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!

Comments on Mathangi Subramanian's article Why I Separated My Indian Identity from My Hindu Identity

A friend on Facebook alerted us to this article Why I Separated My Indian Identity from My Hindu Identity by Dr. Mathangi Subramanian (she has an Ed.D. degree, like Jill Biden), which was published on harpersbazaar.com.  After reading the article, I was indignant about her false comments about Hinduism and wrote to her via the contact form on her web site.  To put my comments in context, please read Mathangi Subramanian's article in full.

Here are the comments that I sent to Mathangi Subramanian:

If all you can say was that “the judge was pleased that a high caste family like ours was adopting a child like my daughter,” I fail to understand why he was casteist. He supported adoption across social groups. You didn’t say anything about casting natal charts.

I am sorry, but it seems that you have bought into the trope of Brahminical oppression of lower castes and indigenous people. 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.

You claim that PM Narendra Modi weaponized high-caste Brahmins against Dalits, Adivasis, and Muslims. I find this funny (both funny-odd and funny-hilarious), because Modi is from an Other Backward Class (OBC) caste. President Ram Nath Kovind is a Dalit who was born in a mud hut.

And here is her smart-alecky reply to the email she got: 

Failing to get a reply from Ms. Subramanian, I wrote to:

1. Harpers' Bazaar, editors@harpersbazaar.com 
2. Caitlyn Greenidge, who reviewed her article
3. Maura Finkelstein, maurafinkelstein@muhlenberg.edu, who also reviewed her article.

Here is how Ms. Greenidge replied:

It is deeply inappropriate to attempt to communicate in this way. Please do not contact this address again.

That is why I omitted her contact information.

Write to Ms. Subramanian, Harpers Bazaar, and Maura Finkelstein with your comments on her article.  Please, no name calling or ad hominem attacks.

NPR's Hindu hatred: a letter to the Rough Translation podcast

To: roughtranslation@npr.org,

cc: kmcbride@poynter.org

subject: NPR's Hindu hatred

National Public Radio (NPR) has a problem with Hindu hatred.  Rough Translation’s podcast How to Be Anti-Casteist, https://www.npr.org/transcripts/915299467, Season 4, Episode 2, September 30, 2020 5:30 PM ET is the latest example of NPR’s Hindu hatred.

Shrub-head Suraj Yengde - no cute kiddie pictures here!

Talking points:

• Greg Warner said, “So there is a caste for priests. That's the Brahmins. But there's also a caste for the warriors, the caste for merchants, another caste for manual laborers.”  He did not identify the other castes by name as it would undermine the trope of Brahmin oppression of Dalits. Breaking India forces (for example, Christian and Muslim proselytizers) use this trope to alienate Dalits from their Hindu identity.
• Could “Sam Cornelius” be reading something into someone patting his back or going for a swim that is not really there?  Not all Brahmins wear the sacred thread.  My husband, who is from a nominally Brahmin family, chose not to wear the sacred thread.  Traditionally, going overseas meant a loss of caste for Brahmins.  BTW I am NOT Indian, so I do not know how our marriage affects his caste. 😃
• Warner said, “There's no uncontroversial way to talk about caste, and even the words we use are fraught. So, you're going to hear people in this story talk about upper caste and lower caste. We're going to try to avoid those hierarchies and say dominant caste and oppressed caste.” This is ridiculous.  By “dominant caste” and “oppressed caste,” he introduced another hierarchy.
• Many Hindus have protested NPR’s anti-Hindu prejudice to the NPR Public Editor and NPR leadership.  Indu Vishwanathan started a petition Greater Journalistic Integrity in Reporting on Hinduism @NPR, https://www.change.org/p/national-public-radio-journalistic-integrity-in-reporting-on-hinduism-npr, which garnered over nine thousand signatures.  Ultimately, she liaised with Nancy Barnes, Senior VP of News at NPR. Ms. Barnes replied that she and her team will look closely at the petition, its demands, and all of the data sent to NPR and review Lauren Frayer’s anti-Hindu articles. Ms. Barnes said that it would take some time, but they would definitely get back to us, and that they take this seriously. However, NPR never followed up with Ms. Vishwanathan.
• When someone says that he is from Mumbai or Delhi and it is apparent that he has a name that belongs to a particular geographic area in India, I ask him where his family is from.  There is no casteist subtext.
• I appreciate that Suraj Yengde rose above his Dalit origins.  I am no fan of Kamala Harris - she is a rank opportunist with no moral core - but Yengde is reading “casteist privilege” into the video of Harris cooking masala dosa with Mindy Kaling.  Harris and Kaling are likely innocent of their “casteist privilege.”
• Warner interviewed Thenmozhi Soundararajan of Equality Labs, an anti-Hindu organization.  Read the profile of Equality Labs, https://stophinduhate.org/hindu-haters-2/organisations/equality-labs/, on the Stop Hindu Hate Advocacy Network (SHHAN) website.  Equality Labs’s goal is to make caste a protected category in the United States: in other words, it wants to perpetuate caste divisions in the United States.
• SHHAN also profiled scroll.in on its website: https://stophinduhate.org/hindu-haters-2/media/scroll-in/. 
• Suraj Yengde tells Mauktik Kulkarni, “You got to be a cultural suicide bomber. You have to utilize your cultural privilege and blow that up by challenging all of the other people who are sitting there comfortably into the chairs without even questioning.”  By telling Mauktik Kulkarni that he should be a “cultural suicide bomber,” Yengde wants to destroy Hinduism.
• I looked up Suraj Yengde on the Harvard website.  No surprise, he collaborates with race baiter Cornel West.  Interesting how these professional victimologists get positions at elite universities!
• Warner said, “Suraj [Yengde] holds out the hope that activism in America might spark change in India, where caste has its source. But in a time of nationalism in India and around the world, there is also a backlash to this approach.” Is this a reference to the “Hindu Nationalist” BJP that leads the Government of India? 🙄 Gimme a break.  Prime Minister Narendra Modi is from what is classified as an Other Backward Caste, while President Ram Nath Kovind is a Dalit.

I can't envision NPR abusing Islam in the way it abuses Hinduism: NPR would be too afraid.

Yours sincerely,

No thanks Re: South Asian Women in Leadership Event Featuring Audio Remarks by Sen. Kamala Harris

On Saturday, August 29, 2020, South Asians for Biden held a South Asian Women in Leadership virtual event.  VP nominee Senator Kamala Harris will provide audio remarks at the event.  South Asians for Biden launched  the Indians for Biden National Council (likewise, SAB has launched National Councils for Afghans, Bangladeshis, Bhutanese, Nepalis, Pakistanis, and Sri Lankans). 

The Indian American Impact Fund co-sponsored this event. It has endorsed Pramila Jayapal (US WA-07) and Ro Khanna (US CA-17), along with the Biden-Harris ticket.

No thanks, South Asians for Biden. 

from thebahuofbengal@gmail.com

to sabiden2020@gmail.com

• Kamala Harris never played up her "South Asian" heritage until she was named VP nominee. She identified herself as African American.
• Kamala Harris is an opportunist who only recently started identifying with her Indian roots. She now brandishes her Indian heritage, as the Indian American community is one of the largest, wealthiest, and most politically driven groups.
• Kamala Harris condemned Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the Minister of External Affairs for the Government of India, for refusing to meet with the anti-India Rep. Promila Jayapal (D-WA).  
• Kamala Harris has repeatedly opposed India's national interest in matters of the Citizenship Amendment Act and the revocation of Article 370. 
• Somanjana Chatterjee, a political strategist in the US, alleged that while serving as California's Attorney General, Kamala Harris was 'non-cooperative' when approached for intervention in California public schools regarding revision of depiction of Hinduism in textbooks.
• Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party are silent on Chinese LAC violations and border incursions and Pakistan-sponsored terrorist attacks in the Kashmir Valley and apathetic towards the mistreatment of minorities in Kashmir.

South Asia comprises Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The term "South Asian" subsumes Indian identity and ultimately erases it.  

Yours sincerely,

Sources:

Republic World. (2020, August 20). Kamala Harris' views on Kashmir and 5 things to know about Biden's running mate . Retrieved August 29, 2020, from https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/us-news/kamala-harris-views-on-kashmir-and-5-things-to-know-about-biden.html

Why The Hell Are Indians So Excited About Kamala Harris? [Video file]. (2020, August 24). Retrieved August 29, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gk2peJeC9A&t=59s

Letter to Megha Majumdar, author of A Burning

6:07 PM (1 minute ago)

to megha.majumdar.author@gmail.com, 

cc: TodayStories@nbcuni.com

Dear Ms. Majumdar,

I have finished reading A Burning - thanks to Knopf for making it available through NetGalley.

You have received many accolades, through the New York Times, Time, and the New Yorker.  A Burning was selected as the #ReadWithJenna pick of the month for June 2020 on the Today Show  (I have copied Today on this message).  From the web page Jenna Bush Hager announces June 2020 book club pick, https://www.today.com/shop/jenna-bush-hager-june-2020-book-club-pick-t182874:

I started writing from a place of alarm and anger," Majumdar told TODAY about her inspiration for the book. "India has been changing in frightening ways and growing more intolerant of minority communities, more extremist. I definitely hope that readers will see resonances in the U.S. as well.

Indeed, the only victims in your book were Muslim: Jivan, the girl who was falsely accused of torching the train, and the Muslim family that was slaughtered on the suspicion that they slaughtered a cow.

Your Jana Kalyan Party is plainly modeled after the BJP, yet you know that the BJP has next to no influence in Bengal - never mind that its predecessor Bharatiya Jana Sangh was founded by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, and the BJP honors Mukherjee as its founder! 

It was also strange that the Muslim girl was named Jivan.  Jivan, or Jeevan, is a boy's name and moreover, a Hindu name.

I am convinced that the train burning was inspired by the 2002 burning of a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, in which 59 people, including 27 women and 10 children, were burnt to death, and 48 others were injured, at the rail station in Godhra, Gujarat.  Unlike poor Jivan, none of the perpetrators received a death sentence.

Do BJP rallies necessarily end with slaughter of Muslims?  I don't think so.  A friend told me that in UP, lynchings for cow slaughter might have more to do with cattle rustling, rather than Hindu-on-Muslim violence (really, the reverse doesn't happen?).

In A Burning, you said that textbooks were being rewritten to serve the Jana Kalyan Party's agenda.  Yet IRL textbooks serve other parties' agenda.  I see rewriting textbooks in India similar to rewriting textbooks in the United States to include discussion of atrocities toward blacks and Native Americans.

Lastly, I invite you to use the hashtag #HinduUnitedAgainstTerror to protest the murder of Ajay Pandita in Anantnag, J&K.  You have over 8600 followers on Twitter.  By calling for justice for Ajay Pandita and including the hashtag #HinduUnitedAgainstTerror, you can create a lot of visibility for this cause.

Yours sincerely,