities perpetrated on Dalits came from Brahmins.

Colonizers defamed Brahmins as they formed the intellectual elites. By destroying Brahmins, they sought to break Hindu society. I compare this to persecution of intellectuals under Pol Pot or Mao. Read The Colonial Genesis of Anti-Brahminism, https://pragyata.com/the-colonial-genesis-of-anti-brahminism/ by Ram Swarup.

Your comment “the mammoth victory of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) confirmed the country’s ongoing values of fascism, patriarchy, and caste” is funny – both funny odd and funny ha-ha. Narendra Modi comes from an Other Backward Class caste, and President Ram Nath Kovind is a Dalit who was born in a mud hut.

Am I to take The Caravan as an authoritative source? It is a leftist news source.

The Manifestation of Caste Systems in Yoga

Your comment that “dharma highlights the laws that make social order” does have a ring of truth to it: indeed, Sri Krishna exhorts the reluctant warrior Arjuna to fulfill his duty as a Kshatriya in the Bhagavad-Gita.  Dharma can also apply to upholding the natural and cosmic order.  In the end, dharma is a Sanskrit non-translatable for which there is no adequate English translation.

Nothing prevents a Dalit from learning Sanskrit today. Being uneducated does not necessarily lead to violence.

A friend on Facebook commented:

And what a shallow and erroneous reduction of karma and dharma. Does she go into the Yama and Niyama angas of Yoga in the context of karma and dharma? Does she even know what they are? Practice of the first two angas is a life-long process. Doesn’t ahimsa naturally prescribe against the “caste violence” she is decrying?”

Towards A Holistically Decolonized Practice of Yoga

A scholarly friend noted that the Hindu scriptures are adamant that Yoga is for all varnas, Jatis and genders; also, many yoga preceptors come from "lower" castes. As his comments run an entire page, I decided to add them as an attachment to this email [note to readers: I will make this available in Part 2].  Have an open mind and read his comments.

I hope that our comments will encourage you to reconsider some of your views and develop a more nuanced view on caste and yoga. Be advised that I will publish this letter on The Bahu of Bengal blog.

Yours sincerely,

The Chicago Tribune's anti-Hindu bias

To: gpratt@chicagotribune.com, nhusain@chicagotribune.com, jebyrne@chicagotribune.com

cc: Office@49thward.org, letterforthemayor@cityofchicago.org, cg.chicago@mea.gov.in, office@vhp-america.org, kashok@uchicago.edu, r-kinra@northwestern.edu

clockwise from upper left: Nausheen Husain, John Byrne, and Gregory Pratt

Dear Ms. Husain, Mr. Byrne, and Mr. Pratt,

I run The Bahu of Bengal blog at https://sanatanadharma2002.blogspot.com. I often write about anti-Hindu bias in the media. On my blog, I publish letters that I have sent to writers who have displayed anti-Hindu bias.

This letter is in reference to the article:

Byrne, J., & Husain, N. (2021). Symbolic City Council resolution addressing tensions in India voted down, after months of negotiation and pushback. chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 26 March 2021, from https://www.chicagotribune.com/politics/ct-india-resolution-chicago-city-council-20210324-x3w5kowzajhmjdemtncbgfvnt4-story.html. 

I will address the anti-Hindu bias in the article.  Be advised that I have copied parties who were cited in the article:  Alderwoman Maria Hadden, Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Consul General of India in Chicago Amit Kumar, VHP-America (for Amitabh Mittal), Krithika Ashok, and Rajeev Kinra.

Comments:

• The Citizenship Amendment Act, which SO2020-583 cited, provides a path to citizenship to persecuted religious minorities in the Muslim countries of Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

• Thursday, March 25, 2021 marked the 50th anniversary of the Pakistan military’s campaign of genocide against Bengalis in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).  Bengali Hindus were overwhelmingly targeted.  In this context, the timing of your article (last updated on March 25, 2021) and content are insulting.

• Your article described persecuted religious minorities who fled to India as illegal migrants.  Funny, I thought that media discouraged or even banned “illegal”: now it’s “undocumented” <sarc>. Moreover, these “migrants” are actually refugees, as Amitabh Mittal rightly noted.

• Your article puts the word Hinduphobia in quotes, as though Hinduphobia is not real.  It is as real as other -phobias like homophobia and Islamophobia.

• Your article states, “In 2002, pogroms in Gujarat, following a train fire that was at the time thought to be started by a mob of Muslims but was later reported an accident, left more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslim, dead.” What you omitted is that the “accidental” train fire killed 59 Hindu pilgrims, many of whom were women and children. I invite you to read the articles on my blog concerning the train fire, which is known as the Godhra Train Burning, https://sanatanadharma2002.blogspot.com/search?q=Chandrasekharan

• Your article contained defamatory statements about VHP-America. Rajiv Kinra said he wasn’t surprised when he heard that Indian American groups associated with VHP ideologies opposed the resolution. Mr. Kinra’s profile at https://history.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/core-faculty/rajeev-kinra.html describes him as “a cultural historian of early modern South Asia, with a special emphasis on the literary, intellectual, religious, and political cultures of the Mughal and early British Empires in India (~16th-19th centuries).” Does his specialty confer authority on his views about VHP-America?

• At the same time, your article did not mention the roles of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Indian American Muslim Council in pushing the resolution.  CAIR was identified as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism support trial. Dr. Rajiv Pandit tweeted (https://twitter.com/rajiv_pandit/status/1374864012018601987):

The failed #ChicagoIndiaResolution was not a community proposal, Alderwoman Hadden @chialderwoman. It is part of the @CAIRNational @IAMcouncil effort to put Hindus on the defensive nationwide.

•  The text of the resolution was lifted verbatim from Joe Biden’s Agenda for Muslim Americans: see https://joebiden.com/muslimamerica/.

The last line of news articles such as yours often reveal the biases of the writers and their editors. In your article, Firoz Vohra, who is seeking to pass similar resolutions elsewhere, was given last word.

Sincerely,

#TBT Red River Delta

Originally published on 2017-03-25

Cross-border riverine issues have long been of interest to me. In 1995, my husband and I visited Assam and even took a rafting trip on one of the Brahmputra's tributaries. In 1998, I had the privilege of going to Tibet, where I traveled along the Yarlung Tsangpo River, as the river is known in its upper reaches.

Last month, the East-West Center in Washington, DC hosted a seminar on The Upstream Superpower: China’s Transboundary River Policies, presented by Dr. Selina Ho of the National University of Singapore. The entire seminar is presented below (apologies for the video quality, but that’s what E-W Center provided):



An audience member raised the issue of the Red River, which flows through China and Vietnam. Naturally, I had to launch ArcMap to create a map. You may see the map of the Red River Delta and find information about how I created the map on the Bahu of Bengal Facebook page.

UNESCO has designated the Red River Delta as a biosphere reserve notable for mangroves and intertidal habitats.

Five places of articulation in Sanskrit

Sanskrit has five different classes of word [that is, five places of articulation] — Kaṇṭhya कण्ठ्य (Guttural), Tālavya तालव्य (Palatal), Mūrdhanya मूर्धन्य (Cerebral), Dantya दन्त्य (Dental) and Oṣṭhya ओष्ठ्य (labial).

Adapted from:

Kadamb, V. (2021). Hindu Activist Venkatesh Kadamb - Consciousness, Yoga, Vedanta Scholar. Facebook.com. Retrieved 17 March 2021, from https://www.facebook.com/hinduactivistvenkateshkadamb/posts/3741324205981893.

Sanskrit , a magical language or a very advanced scientific language. A very advanced scientific language..

21 Notes - Valmiki Ramayan for the 21st century!

21 Notes is a YouTube channel that describes itself as "Valmiki Ramayan for the 21st century!" It is an animated version of Valmiki Ramayana in which the characters are presented in shadows.

I hadn't checked 21 Notes for a long time until I saw this tweet from Sham Sharma:

What took you so long to find this channel? 😉 I already knew about it 🙂

— The Bahu of Bengal (@TheBahuOfBengal) February 18, 2021

 Just found an interesting YouTube channel who’s doing a series on the Ramayana. There a small channel so go check them out:

Thank goodness that Sham Sharma tweeted about 21 Notes!  Otherwise I wouldn't have known that Season 3 is in progress.  All episodes from Seasons 1 and 2 are posted to the 21 Notes YouTube 

Here is the "executive summary" for Valmiki Ramayana. Best viewed on laptop or tablet. To view on your smartphone, rotate your phone by 90 degrees.

   

Iti-ha-asa इतिहास. That is how it happened!